The Man Who Burned Me Alive in My Past Life Was Also Reborn Novel by Fitzgerald Mitchell

Extra Chapter 1: The Story of Amelia

Because my gender at birth disappointed my parents, I was abandoned at the orphanage doorstep just after a month old.

My life was shrouded in darkness, marked by hunger, cold, and bullying from older kids.

Especially Benjamin, who, with his adult-like stature, often left me bruised and battered.

The beatings alone wouldn’t have instilled such deep hatred in me, but to win over Sophia, he forced me into a back-alley blood trade.

I resisted, and his beatings became life-threatening.

I wanted to tell the director, but the director was a relative of Sophia’s.

Benjamin didn’t actually like Sophia; he had to cling to her to survive in the orphanage.

Fortunately, he was older than me, and after two years of torment, he came of age.

Once they left the orphanage, my life was plunged into even deeper darkness.

At thirteen, I was diagnosed with HIV.

My life was pure; the only way I could have contracted the disease was through countless blood sales.

At that moment, I felt I had nothing left to cling to in this world.

Staring at the foul-smelling lake before me, I jumped in.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

As I sank to the bottom, I mocked my own life, even my death was in a filthy, reeking place.

The onlookers wore indifferent expressions.

A few kind souls wanted to jump in to save me but hesitated at the sight of the floating waste.

Just as I thought I would die at the bottom of the lake, a pair of warm hands grasped mine.

She pulled me ashore and revived me with all her strength.

She told me that life was worth living.

That even without love, there was hate.

If I died, those I hated would rejoice.

I knew she was trying to comfort me, but her words gave me hope to carry on.

I started to follow her advice, cooperated with the treatment, and lived a stable life until I was twenty-one.

One afternoon, I saw Benjamin, dressed in a suit, exiting a tall building, so successful, so dazzling.

I couldn’t accept it; it wasn’t fair that a villain could live so well.

Luckily, I had grown into a beautiful young woman, and Benjamin

had a weakness for beauty.

I staged a chance encounter on a train, engaging him in witty and

humorous conversation, making him fall in love with me at first sight.

I asked him, “Are you married?” He said, “No.” I thought, with Sophia in the picture, he couldn’t be married.

So, I felt justified in entangling myself with him.

That night, he was excited, and I was happy.

He was excited because he thought he’d found true love.

I was happy because I had passed on the disease to him.

But soon, my happiness faded.

Benjamin had lied to me; he had a family but deceived me into thinking he didn’t.

When I rushed to the hospital, I saw my savior, holding her dead child, jumping from the rooftop.

She was the only light in my life.

With her death, my life was once again plunged into darkness.

I hated myself even more; her death was indirectly my fault.

I asked Benjamin, “Why did you hide it from me?”

Even if it wasn’t Olivia, I didn’t want to involve any more innocent people.

Benjamin replied, “I never considered her my wife; I married her just to take care of Sophia.”

Filled with hatred, I tricked him into hiking, and we both fell off a cliff.

But as I was dying, an aged voice echoed in my ear.

He said, “Your life has been too bitter, so bitter that even I can’t bear to watch. How about I give you a chance to live it over?”

I said, “My illness is terminal; there’s no point in living it over. Give this chance to Olivia; she deserves to live more than I do.”

The old man sighed and murmured, Fate is fate, everything is meant to be.

With that, he vanished.

And I, closed my eyes permanently.