Chapter 284: Or maybe I was someone else in another

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose, willing his pulse to settle.

He wanted to dismiss Anna’s rambling as nothing more than drunken nonsense, but he could not. Not when every word she spoke had mirrored the dreams that kept haunting him. The same fragments he had seen a few days ago. The same scenes that visited him again last night and left him uneasy, questioning what they meant.

He had tried ignoring them. He had even brushed them off after Jason insisted he should start therapy and get help before he spiraled.

At first Daniel assumed it was Jason’s gentle way of saying he was losing his grip on reality. That neither Henry nor Jason believed him when he spoke about rebirth or memories that were not supposed to be his.

Yet the dreams continued. It no longer mattered if he was stressed or calm or exhausted. They came anyway. And each one left him more restless than the last.

He leaned back in his chair, the faint creak of it echoing in the quiet room. His thumb traced the edge of his phone again and again as he debated calling Jason. His mind warred with itself.

Part of him wanted answers, the other part feared the possibility of being told he really was imagining everything.

But curiosity slowly pushed past the hesitation. He exhaled, long and unsteady, and finally tapped the call button before he could change his mind again.

***

“Now that is what I call a diligent patient who finally shows up after rejecting me a dozen times.” Jason kept his voice light, masking the flicker of surprise that rushed through him when Daniel said he wanted to meet.

Daniel did not bother reacting. His mind was too crowded with unease, too heavy with the weight of the dreams that refused to let him rest. Jason’s teasing barely reached him.

“Do not let Henry hear about this,” Daniel said firmly.

The warning made Jason fall silent. His brows rose in a quiet question, though he already had a suspicion brewing.

It was unusual not to see Henry glued to Daniel’s side like an overenthusiastic shadow. Whenever Daniel sneezed, Henry was usually there handing him tissues before he even asked.

The man was loyal to a fault, and dramatic enough to turn a minor headache into a near death experience in his mind.

Jason understood immediately why Daniel wanted this meeting kept from him. Because Henry would have made a scene the moment he found out.And Daniel looked too tired for that today.

However little Jason knew it wasn’t the case.

“By the way, your wife called me a few days back,” Jason said casually.

The words snapped Daniel out of his thoughts. His head lifted, a sharp frown settling on his face.

Jason had avoided mentioning it earlier, hoping Daniel would bring it up himself once he finally agreed to meet. But now that they sat face to face, there was no point hiding it any longer.

“So she knows,” Daniel muttered, dragging a hand over his face as irritation flared hot under his skin. He could already picture Henry babbling every unnecessary detail with zero remorse.

He needed to send that man to Mars. ’Permanently.’

“Calm down,” Jason said, raising his palms in defense. “She does not know anything important. I only told her that you have been stressing too much, which is why therapy would help.”

Daniel exhaled slowly and looked up, noticing the amused glint in Jason’s eyes. The man was clearly enjoying this a little too much. Still, Daniel was grateful. Jason had kept things minimal. No panic. No dramatic exaggerations.

“It is nice to see you finally scared of someone,” Jason added with a laugh. “And that someone being your wife makes it even better.”

Daniel’s frown deepened, and Jason laughed harder.

Jason’s laughter eventually faded, though the smirk stayed on his face. Daniel glared at him, unimpressed.

“Are you done?” Daniel asked flatly.

“For now,” Jason replied, leaning back in his chair. His playful expression softened as he studied him. “Alright. Tell me what brought you here. You never show up unless something is seriously eating at you.”

Daniel hesitated. The words pressed heavily against his tongue, tangled with confusion and fear he did not want to admit to. He rubbed his palms together slowly, grounding himself before speaking.

“I saw it again,” he finally said.

Jason’s posture shifted immediately. The humor vanished from his eyes, replaced by caution. “The dream?”

Daniel nodded once. “Not just once. It happened a few days ago and again last night. The same images. The same voices. Even the same feeling of… being somewhere I should know but do not.”

