From Teen Dad to Second Chance: After Rebirth, I Refuse

My girlfriend, Camille Chaney, gets pregnant right before the college entrance exam starts.

In my previous life, I gave up on my college entrance exam and married Camille. We had a son together.

Life might be nitty-gritty, but it was still rather fulfilling for me.

When I was on my deathbed, Camille and her first love, Howard Salter, dropped by to visit me.

"Thank you for raising our son for more than 20 years. Now, you may die in peace."

Camille pulled the plug on my life support at that moment. She watched as I slowly suffocated to death.

When I open my eyes again, I find out that I've returned to the timeframe when the college entrance exam is about to take place.

This time, I slam the door shut in Camille's face when I hear her asking me to take responsibility for her pregnancy.

"Go find someone else to play house with you. I'm not interested in becoming a father at all."

Chapter 1

Camille Chaney brushed off my cold words and stepped forward, blocking the doorway.

But I was faster. The door slammed shut and caught her hand hard.

She screamed, and I released it on instinct.

She seized the moment and forced her way in, pointing straight at my nose and shouting, "Dexter Revell! Are you insane? You crushed my hand!"

She came from a rural background, but after we started seeing each other, I took over all the hard work at her family's home.

Years without labor had left her hands soft, like a city woman's, without a trace of calluses. I saw her knuckles crushed red by the door and felt nothing.

The pain of suffocating to death in my previous life still felt like yesterday. I was holding myself back from stepping forward and choking her. That was already considered emotionally stable to me.

I stayed silent, and Camille's anger spiked.

"Did you lose your voice? I told you I'm pregnant. Do you know what that means? Go to my family and make it official now. If my belly starts showing and people find out, how am I supposed to live with that?"

She'd said the same thing in my last life.

Back then, we were already engaged, but her father died unexpectedly. She said she had to mourn, so she delayed the wedding.

I didn't think much about it at the time. A path to college had finally opened up again, so I figured I'd give it a try. If I got in, maybe I'd land a decent job, and life might turn out better down the road.

I didn't expect Camille to get pregnant before any acceptance letter arrived.

I honestly couldn't remember which night it had happened, but I decided I wasn't going to walk away from it. So I gave up my chance to go to college and married her.

A few months after we married, Camille gave birth to a son. We were already scraping by, and it only got worse. I worked myself to exhaustion to support her and the child.

It wasn't until opportunities opened up and I started working in the city that things began to improve.

Still, Camille complained almost every day.

"Just look at you. Half your life's gone, and all you are is the head of some little factory. Look at the principals and teachers. They're the ones folks respect. And then there's you, looking like a beggar."

I didn't think much of it at the time. Our marriage had never been about love. It was arranged from the start, and there wasn't much feeling in it.

Given enough time, her complaints were bound to surface. What I didn't see then was that she'd already put it in my face that Howard Salter was the one she really wanted.

He was the school principal whom she called respectable.

After his wife died, he lived alone and vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to education. Everyone praised him for it, and even I felt a trace of admiration.

I didn't learn until much later that he'd taken my place at the college. He also carried on a secret affair with Camille for decades, had her deceive me, and saw to it that their son inherited my factory.

Once every bit of value I had left was wrung out of me, they had me killed.

I still recalled when she came to the hospital to see me while I was dying, something she rarely did.

Her face, smoothed and tightened by who knew how many procedures, didn't show a flicker of emotion. Her voice was even colder.

"There was never much between us. But you spent decades helping Howard raise my son, so I guess I should thank you. Once you're dead, Howard will bring us home, and I'll be the principal's wife."

She reached over and yanked out my oxygen tube.

As my breathing failed, the last thing I saw was the malice in her eyes.

The memory ended there. I looked at Camille standing in front of me, took a deep breath, and forced the anger down.

"I'm about to leave for college. This marriage was just something our parents arranged, and it can be called off anytime."

I finished and shoved her right out the door. I didn't give an inch, no matter how much she shouted or cursed.

This time, I wasn't going to let her ruin my life.

Chapter 2

I lay awake the entire night.

The place around me felt strange and familiar at once. There were no electronics here, not even a light.

