Reborn in the Fire with Her First Love

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I was reborn.

Brought back to the exact moment the hospital laboratory went up in flames.

Fire devoured everything in sight. Christian and I were trapped inside the burning room.

Then Stella appeared. She was my girlfriend.

But without a single second of hesitation, she chose to save Christian first, treating me like I was completely invisible.

I did not stop her. I did not beg.

Because the memories of my past life were still burned into my brain.

Back then, I revealed my secret identity as the hospital director's son, using her career to force her to save me.

Christian was left behind in that inferno forever.

Afterward, she weaponized my guilt, slowly draining every single cent of my family's wealth.

In the end, she locked me inside a lab and set the room on fire.

As I begged for my life in sheer despair, she flashed a twisted, demonic smile.

"Rowan! If you hadn't used your family's power to threaten me, Christian would never have died that horrible death!"

"Every ounce of pain he felt in those flames, I am going to make you pay back a thousand times over!"

This time, I chose to let her have exactly what she wanted.

And in doing so, I would save myself.

01

A deafening crash shook the room. The heavy steel cabinet slammed into my body, the agonizing pain instantly snapping me fully awake.

Ignoring the blinding agony, I desperately tried to make sense of my surroundings. Thick, toxic smoke forced my eyes shut. I could only cover my mouth, coughing so hard my lungs felt like they were bleeding.

A dull, throbbing pain radiated from my right leg. I instinctively threw my arms over my head to protect myself.

"No!"

But my arms, which had been charred to the bone in my past life, were perfectly intact.

How was this possible?

Before my brain could process anything, a frantic, desperate voice pierced through the roar of the flames.

"Christian! Christian! Are you okay?!"

Why did that voice sound so agonizingly familiar?

A second later, Christian's weak, pathetic voice drifted over.

"Stella... please help me..."

I forced my head up in total disbelief. Through the haze, I saw Stella kneeling next to Christian, frantically shoving a fallen desk off his body.

Watching the two of them, I literally couldn't catch my breath.

Wait.

Wasn't I just locked in a lab, burning to a crisp while Stella laughed at me?

The realization hit me so hard I curled into a ball, my entire body violently shaking.

From the lab doorway, my best friend Ben screamed until his voice cracked.

"Stella! Are you completely out of your mind?! Save Rowan! He is your boyfriend!"

The raw heat on my skin and the smoke stinging my eyes made it undeniably real. This wasn't a nightmare.

I was reborn.

Brought back to the very day Christian, the hospital's golden boy, and I were trapped in the fire.

With a loud scrape of metal, Stella finally pushed the desk away. Without so much as a glance in my direction, she hauled Christian up and dragged him toward the exit.

A bitter, mocking laugh escaped my throat. In my last life, this was exactly what she did.

I was supposed to be the man she loved, but her eyes only ever saw him.

It made sense. Christian was gorgeous. He was practically worshipped by the staff, and rumors constantly swirled that he was the sole heir to the Harrington Medical Empire. Even if Stella wasn't single, she had probably fallen for him a long time ago.

I struggled to stand, but the steel cabinet had my leg pinned to the floor. Shards of broken glass had sliced my calf open, and blood was pooling beneath me. I couldn't move an inch.

Stella finally seemed to notice I existed. But there was zero concern in her eyes. Only pure annoyance. She wrinkled her nose.

"Christian is the sole heir to the Harrington family. If he dies here, this entire hospital goes down with him!"

"I am looking at the bigger picture!"

"Your injuries aren't even that bad. Once I get Christian to safety, I will come back for you."

I laughed again. If I hadn't already lived through this hell once, I might have actually believed her garbage excuse about "the bigger picture."

I was covered in my own blood, yet to her, my injuries "weren't that bad."

Ben didn't hesitate. He tried to charge straight into the fire, but a group of panicked nurses dragged him back.

"Ben! Stop! The lab is full of combustible chemicals! It's going to blow!"

They were right. In my memory, this room had roughly fifteen minutes before it detonated.

In my past life, after I was dragged out, I immediately screamed for everyone to evacuate, saving dozens of lives. Stella had actually wanted to run back in for Christian, but the flames grew too wild, and she chickened out.

So why the hell would I ever believe she was coming back for me this time?

I knew she wouldn't.

But I refused to drag the people who actually cared about me down into the grave.

I propped myself up on my bloody elbows, screaming at the door with everything I had.

"Ben, stay back! It's going to blow! All of you, run!"

Hearing the word "blow," Stella froze in her tracks. She snapped her head back, glaring at me with eyes so cold she looked like a total stranger.

"Rowan, since when did you become such a manipulative liar?!"

