One

Vale Corin

The house before me was everything I'd dreamed and worked so hard to create.

But it wasn't mine. In fact, the dainty hand, trembling as I reached for the doorbell, hadn't had a part in making the Craftsman-style ranch house into a home. My soul did, though.

My finger pressed the button, then I waited, barely breathing, to see the achingly familiar face. My husband. But a man who wasn't my husband. Because Vale Corin, the woman I was now, had never been married to him.

What a twisted mess. But it had been my reality for the past five years.

Back then, I hadn't believed in walk ins, hadn't even known what that meant.

Until I became one.

Or maybe, it would be better to say, I'd swapped souls. When given the chance, I'd had to. How could I leave behind the man I loved more than life itself? Life itself? Yeah. Ironic. I know.

"Can I help you?" Dayton. I could barely breathe at seeing him after so long.

Holy crap, how had he turned into a god since I'd last seen him? A thermal shirt with the sleeves pushed up clung to his wide shoulders and flat belly and showed off muscled biceps and powerful forearms that he hadn't had before. He'd had a nice frame, but he'd never been built.

Studying him further, I noticedhis thick hair needed a trim and was as unruly as ever, now showing tiny streaks of gray at the temples. But his light blue eyes were the same, ever the same, showing the pureness of his soul, despite his confusion at my appearance on his doorstep.

"Hi. I… I'm, uh…" I weakly gestured over my shoulder. "I'm your new neighbor. Across the street. Um. Vale. Vale Corin."

"Oh." His chin lift acknowledged my introduction. "I… Welcome to the neighborhood. I didn't know the Johnsons were moving."

Neither had they until I'd made them a cash offer, coupled with an NDA, they couldn't refuse.

"I understand it was sudden," I explained.

"I suppose so. Never even saw a sign. I…um…" He trailed into silence. What could he say? There were millions of things I wanted to tell him. I had endless things to say. Starting with I love you. I never wanted to leave you. I wish I called in sick that day. I wish I hadn't blown off all those notes from my stalker and that I'd told someone.

I'd been murdered right in my workplace, behind locked security doors where I should have been safe. None of the cameras had recorded a thing, a supposed malfunction. The suspect had never been caught. And besides the killer, I was probably the only person in the world to know who murdered me—who'd murdered Melonie Windsor, anyway.

"Oh, sorry." He ran a hand through his wavy locks, sending them into even more of a disarray. "I'm, uh, Dayton Windsor. It's nice to meet you. Vale, you said?"

The complete lack of recognition in his gaze killed me.

"Yes," I answered around the rock in my throat.

"It's nice to meet you, Vale. I—" A shrill scream from his smoke detector cut him off. "Shit!"

Leaving the door open, he pivoted back into the house and ran for the kitchen. Frozen, I stared after him, unsure what to do. I wanted to follow, to see if the rest of the house was the same, just as the entryway that had never changed. I wanted to help him with whatever culinary emergency had erupted in the kitchen. Dayton never could cook. I supposed if he didn't want to survive on takeout, he'd had to learn since it was just him and his little brother, Brennan, who'd lived with us, after their parents had passed away the year after Day and I had married. Brennan would be pretty much grown by now, though. God! Another part of my heart ripped, knowing I was so close yet so far from my family.

Arms wrapped around my middle, I dropped my head forward and blinked back the tears. For a long time, after the soul switch, I'd cried every day. Things were better now. I'd thought so anyway. Now, I was in danger of spiraling backward to that bereft, desolate place. For five years, that space had always loomed nearby. Emptiness was my constant companion, but I'd learned to fill that hole in my heart with other things.

Nothing replaced my loss.

And now, I'd taken my first step back to Dayton, to my family.

I'd seen him. I'd introduced myself—my new self.

That was all I'd planned for today, even if I wanted so much more. Even though the task came with a whole whack of pain because he didn't know me. My heart wailed at the injustice, and I wanted to scream Don't you know me! even as I understood why.

With a deep breath, I steeled myself then reached out and pulled closed the door he'd left hanging open. I needed to head back to my lonely home across the street and the hundreds of boxes that needed to be unpacked.

My feet wouldn't move. It took all my strength not to crumple onto the doorstep as my adrenaline from the anticipation of the meeting drained from me.

Somewhere, deep inside, I had to admit I'd thought he'd recognize me, see something in me, that he'd recognize the woman who'd been his high school sweetheart and then his wife.

But she was dead and buried, wasn't she?

I wasn't Melonie, anymore. I was Vale.