At first light, when the horizon was only starting to pale, roosters crowed outside. Everyone rolled out of bed to get ready for the fields, and I forced myself up, too.

If I could make it through this stretch, I'd be approved to switch to an urban status. This time, I was going to change my life.

I'd been swinging the hoe nonstop when the village head, Greg Nixon, suddenly showed up at the field with a group of people.

"Dexter, Bertha came to me today and said you're suddenly backing out of the engagement. Camille cried at home all night. Weren't you two engaged a long time ago? I was there myself as a witness.

"What's going on now? You owe her an explanation, don't you?"

People nearby picked it up and closed in with their own advice.

"You're both young. Couples fight and make up. Nothing can't be settled by talking."

"That's right. You're still young. Once you're married, you'll get used to it."

"Listen. With your family situation, it's not gonna be easy to find a wife. Put up with what you can and don't do anything rash."

That part was true.

Mom and Dad were dead, and I had no siblings to lean on. In my previous life, I thought marrying at all was more than a guy like me could ask for, and I didn't get to be picky.

The decades I later spent with Camille proved the opposite. Coming from a family like mine meant there were fewer conflicts. That was likely why she stayed.

Every dollar I earned passed through her hands. Any money I spent had to be cleared with her, while she spent her time eating out, drinking, and enjoying herself.

Even when I was sick enough to be hospitalized, she was the one who chose where I went.

By the time I finally saw it for what it was, it was already too late.

That thought finally snapped something in me, and I threw the hoe down.

"It was her family who pushed for the engagement in the first place. She took the gold ring my grandma left behind, and she had me working over at her house every day. My conscience is clear.

"What explanation do I owe anyone?"

Mr. Nixon frowned. "You've had a few years of schooling. How can you have no sense of responsibility?"

I didn't bother saying anything else. I shouldered the hoe and stepped away.

Unexpectedly, Camille and her mother, Bertha Hurst, came rushing over from across the road.

Bertha rolled up her sleeves, baring her arms like she was ready to come at me. It was nothing like the gentle, kindly face she used to show when I worked in her house.

"Cut the bullshit! Your father already agreed to this engagement, so anything we took was ours by right! You got Cammy pregnant, and now you think you can walk away?

"If you don't give me an answer today, I'll take this straight to your college!"

I couldn't help frowning. I hadn't planned to make Camille's pregnancy public. Even if her reputation didn't matter, my own did.

I thought I'd made my position clear enough that she'd know where the line was and keep things from blowing up. I didn't expect it to get turned around and thrown back at me.

In my previous life, Bertha had always lived in the countryside, so I never knew whether she was aware of what was going on between Camille and Howard.

But being stuck raising someone else's child was something I would never do again.

"Her pregnancy has nothing to do with me. The child isn't mine!"

In times like these, having a child out of wedlock was enough to ruin someone's name. And on top of that, I was Camille's fiance, but I wasn't the child's father.

Bertha froze, clearly stunned, like she had no idea what was really going on. She flung Camille's hand aside and charged straight at me.

"You're still slandering Cammy? If it's not yours, then whose is it supposed to be? Cammy barely ever left the house. She hardly even spoke to other men. You were the one coming over to my place every day!

"I used to think you were decent. I never thought you'd take advantage of Cammy while I was away at my parents' place, and now you're still denying it! Are you even human?"

She cursed nonstop as she lunged at me, scratching and swinging, looking completely unhinged.

The people around us stared, half shocked and half curious, but they still stepped in and dragged her back.

"Hey, hey, let's talk this through. Everyone's here. It's not like this can't be settled."

"Dexter, everyone knows about you and Camille. If her dad hadn't died so early, we'd probably already be drinking at your wedding. If you screwed up, then admit it. You're about to be husband and wife anyway. It's not a big deal."

"That's right. You don't get to sleep with her and then pretend it didn't happen. If you do, I'll set you straight for your father!"

At a moment like this, there was no point trying to argue back. I was outnumbered.

I looked over at Camille, standing off to the side with her head down, making herself as small as possible. She clutched the hem of her clothes, looking like she'd been deeply wronged.

I spoke. "Say it. Whose child are you carrying?"

Camille looked up, disbelief filling her eyes.

When she spoke, her voice was already shaking with tears. "What do you mean? The child's obviously yours. I've never been with any other man. Don't you remember that day when my mom wasn't home?

"Y-you slipped into my room Even if you don't want to take responsibility, you can't slander me like this!"

That day, I helped Camille's family carry water. I was heading into the city in a few days for the college entrance exam, so I brought some food along and dropped it off.

She said Bertha had gone back to her parents' place, and she was scared to be home alone, so she asked me to stay with her.

Around that time, wild boars were coming down from the mountains, wrecking crops and even running into villagers' homes. I didn't think much of it and slept in the room next door.

That night, something was off. I was exhausted in a way I couldn't explain.

When I woke up the next morning, Camille was naked, curled up in my arms. I instinctively thought I'd done something wrong and slapped myself hard, twice.

After that, she came to me and said she was pregnant.

In my previous life, Camille gave birth a little over eight months in, and I always thought it was because she'd been malnourished.

I got up early every day to work the fields, and I went into the mountains at night to hunt, all to give her better food. Only later did I find out the baby hadn't been premature at all.

She was already over two months along. The moment she figured it out, she set me up and made me take the fall.

I was still trying to figure out how to clear my own name when Mr. Nixon suddenly stepped forward.

"Dexter, I did see you go to her place a few days ago. And when I went by your house that night, you weren't home."

Chapter 3

I hadn't expected Mr. Nixon to say something like that. The moment he did, Camille's story was all but sealed.

Whispers rippled through the crowd at once, and a few people even started speaking up for Camille.

"What woman would joke about her own virginity? And Camille's always been kind. She wouldn't lie."

"Everyone's seen what's been going on between you and Camille. If you did it, then you need to admit it!"

"Our village won't put up with this. You two should pick a date and have the wedding."

In just a few sentences, I was standing alone.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a faint smile on Mr. Nixon's face. I suddenly remembered that he'd always been close with the Salters.

The Salters were from the city. Mr. Nixon said they weren't used to rural life, so he looked after them at every turn, and any kind of special treatment went to them first.

Mr. Nixon didn't think I'd make it through the college entrance exam. More than once, he'd told me to focus on the work and stop thinking about other things.

He wouldn't have brought it up out of nowhere if he didn't already know about Howard and Camille.

He'd probably taken some kind of payoff, which was why he showed up with a group to box me into confirming the accusation in public.

There was no way I could take on a whole group alone, especially when it was true I'd gone to Camille's place.

I almost laughed at the irony. If I'd really been given a second chance at life, why hadn't it come earlier, when I still had a way out?

With the crowd backing her, Camille broke into sobs and started threatening to kill herself. "I'm done living. It already happened, and Dexter still won't admit it. I should just jump into the river!"

Bertha panicked. "Cammy, don't say that. Don't worry. Today, I'll make sure he marries you!"

Camille put on a show, saying, "Dexter's about to head off to college. Do you honestly think he'll come back after he gets to the city? Mom, don't stop me. Let me die with the bastard inside me."

Bastard? I hadn't expected to hear that word from her.

In my past life, she didn't really take care of the child, but she did indulge him. For the most part, she gave him whatever he wanted.

She kept yelling that she wanted to die, but she didn't actually do anything. I even caught myself thinking about helping her along.

"Suit yourself. That kid isn't mine. Even if you abort it right now, it's still got nothing to do with me."

What I'd said hit a nerve with Bertha and Camille.

Bertha lunged at me, going straight for my face. "Everyone knows it's true, and you're still trying to deny it? You cold-hearted bastard! If you don't marry Cammy, I'll fight you to the death!"

Mr. Nixon blocked the villagers as they moved forward to pull us apart.

"What proof do you have that the kid isn't yours? Camille has all of us as witnesses. What do you have?"

I didn't even get a word out before a woman's voice cut in from the edge of the crowd, cold as ice.

"I can prove the baby she's carrying isn't Dexter's. It's Howard Salter's!"