"The fire department will be here in half an hour to contain this. If you scream about explosions, what are all the colleagues outside going to think of me?!"

"Can't you be a little more like Christian and show some actual basic human decency?!"

Her absolute hypocrisy made my blood boil.

"You didn't call me manipulative when you were in my bed!"

Hearing that, Christian weakly tugged at Stella's collar, his voice trembling.

"Stella, it hurts so much..."

The moment Christian spoke, Stella immediately broke eye contact with me, her gaze softening entirely.

"Hold on, Christian. I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

And just like that, she practically carried him out the door. She never looked back.

02

I gritted my teeth and pushed against the crushing weight of the cabinet. A blinding, drilling pain shot up my spine. But compared to being burned alive in my past life, this was absolutely nothing.

Watching Stella abandon me, Ben collapsed to his knees in the hallway, his face pale with disbelief.

"Stella! You are sick in the head!"

"The Chief of Medicine is going to ruin you for this!"

Ben was the only person in the entire hospital who knew my real identity.

But his threat only earned a cruel, mocking sneer from Stella.

"The Chief is going to ruin me? Hilarious."

"Christian is the only son of the Harrington Medical group! If he dies, the Chief will be the one begging for mercy!"

I dragged my bleeding body through the narrow gap beneath the cabinet. The jagged edges tore my wound open further, soaking my clothes in fresh blood. But I didn't care. I needed to live.

Seeing the clock ticking down, I screamed at Ben.

"Stop talking to her! Get out of here!"

I would never forget the look in Stella's eyes when she poured gasoline over my head in my past life. There was no love left. Only absolute, psychotic hatred.

She ignored my begging. She ignored our years together. She just struck the match.

That was when I realized she had blamed me for Christian's death every single day since the fire.

She despised me.

Before I could fully shake off that agonizing memory, Ben broke through the crowd and charged straight into the burning room.

"Rowan! Stay with me!"

Toxic smoke filled my lungs, blurring my vision. The only clear thing in the world was Ben's figure pushing through the orange flames.

"Are you insane?! Get out!" I roared.

Ben ignored me. He gritted his teeth, hoisted half my weight onto his shoulder, and began dragging me toward the exit.

The blistering heat scorched our skin. I watched a lock of his hair catch fire, glowing with orange embers, but he acted like he couldn't feel a thing. He just kept pulling.

Looking at his soot-stained face, a massive wave of guilt crashed over me.

I weakly lifted my arm to check my watch. Time was up. If we didn't move now, we were dead.

I took a deep, ragged breath and screamed in his ear.

"Listen to me! I am going to count down from three. When I hit one, we dive for the door. Do not look back at me, do you understand?!"

Ben didn't even turn his head. "Keep screaming! I am not letting go of you!"

A knot of emotion tightened in my throat. I stopped arguing and locked my eyes on the doorway. Our only way out.

Three!

Two!

One!

"Jump!" I roared with every ounce of strength left in my broken body, dragging Ben with me as we launched ourselves through the door.

Boom!

The exact second we cleared the threshold, a catastrophic explosion detonated behind us.

The massive shockwave blasted us across the hallway. My eardrums felt like they had ruptured. My vision went completely white. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear. Just a high-pitched, endless ringing echoing in my skull.

"Rowan! Rowan! Can you hear me?!"

I don't know how long I blacked out, but Ben's panicked voice eventually broke through the static.

I forced my eyes open. "I'm fine... just my leg..."

Ben followed my gaze down. His face instantly drained of color.

"It's bad. Don't look at it. Just... wait right here!"

He scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the hall.

A few minutes later, Ben returned with a team of colleagues carrying a stretcher. When they saw the state of my leg, every single one of them gasped.

One of the male nurses covered his mouth. "Oh my god... how many stitches is that going to take?!"

My entire body felt shattered, but my mind was violently clear.

As they wheeled me past the emergency triage, I saw Stella. She had her arms wrapped tenderly around Christian's shoulders, whispering sweet comfort into his ear, acting like the horrors of the last twenty minutes never happened.

Acting like I didn't exist.

The head nurse, who had always treated me well, began examining my wounds. She shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Rowan... what kind of karma is this? You have so many fractured bones. It's going to take at least a year of physical therapy to walk right..."

Her voice cracked into a sob. "Thank God your right hand is safe. Once you heal, you can still operate."

I managed a weak, bloodstained smile, wanting to comfort her, but the pain robbed me of my voice.

The head nurse lowered her voice, glancing nervously toward the triage bay.

"That Christian guy... I heard it's just a few minor scratches! And look at Dr. Stella treating him like he's dying. Disgusting..."

Hearing that, Ben completely snapped. He marched right up to triage, pointing a shaking finger directly at Stella's face.

