The Broken Sonata Chapter 2

"No, I never had a crush on him."

I replied with deadpan calm.

Ashley smiled slyly, the corners of her mouth curling up.

"Good, then I don't have to feel bad. I wasn't sure how to tell you that Caleb and I are officially together. I didn't want to trigger you."

In my past life, Ashley had brazenly staked her claim exactly like this.

Ashley was a total player. Almost every decent-looking guy in school had dated her at some point.

She was loud and unapologetic. While everyone else was stressing over SATs and finals, she was busy dating, smoking, drinking, and hitting the clubs. She was the exact opposite of a "good girl."

But girls like her possess a fatal attraction for guys who have spent their whole lives following the rules.

Caleb was clearly one of them.

I remembered the moments right before my death in my previous life.

My hands, covered in cigarette burns, desperately clutching the cuff of Caleb's crisp white shirt.

I begged him to let me go.

"Even if you hate me, you shouldn't do it like this."

But Caleb just looked down at me, his cold lips curling into a smirk.

He scoffed. "And how should I do it, Chloe? If it weren't for you, Ashley wouldn't have been forced to marry someone else, and she wouldn't have died in childbirth. Why does she have to be dead while you get to live a perfectly happy life?"

"Chloe, it's just not fair."

He was right. Because of my snitching in our past life, Caleb was forced to move overseas. Ashley, distracted by the romance, bombed her conservatory auditions and ended up marrying a local street punk.

Not long after, she got pregnant out of wedlock. Her parents disowned her.

The punk bailed on her, and she ultimately bled out in a sketchy back-alley clinic.

Caleb always believed that if I hadn't told his parents, he never would have left the country.

And Ashley never would have died.

So, it was all my fault.

I lowered my eyes.

"That's great for you guys. I wish you a long, happy life together."

Ashley gave me a weird look but didn't say anything else.