Jason leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. “Describe it.”

Daniel swallowed hard. The memories of the dream flickered behind his eyes, sharp and unsettling. “It feels like I am watching another life. Someone else’s pain. Someone else’s choices. But when I wake up it feels like mine. As if I lived it before.”

He paused, breathing deeply as tension coiled in his shoulders.

“And this time,” Daniel continued, voice low, “Anna said something last night. Something she should not have been able to say. Words she could not have known. And they matched what I saw.”

Jason’s eyes widened. Just slightly. Enough to tell Daniel he had his full attention.

“She described what you dreamed?” Jason asked carefully.

“Not exactly. But close enough to unsettle me. And I cannot ignore it anymore.”

A heavy silence settled between them. Jason tapped his fingers against his knee, thinking, assessing, searching for a rational explanation. But even he looked unsure.

“When did these dreams begin?” he asked.

Daniel lowered his gaze. “Months ago. At first I thought they were stress induced. But now they keep coming even when I am completely fine. And each time they feel stronger.”

Jason nodded slowly. “Alright. Then we need to approach this properly. You are not losing your mind, Daniel. Something is triggering these dreams. Maybe trauma. Maybe suppressed memories. Maybe something psychological that we have not identified yet.”

Daniel gave a humorless smirk. “Or maybe I was someone else in another life.”

Jason did not laugh this time. He remembered Daniel talking about rebirth once, however he didn’t ignore it like last time. Because something about Daniel’s dream felt strange.

“Let us start with what we can understand,” Jason said, voice calm yet firm. “Tell me everything. Every detail. You are here now. That already means you want answers.”

Daniel let out a long breath and nodded.

For the first time in a long while, he felt both fear and relief settling into the same breath.

***

A car slowed to a stop at the curb on Crossroad Street, its engine humming softly before falling silent.

Kathrine stepped out, her heels clicking against the pavement as she straightened and took in her surroundings. The air felt different here, heavier somehow, as if the street itself held secrets her mother had tried to keep buried.

After taking possession of Roseline’s phone, Kathrine had gone through every message.

There were the threatening texts from the unknown sender. And then there were the conversations with the private informer her mother had hired to trace the person behind those threats. Buried within those exchanges, a particular detail had caught Kathrine’s attention.

Crossroad Street.

The same place where Kira lived. The same street her aunt had mentioned seeing Kira meeting a man she had never spoken of.

Kathrine exhaled slowly, scanning the storefronts, the narrow alleyways, and the quiet windows overhead. Nothing looked out of place, and yet she felt certain she was standing exactly where her mother’s secrets had begun to unravel.

She tightened her coat around herself, determination settling in her chest.

Whatever had brought Roseline here, whatever she had been hiding, Kathrine intended to uncover it.

She pulled out her phone and reread the address, letting her eyes trace the numbers one more time before lowering the device. With a steady breath, she began walking down the narrow lane.

Kathrine had told herself that the day Roseline came here, she must have failed to find the man she was looking for. It was the simplest explanation. The most harmless one.

But deep down, she did not believe that at all.

Kathrine’s steps slowed as she moved deeper into the lane, the walls seeming to close in with every advancement.

Someone had misled her mother. And someone was still trying to mislead her.

But not today.

When Kathrine finally reached the house, she pressed the doorbell and waited, her pulse thudding in her ears. A few moments later, the door creaked open, and her breath caught as her eyes landed on the person standing in the doorway.

Her breath hitched sharply.

The man before her was nothing like she expected.

The jagged burn scar that stretched across one side of his face made her instinctively step back, her heart lurching at the raw, almost inhuman appearance it gave him. For a fraction of a second, she wondered if she had stumbled into something far darker than she imagined.

Then his deep voice cut through her spiraling thoughts.

“Yes?” he asked, his tone low, steady, and unreadable.

The sound pulled her out of her trance, but the unsettling weight of his gaze lingered on her skin like a colder shadow.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep