---- Chapter 15 The days that followed were a living nightmare. Hailie's words echoed in Caleb's mind, a constant, tormenting reminder of his role in Ericka's death. He was a murderer. They all were. He and Fitzgerald took turns torturing Hailie in the basement, a dark, desperate attempt to exorcise their own demons by inflicting pain on her. They recreated every torment they had put Ericka through. They made her kneel on gravel. They locked her in the sauna. They starved her. It was a ritual of vengeance, but it brought no relief. It only dragged them deeper into the darkness. Ericka's funeral was a somber, silent affair. My parents were hollow shells, their grief consumed by a guilt so profound it had broken them. Caleb and Fitzgerald forced a bruised and broken Hailie to attend. They made her kneel before Ericka's coffin, her head bowed in a mockery of repentance. "Do you feel it?" Fitzgerald hissed in her ear. "Do you feel any remorse?" Hailie just laughed, a dry, rattling sound from her raw throat. "Remorse? For what? For winning?" ---- She looked at Ericka's photograph, a serene image from before the coma, and her expression twisted into a mask of pure hatred. "| only regret that | didn't get to see the life drain from her eyes myself." Fitzgerald's control snapped. He lunged for her, his hands closing around her throat. In the struggle, Hailie managed to grab a heavy candelabra from the altar. She threw it. It crashed into a display of flowers and drapery, which immediately went up in flames. The fire spread with terrifying speed, consuming the funeral parlor. "If I'm going to hell," Hailie shrieked, her laughter ringing out over the roar of the flames, "I'm taking all of you with me!" The room filled with smoke and fire. Caleb didn't move. He just stood there, staring at Ericka's picture as the flames licked at the edges of her coffin. This was it. The punishment he deserved. He closed his eyes, ready to be consumed. Maybe, he thought, she's waiting for me. Maybe this is how | can finally be with her again. The heat was unbearable. The smoke filled his lungs. The world went black. ---- He woke up with a gasp. He wasn't in a burning building. He was in his bedroom. His familiar, luxurious bedroom at the villa. Sunlight was streaming through the windows. The air was clean and fresh. He felt... fine. No burns, no smoke inhalation. He looked at his hands. They were clean, unscarred. "Mr. Skinner?" His butler's voice came from the doorway. "Are you awake? Ms. Reid's car is here. She's being discharged from the hospital today." Caleb's heart stopped. Discharged from the hospital? He scrambled out of bed and looked at the calendar on his desk. The date was circled in red. Five years after Ericka's coma began. The day she was supposed to wake up. He looked at the small velvet box on his nightstand. Inside was the diamond ring he had planned to give her. It wasn't a dream. It wasn't heaven or hell. He had gone back in time. He had a second chance. "Wait for me!" he yelled to the butler, grabbing the ring and his phone. "Don't let her leave!" ---- He ran. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life. Down the stairs, out the door, into his car. "To the hospital!" he barked at his driver. "Drive like your life depends on it!" Because his did. Ericka, he thought, his heart pounding with a desperate, frantic hope. Wait for me. This time, I'll get it right. This time, I'll save you. This time, everything will be different.