Reborn at Eighteen The Billionaire's Second Chance novel Chapter 203

Chapter 203

Elara

She was framing me. Even now, even as she actively tried to kill me, she was spinning the narrative, making herself the victim and me the aggressor. And everyone watching would believe her because of course they would–Sloane Kennedy, beloved pregnant fiancée, versus Elara Vance, the bitter charity case who’d already caused so much trouble tonight.

I clawed at her wrist, my nails scraping uselessly against her skin. My vision was going dark at the edges again, black spots multiplying like mold. My lungs were past burning now; they felt like they were collapsing inward, imploding from the pressure. I needed air. I needed to breathe. I needed-

Lily.

The thought surfaced from nowhere, a flash of memory so vivid it momentarily eclipsed even the physical agony: my daughter’s tiny face, blue–tinged and

still, in that cold morgue drawer.

I’d died once already, in my last life. I’d walked into the freezing Atlantic with Lily’s ashes and a bottle of pills, and I’d let the water take me because there was nothing left to live for. But this time–this time–I’d been given a second chance. A chance to make things right. A chance to stop Lily from ever existing in that timeline, yes, but also a chance to live differently, to be stronger, to not let these people destroy me again.

And I was going to let Sloane Kennedy drown me in a goddamn swimming pool at a party?

No.

The word formed with absolute clarity even as my body began to shut down. No. Not like this. Not again, Not ever again.

I stopped fighting Sloane’s grip and instead lunged upward with the last of my strength, breaking the surface for one precious half–second. I didn’t manage a full breath–just a desperate gasp that was half water, half air–but it was enough to keep the darkness at bay for a few more heartbeats. Enough to see the crowd gathered at the pool’s edge, phones out, faces ranging from concerned to entertained to utterly indifferent.

Enough to hear Julian’s voice, sharp and commanding and closer than I’d expected: “Elara!”

And then Sloane yanked me back under, and the world dissolved into blue–green chaos and the metallic taste of chlorine and blood where I’d bitten my

tongue.

This time, I didn’t have the strength to fight. My limbs were numb, my lungs empty, my vision reduced to a narrow tunnel with Sloane’s face at the center- beautiful even in the water, even in her cruelty, her expression shifting seamlessly from murderous focus to wide–eyed fear as she tilted her head back toward the surface and screamed again, voice muffled but hysterical: “She won’t let go! Julian, help, she’s pulling me down!”

Liar, I wanted to scream, but I had no air left for words, no strength left for anything but the slow, resigned drift downward as my body finally gave up the fight. Liar, liar, liar-

The world was going dark. Not the panicked, adrenaline–bright darkness of before, but a softer, more insidious fade, like someone slowly dimming the lights in a theater. I could still see Sloane above me, could still feel her hand on my ankle, but it all seemed distant now, unimportant, happening to someone else.

I’m sorry, Lily, I thought, and wasn’t sure if I meant my daughter or myself or both. I tried. I really tried this time.

And then-

The water exploded.

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Chapter 203

One second i was sinking, resigned, half gone; the next, strong hands were gripping my arms, my waist, hauling me upward with a forer that felt alter

violent in its urgency. I didn’t have the presence of mind to process who it was of why I just knew that suddenly I was moving, fast, being pulled through

the water toward light and air and life.

We broke the surface together.

I sucked in a breath that was more reflex than conscious action, and immediately choked on the water still coating my throat, my lungs spasming in

rejection. Coughing wracked my body so hard I would have sunk again if not for the arms locked around me, holding me up, keeping my head above water as

we moved toward the pool’s edge.

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