"Stella! You make me sick to my stomach!"

Before Ben could even finish his sentence, Christian let out a pathetic, breathy cough.

"Stella... I'm feeling really weak..."

Stella immediately went into panic mode, stroking his hair. "Just hold on, Christian. The specialists will be here any second."

Then, she slowly looked up, glaring daggers at Ben.

"Rowan is fine, isn't he?!"

"Rowan is my boyfriend. Whatever happens between us is our business. Why do you always have to stick your nose where it doesn't belong?!"

I stared at Stella's repulsive, self-righteous face from my stretcher. My voice was hoarse, but it cut through the room like a knife.

"We are done."

"We are breaking up."

Ben nodded aggressively. "Good! No point reasoning with trash!"

Stella froze. She clearly hadn't expected me to drop the hammer in front of everyone. Her brow furrowed in deep annoyance.

"Rowan, what is your problem now? Are you playing games with me?"

I let out a cold, raspy laugh. "Playing games? You aren't worth the effort."

I forced the tears back, staring dead at Christian hiding behind her.

"You would rather save another man than save my life. And you have the nerve to call yourself my girlfriend?!"

Christian, a grown man, immediately forced tears into his eyes like a victim.

"Rowan... how could you say that to her?"

"She just knows you're stronger than me. She believed in you. She simply chose to save the person who needed her the most..."

The ER erupted into chaotic whispers. Stella's aggressive defense and Christian's pathetic weeping drew a massive crowd of onlookers.

"Well, the golden boy has a point. He's so fragile, obviously he needed help first!"

"Exactly. Dr. Stella was just making the logical choice. Why is Dr. Rowan being so incredibly bitter?"

"No kidding. Christian is the heir to the Harrington Empire. Saving him is objectively more important!"

Just then, my father rushed into the ER, having caught the first flight back from his overseas conference.

Seeing him, Stella instantly dropped her defensive attitude and rushed over, putting on a professional, respectful face.

"Chief Thomas! The lab exploded, and I... I risked my life to pull Christian out of the flames."

"Christian just promised me he would have Harrington Medical double their funding for our hospital!"

My dad's face was completely black. "Where is Rowan?!"

Assuming the Chief was looking for someone to blame, Stella eagerly threw me to the wolves.

"Sir, it was just Rowan and Christian in the lab. Christian is flawless with his protocols, so this incident is entirely Rowan's fault."

"They just pulled him out. His injuries aren't severe. But honestly, I strongly recommend banning him from the research labs going forward. Christian is more than capable of leading the projects alone."

My father's expression turned murderous. Lying on the stretcher, I just smiled coldly to myself.

Just wait, Stella. Once I am out of the picture, your life is going to become a living hell.

Before I could even see my dad's reaction, the darkness pulled me under, and I passed out cold.

When I woke up, it was already dusk the following day. My arms and legs were encased in heavy plaster and bandages. I couldn't move, but breathing the sterile hospital air, I felt completely reborn.

"Rowan!" Ben walked up to my bed, looking exhausted but incredibly relieved.

I tried to lift my hand to greet him, but a sharp spike of pain forced me to stop.

Seeing me wince, Ben lost his composure. "You absolute idiot! Do you have any idea how close you were to dying?!"

I offered a weak smile. "At least... I'm still breathing..."

In this life, I didn't owe Stella a damn thing.

And neither my dad nor I were going to die.

"Man," Ben sighed heavily, pulling up a chair. "I already told your dad exactly what happened. He was so furious he called an emergency disciplinary board meeting for tomorrow morning!"

Hearing about my dad, hot tears finally spilled over my eyelashes. In my past life, my blind trust in Stella eventually led to my father's tragic death.

"Ben..." I took a shaky breath, steadying my voice. "I need you to do one last thing for me."

"Name it."

"The security cameras... inside my private lab. I need you to pull the footage from right before the fire..."

Ben grinned, leaning back in his chair. "Already on it, brother."

"We hit a small firewall, but don't worry. I completely bypassed it. We have the video."

Looking at him, a tidal wave of guilt practically crushed my chest.

In my past life, Stella had brainwashed me into believing Ben was jealous of me. She convinced me he was trying to sabotage my career. I got into a massive screaming match with him, cut him out of my life, and died before I ever had the chance to apologize.

I was so blind. I threw away gold for a piece of trash.

I was just about to close my eyes and rest when the door swung open. Stella walked in.

And of course, Christian was trailing right behind her. He stood there looking absolutely flawless, adjusting the collar of his designer shirt, drawing the admiring eyes of the passing nurses.

Then there was me. Mummified in plaster, broken on a hospital bed.