- 8 hours ago
EngSub Cutting the Cord Reborn as My Mom's High School Frenemy 🌎Aurora
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:021996, Texas.
00:00:04I suddenly jerk up from the sink, gasping for air.
00:00:06Water drips from my thick blonde hair.
00:00:08I stare at the mirror in shock.
00:00:10The face staring back at me is vibrant, beautiful, full of life.
00:00:12Vintage smoky eye makeup framing a chalky teenage face.
00:00:1518.
00:00:16You young, healthy, cancer-free.
00:00:18I've been thrown back into the dead-end Texas high school years my mom spent her entire life
00:00:23clawing her way out of.
00:00:24Suddenly, the bathroom door swings open.
00:00:27A familiar grapefruit perfume hits me instantly.
00:00:29It's Valerie, my 18-year-old mother.
00:00:31Her hair is pulled into a high-tony tail, high-waisted jeans hugging her hips, a white tamtop straight
00:00:36out of a 90s teen magazine.
00:00:38Come on, the pep lolly's about to start.
00:00:39She yanks me forward hard enough to make me stumble.
00:00:42But instead of following her, I freeze, stare at the young face in front of me, untouched
00:00:46by wealth, untouched by surgery, untouched by the years that twisted her into a monster.
00:00:51Valerie, we're... friends?
00:00:53Uh, duh, we're best friends.
00:00:55Why are you being so weird today?
00:00:56Come on.
00:00:57She turns and keeps pulling me towards the door.
00:00:59Half a step behind her, I stare at her back.
00:01:01The confusion in my eyes vanishes instantly, replaced by something cold, something vicious.
00:01:06The school's public address system drones on from the loudspeakers overhead, buzzing
00:01:10with the daily lunch menu.
00:01:11Pizza slices, tater tots, and chocolate milk.
00:01:14Valerie pulls me through the crowded hallway, her hand warm and dry in mine.
00:01:18And then it hits me again.
00:01:20That sharp grapefruit perfume.
00:01:22The scent wraps around me so suddenly, my breath catches.
00:01:26It was the smell I knew best as a child.
00:01:28Before I turned five, she used to hold me in her arms, humming old country songs and asking
00:01:33if I loved her.
00:01:34But after she ditched me to chase her high school sweetheart to the big city, that scent
00:01:39only ever showed up in my nightmares.
00:01:41Scarlet, you've been acting weird all day.
00:01:43Scarlet?
00:01:44God, even this body's name sucks.
00:01:47Carefully, I slip my hand out of hers.
00:01:49My eyes swamp across the hallway.
00:01:51The dented locker numbers.
00:01:52The faded football team pictures.
00:01:54The bulletin board plastered with fall semester 1996.
00:01:57Cheerleaders rush past us.
00:01:59Ponytails flying while some varsity asshole has a scrawny kid pinned against a logger,
00:02:03shaking him down for lunch money.
00:02:05This isn't a dream.
00:02:06I'm really back in the 90s.
00:02:08That's when a tall, lanky guy with glasses started walking toward us.
00:02:12Hector.
00:02:12My mother's first love.
00:02:14The man who ruined all our lives.
00:02:16Hey, this is my Scarlet.
00:02:17She just transferred it in.
00:02:18Scarlet, meet Hector.
00:02:19Straight A student.
00:02:20Total teacher's pet.
00:02:21Basically tutoring half the school.
00:02:23Hey, I'm Hector.
00:02:25Welcome to East Ridge.
00:02:26The second I hear his name, my stomach turns.
00:02:30I ignore his hand completely and scan the noisy hallway for the one person who should
00:02:34have been here.
00:02:35Where's my dad?
00:02:37Austin should be at this school too.
00:02:39Wait!
00:02:40Austin's not in your class?
00:02:41Austin?
00:02:42There's no Austin in this entire school.
00:02:46Austin Walker!
00:02:47My dad!
00:02:48He's not- he's not here?
00:02:51Your dad?
00:02:52Just as I'm scrambling for an excuse, a roar erupts from the end of the hallway and saves
00:02:57me.
00:02:57The pep rally's starting.
00:02:59You coming or what?
00:03:01Sunlight spills across her shoulders.
00:03:02For a second, she looks nothing like the woman who would one day watch me die without blinking.
00:03:07The gym is loud, humilded, packed wall to wall.
00:03:11Football players in red jerseys charge onto the court while cheerleaders shake palm balls
00:03:15under the flashing lights.
00:03:16The bleachers thunder with stomping feet and screaming students.
00:03:20This Friday, let's show East Ridge who really runs this town.
00:03:24The crowd explodes.
00:03:26She's radiant up there.
00:03:27Beside me, Hector adjusts his glasses, eyes fixed on her.
00:03:31She's gonna get out of this town someday.
00:03:33He says it like he already knows the future.
00:03:36I don't answer.
00:03:37I just stare at Valerie beneath the spotlight.
00:04:07After the rally, students pour out of the gym.
00:04:09She's got an application, but later in life, she always says Harvard was never an option
00:04:13for someone like her.
00:04:14So that was a lie too.
00:04:15Valerie, your future turns out cheap and pathetic anyway.
00:04:18So why are you out here pretend to be some gifted golden girl right now?
00:04:21It makes me sick.
00:04:21I rise from my seat.
00:04:23Then, with one sharp shove of my elbow, I knock over the black coffee on her desk.
00:04:28The dark liquid spills perfectly across the application packet, soaking through the giant
00:04:32Harvard crest until the ink begins to bleed.
00:04:34I stare at her coldly, waiting for her to snap, waiting for the mask to fall off, waiting
00:04:39to finally see the real Valerie underneath all that fake sweetness.
00:04:43But her reaction throws me completely off.
00:04:48Oh God, Scarlet, are you okay?
00:04:50She grabs a stack of napkins and immediately starts swiping coffee off my hand.
00:04:54There's real concern in her eyes.
00:04:55No anger.
00:04:56No blame.
00:04:57Not even irritation.
00:04:58It's wrong.
00:04:59She's too nice.
00:05:00So nice it scares me.
00:05:02Nice enough to make me wonder if the woman I remember was ever the real Valerie at all.
00:05:06Just then, the classroom door swings open.
00:05:09A Latino teacher steps inside and walks over to Valerie's desk.
00:05:12Hey Valerie, something came up with Scarlet's family.
00:05:16Kind of an emergency.
00:05:17Your parents called and asked if you could bring her home with you after school.
00:05:20An emergency?
00:05:22What the hell happened?
00:05:23By the time school lets out, the Texas sunset looks like the whole sky's on fire.
00:05:28Stadium lights flicker on one by one around the football field.
00:05:31The cheer squad is still practicing while snippets of 90s pop songs crack through the loudspears.
00:05:36Valerie walks a few steps ahead of me, her ponytail swaying softly behind her.
00:05:39She suddenly stops and turns to me gently.
00:05:41I heard about your parents.
00:05:43Scarlet, don't be scared, okay?
00:05:44You've still got me.
00:05:45We're best friends.
00:05:46Then she pulls me into a hug.
00:05:47I'm sorry for what happened.
00:05:48If you need a shoulder to cry on, I'll always be here.
00:05:50That faint grapefruit scent wraps around me again.
00:05:53And just like that, I break.
00:05:55In my last life, there were countless nights when I would have given anything for this exact embrace.
00:05:59As I sob into her shoulder, I deliberately smears and snot all over her pretty shirt.
00:06:03Petty revenge.
00:06:04Pathetic, tiny revenge.
00:06:06But her arms are warm exactly the way I remember from childhood.
00:06:09So how the hell did someone like this become the woman who wouldn't even save my life?
00:06:14A bicycle bell rings behind us.
00:06:16Hector catches up, pushing an old bike with a paper box of cupcakes sitting in the basket.
00:06:20He adjusts his glasses awkwardly.
00:06:22Sugar helps.
00:06:23A little, anyway.
00:06:24I watch the two of them walking side by side beneath the football field lights, and something bitter twists in
00:06:28my chest.
00:06:29What, Hector?
00:06:30You gonna pick her up like this every day?
00:06:32Keep her stuck in this town and make her your wife someday?
00:06:34Hector stops walking.
00:06:35But when he looks at me, his expression is completely open and sincere.
00:06:39Valerie's meant for bigger things than this place.
00:06:41She's too talented to spend her life shrinking herself for some guy.
00:06:46That'd be...
00:06:47wrong.
00:06:48I freeze.
00:06:49Because I never imagined Hector would say something like that.
00:06:54I'm not getting stuck married with kids at 18.
00:06:56I want to see what's out there first.
00:06:59But you did have me at 18.
00:07:00You ended up trapped in a rotting trailer park full of violence and screaming and broken walls.
00:07:05Valerie, did your dreams betray you?
00:07:07The whole walk there, something about this timeline feels off in a way I can't explain.
00:07:13And then Valerie opens the front door.
