8 Life Experience

Julian lead the way through the parking garage as I followed a few steps behind. I wasn't sure if my expectations really were just incredibly low after my past lives, but I almost couldn't believe this was happening. Julian and I were heading to our marital home together.

We approached a car I recognized as one of Julian's cars for personal use. I hesitated for a moment as Julian climbed into the front seat before heading for the passenger side. In every past life, I had been picked up by a private driver of the Leonhart's and taken to our residence. The differences in this lifetime were incredible. Showing a little backbone towards this devil really paid off!

I climbed in and buckled my seatbelt next to Julian. After a moment of no reaction, I turned to glance at him and found him staring.

I subconsciously leaned backward against the car door. Meeting those intense green eyes was too sudden.

"What?" My voice came out sounding nervous. Julian continued to stare before he faced forward and turned the car on, pulling out of the parking space. I thought he wasn't going to reply, but once we reached the busy city streets, he spoke.

"Do you feel better?"

I almost wasn't sure I had heard him at first. "Y-Yes." I felt my face flushing as he reminded me of last night. Julian's only response was a single nod.

I looked out the window and as Julian drove, my eyes passed across a familiar street sign. The memory of one of my past lives came to me and I jerked my eyes to the clock on the dash. It was only 9:31. I still had about twenty minutes. I let out a long sigh before I realized I had left my phone in the care of my mother when I had escaped to my wedding venue earlier yesterday.

"Julian?"

"Mm?"

"Could I borrow your phone?"

Julian was more focused on the road than on me. He idly pulled his phone from his pocket and passed it over. I swiped on the phone icon and began to dial for the police.

After about two rings, a police officer picked up.

"Hello, I'd like to report a suspicious person, I think he was carrying a gun."

I saw Julian's head jerk towards me in surprise out of the corner of my eye. I ignored him and gave the police officer the street address we had just passed.

In one of my past lives I had been killed by a random shooter while avoiding saying, "I do". I had only made it a day being unmarried to Julian in that life before I was killed. I sighed internally as I passed Julian his phone back. I wasn't there on that street anymore, so no one would be killed, but several people other than me had been injured. Usually I managed to contact the police before the shooting actually began so they could prevent it.

During those lifetimes I had run away from my marriage entirely, the longest I had managed to stay alive was about three months. God really didn't want me to live without this man in the car beside me. I could feel that cold-hearted bastard shooting me glances and finally turned to face him.

"What is it?"

"What was that about?"

I gave Julian an innocent smile. "I saw a suspicious man out the window, so I thought I'd call the police."

Julian didn't respond, just flattened his lips into a line. He must have realized the street address I gave was two block away from the road we had driven on. But that wasn't my problem. He could wonder all his wanted, he wouldn't figure out I had lived this life multiple times. Even if he figured out something absurd like that, I wouldn't have to worry. It was only if I told someone that they would think I was crazy.

There were only two people I had told about my reincarnation in my past lives: My mother and Padma.

Padma was an old woman I had met on one of my many travels during my eighteenth life. Not long after being introduced, she had looked at me and said, "Your soul looks tired." After that I told her about my many lives. Though neither of us were fluent in the other's language, she became sort of a second mother after that, always yelling at me to go home. I hadn't been able to visit her since that life, but I was sure I'd see her again some way or another.

My mother wasn't the type to believe in things like reincarnation, but whenever I told her in any of my past lives, she'd just stare at me and go, "Like that movie, 'Groundhog Day'?" I don't think she really ever understood what I was actually going through, but she tried.

Neither of them had ever called me crazy for saying things about dying so many times. In one life I had made the mistake of telling my high school friend about it, but she had nearly had me put away in a mental institution for being delusional. I might be a little off, but I wasn't crazy!

Before long the car had passed through the city and we were in the suburbs. We passed massive houses up away from the road, but none of them were as big as the home we were heading to. Opulent didn't even begin to cover it.

The Leonharts were grossly wealthy. They could have purchased my entire family's net worth hundreds of times over. Julian was the second eldest son and was in charge of a branch company the Leonhart family had given him to run. Though it was a branch company, these days it was doing almost as well as the main company run by Julian's father. The branch company Julian's younger brother ran was also doing well. The money and grandeur of the Leonhart's was spread far and wide.

It was no surprise when we pulled up to a large gate with the family crest emblazoned on it. The gate swung inward to reveal a long driveway leading away from the road. It took three minutes before we reached the end of it, where a magnificent house awaited us.

In every lifetime I could only shake my head at this kind of ridiculous use of monetary funds. I had worked during high school just to have some pocket money because my parents hadn't given me an allowance, but Julian was given a mansion because the company's stocks were up from last year.

Really, too ridiculous. And now I was part of this empire as well.