The Wilder's residence in Paris was an enormous, luxurious, and striking building. Its U-shape building has over 20 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, my office and meeting space, a ballroom, a grand hall, a dining hall, and two kitchens.

When I got to my office, Silas was already waiting for me. On my desks were many vintage leather books and a file binder. I opened the file binder to look through. It contained information about Ophelia's life. Her education, schools, passion, achievements, medical history, and family tree. All of this information was secretly got through several chains of networks.

There were several pictures of her family and her. I stopped when I saw a picture of her standing in New York. She was wearing a red pea coat, and a knitted beanie. Judging from the background of her picture, she was standing in a mall and in front of a stall. She looked to be about sixteen in this picture.

I slipped the picture back into the file and snapped it close. Silas handed me a leather book. He had the page already open and ready for me to review.

"Look at this." He pointed to a paragraph.

It dated back to the 1900s, when a fellow villager deep in the Asian-Pacific country documented their first encounter with reincarnation. As soon as the villager was able to form coherent words, he claimed his true name wasn't the name his parents gave him, but a name he believed was his from his past life. He insisted his name be changed. Villagers insisted he was crazy.

There were other instances several years later where a murderer committed the same crimes of another murderer who was imprisoned and died by other prisoners. The details of the crimes and evidence were exact.

I put the book down and leaned back in my office chair.

"What did the warlock tell you?"

"He said reincarnation is a topic that he has often heard about amongst his peers and throughout his years. Although there isn't any scientific evidence, there have been enough instances or coincidences that can prove a person can be reincarnated."

"Thank you, Silas. I appreciate your efforts and hard work."

"I'll leave you to research, then?"

A small smile appeared on my face, but I nodded my head.

"I'll let you know if I find anything interesting."

I picked up another book and flipped through the pages.

It was late into the night when I finally sat the last book down on the desk. All the information that I have gathered is still reeling in my head. If I believed in these textbooks and instances, there was a chance that Ophelia was reincarnated?

But why didn't she recognize me?

In many texts, it showed that many people keep their consciousness of who they are. Knowing this, I felt disheartened. However, I wanted to know the truth and in order to know the truth; I needed to find her again.

I found myself at the campus waiting for her to attend her classes. The weather wasn't as nice as it was yesterday. It was raining hard.

In order to know what her schedule was, I got her schedule through the school board that I have a hold some share in.

I stood at the entrance with a cup of coffee. I kept my eyes on the incoming flow of students. Many female students stopped to whisper and smile in my direction.

When I saw her running up to the entrance with her arms over her head. Luckily, she was wearing a rain jacket. I walked up to her. When she saw my looming shadow, her eyes caught sight of my shoes before it traveled up my body and to meet my eyes.

Her hair and face were wet from the rain. I reached into my jacket and pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her.

"Mr. Wilder?" she said in surprise.

"Good morning, Miss. White."

"I'm surprised to see you here. Do you have another lecture today at our university?"

I shook my head, and she frowned.

"What brings you here?" she smiled.

I looked into her eyes and found myself drowning in them. My gaze dropped to her perfectly pink lips and my heart clenched. The longing I felt has been growing in the past two days. Every part of my body seemed to be awakened in her presence. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms. I want nothing more than to ask her if she was mine.

Ophelia wiped her face with my handkerchief and then handed it back to me. I took it and put it in my jacket. Standing beneath one umbrella and with the heavy rainfall, I could now smell the fresh woodsy sandalwood wrapping around us and the rain.

Ophelia.

"Ophelia."

Her smile slipped a little as I reached up to cup one side of her face.

"Mr-"

"Atlas. Call me Atlas."

Ophelia smiled brightly, revealing perfect white teeth.

"Atlas," she announced.

My heart might've jumped out of my chest. What was this feeling? Why does it feel so familiar? Why do I feel such a powerful connection? Like a chain tying me to her permanently.

"I have to go." She glanced behind me.

I blinked and dropped my hands back to my side. She brushed past me, but I couldn't let her go. I grasped her wrist and pulled her into my arms. I dropped the umbrella and held her tightly. The rain fell hard on our body, completely soaking me. I couldn't care less though.

Holding her never felt so right. For some reason, my heart and soul were telling me it was her. My head wants reasons, but my heart beats in front of her presence and stops as soon as she disappears.

I released her a minute later, and she took a step back. Wet strands of ruby hair clasping themselves to her skin. I brushed them behind her ear.

"Go."

Ophelia turned and walked inside slowly. I stood in the rain, feeling an internal debate going on inside. Did she remember? Did she feel what I felt? Drenched in the rain, I stared at where she disappeared for a long time.

Silas appeared next to me and grabbed my umbrella and shielded me from the rain.

"My heart tells me it's her, but there's another part of me that fears that she might not be."

"How about you test her?"

I turned to look at Silas with a questioning look.

"Maybe she isn't ready to tell you yet, but you can test to see if she is Ophelia. If she is indeed your mate, she'll respond to you."

How to test her?

Silas and I headed back to the residence.