00:07:16The smell of home-cooked food hits me instantly.
00:07:20So you're Scarlet, huh?
00:07:22Hi, Mr. Wyatt.
00:07:24Thanks for letting me stay over.
00:07:26Ha ha ha!
00:07:27He bursts out laughing and pulls me inside before I can even finish.
00:07:31The house is warm, spotless, lived in.
00:07:34There's a brand new pair of slippers waiting for me by the entryway,
00:07:37along with folded pajamas set out they'd been expecting me for days.
00:07:40The living room walls are lined with plaques, commendations, and framed Federal Service Award.
00:07:44On the TV, a local news station is covering a major drug trafficking case near the Texas border.
00:07:48A photo flashes on screen of two fallen narcotics agents.
00:07:51Your parents were good people, kiddo.
00:07:54Best partners I ever had.
00:07:55Real heroes.
00:07:57And from now on, this house is yours too.
00:07:59You hear me?
00:07:59That's when it finally hits me.
00:08:01The parents belonging to this body are already dead.
00:08:04Dinner is loud and warm and painfully alive.
00:08:07Grandpa keeps piling food onto plates.
00:08:09Grandma laughs at everything.
00:08:10A dog nudges against my legs beneath the table.
00:08:12The kitchen light glows so warmly it almost hurts to look at.
00:08:15And across from me sits Valerie, laughing freely while her parents dole on her like she's the center of their
00:08:19universe.
00:08:19My chest tightens so hard it feels unbearable.
00:08:23This is insane.
00:08:24Like some cruel cosmic joke.
00:08:26She grew up surrounded by this much love.
00:08:28So how the hell did she become someone who could watch me die without a single shred of kindness?
00:08:33Late that night, Valerie and I lay side by side in the dark.
00:08:37There's been this huge cartel case near the border lately.
00:08:41I keep having nightmares something's gonna happen to my parents.
00:08:44At 18, she looks so young.
00:08:46So fragile.
00:08:47Before sunrise, I wake to the sound of movement in the living room.
00:08:51Grandpa is sitting by the door, pulling on his police boots.
00:08:53I run out barefoot and grab onto his sleeve before he can leave.
00:08:56Mr. Wyatt, please be careful out there.
00:08:59He smiles and ruffles my hair.
00:09:00I will, kiddo.
00:09:01Promise I'll come home safe.
00:09:02Then he and Grandma disappear together into the pale border fog of early morning.
00:09:07And the dread in my chest only grows heavier.
00:09:12Valerie stumbles out of bed half asleep the next morning and stands in front of the mirror,
00:09:16completely lost trying to fix her ponytail.
00:09:19God, she's hopeless.
00:09:21I walk over and quietly redo her hair for her.
00:09:24It's the first time in both my lives that I've ever been this close to her.
00:09:28Scarlett, how are you so good at this?
00:09:29And suddenly I remember how, when I was little, she always hacked my hair off into awful tomboy
00:09:35cuts.
00:09:35Maybe it wasn't coldness after all.
00:09:37Maybe 18-year-old Valerie just barely knew how to take care of herself.
00:09:40A bicycle bell rings outside the yard.
00:09:42Hector, right on schedule.
00:09:44He hands me an ice-cold soda, then stares at my face for a little too long.
00:09:49Scarlett, is it just me or are you starting to look more and more like Valerie?
00:09:53A chill shoots straight through me.
00:09:54Right before I died in my last life, I was barely recognizable, skin and bones from the
00:09:58cancer. But the last time I looked in a mirror, I realized something horrifying.
00:10:01I hadn't taken over someone else's body.
00:10:04I came back wearing my own 18-year-old face.
00:10:06Pretty girls always kind of look alike, right?
00:10:08Surrounded by all this warmth, I start wavering.
00:10:11It gets harder and harder to connect this version of Valini to the woman from my last life.
00:10:15This girl is kind, bright, alive.
00:10:18I finally begin to understand why my dad, Austin, spent his whole life loving her even
00:10:22when she never truly loved him back.
00:10:24Part of me even starts thinking that when I finally meet him in this timeline, maybe I
00:10:28should tell him to fall for somebody else.
00:10:30But I never imagined that just as I started letting my guard down, hell was already opening
00:10:34its doors.
00:10:35School lets out early that day.
00:10:37Hector and I stop by a taco truck on the corner.
00:10:40Valerie says she's tired and asks us to grab her a baked potato before heading home ahead of
00:10:45us.
00:10:46We're almost at her house when an old pickup truck with no plates suddenly comes flying
00:10:50backward out of the driveway.
00:10:52Several tattooed men in masks jump into the bed of the truck.
00:10:56Then a scream tears through the air.
00:10:59It's Valerie.
00:11:03Hector and I sprint toward the house so fast my lungs feel like they're tearing apart.
00:11:08The front door hangs crooked on its hinges, creaking heavily as it swings loosely against the
00:11:13broken frame.
00:11:14The second we step inside, the smell hits me.
00:11:16Blood, sweat, whiskey.
00:11:18The living room looks like a battlefield.
00:11:19Furniture overturned.
00:11:20Glass shattered everywhere.
00:11:21Family photos ripped from the walls.
00:11:23Blood smeared across the wooden floorboards in long streaks like someone had been dragged.
00:11:27Grandpa and Grandma lie motionless on the ground.
00:11:29And in the middle of the room, Valerie, covered in blood, curled up on the floor.
00:11:34A tattooed man stands nearby, calmly fixing his belt like nothing happened.
00:11:40Hector roars and charges at him, only to get kicked hard across the room.
00:11:44The stranger turns toward me slowly.
00:11:46Then he grabs my collar and jerks me forward so violently my feet leave the ground.
00:11:50Hector!
00:11:52The stench of blood and cigarettes floods my nose so hard I nearly gag.
00:11:56Well, damn.
00:11:58If it isn't Officer Miller's kid.
00:12:00Lucky day for you, sweetheart.
00:12:02Boss already told us to pull out.
00:12:04Otherwise, you'd have been a lot of fun, too.
00:12:06He spits onto the floor beside me and turns to leave.
00:12:10Behind him, Valerie curls tighter into herself, desperately clutching the ripped fabric over
00:12:15her chest.
00:12:16A broken sound escapes her throat.
00:12:18Something inside me snaps.
00:12:20I throw myself forward and grab the man's pant leg with both hands.
00:12:23Moonlight spills through the shattered window, sliding across the side of his face.
00:12:27That jawline.
00:12:28That scar near his mouth.
00:12:29That voice.
00:12:30My entire body freezes.
00:12:32The world goes completely silent around me.
00:12:34Because he isn't some random cartel thug.
00:12:37He's Austin.
00:12:39My father.
00:12:43Hector scrambles to the wall and grabs the landline.
00:12:46But the phone cord has already been cut.
00:12:51You brought this on yourself, you little bitch!
00:12:54He lunges at me and starts ripping at my clothes, yanking violently at my collar.
00:12:59Trying to save me, Hector throws himself at Austin again, without a second thought.
00:13:03In the chaos, I catch a flash of murder in Austin's eyes.
00:13:07He suddenly pulls a hunting knife from the back of his waist hand.
00:13:10And in that instant, I completely lose it.
00:13:13Without thinking, I grab the blade with my bare hand.
00:13:16My dad?
00:13:17How could this be my dad?
00:13:19Tears crash into the growing pool of blood beneath me.
00:13:21The man I loved most growing up.
00:13:24The father who raised me in that trailer park with nothing.
00:13:27How could it be you?
00:13:28You're a rapist now.
00:13:29A murderer.
00:13:30I can't take it.
00:13:31I feel like I'm losing my mind.
00:13:33But the sharp pain slicing through my palm and Vallier's desperate sobbing remind me this is real.
00:13:39I clamp down on the knife with everything I have and scream hysterically at Hector.
00:13:44Hector, run!
00:13:46Go get help!
00:13:47Go!
00:13:48Now!
00:13:48Blood streams down Hector's face as he staggers toward the door and bolts outside.
00:13:53And the second he's gone, Austin completely snaps.
00:13:57With a vicious twist of his wrist, he jerks the knife free and points the blade straight at my throat.
00:14:06But just then, my grandmother, who had been lying motionless in a pool of blood, somehow forces herself back up
00:14:12with the last bit of strength she has left.
00:14:16Austin turns, ready to stab the next.
00:14:20No!
00:14:21I slam into him with everything I need.
00:14:23The blade plunges straight into my stomach.
00:14:26Warmth explodes through my body.
00:14:28Then comes the pain.
00:14:29Endless, crushing pain.
00:14:31I press both hands against the wound, holding onto the knife with everything I've got so Austin can't pull it
00:14:36back out.
00:14:37You can't kill them.
00:14:40You can't.
00:14:42I'm crying, choking as blood pours from my mouth in heavy bursts.
00:14:46But Austin just twists the knife cruelly inside me.
00:14:50The agony sends me collapsing to my knees in the blood.
00:14:54That's when Grandma suddenly wraps both arms around Austin's neck from behind and drags him to the floor with every
00:14:59ounce of strength she has left.
00:15:00My grandfather, already covered in blood, grabs onto Austin's leg and refuses to let go.
00:15:06Realizing he's about to get caught, Austin curses violently, kicks himself free from them, and climbs out the window, disappearing
00:15:13into the darkness near the border.
00:15:14Scarlet!
00:15:16Scarlet, stay with me!
00:15:18Please don't close your eyes!
00:15:20Through my fading vision, I feel Valerie pulling me into her arms.
00:15:24My consciousness is already slipping away, sobbing controllably, with tears and blood all over my face.
00:15:30I still try to take off my jacket and cover her with it, but I'm too weak.
00:15:34My arm barely lifts halfway before it drops limply into the blood.
00:15:37In the distance, sirens scream through the night.
00:15:40I hear Hector crying as he rushes back inside with the police.
00:15:43Then everything goes dark.
00:15:45Somewhere far away, voices echo around me as I'm lifted onto a stretcher.
00:15:50She's flatlining! Move! Get the defibrillator! Now!
00:15:55When I finally open my eyes again, all I see is the pale white ceiling of a hospital room.
00:15:59Sitting beside my bed is Hector.
00:16:00When he ran for help, Austin's men caught him and beat him half to death.
00:16:03The second he sees me awake, arrogant genius, completely falls apart.
00:16:06He wipes his eyes while gripping to entail Sotanli.
00:16:08You were the last one to wake up!
00:16:10Do you have any idea how close you came to dying?
00:16:13You scared the hell out of us!
00:16:14He's crying so hard, it's a complete mess.
00:16:16Tears, snot, everything.
00:16:17At one point, he even spits on my face while talking.
00:16:19I let out a weak laugh.
00:16:20The anesthesia still hasn't fully worn over.
00:16:22I can't really feel pain yet, just a heavy numbness all over my body.
00:16:24I look at him anxiously.
00:16:26Valerie's parents? And Valerie, are they okay?
00:16:29Her folks made it to the hospital just in time.
00:16:32If that knife had hit either of them, any worse.
00:16:35I struggle to sit up, desperate to see her, but before I can move, the hospital room door slowly opens.
00:16:40Valerie is standing there.
00:16:41Her eyes look hollow.
00:16:42And when she looks at me, there's something shattered in them I can't even begin to explain.
00:16:47I say her name softly.
00:16:48She nods faintly and walks over.
00:16:49Her cold fingers are on my shoulder.
00:16:51Does it hurt?
00:16:52I shake my head.
00:16:53Looking at her red-rimmed eyes, I force a small smile.
00:16:57Have you been crying?
00:16:59She doesn't answer.
00:17:00She just holds my hand tighter and gently squeezes my cheek like she's afraid I'll disappear.
00:17:03And suddenly, she lowers her head and tears drip onto the back of my hand.
00:17:07Thank you, Scarlet.
00:17:08If it weren't for you, I would have lost my parents.
00:17:12I look at the 18-year-old version of my mother standing in front of me, her fate already completely
00:17:16changed because of me.
00:17:18I sniff hard, holding back tears.
00:17:20I don't say a single word.
00:17:21I just let her tears soak into my skin before slowly lifting my free hand and placing it softly over
00:17:26the trembling hand resting on my shoulder.
00:17:30Valerie looks down at my hand covering hers, as if she understands the comfort in my eyes.
00:17:36She takes a deep breath.
00:17:39Tears still cling to her lashes, but for the first time in forever, her voice carries a little relief.
00:17:45I've got good news.
00:17:46The case is over.
00:17:47The cartel operation finally got busted.
00:17:50Every single person involved in the attack was caught near the border.
00:17:53My parents can finally rest for a while.
00:17:55The moment I hear Austin and the traffickers were all arrested, my entire mind goes blank.
00:18:00Relief crashes over me so hard I almost shoot upright in the hospital bed.
00:18:04Wait, seriously?
00:18:05They caught all of them?
00:18:07Yes, seriously.
00:18:09Now stop moving before you rip your stitches open.
00:18:11The content-crushing weight that haunted me through both lifetimes finally disappears at that moment.
00:18:15Meanwhile, Hector, who has been sitting nearby this entire time, calmly peels a banana like nothing's happening.
00:18:21Doctor said you should eat this.
00:18:22You've already woken up a few times these past couple days.
00:18:24You've managed to pass gas, so now they're just waiting to see if you can finally have a bowel movement.
00:18:29Coming from someone usually this serious, it's so absurd I completely lose it.
00:18:33Unfortunately, the second I laugh, pain rips through the stitches in my abdomen.
00:18:36I immediately hiss in pain, clutching my stomach.
00:18:38Valerie starts laughing too, but after a few seconds, her laughter fades.
00:18:41Tears suddenly begin falling again without warning.
00:18:43She tries to cry quietly.
00:18:45She doesn't want either of us to notice.
00:18:47Hector's smile slowly disappears too.
00:18:49I wrap both arms tightly around this 18-year-old girl.
00:18:52At that moment, through my chest is no longer the hatred I carried in my previous life.
00:18:57Mom, if I had known my biologed father was the monster who destroyed your entire family,
00:19:02how could I ever have hated you?
00:19:03I would have only hated myself for ever being born, since fate gave me another chance.
00:19:08Then this time, I'll set you free.
00:19:13After surviving the nightmare, the little Texas town slowly comes back to life.
00:19:17Once I'm discharged from the hospital, my grandparents take me home.
00:19:20Grandpa proudly hands me a limited edition Barbie doll he brought back from New York.
00:19:23In my previous life, it was the only toy my mother had ever given me.
00:19:26But this time, somehow, it heals me first.
00:19:28Then Grandma completely hijacks what was supposed to be an emotional family dinner with giant sizzling Texas steaks,
00:19:33oversized cowboy hats and boots that look straight out of a Hollywood audition,
00:19:37and enough chaos to turn the whole night upside down.
00:19:39Even Hector, who normally acts way too composed for his age, finally laughs without holding back.
00:19:45But beneath the warm yellow glow of the dinner lights, the conversation eventually turns to goodbye.
00:19:50Hector's mother lifts her wine glass, eyes red and swollen,
00:19:53and quietly announces that they're moving back to Boston before Thanksgiving.
00:19:56She can't handle the danger near the border anymore.
00:19:58And in that moment, a misunderstanding from both my lifetimes finally unravels.
00:20:02In my previous life, Hector never left because he looked down on my mother's reputation.
00:20:07His mother had simply watched her son nearly die.
00:20:10Any parent would have wanted to run from this place after that.
00:20:12As an old country song crackles through the radio in the background, we start talking about the future.
00:20:18Valerie asks where I want to go to school someday.
00:20:20I look at her, the girl whose entire future was crushed fate in my previous life.
00:20:25An answer without hesitation.
00:20:27Harvard.
00:20:27Under the endless Texas night sky, with the Milky Way stretched above her like a dream,
00:20:31I finally understand the suffocating pain she carried in her previous life.
00:20:34I turn my head slightly and whisper so softly that only I can hear it.
00:20:37Mom, this time go live your life.
00:20:39Chase your dreams.
00:20:40Be yourself again.
00:20:40As for me, I'll stay behind in the darkness of this timeline.
00:20:43The day Hector leaves, the boy who has always been calm and restrained
00:20:46completely breaks down the moment he steps onto the bus.
00:20:49Clinging to the window, he cries so hard he can barely breathe.
00:20:52And then the bus slowly pulls away, kicking up clouds of Texas dust
00:20:55before disappearing at the end of the highway.
00:20:57Watching the bus vanish into the distance,
00:20:59I think life might finally return to normal.
00:21:02But fate still isn't done with me yet.
00:21:03Something happened to Valerie.
00:21:08After seeing Hector off, we head home through the bitter Texas winter wind.
00:21:11I cling tightly to Valerie's arm, trying my best to keep the mood light
00:21:13while talking excitedly about Christmas dinner plans.
00:21:15Mr. Wyatt's brisket has to be there.
00:21:16And Mr. Wyatt smoked pulled pork too.
00:21:18No argument.
00:21:18This year, we are eating like royalty.
00:21:20I'm still rambling happily when Valerie's expression suddenly changes.
00:21:23Without warning, she jerks her arm out of my grasp.
00:21:26Like a frightened deer, she stumbles towards a trash can on the side of the road,
00:21:29bends over, and starts violently throwing up.
00:21:31She vomits so hard there's eventually nothing left except bitter dry humps.
00:21:35By the end, she can barely stay standing.
00:21:38She grips a freezing telephone pole for support,
00:21:40her whole body trembling violently,
00:21:42her face drained completely white.
00:21:44My mind goes blank.
00:21:45The smile freezes on my face.
00:21:48Watching her clutch her stomach and reek in pain,
00:21:51a terrifying cold realization crawls slowly up my spine like ice water.
00:21:58No symptoms.
00:22:00No.
00:22:01No way.
00:22:07You're pregnant?
00:22:10Valerie instinctively places a hand over her stomach.
00:22:13Her eyes are filled with the kind of panic and confusion
00:22:16no 18-year-old girl should ever have to carry.
00:22:19What happened that night may have been stopped halfway through,
00:22:22but some nightmares had already rerouted themselves deep in the dark.
00:22:27She looks at me helplessly, tears trembling in her eyes.
00:22:31I don't know, Scarlet.
00:22:34I thought maybe it was just stress lately.
00:22:37I haven't had much appetite and I kept feeling nauseous.
00:22:41Come on.
00:22:42We're going to the clinic.
00:22:43Now.
00:22:44I don't even let her finish speaking.
00:22:46I grab her hand and practically drag her down the street toward the town's small community clinic.
00:22:53The doctor on duty is an elderly Cuban-American woman with silver hair, Dr. Ramirez.
00:22:58She isn't just the only general practitioner in town.
00:23:00She's also one of Grandma Wyatt's oldest friends and her tells alongside her years ago.
00:23:05The second Dr. Romero sees Valerie's face and the sheer panic in my eyes,
00:23:09her sharp, battle-wurned gaze immediately narrows.
00:23:12Wasting another second, she starts ushering every remaining patient out of the clinic.
00:23:17The entire room falls into suffocating silence.
00:23:22Tell me what's going on.
00:23:24My scalp precles with dread as I quickly explain Valerie's nausea and vomiting.
00:23:28The old doctor says nothing after hearing me out,
00:23:31but a deep, piercing sorrow flashes through her eyes.
00:23:34She quietly takes Valerie into the examination room in the back.
00:23:38The moment the door closes, all the strength drains out of me.
00:23:41I collapse into the cold metal chair outside the office,
00:23:44shoving both hands deep into my hair.
00:23:46More than anyone else, I know exactly where I came from.
00:23:49And because of that, a horrifying truth finally pieces itself together in my mind.
00:23:53In my previous life, Austin, the man who raised me after selling Valerie's life,
00:23:56was actually released from prison early.
00:23:58After committing crimes like that, he still got out in less than 20 years.
00:24:02Back then, when the case went to court, Valerie must have stayed silent.
00:24:05Maybe to hide the shame of being pregnant as a teenager.
00:24:08Maybe to protect the Wyatt family's reputation.
00:24:10Whatever the reason, her silence helped set a monster free.
00:24:13The guilt of my own existence tears through me like a dull blade.
00:24:16This nightmare destroyed a brilliant girl who was supposed to go to Harvard,
00:24:19and the one thing it gave back to the world was a demon.
00:24:23Half an hour later, the exam room door slowly creaks open.
00:24:27Dr. Ramirez steps outside, looking exhausted.
00:24:29She gently pats my shoulder.
00:24:34Scarlet, go get Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt for me.
00:24:38The moment the truth comes out, the house, which had barely survived one nightmare already,
00:24:45falls into dead silence all over again.
00:24:56Grandpa sits heavily on the couch.
00:24:58This massive, hard-nosed cop who once stared down cartel gunfires now looks hollowed out,
00:25:04like a man aging ten years in a single night.
00:25:10He buries his rough, caliphate hands over his face and says nothing.
00:25:16Meanwhile, Grandma holds 18-year-old Valerie tightly in her arms,
00:25:21sobbing so hard she can barely breathe.
00:25:24We're packing tonight.
00:25:27We'll go straight to Boston and stay with Hector and his mother.
00:25:32I won't let that monster's family lay a finger on you ever again.
00:25:39Valerie stays curled up in the corner of the bed the entire time,
00:25:42silent as a porcelain doll.
00:25:44She doesn't say a word.
00:25:46She just keeps staring at me with those shattered, empty eyes.
00:25:49But somewhere inside them is still this helpless instinct begging for someone to save her.
00:25:54The sight tears me apart inside.
00:25:57I lower my head immediately,
00:26:00too ashamed to even look my own mother in the eye.
00:26:03And then things somehow get even worse.
00:26:07Austin's trashy parents.
00:26:08The grandparents I had in my previous life.
00:26:11Somehow hear about Valerie's pregnancy.
00:26:13Right after the attack,
00:26:14those two cowards vanished completely to avoid being dragged into the police investigation.
00:26:18But the second they hear Valerie is carrying Austin's child,
00:26:21they swoop in like vultures smelling blood.
00:26:23To them,
00:26:24this pregnancy is leverage.
00:26:25The perfect weapon to destroy the Wyatt family.
00:26:28We barely made it back home before the two of them show up outside the house
00:26:31with some sleazy lawyer they hired.
00:26:35The smell of cheap cigarettes and stale alcohol
00:26:38hits before they even step into the yard.
00:26:43My former grandfather,
00:26:45Silas Walker,
00:26:46doesn't show even a trace of shame.
00:26:49No guilt.
00:26:50No apology.
00:26:52Just this disgusting, smug arrogance.
00:26:58Standing in the yard,
00:26:59he bellows toward the house like he owns the place.
00:27:02Officer Wyatt,
00:27:03don't hide in there.
00:27:05My son Austin may be in prison,
00:27:07but he still has parental rights.
00:27:09That maybe is part of our family.
00:27:11And you're not taking our grandchild anywhere.
00:27:13The sleazy lawyer beside him adjusts his glasses and smirks coldly.
00:27:21If Miss Yight refuses to drop the charges,
00:27:23we're fully prepared to drag this through family court for years.
00:27:26And trust me,
00:27:27once the media gets involved,
00:27:28everybody in Texas is going to know exactly what happened to your daughter.
00:27:35Then Mayabelle Walker,
00:27:37my former grandmother,
00:27:38blows out a stream of cigarette smoke
00:27:40and starts screeching at the house.
00:27:42You go testify in federal court,
00:27:45and we'll swear Valerie wanted it.
00:27:47We'll tell everyone you cops framed our son.
00:27:53We'll make damn sure every police department in Texas
00:27:56knows what kind of girl your daughter really is.
00:28:00You think those badges are going to survive this?
00:28:04We'll ruin your whole family!
00:28:09The police had kept the details of that night sealed tightly.
00:28:13Nobody in town knew what Valerie had actually suffered in the dark.
00:28:17But now,
00:28:18these two shameless monsters are ripping open her deepest traumata in public
00:28:21just to save their worthless son from federal prison.
00:28:24They stand outside with a damn megaphone,
00:28:26turning a survivor's private nightmare into some sick public spectacle
00:28:30about protecting the family bloodline.
00:28:32Before long,
00:28:33the whole town knows.
00:28:34But they don't actually want the baby.
00:28:36That's never been the point.
00:28:37What they want is pressure.
00:28:40They want to weaponize this conservative little town.
00:28:43The gossip,
00:28:44the judgment,
00:28:45the victim blaming,
00:28:46until the Wyatts have nowhere left to run.
00:28:48And their terms are crystal clear.
00:28:51They want Valerie to change her testimony in federal court.
00:28:54They want her to claim Austin was just the driver
00:28:57and knew nothing about the attack.
00:28:59In exchange,
00:29:00the walkers will stop harassing the family and leave them alone.
00:29:04Hearing the whispers rising outside the fence.
00:29:07Seeing neighbors stare with that fake sympathy hiding disgust underneath.
00:29:13Everything suddenly clicks into place inside my head.
00:29:17Now I understand exactly how Austin got that early release in my previous life.
00:29:22There had been a deal.
00:29:24And Valerie had been crushed into accepting it.
00:29:26Looking at those two smug bastards standing outside our home acting righteous.
00:29:30Every ounce of humiliation from my previous life
00:29:32and every drop of rage from this one finally explodes inside me.
00:29:36To hell with staying calm.
00:29:37I grab grandpa's Louisville slugger from behind the front door
00:29:40and storm outside,
00:29:41gripping the bat so hard my knuckles go white.
00:29:43By then,
00:29:44all I can see is red.
00:30:00Right in front of everyone,
00:30:02I swing the bat.
00:30:03Crack, crack.
00:30:04The heavy end of the Louisville slugger smashes straight into Silas
00:30:06and Maybean's faces without a shred of hesitation.
00:30:09The sound of teeth breaking mixes with their screams
00:30:11as both of them stumble backward,
00:30:13clutching their bloody mouths before collapsing into the dirt.
00:30:15Your son is a convicted rapist!
00:30:18I point the bat directly at the two of them,
00:30:20shaking with rage.
00:30:21Where the hell was the talk about the La La when your psycho son
00:30:24was pointing a gun at federal officers?
00:30:26And now you want to come here and black rail cops?
00:30:30Gripping the bat with both hands,
00:30:32I swing as hard as I can into the lawyer's sedan parked by the curb.
00:30:35The windshield explodes instantly into a spider web of shattered glass.
00:30:39Then I whip around towards the neighbors gathering outside the fence,
00:30:42all of them whispering and staring.
00:30:44What are you all looking at?
00:30:46Anybody else wants to stand here screaming at a victim
00:30:48with these two pieces of trash?
00:30:50I raise the broken bat,
00:30:51splintered wood jouting from the barrel.
00:30:53I swear to God,
00:30:54the next swing straight goes through your skull.
00:30:57Get the hell away from the Wyatt house!
00:30:59All of you! Move!
00:31:00The hot border wind tears through the street.
00:31:03One look at the shattered bat in my hands is enough.
00:31:05The neighbors pale instantly and start backing away in fear.
00:31:08And then suddenly,
00:31:10Silas runges at me with a rusty switchblade in his hand.
00:31:13Drop the charges or I'll kill every last one of you!
00:31:18The gunshot detonates through the street like thunder.
00:31:21The bullet slices past Silas' ear
00:31:23and blasts apart one of the wooden fence posts behind him.
00:31:26Everyone freezes.
00:31:27Grandpa Rick stands there gripping a cold python revolver.
00:31:30The barrel pressed directly against Silas' forehead.
00:31:33His voice is low and deadly.
00:31:35Officer Miller's daughter took a knife from my family.
00:31:37You touch her again and see what happens.
00:31:40The ringing echo from the gunshot leaves everyone stunned.
00:31:44Silas drops the knife immediately.
00:31:46It clatters onto the dirt beside him as he collapses in terror.
00:31:52He's gonna kill us!
00:31:54The cops are trying to murder us!
00:31:56But before she can say another word,
00:31:58another figure comes flying down the porch steps.
00:32:00Grandma.
00:32:02She moves like lightning.
00:32:04Grabbing a fistful of Maybella's brittle yellow hair,
00:32:06she yanks her sideways so hard the old woman nearly falls.
00:32:10Slap!
00:32:11Grandma backhands her across the face hard enough to send her crashing into the dirt,
00:32:15then plants a boot against it to her chest.
00:32:17Her eyes are pure steel.
00:32:19You think you can threaten my daughter's name?
00:32:21I'll go to prison smiling before I let your family destroy her life.
00:32:25Now get the hell off my property before I bury all of you out in the desert myself.
00:32:30Rick cocks the revolver once,
00:32:32never taking his eyes off Silas.
00:32:34You assaulted my family.
00:32:35As a police officer, I have every right to arrest you right now.
00:32:38Next time, you won't walk away this lucky.
00:32:41Now get out.
00:32:43The sheer violence radiating off the two retired narcotics officers
00:32:46terrifies everyone into Silas.
00:32:48The gossiper neighbors scatter immediately.
00:32:51Silas and Maybella scramble to their feet and flee down the road like stray dogs.
00:32:55But then suddenly,
00:32:56Grandpa Rick doubles over coughing violently.
00:33:00Fresh blood begins soaking through the white bandages wrapped around his torso.
00:33:09Grandpa's stitches tear open again,
00:33:10so Grandma rushes him back to the hospital.
00:33:12I stay behind to take care of Valerie.
00:33:14Standing outside her bedroom door,
00:33:15I force myself to breathe through the panic crushing my chest.
00:33:17I wipe the tears and blood off my face over and over with my sleeve
00:33:19until my skin burns raw.
00:33:20I can't let Valerie see me falling apart.
00:33:22Right now, I have to be strong for her.
00:33:24I shove the bedroom door open and lock it tightly behind me,
00:33:27shutting out the chaos outside.
00:33:29Then I walk straight towards her bed.
00:33:31The second I see her sitting there,
00:33:33pale, hollow, motionless.
00:33:36Something inside me finally breaks completely.
00:33:41Valerie, let's leave.
00:33:42We can start over somewhere else.
00:33:45New York, California, anywhere.
00:33:47Please, just pack a bag and come with me, okay?
00:33:50I almost sound desperate.
00:33:52I grab her shoulders gently,
00:33:54trying to pull strength from the girl who,
00:33:56in another lifetime,
00:33:57would become my mother 19 years later.
00:34:00But Valerie never says a word.
00:34:02She just stays curled in the corner of the bed.
00:34:05The fading sunset filters through the blinds,
00:34:08strip by strip,
00:34:09dying slowly across her face.
00:34:10Then she finally lifts her head.
00:34:12And once again,
00:34:13she looks at me with those same shattered eyes.
00:34:16Empty,
00:34:17helpless,
00:34:18but still quietly begging someone to save her.
00:34:20Sight crushes my chest.
00:34:22For my entire previous life,
00:34:23I thought I had been born unwanted.
00:34:24But now I finally understand the truth.
00:34:26My birth was never love.
00:34:28It was a chain,
00:34:29a weapon crafted by a monster to trap my mother
00:34:31and destroy her family forever.
00:34:33I have never hated myself more than I do right now.
00:34:38Valerie, listen to me.
00:34:40This baby.
00:34:41Before I can finish,
00:34:42Valerie suddenly covers my mouth with her hand.
00:34:46I look up at her
00:34:49and suddenly the dam inside me completely breaks.
00:34:53Tears pour down my face
00:34:55as I collapse to my knees beside the bed.
00:34:57I pull her hand away from my mouth
00:34:59and finally scream out the truth
00:35:01that destroyed me for an entire lifetime.
00:35:04This baby is a stain that monster left on your life.
00:35:09You'll hate it forever.
00:35:12Every time you look at it,
00:35:13you'll remember him.
00:35:15You'll wish it had never been born.
00:35:19My voice cracks apart completely.
00:35:21It's better to end this now
00:35:23than let that child grow up trapped in pain and misery.
00:35:27I can barely breathe through the sobbing.
00:35:30No one can calmly beg their own mother
00:35:32to erase them from existence.
00:35:34But at that exact moment,
00:35:35Valerie,
00:35:36who has been sitting there lifeless and hollow this whole,
00:35:38whole time,
00:35:40suddenly trembles violently.
00:35:41It's like something inside her finally snaps awake.
00:35:44She bolts upright from the bed
00:35:46and throws her arms around me without warning,
00:35:49crushing me against her chest.
00:35:50She holds me so tightly
00:35:52her fingers dig painfully into my back.
00:35:54Hot tears spill onto my neck,
00:35:56burning against my skin.
00:35:57And then she completely breaks down.
00:36:00I never wanted you dead.
00:36:02Nora.
00:36:05Her voice is raw and shattered from crying.
00:36:09Not once!
00:36:10Not for a single second
00:36:12did I ever wish you were dead!
00:36:18That single sentence crashes through the room
00:36:20with the weight of two lifetimes behind it.
00:36:23Every ounce of pain,
00:36:25resentment,
00:36:26anger,
00:36:26and loneliness I carried inside me
00:36:28shatters instantly into dust.
00:36:31Because she called me Nora.
00:36:33Not Scarlet.
00:36:35Nora.
00:36:35In this timeline,
00:36:37nobody knows that name.
00:36:39Nobody except my mother from my previous life.
00:36:41I freeze in her arms,
00:36:43my mind going completely blank.
00:36:46She isn't just the 18-year-old Valerie
00:36:48who knows nothing about the future.
00:36:50She remembers too.
00:36:52In this broken,
00:36:54twisted timeline,
00:36:55and near my find,
00:36:57my mother was reborn alongside me.
00:37:00I know.
00:37:02My entire body shakes
00:37:04as I cling to her shoulder-her-shoulder
00:37:06like a lost child.
00:37:10I know I was never supposed to be born.
00:37:13You had every reason to hate me
00:37:15because of that monster.
00:37:17Valerie suddenly grabs my face with both hands
00:37:19and forces me to look at her through her tears.
00:37:22How could a mother ever hate her child?
00:37:24After two lifetimes,
00:37:26inside this old Texas house in 1996,
00:37:28she finally tears open the truth
00:37:30she buried for decades.
00:37:32And through uncontrollable sobbing,
00:37:34my mother finally tells me
00:37:35why she stood beside my hospital bed
00:37:37and watched me die in my previous life.
00:37:42The reason I couldn't donate bone marrow
00:37:44was because I had terminal cancer, too.
00:37:48I wasn't eligible to donate.
00:37:51I wasn't abandoning you, Nora.
00:37:53How could I ever abandon my own daughter?
00:37:57Outside,
00:37:58the winter wind screams across the Texas borderlands.
00:38:02But inside this cold little room,
00:38:04a mother and daughter separated by two lifetimes
00:38:07finally find each other again
00:38:09in the ruins of everything they lost.
00:38:12Valerie clutches me so tightly,
00:38:14she's shaking.
00:38:15I never gave on you, Nora.
00:38:17I begged everyone I could for help.
00:38:19I borrowed money from anybody willing to listen
00:38:21because I wanted to save you.
00:38:23Every word tears out of her throat
00:38:25like it physically hurts to say it.
00:38:27Your bastard father wouldn't pay a single dime.
00:38:29The ICU bills kept piling up every single day.
00:38:32The hospital kept mailing notices
00:38:33until my bowel box was overflowing.
00:38:35In the end,
00:38:36I sold every apartment
00:38:37and every piece of property I owned in Boston
00:38:39just to barely cover your medical bills.
00:38:41Then her breathing completely falls apart.
00:38:43And Austin,
00:38:44that monster wanted to pull your ventilator out himself
00:38:47back at the trailer park.
00:38:48He lied to you.
00:38:49He actually convinced you
00:38:51that I was the one who abandoned you.
00:38:52She cries so hard she can barely breathe anymore.
00:38:55Decades of humiliation and buried motherhood
00:38:57finally exploding out all at once.
00:38:58Back then,
00:38:59I left with Hector's mother
00:39:00to work in the city
00:39:01because I needed money.
00:39:02I was trying to build enough of a life
00:39:04to come back
00:39:04and take you away
00:39:05from that rotting border town.
00:39:07But the second I left,
00:39:08Austin cut off every possible way
00:39:10for me to contact you.
00:39:11He guarded the trailer park with a gun
00:39:13and wouldn't even let me get near you.
00:39:15The only thing I could do...
00:39:19Her voice breaks completely.
00:39:21...was stand outside your school
00:39:23at the beginning of every semester
00:39:25and watch you from across the street.
00:39:30I bite down so hard
00:39:32on my little lip
00:39:32I taste blood.
00:39:34My vision is completely blurred by tears.
00:39:37And finally,
00:39:39I understand everything.
00:39:42Back then,
00:39:43she was only 18.
00:39:45A girl who had survived something horrific
00:39:47whose mind was already hanging by a thread.
00:39:49There was no way
00:39:50she could go back to that monster.
00:39:52For her,
00:39:53every step towards that trailer cramp
00:39:55was like walking back into hell itself.
00:39:57But fate has always been cruel.
00:39:59By the time mom finally saved enough money
00:40:01and came back to fight for custody of me,
00:40:04Austin had already sensed something was coming.
00:40:06He grabbed me in the middle of the night
00:40:07and disappeared.
00:40:08And in the 1990s,
00:40:10before cell phones,
00:40:11databases,
00:40:12and internet tracking connected the world,
00:40:14we vanished into countless forgotten trailer parks
00:40:17scattered across America.
00:40:19She never found us again.
00:40:21Valerie cups my face with trembling hands.
00:40:28When you turned 18,
00:40:29you finally tracked down my private number.
00:40:32Her voice cracks apart.
00:40:34But by then,
00:40:36I'd already been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
00:40:40I didn't have much time left, Nora.
00:40:45Her tears mix with mine
00:40:47as they stream down our faces together.
00:40:49My body was falling apart day by day.
00:40:52I didn't want to drag you into that.
00:40:53I couldn't bear the thought of you
00:40:55watching me die in a hospital bed
00:40:57or inheriting all my debt after I was gone.
00:41:00That's why I acted cold on the phone.
00:41:02That's why I pretended I didn't know you.
00:41:04Everything inside my head goes completely blank.
00:41:10The mother I spent my whole life hating
00:41:12never abandoned me.
00:41:14Not once.
00:41:15With a body and soul shattered by a monster,
00:41:18she still fought through the filled and hopelessness
00:41:20of the 1990s with everything she had left.
00:41:23Just to keep loving me.
00:41:25We cling to each other in that dark little room
00:41:27and cry until there are no tears left.
00:41:29Finally,
00:41:30I wipe my face hard
00:41:32and force myself to look straight into her eyes.
00:41:35Mom,
00:41:36if we've really both been given another chance,
00:41:39then don't let me become your chains all over again.
00:41:42We can still fix this.
00:41:44We'll go to the hospital.
00:41:45Without me,
00:41:46you can finally live your own life.
00:41:47Valerie instantly shakes her head in panic.
00:41:50Stop!
00:41:50Don't say that!
00:41:51I can't do it!
00:41:53Nora!
00:41:53You are part of me!
00:41:54I will never let you go!
00:41:57She covers her face,
00:41:59crying uncontrollably.
00:42:00And seeing the pain and determination in her eyes,
00:42:03I can't force her anymore.
00:42:04The sunset over the Texas border paints the entire sky blood-red.
00:42:09Hot wind rolls through the yard,
00:42:11carrying dust and dry heat
00:42:12that makes my chest tighten with unease.
00:42:15Grandpa fires up the smoker in the backyard
00:42:17using a stash of oak wood he's been saving for years.
00:42:20Before long,
00:42:20the air fills with the smell of smoked brisket and ribs.
00:42:23Grandma and I spend the entire afternoon preparing dinner,
00:42:25wanting to give Mom,
00:42:26the girl who suffered so much in this timeline,
00:42:28the happiest 18th birthday possible.
00:42:29But just as Grandma wipes her hands clean
00:42:31and starts heading inside to call Valerie at a dinner...
00:42:42Officer Wyatt,
00:42:43we've got a problem.
00:42:44Austin escaped during transport to federal prison.
00:42:47He killed two federal marshals and stole a shotgun.
00:42:50Dispatch intercepted a report ten minutes ago.
00:42:52He's heading straight for town in a stolen pickup truck.
00:42:54The second I hear Austin's name,
00:42:56rage destinates inside my body.
00:42:58Every ounce of blood in my veins
00:43:00feels like it catches fire.
00:43:02He's coming here for revenge!
00:43:09That monster ruined my mother once already.
00:43:12Why the hell should he get another chance
00:43:14to destroy her life?
00:43:21While Grandpa and Grandma
00:43:22rush back inside in Scotch
00:43:24to grab their Remingston Shoe Duns,
00:43:26I move first.
00:43:34Without hesitation,
00:43:35I snatch up the heavy cleaver
00:43:37sitting beside the cutting board
00:43:38in the kitchen.
00:43:48I don't even look back at the house.
00:43:51Eyes burning red with hatred,
00:43:52I run straight into the blood-colored Texas dusk.
00:43:56Austin.
00:43:56Even if this drags my soul straight into hell,
00:43:59this time,
00:44:00I'm going to kill you myself.
00:44:06Night falls fast near the border.
00:44:09Freezing wind filled with sand
00:44:11cuts across my face like blades.
00:44:14I crouch silently in the shadows near the edge of the neighborhood,
00:44:18my palms slick with sweat around the handle of the clemver.
00:44:22But no matter how long I wait,
00:44:25Austin never appears.
00:44:27Then around midnight,
00:44:28a horrible instinct suddenly clenches around my heart.
00:44:32Valerie should have returned from the clinic hours ago,
00:44:34but she still isn't home.
00:44:36Headlights suddenly tear through the darkness.
00:44:39Grandpa's old pickup truck skids to a stop beside me.
00:44:42Scarlet, get in!
00:44:48Grandma and Grandpa both look pale with fear,
00:44:51gripping loaded Remington shoot guns tightly in their hands.
00:44:55We immediately start tracking tire marks
00:44:57and crushed brush along the bide side.
00:45:01Following every sign we can find,
00:45:04the search leads us all the way to the edge of town.
00:45:06Then the pickup engine dies.
00:45:08Silence.
00:45:09Nothing but cold desert wind and darkness.
00:45:11In front of us sits an abandoned trailer park
00:45:14that's been empty for years.
00:45:15We split up to search for Valerie.
00:45:17Let go of me! You're insane! Let me go!
00:45:21Let go of me! You're insane! Let me go!
00:45:26My mind goes blank.
00:45:29I know instantly there's no time to turn back for Grandpa.
00:45:33So I run toward Valerie's screams alone.
00:45:37But somewhere during those few desperate seconds.
00:45:40Hearing my mother crying inside that trailer.
00:45:45Something strange happens.
00:45:48The panic inside my head suddenly disappears.
00:45:51Something strange happens.
00:45:53The panic inside my head suddenly disappears.
00:45:55Completely.
00:45:56As I sprint through the freezing dark,
00:45:58I grip the heavy meat cleaver hidden beneath my coat so tightly my hand aches.
00:46:02My palm is slipped with sweat.
00:46:04But my eyes hold no fear anymore.
00:46:06Only calm.
00:46:08And certainty.
00:46:09In that moment, I finally understand why I came back to this world.
00:46:13I wasn't reborn to keep living as that monster's unwanted child.
00:46:16I crossed 28 years of time for one reason only.
00:46:20To set my mother free.
00:46:21Even if it cost the life I was never supposed to have in the first place.
00:46:25I stare at the battered trailer door glowing faintly under the moonlight.
00:46:30And I never slow down for even a second.
00:46:33You sick bastard!
00:46:35Die!
00:46:39Without hesitation, I slam my foot into the flimsy aluminum trailer door.
00:46:45Using the momentum, I throw myself straight at Austin from behind.
00:46:49Under the pale moonlight, I raise the heavy cleaver high over my head
00:46:53and bring it down with every ounce of hatred from both lifetimes behind it.
00:46:59Austin lets out an animalistic scream,
00:47:02but I underestimated what kind of monster he really is.
00:47:07I'm gonna rip you apart!
00:47:10A man who survived years of cartel violence along the border doesn't go down easily.
00:47:15The pain only drives him insane.
00:47:18But before I can swing again,
00:47:20agony shoots through my arm like the bone is about to snap.
00:47:24I'm gonna kill you!
00:47:26The clever is ripped out of my hands instantly.
00:47:30Clang!
00:47:30The weapon crashes to the floor as Austin slams me hard against the ground inside the trailer.
00:47:38Under the dim moonlight leaking through the broken trailer walls,
00:47:41Austin finally sees my face clearly.
00:47:47You little bitch again.
00:47:50You just keep ruining everything!
00:47:53He roars hysterically and raises the clember over his head.
00:47:56Then it comes down.
00:47:57Again.
00:47:58And again.
00:47:59The blade flashes silver through the cramped trailer.
00:48:03Each strike tears violently into my stomach and chest without mercy.
00:48:12Warm blood immediately floods from my mouth, soaking my clothes.
00:48:18And strangely, I can't feel pain anymore.
00:48:25My mind is terrifyingly clear.
00:48:28Only one thought keeps screaming inside my head.
00:48:31Don't let him go.
00:48:32Don't let him get to Valerie.
00:48:34No!
00:48:35Please!
00:48:36Please!
00:48:36Stop!
00:48:37Let her go!
00:48:40No!
00:48:43Please stop!
00:48:52And the second I see him turning toward my mother again,
00:48:55something inside me snaps,
00:48:57using every last ounce of strength from both my lives.
00:49:00I throw myself onto him from behind
00:49:03and lock my arms around his body like a steel trap.
00:49:15No matter how violently he punches me,
00:49:19no matter how many times the blade carves into my flesh,
00:49:22I grit my teeth so hard I taste blood and hold on anyway.
00:49:27Even as blood pours from my mouth,
00:49:29I use my dying body weight to keep him pinned in place.
00:49:33You want to hurt her?
00:49:36Then you'll have to cut me into pieces first.
00:49:40Then you'll have to cut me into pieces first!
00:49:41Then you'll have to cut me into pieces first!
00:49:43A deafening shotgun blast erupts through the trailer.
00:49:47Austin!
00:49:49Blinding police spotlights flood the darkness
00:49:51as Grandpa storms inside, roaring.
00:49:54The blast tears straight through Austin's skull.
00:49:57The impact stops the monster cold.
00:50:00His body jerks violently before collapsing to the floor like dead weight.
00:50:04Scarlet!
00:50:05Finally, the demon falls silent,
00:50:07and with the last bit of life draining from my body,
00:50:10I collapse into the blood beside him.
00:50:17Scarlet!
00:50:18Scarlet!
00:50:22Scarlet, wake up!
00:50:24Please!
00:50:25Mom's begging you, please wake up!
00:50:29My mother's screams tear through the freezing Texas night.
00:50:33Raw.
00:50:34Desperate.
00:50:35Sharp enough to rip the sky apart.
00:50:37I want to lift my hand.
00:50:39Wipe the blood off her face,
00:50:41like I always do.
00:50:42Pull her into my arms one last time.
00:50:44But my arm feels filled with concrete.
00:50:46My body is getting colder by the second,
00:50:48and the voices around me sound farther and farther away,
00:50:51like they're trapped beneath deep water.
00:50:53The whole world is slowly drifting out of reach.
00:50:55I lie there helplessly in the cold, moldy blood
00:50:57pooling across the floor of the abandoned trailer.
00:51:00I see Grandpa and Grandma rushing toward me.
00:51:03Grandpa's hands,
00:51:05the same steady hands that held a gun his entire life
00:51:08without trembling once.
00:51:09He presses so hard his knuckles turn white,
00:51:12but the blood still keeps pouring through his fingers.
00:51:15Grandma collapses beside me,
00:51:18covering her mouth as sobs wreck her body.
00:51:22The whole world is slowly drifting out of reach.
00:51:26I know then,
00:51:28I'm never gonna wake up again.
00:51:32That monster who haunts both of my lives,
00:51:35like a curse carved into my bones.
00:51:39Austin Walker is finally killed that night
00:51:41by Grandpa's shotgun.
00:51:43The blast tears straight through his head.
00:51:45His blood,
00:51:46his violence,
00:51:47his evil.
00:51:48All of it splatter across the rusted trailer walls
00:51:51and sinks into the mud of the Texas borderlands.
00:51:54Justice comes late.
00:51:55The law never even gets the chance to put him on death row.
00:51:58Fate beats it to the punch.
00:51:59Brutal, bloody,
00:52:00and absolute.
00:52:02After two lifetimes of suffering,
00:52:03the debt is finally paid.
00:52:05But the devil's death doesn't bring life back to our family.
00:52:09A few days later,
00:52:09an unusual storm rolls across the border.
00:52:12Cold rain mixes with sand and dirt,
00:52:14turning the whole town gray,
00:52:15muddy,
00:52:15and bitterly cold,
00:52:16as if the sky itself is mourning everything we've lost.
00:52:19The Wyatt house falls silent.
00:52:20The kitchen that once smells of barbecue and fresh coffee never lights up again.
00:52:24Valerie becomes a ghost.
00:52:26She barely speaks.
00:52:28Barely moves.
00:52:29Like someone winds her up once,
00:52:31and then forgets to do it again.
00:52:33Late one night,
00:52:34after the rain finally stops,
00:52:36she stumbles into my room alone.
00:52:38Dust has already settled across everything I leave behind.
00:52:40With trembling hands,
00:52:42she folds my faded jeans,
00:52:44picks up my unfinished notebooks,
00:52:46smooths out the wrinkles in the blanket on my bed.
00:52:48And the moment her fingers touch those cold sheets,
00:52:51the ones that will never hold my warmth again,
00:52:53something inside her finally breaks.
00:52:56Tears hit the hardwood floor one after another.
00:52:58Soft.
00:52:59Heavy.
00:53:01Nora?
00:53:01Can mom come find you in heaven?
00:53:07Valerie drops to her knees beside the bed.
00:53:09She buries her pale face deep into my old pillow,
00:53:13the one I never get around to washing.
00:53:15There's still the faint smell of cheap shampoo lingering in the fabric,
00:53:19the last trace of her daughter left in this world.
00:53:22She clutches the sheets so tightly her fingers cramp,
00:53:26crying like a child who loses everything in the middle of the desert.
00:53:31The news of the border shooting reaches Boston overnight.
00:53:35Hector and his mother immediately cancel everything
00:53:38and drive back to Texas.
00:53:41Neither of them asks questions.
00:53:44They simply stay beside my grandparents
00:53:46and help them hold themselves together
00:53:48long enough to bury me.
00:53:51The funeral is held in the little cemetery outside town.
00:53:56For once, there is no sandstorm.
00:53:59White roses cover my grave.
00:54:02Hector stands at the very back of the crowd.
00:54:04The boy who once looked so calm and untouchable
00:54:08now has eyes darkened with grief and rage.
00:54:12He stares at the photo on my headstone,
00:54:14my 18-year-old smile frozen forever in time,
00:54:18and clenches his fists so hard his knuckles turn pale.
00:54:24After the funeral, the atmosphere inside the Wyatt house feels suffocating.
00:54:29Grandpa and Grandma sit silently at the dinner table,
00:54:32exhaustion and grief etched into every line on their faces.
00:54:37Hector sits alone on the old bench near the living room window,
00:54:40staring out at the empty Texas highway.
00:54:42He struggles with himself for a long time
00:54:44before finally standing and walking over to Valerie.
00:54:46He crouches down in front of her carefully,
00:54:49like he's afraid she might shitter if he moves too fast.
00:54:56Valerie, come with us.
00:54:58Leave this place behind.
00:55:00We can start over somewhere else.
00:55:03Okay?
00:55:03His voice is barely above a whisper.
00:55:06He doesn't even dare touch her.
00:55:08He just looks at her with quiet heartbreak in his eyes.
00:55:11Valerie doesn't answer.
00:55:12She sits there in the shadows,
00:55:14clutching my faded denim jacket against her chest
00:55:17like it's the last oxygen left in the world.
00:55:21That night,
00:55:22after everyone finally falls asleep from sheer exhaustion,
00:55:26the old house sinks into silence.
00:55:34And Valerie wanders back into my room again.
00:55:52She doesn't turn on the lights.
00:55:54In a room without me,
00:55:55even the light feels like a mockery.
00:56:02She kneels alone on the cold floor,
00:56:05organizing my belongings one piece at a time
00:56:07under the pale moonlight coming through the window.
00:56:17My textbooks full of notes.
00:56:22My eraser's worn down to almost nothing.
00:56:25Then finally,
00:56:28my old backpack.
00:56:29The cheap one with frayed edges and fading fabric.
00:56:33She pulls it into her arms and buries her face against it,
00:56:37breathing in what little remains of my scent.
00:56:43Then her hand brushes against something hidden deep inside the torn inner lining.
00:56:56Paper.
00:56:57A folded envelope slips loose and falls softly into her lap.
00:57:01On the front is only one word.
00:57:05Those are the words I want to say across two lifetimes.
00:57:09The words I never managed to say out loud before I die.
00:57:20Valerie freezes.
00:57:21Her whole body stiffens as her trembling fingers slowly tear the envelope open.
00:57:27She's shaking so badly,
00:57:29her fingernail slices the edge of the paper and draws blood,
00:57:33but she doesn't even notice.
00:57:35Then she sees the first line.
00:57:37And the moment she reads the name buried deepest inside her heart,
00:57:46her breathing stops.
00:57:54Mom,
00:57:56if you're reading this,
00:57:58I'm probably already gone.
00:58:05Don't cry for me.
00:58:09From the first day I came back to this timeline,
00:58:12I already make up my mind.
00:58:15I'm going to trade my life for your freedom.
00:58:21Under the moonlight,
00:58:23Valerie's eyes instantly turn red.
00:58:26She covers her mouth tightly
00:58:27to stop herself from sobbing out loud
00:58:30and keeps reading.
00:58:34During those 28 filthy years in my first life,
00:58:38I hated you so much sometimes.
00:58:41Living in that moldy trailer park,
00:58:43I wonder every day why everyone else has a loving mom except me.
00:58:47Why you left me alone in hell.
00:58:49But in this life,
00:58:50I finally learned the truth.
00:58:51My mother loves me more than anyone ever could.
00:58:55You burn your whole life away trying to protect me.
00:58:58And honestly,
00:58:59mom,
00:59:00being loved by you like that is already enough.
00:59:02You're brilliant.
00:59:04Beautiful.
00:59:06Grandpa and grandma love you so much.
00:59:09Hector's mom once says you're meant to soar high above the clouds.
00:59:12Not rot away in border town dirt because some rapist destroys your life.
00:59:17Please let me go,
00:59:18mom.
00:59:18Don't give birth to me again.
00:59:20As long as the name Nora exists,
00:59:22Austin Walker's shadow will always haunt you.
00:59:24This time don't look back.
00:59:26Promise me.
00:59:27Go somewhere cleaner.
00:59:28Higher.
00:59:29Better.
00:59:30Go live the life you're supposed to have.
00:59:32Be free.
00:59:34By the end of the letter,
00:59:35Valerie has completely collapsed onto the floor.
00:59:37She presses those pages against her chest
00:59:40like they're the last pieces of my heartbeat left in the world
00:59:42and cries so hard she can barely breathe.
00:59:45Curled up beside the bed in the darkness,
00:59:47she breaks apart completely.
00:59:49And in that winter night of 1996,
00:59:52in a world without her daughter,
00:59:55my mother lets out the most shattered,
00:59:58guilt-rading,
00:59:59heartbroken sobs of both our lifetimes.
01:00:05That night,
01:00:06the Texas winter wind howls so hard
01:00:08it nearly tears the old wooden house apart.
01:00:12Valerie clutches my letter against her chest
01:00:15and cries until her voice gives up.
01:00:20In that letter,
01:00:21I beg her to let me go,
01:00:23beg her not to look back,
01:00:24beg her to chase her dreams
01:00:26and finally become the free person she deserves to be.
01:00:30But staring into my empty room,
01:00:32something reignites in her hollow,
01:00:34lifeless eyes.
01:00:37a fire,
01:00:39a stubbornness stronger than grief itself.
01:00:44Valerie whispers hoskily into the darkness.
01:00:48You silly girl.
01:00:51How could a mother ever stop loving her child?
01:00:54She can't do what I ask.
01:00:58Because she had already told me once before,
01:01:02I will never let you go.
01:01:06You are part of my body,
01:01:09part of my life.
01:01:12A few days later,
01:01:14Hector and his mother
01:01:15help my exhausted grandparents
01:01:18finish arranging everything.
01:01:28Then carrying unbearable grief with them,
01:01:31the entire family leaves Texas for Boston.
01:01:41The day the bus pulls away,
01:01:43kicking up yellow dust behind it,
01:01:47Valerie stands by the window
01:01:49and takes a deep breath of cold New England air.
01:01:55This time,
01:01:56she isn't running as a victim buried under shame.
01:02:00This time,
01:02:01she's a mother determined to rewrite fate itself
01:02:04and bring her daughter back into the world
01:02:07with every ounce of love she has.
01:02:12Time moves quickly beneath Boston's blue skies.
01:02:17Valerie throws every ounce of grief and pain into study.
01:02:24Fueled by the determination of two lifetimes,
01:02:27she works through endless nights
01:02:29until she's accepted into Harvard
01:02:32with near-perfect scores.
01:02:36And Hector,
01:02:37the boy who once cries for me
01:02:38at that Texas bus station,
01:02:41finally achieved his own dream too.
01:02:45Earning a place at one of the country's top medical schools.
01:02:50Textbooks become Valerie's shelter
01:02:52and the child growing inside her.
01:02:55The child once used by monsters as blackmail
01:02:58is finally being nurtured in warmth and love.
01:03:02The following autumn,
01:03:04beneath golden maple leaves
01:03:06and the bright lights of a Boston maternity room,
01:03:09a baby girl enters the world
01:03:11with a loud, healthy cry.
01:03:14Valerie lies exhausted against the hospital bed,
01:03:17tears blurring her vision
01:03:18as she smiles wider than she ever has before.
01:03:21With trembling arms,
01:03:23she holds the tiny newborn against her chest
01:03:25and kisses her forehead gently.
01:03:28Noah,
01:03:30welcome to the world, baby.
01:03:32This time,
01:03:33there's no moldy trailer park,
01:03:34no violence,
01:03:36no shadow left behind by monsters.
01:03:38Sunlight pours through the hospital windows
01:03:40onto a warm nursery crib.
01:03:42Grandpa and Grandma show up crying
01:03:44and carrying brand new Barbie dolls.
01:03:46Hector adjusts his glasses
01:03:48and smiles softly beside him.
01:03:50And this version of Nora
01:03:52is finally born into life.
01:03:56After that,
01:03:58life slowly finds its way
01:03:59onto the right path.
01:04:01Without the suffering
01:04:01and burdens of the first timeline,
01:04:04Valerie and Hector
01:04:05both reach the futures
01:04:06they are always meant to have.
01:04:08Hector becomes one of the country's
01:04:10leading surgeons,
01:04:11saving countless lives.
01:04:12Valera becomes a legendary attorney
01:04:16known across America,
01:04:18dedicating her career
01:04:19to protecting women and children
01:04:21through civil rights law.
01:04:23And the new Nora
01:04:24grows up beneath Harvard's
01:04:26golden autumn trees,
01:04:27surrounded by love
01:04:28instead of fear.
01:04:30She is bright,
01:04:31confident,
01:04:33happy.
01:04:35The cancer that once destroys my body
01:04:39never appears in her arms.
01:04:44As little Nora grows up,
01:04:47she watches Valerie and Hector
01:04:49eventually fall in love
01:04:50and build a quiet,
01:04:51beautiful family together.
01:04:53Their life isn't glamorous,
01:04:55but the love they give her
01:04:57overflows far beyond
01:04:58what most families
01:05:00could ever offer.
01:05:01And somewhere inside
01:05:02the golden evening light,
01:05:04the version of me
01:05:05that crosses time itself,
01:05:07the wandering soul
01:05:08carried away by the wind,
01:05:10finally smiles.
01:05:12At the end of her autobiography,
01:05:14my mother writes
01:05:14one final dedication.
01:05:17Every achievement
01:05:18and honor in my life
01:05:19belongs to a girl named Nora.
01:05:21My daughter once tears open
01:05:23the darkness with her own life,
01:05:25and I spend the rest of mine
01:05:26bringing her back into the light.
01:05:28I lean quietly against
01:05:30my mother's knee
01:05:30in that final memory
01:05:32and whisper softly
01:05:33in her heart,
01:05:35Mom,
01:05:37this time,
01:05:38you get everything right.
01:05:39And at last,
01:05:40those two wounded souls
01:05:41walk hand in hand
01:05:43towards the endless stars
01:05:44waiting beyond the clouds.
01:05:45kids,
01:05:45So,
01:05:46let's do it
01:05:46and thank you so much,
01:05:47Let's do it online undefense
01:05:47Because you
01:05:49are the children
01:05:49can
01:05:49you?
01:05:49Or say,
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