"Even if this is heaven, I shouldn't be in another person's body, right? Of course not..." Lilian shook her head as she tried to make sense of her situation.
Her gaze wouldn't leave the reflection she was seeing in a car window, like it held answers she needed.
"What happened to me?" She whispered again.
The way her vision had gone dark, her lungs stopping to work and how everything had just ended made her feel certain that she had died but here she was with a beating heart now.
"Wait..." A realization dawned on her, her eyes widening.
"Could it be that I have been reborn?" She mumbled, then let out a chuckle at the absurdity of the thought.
"Is that even possible?" She didn't want to believe it but the reflection staring back at her said otherwise, as well as every other thing she was seeing in her surroundings.
This definitely didn't seem like the afterlife or heaven that she had read about in church books.
"I'm... I'm actually alive?" Lilian gasped, the words feeling strange in her mouth. Her hand flew to her chest as she felt her heart pounding beneath her palm.
However, the sound of an engine cut through her spiraling thoughts.
An expensive-looking, black car had pulled up beside her. It was the kind of vehicle she had only ever seen from a distance in her previous life, when she had watched rich families arrive at the Drayke estate for parties she was meant to serve at.
Lilian staggered back.
The rear door opened and a young, handsome man stepped out. Handsome in the way rich people usually were: well-groomed, well-dressed and looking so confident as if he owned the world.
He looked at her and his eyes went wide.
"Rose?" He stopped short as he confirmed it was really her.
"What the hell... why are you half-naked?" He asked, staring at her face in shock.
Lilian's mind raced and she instantly figured that this man knew the owner of this body. He could tell her who and where she was and what was happening. She needed information and she couldn't afford to waste this chance.
"Do you... Do you know me?" Her voice came out small and uncertain, her chest visibly heaving up and down.
The man blinked at her question but instead of answering with the surprise she expected, he shook his head and started removing his suit jacket.
"Of course I know you."
Then he moved closer and draped the jacket over her shoulders, covering her exposed skin, and added with a rather amused smirk tugging at his lips;
"Though I've always known you were a troublemaker, Rose Bennett. But this is a first. Standing half-naked in the middle of the street, looking lost." He paused, his eyes scanning her face like he was looking for something.
"What kind of mischief did my personal assistant cause this time?" He demanded, raising a brow.
"Personal assistant?" Lilian picked that quickly, processing the information as she clutched onto the warm jacket that smelled like expensive cologne.
But she couldn't speak yet. Her brain was trying to process too much at once.
Personal assistant. Rose Bennett. This man knew her- or rather, knew the woman whose body she was wearing. Which meant he could help her navigate this strange new life. She just had to be careful not to reveal that she wasn't actually Rose.
"Let's get you inside the car first, you look cold. My driver will take you home. You really need rest." The man gestured toward the car and Lilian sharply nodded, relieved that the man wasn't pressing for an explanation. She let him guide her into the back seat.
As she sank into the backseat, she tried not to think about how she had never sat in a car this nice before. In her past life, she had only ever ridden in the servants' van when the Draykes needed extra staff for events outside the estate.
The man slid in beside her then the driver pulled away from the curb without a word.
Lilian sat stiffly, keeping the jacket pulled tight around herself as she felt his intent gaze on her and every second felt too long.
Then his expression shifted. The amusement dropped away completely and something calculating took its place: sharp and assessing, like he was solving a puzzle in his head.
"Please, just keep your mouth shut. Don't ask me any questions..." Lilian prayed inwardly, almost holding her breath.
As if on a cue, the man reached for a file sitting in the corner of his seat, picked it up and dropped it in Lilian's lap without ceremony.
"You need to continue working on this, I have checked through it and adjusted some things..." He began, and she could tell that his voice had changed too. He sounded cold and all business now.
"Make sure you resume work tomorrow. We don't have time to waste."
Lilian looked down at the file. The front page was thick and professional.
"What is..." She wanted to ask what the document was about and what kind of work Rose Bennett did, but she couldn't. She stopped herself, knowing that If she asked too many questions, he would instantly know something was wrong.
So she forced a smile instead. Silly and uncertain with the way her upper teeth was showing.
"I... I don't remember working on this file."
The man's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Next you will tell me you don't remember me either."
Lilian swallowed hard at his response. The silence stretched between them, heavy and tense. He was watching her closely now, like he was looking for something specific or perhaps testing her.
Then he leaned back in his seat.
"You probably had too much to drink last night. You need to go sleep it off at home." His tone was lighter but his eyes weren't, they stayed sharp and cold.
Lilian heaved a sigh of relief and nodded quickly.
"Yes. That's... probably it."
~~~~~~~~~~~
After a few uncomfortable minutes of silence, the car finally slowed and Lilian looked out the window.
They had left the busy city streets behind. This area was much quieter. Her eyes narrowed on the tree-lined streets and elegant houses set back from the road as she observed how different this neighborhood was, compared to the one she had used to clean then.
She didn't know how many years had pass since she died.
The car stopped in front of one of the house, small but beautiful, with modern architecture and clean lines. A decent car was parked in the driveway.
The man looked at her expectantly but Lilian didn't move. She was staring at the house, and the one beside it, trying to figure out which one was where Rose Bennett lived, where she lived now.
"Have you forgotten where you live too?" The man's voice cut through her thoughts with a calculating edge.
"N... No... of course not." Lilian stuttered as she fumbled for the door handle.
"That's your house." He pointed directly at it then added;
"Go inside. Get the rest you need."
Lilian opened the door and stepped out. She looked at the house again, at the strange home that apparently belonged to her now, and started walking towards it, slowly.
It was as if her feet didn't want to carry her forward but when she glanced back and saw that the man was still watching her through the car window with his lips pressed together skeptically, she walked faster.
The front door had some kind of security system: a small screen beside the handle with no keyhole, nothing she recognized. Lilian stared at it, panic rising in her chest. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know how this worked.
Then the screen lit up on its own. It scanned her face with a beam of blue light and the door clicked and swung open.
"Oh my!" Lilian gasped.
She looked back at the car one more time, then quickly stepped inside before the man could see her confusion. The door closed behind her with a soft sound and she stood frozen in the entryway of a stranger's house, in a stranger's body, in a life that wasn't hers.
~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the car, Victor Hale watched the door close. He didn't signal the driver to leave. Not yet.
He leaned back in his seat, his face hardening.
"Rose Bennett..." He said quietly, to himself, to the empty space where she had been sitting.
"You can't run from me. No matter what kind of tactics you try to pull." He paused and his lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile.
"You're an indispensable tool. And I will use you as I deem fit. You can't escape from me." He added sharply.
After a second of just staring at where she had been sitting with a frown, he lifted his hand, signalling to the driver to start driving now.