Running Away Before She Gets Me

I've had a crush on my fiancée for years, and we're finally about to get married. Yet I'm willing to jump off a building just to avoid marrying her—all because I've been reborn.

In my past life, she and I were married for over two decades. We were the perfect couple in everyone's eyes. However, the fairy tale came to an abrupt end on our 25th wedding anniversary.

She took her own life, and she did it with her true love. As I kneeled before her grave, I asked, "Did you regret marrying me?"

I knew I wouldn't hear her response, so I answered myself. "I regret marrying you."

When I open my eyes again, I find myself back to before the wedding happens. I decide to run away. This time, I want us to become nothing but estranged acquaintances.

To my surprise, she comes to me, looking like she's terminally ill. She says, "I've never regretted marrying you. Whether in this lifetime or the past, you're the only one I've ever wanted to marry."

I opened my eyes when I felt a pat on my shoulder.

In my daze, I dimly registered the doors opening. Jeannie Goodman stood in her wedding gown on the stage. She looked pure and angelic under the lights. Not even the music could drown out the audience's gasps of admiration as they praised the bride's beauty.

But an icy terror had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

Someone cued me to walk toward the bride. I had specifically requested this. I looked toward the stage in the distance and met Jeannie's gaze. Her lips curled, and a steely resolve came over me as I turned and bolted out the doors.

"The wedding's off! I will never marry her!"

At once, the audience burst into an uproar.

The hotel was huge, and in my panic, I could not find the right exit. Before long, Jeannie's family caught up to me.

My would-be father-in-law's face was grim as he frowned at me in displeasure. "Sebastian, the wedding's about to start. Stop this nonsense and go back to wrap up the ceremony!"

I shook my head firmly.

I couldn't believe I had been reborn and transported back to the exact moment before my and Jeannie's wedding. If the heavens had given me a chance for a do-over, I was determined not to marry Jeannie in this lifetime.

One of her relatives urged, "You can hash things out after the ceremony. Jeannie's waiting for you."

What? Jeannie was waiting for me?

I thought I caught a white figure running toward me in my peripheral vision. That figure might as well have been an arrow aiming to take my life.

Without another moment's hesitation, I opened the window next to me and leaped from the third floor. I was lucky that an awning below caught my fall, though my bones ached as I rose to my feet.

However, the pain was nothing compared to the heartbreak I'd felt