A man in a black suit stood with his back to me, laughing and chatting with a group of friends.
Perhaps he sensed eyes on him. He turned his head.
Our gazes collided.
My breath stalled in my throat.
*Impossible.*
How could there be someone in this world who looked so much like me?
He froze for a second, his eyes widening slightly. Then he looked me up and down—a slow, deliberate assessment.
A smirk touched his lips. Cold. Disdainful.
He turned his back on me and walked away.
"Wait!" I shoved past a waiter. "Please, wait!"
The man quickened his pace.
"Wait... Ah!"
The floor beneath me lurched. My foot slipped, and I crashed to my knees. I tried to scramble up, but the ground was vibrating violently.
It wasn't a slip. The entire building was shaking.
"Why is there a timer here?!" someone screamed.
"Oh god! It's a bomb!"
Panic erupted. Screams tore through the elegant music. But I couldn't focus on the chaos.
The man was heading for the stairs.
"Wait!"
I stumbled forward on the shifting floor, my eyes locked on his retreating figure.
Above me, a sickening *creak* echoed.
"Stop running! It's going to fall!"
"The chandelier! Move!"
I didn't hear them. I only saw him.
"Wait! I just have two questions!"
"Vincent!"
A massive force slammed into me from the side.
Tessa.
She tackled me, her arms locking around my waist as we rolled across the fracturing granite.
*CRASH!*
The massive crystal chandelier shattered exactly where I had been standing a second ago, smashing a crater into the floor. Shards of glass exploded like shrapnel.
Before I could speak, another violent tremor shook the building. Tessa didn't hesitate. She dragged me up, her grip bruising.
"Move!"
We stumbled out just as smoke began to billow from the windows. Tessa collapsed onto the pavement, gasping for air.
I caught her before she hit the ground.
Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead. She slumped against my chest, her teeth gritted in pain.
"Are you crazy?" she hissed.
For a moment, I was back in the wrecked car. She was shielding me again. Her body, so thin and fragile, blocking the danger for me.
Yet she still recoiled from my touch.
"Tessa..."
"Fire! Hurry, put out the fire! There are people still inside!"
The screams of the survivors shattered the moment.
Tessa went rigid.
She shoved me away, ignoring her own exhaustion, and staggered to her feet. Her eyes darted frantically through the crowd of evacuees.
Panic seized her features. Her eyes turned red with terror.
She spun around and sprinted back toward the burning building.
"Tessa!"
I lunged to stop her, but a wall of security guards blocked my path.
"Let me go!" I roared.
Too late. Tessa's figure disappeared into the smoke and flames.
"Tessa!!"
My legs gave out. I collapsed, screaming her name until my throat felt raw. The crackling roar of the fire threatened to swallow my sanity.
"Sir, calm down!" a guard shouted, holding me back. "We will stop Ms. Henson. The building is sealed off. She can't get back in."
"Sealed off?" I stared at him with wild eyes. "Then... can the people inside get out?"
The guard's face fell. "In this situation... those who didn't make it out already... it's not looking good."
The world spun.
That meant... that man...
"Vincent Delgado!"
The voice cut through the noise like a whip.
My head snapped up.
Tessa.
She was rushing toward me, her face smeared with soot, blood mixing with ash on her forehead.
"Tessa! You're safe..."
*SMACK!*
Her hand connected with my face. Hard.
The sting silenced my greeting instantly. My head whipped to the side.
"It was you, wasn't it?" she screamed, her voice breaking with rage. "You deliberately followed me here! You set this up just to kill him!"
In our previous life, we had fought for five years. She had hated me, mocked me, ignored me.
But she had never raised a hand against me.
Now, held back by security guards, she looked like she wanted to tear me apart.
I held my burning cheek, staring at her.
It was like looking at a stranger.
"Where do you get the nerve to make an accusation like that?"
"Hah." Tessa's voice sliced through the air. "Your father deals in restricted munitions. That specific blasting device? You're the only one at that meeting with the connections to procure it!"
Heat rushed to my eyes, stinging, blurring the world around me.
"And what's more—" She shoved past the security guards, each step deliberate, predatory, her voice dripping venom. "You usually lose your mind if I so much as speak to another man. How could you possibly tolerate me initiating a meeting with him? Or agreeing to break off our engagement?"
"Tessa..."
