Chapter 1

I'd been with Yannis Lewis my entire life. I bore him children, raised them, and stayed by his side until the day he died—and yet he never even gave me a wedding.

After he passed, I found a photo hidden in his wallet and realized he had always been in love with his first love, Cherry Goodman.

At seventy, I ended my own life with sleeping pills. My two sons watched me writhe in the sun shower, unfazed.

Once I was dead, they had me cremated right away. They didn't even keep the urn—just flushed my ashes down the crematorium drain.

And my belongings were tossed out like trash.

But fate had other plans. I woke up again—on the very day Cherry arrived at our door with her daughter.

Yannis and my two sons ganged up on me, screaming about how heartless I was for not taking them in.

I pulled out the divorce papers and walked out of that house without looking back.

The ironic thing was, after I left, they fell apart.

*****

"Because of you, Cherry is still in the hospital. I don't want a cold-hearted woman like you for a mom," screamed Yosef, my younger son.

"Yosef, why are you even talking to that witch? Dad's here. Hang up and come eat," Adrian, my other son, said, his young voice sharp with contempt.

I listened to the beeping on the phone and stared at myself in the mirror for a long time before it hit me—I'd traveled back in time.

I was 27 again, and it was the third day since Cherry had come to our house with her daughter, Yvonne Sinclair.

Cherry was Yannis's true love.

She'd vanished from Jecriton for seven years without a word. Then, just two days ago, she suddenly came back to Yannis—beaten up, with Yvonne in tow.

Yannis wanted to take her to the hospital, but she refused. With no other options, he let her move in—didn't even bother to ask me.

I was afraid of Yannis, and honestly, I felt bad for Cherry, seeing her all hurt like that. So I kept my mouth shut.

But when I came back from hand-washing Yannis and my sons' clothes, I found Cherry lying in my marital bed. And her daughter even called me stupid right to my face.

*****

I was the heiress of the Jones Group, and Yannis was raised to be my childhood husband.

My mom got really sick while she was pregnant with me, so I was born premature—and a bit slower than most people mentally.

When Mom was alive, she patiently taught me how to express myself. But Yannis never liked hearing me talk; every time I opened my mouth, I could see the annoyance in his eyes. So I learned to keep quiet when he was around.

After Mom passed away, Yannis became even less interested in listening to me.

Eventually, I forgot how to even talk to him. Whenever my emotions boiled over, all I could do was throw a fit and make a scene.

That day, I completely lost control. I snapped and kicked Cherry and Yvonne out of the house.

Yannis said I was being impossible and stormed off with the mother-daughter duo. He still hadn't come back since then, and neither had Adrian and Yosef.

Today was our seventh wedding anniversary.

In my previous life, I cooked up a whole table of the three Lewises' favorite dishes, hoping to call them home and maybe patch things up.

But my sons' words cut me so deep I lost focus, stumbled, and ended up cracking my head open.

Back then, I just couldn't figure out why the kids I carried for nine months and raised with all my heart wouldn't even call me "Mom," but could so easily call someone they'd only known for three days "Godmother Cherry."

Now I get it—rotten roots only grow rotten branches.

It wasn't until after Yannis died that I realized Cherry was his first love, and even Yvonne turned out to be his kid.

Because I was born a little slow, Mom'd always felt guilty about me. After Dad died in a car accident, she went to an orphanage and adopted Yannis, terrified I'd get taken advantage of once she was gone.

She had planned to look for someone to help me out. But when she saw how talented Yannis was, she changed her mind. She decided to groom him to be my future husband instead.

Mom always said Yannis would be my husband, my one real shot at survival. She told me to hang out with him more, and try and bond with him.

I listened, following Yannis everywhere.

Yannis was a genius, fast-tracked through an elite program. From a young age, he started helping my mom run the Jones Group.

Cherry was his childhood sweetheart from the orphanage. After joining the Jones Group, he pulled some strings to make her his secretary, and then they started hooking up—right under my and Mom's noses.

Yannis hated me for coming between him and Cherry.

I'd never forget the way he looked at me right before he died.

He'd always been cold and distant with me. But in that final moment, even someone as slow as me could feel the pure hatred in his eyes.

"Lilian Jones," he said. "I always wanted to treat you like a sister. But you kept me apart from my true love for years. Because of you, I could never go back to my real home. I hope you burn in hell after I die."

Back then, I was too naive to get what he meant. To me, we were married, so of course we were supposed to be each other's true love, and our home was supposed to be ours together.

Then, I discovered a photo of Cherry in his wallet. While I was still drowning in grief over losing him, she kicked me out of my house. What was worse, I found he'd willed everything we owned to Yvonne.

That was when it hit me: he'd always loved Cherry. And his revenge had started the moment she left.

Before my mom passed, he'd followed her wishes and married me, promising he'd take care of me forever.

Then he sweet-talked me into having one kid after another, so I'd be too busy with the kids to care about anything else, especially the company.

I never had a clue when he changed the company's ownership or shifted all our assets elsewhere.

After he died, I did go through hell, just like he wanted.

But as for his claim that I tore him and Cherry apart, I honestly had no idea what he meant.

Yannis was two years older than me. While he was helping my mom run the company, I was just a student.

I only met Cherry once—by accident—when I went to see Yannis at work.

Back then, I honestly thought Cherry was even clumsier than I was. She'd burn her hand just making coffee for Yannis, and walked straight into his arms like she tripped over thin air.

Since I learned to walk, I had never tripped again. And when it came to making coffee, my hands were always steady.

I just couldn't wrap my head around it—we were both kind of slow and clumsy, so why did Yannis treat Cherry like she was something fragile, while he was constantly irritated with me?

I told Mom about my doubts. Yannis probably didn't like me either, like everyone else did.

Mom reassured me it was nothing and told me not to overthink it. After that, I never saw Cherry again.

Not until she showed up three days ago.

With Yannis still hanging up on her and her clearly not over him, it was only a matter of time before their old flame reignited.