Chapter 1

In my previous life, I was hemorrhaging during surgery, while Ollie Fox was at the airport, welcoming his beloved Unity Benson back from abroad.

Gripping that flimsy ultrasound sheet, I slipped away into endless darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day Unity came back to the country.

This time, I glanced at the photo of Unity with her radiant smile on Ollie's phone screen and calmly handed him the divorce papers.

"Ollie, I don't love you anymore. Your precious Unity is back. I'm stepping down for her," I said.

He thought it was just another one of my attention-seeking tricks, let out a mocking laugh, and signed the papers.

He had no idea that what I was taking away wasn't just my love, but also a tiny life that had quietly begun to grow inside me.

Later, as I signed my name on the prenatal check-up report, the man who once tossed me aside without a second thought was now kneeling in front of me.

His eyes were swollen with regret as he pleaded to me that he was wrong.

But it was too late.

*****

The smell of disinfectant was like an invisible hand clamping down on my throat.

I jolted awake, my heart pounding desperately in my chest, overwhelmed by the weight of it all.

Instead of the hospital's stark white ceiling, I saw the crystal chandelier in the bedroom that Ollie and I once shared. It was so familiar that it was etched into my bones.

It caught the faint light from outside, scattering a thousand icy diamonds that pierced my eyes.

I realized that I was not dead.

Without thinking, I touched my stomach. It was still flat, no pain, no strange warmth stealing my life away.

With shaky arms, I pushed myself up and glanced around.

The lavish bed, the custom silk sheets, and the lingering cool trace of my usual sleep scent still filled the air.

Everything was nothing like those last days in hell I remembered.

My eyes finally settled on the nightstand.

A phone rested there, its screen casting a faint, ghostly glow.

A woman's photo filled the screen.

She was standing under a tower, wearing a white sundress, her long hair dancing in the breeze, her smile as radiant as spring sunlight.

It was Unity Benson.

She was the woman Ollie had been obsessed with for the past seven years.

My pupils shrank, and a bone-deep chill surged from my feet all the way to the top of my head.

I remembered this photo.

In my previous life, Unity returned home on this day. Ollie cleared his schedule just to welcome her, ignoring my frantic calls for help and cutting me off without a second thought.

Back then, I'd fallen down the stairs and was rushed to the hospital.

The doctor told me I was pregnant, but the situation was critical. I needed a family member to sign for the surgery right away.

I kept calling him, but all I ever got was that icy automated message. "Sorry, the user you dialed is busy..."

In the end, my doctor couldn't stand it anymore. He put his own name on the line for me, and that was how I finally got wheeled into the operating room.

But it was already too late.

I could feel my life draining away with every drop of blood. As my mind grew hazy in those final moments, it seemed I heard a nurse cry out. "Patient is hemorrhaging. Blood bank emergency!"

I clutched the ultrasound sheet, drenched in blood. That little shadow of life, not yet fully formed, became the last thing I held onto.

I died on the operating table, together with my child.

At that moment, my husband Ollie was with Unity in the most upscale restaurant, reliving their beautiful memories.

Just thinking about it, a tidal wave of hatred and despair threatened to swallow me whole.

But this time, things were different.

I stared at that blinding smile on the phone screen, then looked down at my own unharmed body. Suddenly, I laughed.

My laugh was hoarse, tinged with the relief of surviving a disaster, and a hint of madness.

I knew that the heavens gave me a second chance.

I threw off the covers, stepped barefoot onto the cold floor, and walked over to the full-length mirror in the walk-in closet.

The woman in the mirror was pale, with faint shadows under her eyes, but her eyes were blazing bright, like they'd been forged in fire, then sealed in ice.

This was me at twenty-five, not that lifeless husk who died in despair on a hospital bed.

I took a deep breath, pushing down all the emotions swirling inside me.

This time around, I was done with love, and I was done with hate.

I just wanted my child to live.

Ollie and Unity's love story was epic. I was not meant to be part of it. I would step aside and let them shine.

I turned around and reached into the bottom drawer of my desk, pulling out a file.

It was something I'd had my lawyer prepare a month ago, after yet another blow-up with Ollie left me drained and hopeless.

It was my divorce papers.