Rebirth Into My Second Chance

"Her blood is on your hands, Mr. Hart." Ronald's words cut through Claude like a knife.

Claude argued, "Why should her moral compass haunt me in life and even death?"

Ronald snorted coldly, "How can you think she's morally blackmailing you rather than your repeated misjudgments leading to her wrongful death?"

"If it weren't for your indecision between her and Kate, why would Kate have hired someone to hurt Claire? Even if Kate never intended for Claire to die, Claire's dead now! Both you and Kate are responsible for Claire's death." Ronald's righteous indignation left Claude and his friends speechless.

Ronald didn't stop there, adding more fuel to the fire. "We checked Claire's call logs. Her last few calls were to you. You knew she had nobody else in this world. At that time, you were her only lifeline. Yet, each call lasted only a few seconds. Did you refuse to listen to her pleas for help?"

Feeling lifeless, Claude slumped against the wall. His childhood friends were also in shock. "After we found Kate from her kidnapping, she misled us into thinking Claire was behind it. So, we thought Claire was the bad one, ignoring her calls." They felt their moral foundations crumble.

"If you had listened to her once, really listened, she might not have ended up dead." Ronald pushed open the morgue door, delivering the final blow.

When Claude saw Claire's body, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor. He finally understood the gravity of Claire's death, realizing she had fallen victim to the murder his precious Kate planned and the case he convicted.

"Claude, I truly despise you." I cried in pain, "As Ronald said, even a moment of your attention could have saved me and my child from perishing in the flames."

It all seemed to be over.

But as Claude approached Claire's

body, a young officer burst in, "M Collins, it's bad! When we weręduring out the mastermind with Richard, a truck sent by them hit him!"

The scream that followed was mine, a spirit already half gone with my body's demise. "Richard, don't you die!"

As we rushed to the scene with Ronald, the sight was ghastly, Richard's lifeless eyes wide open defiance of his untimely end. His future, which could have been brilliant in the business world, was cut short. He died because of me.

I cursed the injustice of it all. I despised Claude for the chaos he brought, but more so, I loathed myself for falling for him.

"Why do the good ones die young while the wicked ones prosper?" I sobbed, "Oh God, how could this be the end?'

Yet, as I watched Richard's life slip away, my spirit began to dissipate. But I couldn't let go, not with the murderer still at large, not with

Kate's conspirator uncaught

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I didn't want to die. I wanted a second chance, not for Claude's love, but to save Richard.

In my final moment, as I faded away, I saw Claude weeping over my body. "Claire, you said you didn't love me, and why haunt me?"

Had I said I didn't love him? Perhaps I had blurted out in a moment of defiance against Gabrielle's wishes for us to marry. Claude heard me, but what did it matter?