Daphne sat on the couch of Asher's living room, wrapped up in a blanket, staring off into space. I could have died this morning. Rose had full intention of killing me.

  “Hi, Ellie,” Asher said from the kitchen. “Yes, Daphne is with me at home. Yes, she's okay. I think she's just a bit shaken up from this morning.” Silence fell for a beat. “I'm not sure when she'll be ready to start work after all of this. That's something I'll have to ask her once she's gotten some rest.” Asher paused again as Ellie said something on the other side of the line. “Thank you, Ellie. I really appreciate it. Yeah, yep, I'll let her know. Alright, talk to you soon.”

  Daphne heard Asher's footsteps as he came into the living room, but she didn't make the effort to raise her head and look at him. She heard Pippin mewl at Asher and felt Pippin's weight on the couch next to her as Asher plopped Pippin down.

  Daphne looked over at the buff and white cat. His eyes pointing in two different directions. As he looked up at her, she let out a small breath and smile, petting Pippin on the head, gently. He spun around, plopping down next to her, burying his bum next to hers on the couch.

  He reminds me so much of Tanpopo. Daphne smiled down at the creature next to her. I wish I felt confident enough to go home and see Tanpopo right now.

  She glanced up at Asher's face, still stroking Pippin’s head. Asher's eyebrows were drawn downward, his lips pressed into a thin frown. “Are you alright?” he asked. “You seem really out of it.”

  Daphne's hand moved from Pippin to her bandaged neck. They had spent a considerable amount of time in the emergency room getting her patched up. She glanced over to the sliding glass door in Asher's living room, the sun had set, and twilight had fallen.

  I almost died this morning. All of this time I've been operating on the assumption that no matter what, I'd be able to find a way out of my death. But the truth of the matter is, just because I got a second chance and was able to change my life doesn't mean I can change my fate.

  Daphne shook her head, tucking her hands back into her blanket before looking back up at Asher. “No, I'm not okay,” she replied.

  Asher didn't reply, the frown lines deepening on his face. He was looking her over to the best of his abilities, and Daphne saw his jaw muscles tighten. “What can I do to help?” he asked. “I wish I had been there to prevent all of this from happening in the first place.”

  “Please don't think like that,” Daphne replied, putting her chin on her knees. “I don't think there's anything you can do right now.” She let out a huff. “I'm not even sure what to do to help myself right now.”

  Daphne heard Asher gulp. She looked over at him, his face even more withdrawn than it had been even only a moment earlier. “It's not anything about you,” she replied, attempting to reassure him. “I just feel like I've been taught taking my second chance of at life for granted,” she admitted.

  She turned back to staring at the blanket, and Asher came around to the other side of the couch and sat down next to her, “What do you mean?” he asked, putting his arm around her. “I thought you were feeling happy and glad that you got this second chance at life. You've achieved what you got to come back for, right? You made it through and survived Rose's attack on you.”

  Daphne nodded, rocking a little. “Sure,” she replied. “A lot of things have changed and fundamentally shifted for the better. I'm definitely much happier in my life.” Daphne paused, running the misery of her death through her mind. “And you're right, I got through and survived all of the things your sister threw at me the last two and a half months. Sure. But there's still no guarantee I'm going to make it through tomorrow, just like the first time around. I haven't been considering that my tomorrow isn't guaranteed. I've tried to shift and change my life more slowly than I should have. I should never have been living my life the way I was in the first place.”

  “What do you mean that tomorrow isn't guaranteed for you?” Asher asked, his voice low. “There shouldn't be any more threats to your life, should there? Rose was the only threat, and she's been dealt with now. You saved your own life!”

  Heat flashed through Daphne. She turned and looked at him, her teeth bared. “She almost killed me Asher!” she shouted. “She held the knife to my throat, hard enough to draw blood.” Warmth flooded from Daphne's eyes, staining her cheeks in wet dew drops. “She could have killed me, and I was absolutely powerless to stop her. There was nothing I could have done to defend myself. I was completely trapped in that chair, powerless against any of her whims.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Asher didn't reply, but instead, pulled Daphne in close to him, her face resting on the cap of his shoulder. “You're right,” he murmured softly in her ear. “You're absolutely right. I would have been… devastated… to lose you after all the work we put in to figure out who wanted you dead so badly.” He let out a broken sigh, his voice box cracking a little. “In the end, we fundamentally only changed the timing of her attack, how she went about it and the outcome. We weren't able to prevent you from being attacked at all. You still had to go through it all over again, but this time you knew someone was hunting you.” He let out a bitter, crackling sigh. “I didn't mean to minimize your pain. I'm sorry.”