I sat in my office and flipped through the leather books again. One by one, I read them over to see if I was missing something. When I couldn't find anything, I opened the file binder back up. Looking through the pictures again, my eyes landed again on the picture of her in the mall in New York. My eyes focused more on the details and I saw that on her purse, she had a puppy keychain. It was the same one Ophelia bought when I took her to the mall in New York for the first time. I sat up in my chair immediately to see the picture clearer. Behind her was the stall where Ophelia and I bought the keychains.

My heart twisted painfully.

Was it her?

After a long debate, I asked Silas to connect with Ophelia and see if she would take a trip to our residence. The rain had stopped mid-day and by nightfall; the weather had turned cool.

I waited for her at the front of the house. For the first time, I couldn't figure out what to wear. I didn't want to go casual, nor did I want to go too formal. At the end, I settled on a white knitted sweater and khaki pants. It wasn't too intimidating, nor was it too casual.

When I saw her car pulled up in front of the residence, I felt my heart skip back to life again. She stepped out of the car and walked towards me. She had a heavy white cardigan over a satin pearl, knee-high dress. There was a small slit to her mid-thigh. Her ruby hair dried and left in waves down to her waist.

She walked over to me with a step of uncertainty.

"Thank you for coming," I greeted her.

A smile appeared on her face. "I wasn't told what the meeting was about, but your personal assistant told me it was about a possible cooperation?"

Personal assistant—I smiled at that. Silas would have my head if he heard himself categorized as an assistant. He helps me, because he's family and we are all that we have left.

"Uh, yes, cooperation. Let's walk around to the back. I have a perfect place for us to talk." I opened my palm for her to slip her hand through. It might be too forward of me, but I wanted to see what she wanted to do. As if she has been doing it for years, her hand slipped right into my palms. The warmth of our palms together provided a warm blanket to ward off the cool weather.

She followed me through the sidewalks and bushes to the back. When we reached the back, there was a small fireplace waiting for us.

Ophelia sat down on a nearby outdoor patio sofa. She sat her small white handbag on the patio table in front of her. There was an identical sofa opposite of the one she sat down on, but I sat down right next to her.

"I have something I would like to confess," I admitted.

She turned her head to look in my direction. Her eyebrows raised in question.

"A cooperation was an excuse to see you. If I am, to be honest, I wanted to see you again."

"See me? Why?" she questioned.

I couldn't tell her yet, could I?

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe because there is something about you that pulls me in. I want to get to know you more."

I reached over to the table and grabbed the white plaid throw and covered her legs to keep her warm. She thanked me quietly.

"Ophelia?"

She glanced in my direction again.

"I have a story I want to tell you."

I leaned back against the sofa and looked up at the night sky. She did the same. It felt so natural to have her next to me.

"There's a woman that I love with all my heart. She's everything to me. From the moment she appeared in my life, to the moment she left me, she held my heart in her hands."

"Left?"

Talking about it for the first time was painful. The two decades implanted the needle, pushing itself back out onto the surface. Tears threatened to escape. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"When she died, she took my life—my future with her. Still to this day, I still don't know how to move on. My yearning for her grew as the day slipped by. After so long, I had thought that I'd be able to accept her death, but I realized it will never happen. She lives in my mind and in my heart. I can't stop loving her."

I pointed at the stars in the skies.

"She asked me once when a person died, would they become stars in the skies? I didn't know the answer until I looked at the skies every single night after her death and realized that it might be true. Every time I talked to the star, it would glisten back at me. It provided me the only comfort during her death." A tear escaped, and I lost my composure briefly. I wiped away the tear and scrubbed at the stubble growing on my jawline.

Ophelia was silent the entire time. I didn't dare look in her direction.

"I miss her...I long to have her back in my life to fill the gaps of loneliness I've experienced over the years."

I wanted to ask her if she was Ophelia...but if she wasn't, she'd be frightened and run away before I could find out the answer I needed.

"Atlas, I- "

Her phone rang in her purse. We both sat up and I watched her reach for her phone. She picked up the call.

"Hello?"

From my super hearing, it sounds like it was her brother calling for her.

"I'm at a friend's house."

Her brother didn't believe her. He had pinpointed her location. As expected from a CEO, he should always know where his loved ones are. She seemed embarrassed at the fact that her brother found out because she quickly scolded him.

My eyes shifted to her purse, and I noticed something sticking out. I reached for it and realized it was the keychain. Ophelia went quiet as my gaze shifted to her. Her eyes were red, as if she was holding back tears.

She hung up on her brother, who was still speaking, and turned to me.

If anything, it'll hurt me, but I can't stop the words from leaving my mouth.

"Ophelia...are you my Ophelia?"

I held my breath.

Tears slipped down her face, and my vision blurred. She reached over and cradled both of my cheeks, and wiped away the tears with her thumbs.

"Ophelia..." my voice broke, and I yanked her into my lap to hold her tight. I buried my face in her chest and sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Atlas. I'm sorry it took me so long."

"Why didn't you come back?"

"I didn't know if you would believe me."

"I would believe you no matter what. You're mine. I felt it the moment I saw you."