LAYLA
"It has been a year of rigorous work." I beamed excitedly and pushed my slipping glasses up the bridge of my nose. "And I am proud to present to you... Patches."
With the flourish of a seasoned magician, I swiped away the cloth covering the cage in front of me where a fluffy white rabbit with brown patches hopped around.
Celine glanced at the rabbit, her eyes wide and her perfect mouth open in an O shape.
"Wait!" she gasped, the shock, excitement and anticipation mixed in her words then she looked at me in disbelief. "Is this the same bunny?"
Patches had been brought to me about a years ago, he had come crippled and frail. After an accidental drop, his hind legs had become paralysed. Leaving him unable to do anything but drag himself around on his belly.
With my patient, gentle care, knowledge of herbs and acupuncture, I had finally helped him make a full recovery in one painstaking year.
"Yes he is." I grinned.
I was so happy to be able to share this breakthrough with my half sister who is really my only family.
She had the funds to bring this all together. It had been all thanks to her that I had been able to dedicate an entire year to this project because no one else had believed in me.
After I had healed her broken arm, she had become a believer and urged me to polish my skills.
It had meant so much to me, knowing that my half sister supported me despite my own father's abandonment.
It filled a family sized hole in me to have her support.
"Patches has gone through all the treatments and as you can see, he has made a full recovery." I announced proudly.
Noah embraced me warmly, his smile of satisfaction making me blush.
"I knew if anyone could get it done it would be you." He said softly. "I never stopped believing in you."
I shyly looked up at the man I had married just two years ago. I felt so lucky to be married to a man like Noah Thorne, he was never threatened by my brilliance and he always supported my work.
Noah and Celine had quickly become my two favourite people, giving me all the support and love I needed.
"Champagne!" Celine announced and seemed to make an expensive bottle appear out of nowhere. "We have to celebrate this groundbreaking moment."
Next, champagne flutes also joined and Noah took the glass and twisted its neck.
It's opening pop was greeted with our giggles and cheers.
I collected my glass and felt how much my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
I thought of all the lives this treatment could change. Along with Celine and Noah, we would build a company that would work on creating the medicine which could then be distributed to people at cheap rates.
Spinal cord injuries would become a thing of the past and everyone, even poor people would gain access to it.
There were just a few minor adjustments I needed to make and we would be ready to roll out the medicine kits.
"To my brilliant wife, I never for one moment doubted you." Noah said, raising his glass at me. "And to the future, in which we will be swimming in money." he said with a smile that deepened his dimple.
The same dimple which had been the first thing to attract my attention and one of the things I loved the most about him.
"A future where we are respected and upheld for being trailblazers." Celine added, "To us."
"To us." I agreed enthusiastically before taking the wine glass to my lips and taking a big gulp.
I noticed that Celine's face went from smiling to face hardened, the warmth in her eyes cooled then she dropped the glass on the table and smirked.
"You know Layla, not all of us were meant for greatness." She said, a cold edge in her voice. "It is only right that some of us give way so that the true stars can shine."
I blinked in confusion, my flute halfway to my lips.
I brought it down and looked at Celine. "What do you mean?"
"What she means is that three is a crowd." the warmth of Noah's arm disappeared as his arm which had been resting on my shoulder dropped. "Someone like you can only drag us down, we don't need you anymore."
"Someone like me?" I echoed in a whisper, my stomach suddenly felt like hot lead had been poured in it.
"A cast off daughter, a countryside bumpkin..." Celine supplied mockingly. "Someone like you is only good for the work so that people like me can shine."
"But why?" I cried.
"Because I am the lady of the Sinclair family, I deserve success. Not you, some backwoods bastard."
Celine's words dripped with venom.
I was shocked at the level of hate in Celine's words, Celine had always been nice to me.
She had taken me for a fool all this while.
"You must be mistaken if you think that I will simply hand off my work to you so you can pass it off as yours."
I dropped the champagne flute and was about to leave when I felt a stabbing pain in her belly that caused me to double over.
"Oops!" Celine gasped, covering her mouth with her perfectly manicured hands. "That must be the poison."
Poison?
I groaned and fell to the ground, rolling in a foetal position and holding my middle.
I looked up at Noah, at his cold expressionless face.
"Noah," I begged. "You swore to love me, how could you do something like this?"
I would never have believed that my sweet dedicated husband was plotting against me. He had always treated me with a gentleness, protecting me from every harm and professing his love.
"You are nothing to me." Noah sneered. "The only one that I have every loved is Celine. These past two years have been agony and when you are out of the way, Celine and I..."
"Tut Tut Tut." Celine interrupted. "Unfortunately for you Noah, I'm not as gullible and naive as the bastard daughter of my father."
"What do you mean?" Noah frowned and stumbled as he tried to take a step forward.
"I see the poison is working on you too."
Noah's eyes widened in disbelief.
"What do you mean?" He coughed, a stream of blood pouring out the side of his lips. "You love me."
"I love myself." Celine cut, "I will not put my life in the hands of someone as flighty as you, who knows if you will wake up one day and just fall in love with another woman and decide to kill me?" She taunted.
"How could you do this?" Noah cried and reached a hand out to Celine.
"You are not going to get away with this." I coughed weakly. The poision sending a paralysing pain through my entire body.
I wanted to scream from the pain.
Celine chuckled. "What I have used is a neuro-inhibitor," she confirmed clinically. "Untraceable, fast-acting. It copies a heart attack. You'll be dead very soon. I hear it's quite painful, I made sure of that."
"When you are found, the stories will tell of the dedicated husband and wife team who worked so hard and passed away in an unfortunate fire at their lab." She said dramatically, "Perfect isn't it?"
I watched helplessly as Celine poured gasoline on the ground then straighten and looked down at me.
"As illuminating as I am sure this conversation is, I have more important things to do." She said and strutted past their writhing bodies. She lit a cigarette and took a deep satisfying drag of the smoke before blowing the smoke out and smiling triumphantly.
"Bye losers, see you never."
With that she threw her cigarette on the ground and strutted out.
A fire made a sraight path from the cigarette to the curtains which quickly lit up.
I tried to crawl away as the flames started to eat up the objects in the room one after the other but even a snail would move faster than I was.
Very soo, the fire crept closer to me and I could only close my eyes when I felt the heat lick at my clothes, putting me in unbearable pain.
Suddenly, one of the gas burners exploded and right at that point I was hit by an earth shattering realization.
This was not my first death.
A reel of memories from not one but five other lives filled my brain.
That meant I was about to die for the sixth time.
Tears of frustration seeped out my eyes at the thought of some omnipotent being just toying with me and bringing me to life and only letting me know that I was reborn at the point of my death.
What even was the purpose?
"Don't bring me back to this life if you are not going to give me a fighting chance at least." I screamed aloud as if the heavenly beings were listening to me.
As the darkness pulled me closer, away from the heat. I heard a whisper from afar. A voice that lulled me to rest.
"Seven is your number."