  Daphne sobbed into Asher's shoulder. Unable to calm herself enough to respond, she gripped his shirt tightly, as if she were to let go, she'd end up falling back into Rose's clutches.

  Finally, with a shuddering breath, she said, “I don't even know what I want to do with my life.” She wiped a couple of the wet spots on her face with a corner of the blanket. “I've spent so much of my life doing anything and everything I could to please my mother, and those around me…” She sniffled. “…that I ended up almost completely wasting my life twice.”

  Daphne waited for him to reply. Instead, he began gently patting her back, trying to comfort her. “Ever since you asked me if I wanted to do project management forever, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what I really want to do instead,” Daphne continued.

  “Yeah?” Asher asked. His voice warm as he patted her back. She buried her face into him, his warm, clean scent washing over her.

  “Yeah,” Daphne murmured into his shoulder.

  “Did you come up with anything?” Asher asked.

  “Nada,” Daphne whispered into Asher's arm. “Absolutely nothing,” she continued, slightly louder. “I'm almost 27 years old, and I still don't know what I want to do with my life.”

  “Well, what are you passionate about?” Asher asked, tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear. “I like the haircut, by the way, even if it was a forced one.”

  “Thanks, I guess,” Daphne replied, touching the bottom of her short hair.

  She started searching through her memories, trying to find the last time that she had felt excited about a field of study or even a hobby. She felt her heart sink as she found her answer. The glowing stars on her ceiling as a thirteen-year-old girl came to mind. She had laughed giddily about how her mother had finally won a competition. Maybe mother will decide I'm finally old enough and mature enough to teach me how to garden, young Daphne had thought at that time.

  Please no. Daphne squeezed her eyes tightly. I don't want to be like her.

  “Did anything come to mind?” Asher asked

  “Yes,” Daphne whispered, her eyes still shut tightly. “But I don't like the answer.”

  “What is it?” Asher asked.

  “Flowers. Gardening,” Daphne sighed and opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling. “Making people smile with a bouquet of flowers and their hidden meaning.” She glanced over at him. He was looking sideways at her, his eyes narrowed.

  “I thought you didn't like flowers,” he said. “Should I have been showering you with them all this time?”

  “You're right,” she replied with a curt nod. “I don't like flowers. I'm grateful that you listened to me and haven't been buying me flowers at all.”

  “So… what do you mean then?” Asher asked. “How can you be passionate about something you hate?”

  “But that's exactly what I mean,” she said. “That's why I said I don't like the answer.” She paused, her bottom lip trembling a little. “I don't want to be anything like my mother.”

  “You're already nothing like her,” Asher said, stroking her cheek tenderly. “You have nothing to be afraid of in that regard.”

  “But she also loves gardening. It's her whole life, her whole world. There was never enough room for the rest of us because of her plants.”

  “Just because she was all consumed with her plants in her garden doesn't mean you will be,” Asher pointed out. “Just because you like flowers and gardening doesn't mean that you're doomed to end up being like her.”

  “How am I going to make enough money to live on gardening if I don't do contests and the like?” Daphne asked.

  “You don't have to quit being a project manager right away,” Asher murmured. “Just because your mother didn't work doesn't mean you have to follow in her footsteps. You can always do gardening as a hobby until you make enough money to quit.”

  “Going to contests requires money to travel and to enter. Some of them have a high cost to entry,” Daphne pointed out.

  “You don't have to make money with your gardening in the same way your mother did either,” Asher said. “There are lots of other ways to make money from gardening. You could open a flower shop. You could sell your homestead vegetables at a farmer's market. It just depends what sounds fun to you.”

  “You're right,” Daphne murmured, her heart warming. Her shoulders felt lighter too, as if a burden she hadn't even known she was carrying had been relieved.

  “No matter what you choose to do, I'll support you,” Asher said, nuzzling Daphne's cheek. “Just stay with me. All I want you to do is something that makes you happy.”

  Daphne's eyes stung again. “You're too wonderful for me to even consider anything but staying with you,” she murmured. “Thank you.”

  Daphne sat up and caressed Asher's cheek. She gently pulled him close, brushing her lips against his. “I love you, Asher,” she murmured, softly.

  “I love you too.”