Chapter 1

In my previous life, I leapt into an icy lake to save a drowning girl. I never imagined she was Faith, the daughter of Scarlett, my husband's secret mistress.

It had all been a trap carefully laid by Scarlett. The freezing water damaged my body beyond repair, and the physician later declared that I would never be able to bear children again.

When I was dying, barely clinging to life, my husband Kamden brought Scarlett into our home as his lawful wife. They went on to live in comfort and splendor, spending the assets I had brought into the marriage.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the very day Faith fell into the water.

"Mrs. Camacho, it's getting colder every day. I saw the lake starting to freeze over," Julia, my maid, muttered as she lifted the carriage curtain.

I wrapped my hands around the warm water bottle and replied calmly, "It's not that cold yet. The ice on the lake isn't solid enough. When the year turns, you could drive a carriage right across it."

Peering through the gap Julia made in the curtain, I glanced toward the icy lake. Sure enough, there she was again, that same little girl.

I caught a glimpse of someone hiding in the woods. Spotting that shadowy figure, I let out a cold chuckle. 'Scarlett Barlow. That's her.'

Just like in my past life, after visiting my folks, I was passing by the frozen lake when I heard a little girl screaming for help. She'd been playing on the ice and had fallen right in.

Strangely enough, that girl was the spitting image of my lost daughter.

Her name was Sadie. When she was just three, she wandered off to play, slipped, and drowned in a pond before anyone could save her.

I grew up at my mother's family home, in a town by the southern rivers, so swimming came naturally to me. But I never got the chance to teach Sadie before she was taken from me.

That was my greatest regret, my lifelong nightmare.

So when I saw that girl, who looked just like Sadie, fall into the lake, I jumped in without a second thought. It felt like I was trying to save Sadie one more time.

The ice was thin, but the cold was bone-deep. It was the harshest part of winter.

Ever since Sadie was gone, my health had been shaky. After pulling that girl out, I was out cold for a whole week. The doctor said the cold had wrecked my health so badly, I'd never be able to have kids again.

From then on, I was stuck in bed, living off medicine, forbidden from doing anything that might wear me out.

The day after I woke up, my husband Kamden brought the little girl I'd saved to see me. Her name was Faith.

Kamden said Faith was meant to be part of our family, and since she was an orphan, he wanted me to adopt her, to make her officially my daughter.

When I looked at Faith, tears streamed down my face. She was the spitting image of Sadie.

They look almost identical. I agreed to Kamden's suggestion without a second thought.

Back then, I was so naive. I truly believed this was heaven's way of showing me mercy, giving me a chance to atone for my regrets. 'Maybe this is my chance to save a daughter, after all,' I thought, so I treated Faith as if she were my own flesh and blood.

Even though I was bedridden, I still made sure she had everything, clothes, food, a warm place to stay. I handled every little detail myself, never caring how much it cost, just so she could have the best of everything.

But who would've thought Faith was actually Kamden's mistress's daughter? No wonder she looked so much like Sadie.

Sadie looked just like her father, and so did Faith.

But no matter how many bowls of bitter medicine I forced down, my health just kept getting worse.

One day, when I was so weak I could barely sit up, Scarlett marched into the main hall, holding Faith's hand, a swaddled baby boy cradled in her arms. It was a boy.

Scarlett announced herself. She was the mistress Kamden had been secretly keeping all along. In fact, he'd started hiding her away the very year Sadie died.

Scarlett's smile was triumphant as she mocked me for being such a fool.

Turns out, it was all her plot. She knew my daughter had drowned, so she exploited my deepest regret, luring me into the icy lake to save Faith.

Scarlett knew her daughter looked just like mine, so she figured the moment I saw Faith's face, I'd jump in to save her no matter what.

Scarlett sneered. "Thanks for looking after Faith these past six months. As her real mom, I'm just so grateful. Did you honestly think your husband didn't know? He's the one who told me exactly which road you'd take coming back from your family."