They Erased Me, So I Rewrote My Life Chapter 34

They Erased Me, So I Rewrote My Life Chapter 34

During Christmas break, the campus was nearly deserted.

Leo drove his beat-up pickup and took me camping at a national park in eastern Oregon.

It was the first real camping trip of my two lives.

Not a staged event on an estate lawn.

A real tent. A real campfire. Real wilderness.

It was cold and exhausting.

But it was free.

I leaned against Leo’s shoulder and watched the logs in the fire slowly split and crumble as they burned.

The air smelled of pine.

Here, I wasn’t the senator’s daughter. Not the monster being cursed online.

I was just Eliza.

“What are you thinking about?” Leo asked softly.

“I was just thinking,” I said quietly, watching the firelight, “if only I could have chosen this in my last life.”

His movements paused.

“Last life?”

Damn it.

I had slipped.

Since my rebirth, I had never said those two words aloud.

They were my deepest secret.

“I mean,” I corrected quickly, “if only I had understood earlier that I didn’t need their approval.”