Chapter 1

Every year, my boyfriend would go to pay respects at his ex-girlfriend's grave. I never tried to stop him.

But this year, when we were about to get engaged, the ex-girlfriend he'd been visiting for years suddenly showed up.

She claimed she wasn't dead after all. She'd just lost her memory for a few years and had finally managed to get it back.

On the day we were supposed to register our marriage, he never showed up.

That night, I saw on the hot search that he had just bought a ridiculously expensive diamond for his ex-girlfriend as a birthday gift.

When my family found out, they blamed me for not keeping his heart. Instead of letting someone else take my chance to marry into a rich family, they thought it'd be better to let my sister try her luck.

Heartbroken, I decided to leave. But then I got into a serious car accident.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day when my boyfriend had barely started to recover from his serious leg injury, yet still insisted on braving the storm just to visit his ex-girlfriend's grave.

This time, I didn't bother to persuade him to wait for a better day.

Then the news came. He'd tumbled down the hillside, and now his legs might never work again.

The very first day I got back from Breystone, Harper Linwood was already waiting to ambush me at my front door.

She snapped, "Where the hell have you been? Ryan's in the hospital. Doctors say he might end up paralyzed. As his girlfriend, why didn't you stop him at such a critical moment? How could you just let him go up the mountain in a storm?"

Harper was cursing me out nonstop, her high-society outfit totally at odds with her loud, vicious attitude; she was acting like a complete shrew.

Seeing her fly off the handle like that took me right back to when I'd just started dating Ryan Linwood. There was a time the media interviewed Harper and asked for her opinion about me.

Harper looked straight into the camera, full of disdain, and said, "Just think of it as Ryan paying a high price for his amusement."

Harper didn't just tear down my character; she basically saw me as nothing more than a call girl at a nightclub.

That comment hurt so much that I even considered breaking up with Ryan over it.

But right around that time, my parents secretly borrowed 300 thousand dollars from Ryan. When the tabloids caught wind of it, they painted me as nothing but a gold digger.

Ryan personally came forward to explain everything and publicly declared that I was the only woman he would ever marry.

I was deeply moved by how fiercely he stood up for me.

Back then, I always had my issues with him visiting his ex-girlfriend's grave every year. I never tried to stop him, but deep down, it always left a knot in my heart.

But after Ryan stood up for me in public, I thought he was truly devoted, someone I could entrust my whole life to.

But I forgot one thing. One could never win against the dead, especially the ones who were once loved with all their heart.

Seeing how unfazed I was, Harper suddenly lunged at me, aiming to slap my face. I just stepped aside, and she swung and missed completely, ending up falling hard to the floor.

She started wailing in pain.

I couldn't be bothered to help her up and turned to open the door.

Hearing the commotion, my sister, Scarlett Monroe, came running out first. When she saw Harper sitting on the floor, she rushed to her side, all eager and flattering, acting like she suddenly cared so much.

As soon as Harper got to her feet, she shoved Scarlett away in disgust, brushing off the spot where Scarlett had touched her. Then Harper turned to me, her face twisted with rage. "You bitch, Ryan will never marry you."

"Who cares," I shot back.

My indifference made Harper's face go stiff. After all, I'd always treated her with respect for Ryan's sake.

Scarlett put on a show of being upset. "Vivian, how can you talk to an elder like this? That's so rude."

But there was no hiding the wild delight in her eyes.

Scarlett had a thing for Ryan.

Just to look almost exactly like me, Scarlett secretly went under the knife without telling anyone. She botched her nose job, and it ended up crooked. Scarlett had to spend a ton to get it fixed.

My parents never used to care whether I came home for dinner. But ever since they found out about it, they had been asking me back every few days—just so I'd bring Ryan with me.

During those dinners, they'd always come up with some excuse to get me out of the room, just so Scarlett could have Ryan all to herself.

However, no matter how hard Scarlett tried to throw herself at him, Ryan never crossed the line.

So Scarlett started fabricating scandals, paying off the press, and stirring up drama, claiming that Ryan was really in love with her.

My parents even went around telling everyone that whenever Ryan came over, he was always so attentive and gentle with Scarlett, like they were a sweet couple.

My parents had always favored Scarlett. She always got the best of everything before I did.

As soon as they found out my boyfriend was the heir to the Linwood family, they started calling me every day, criticizing me from head to toe, just to pressure me into handing my boyfriend over to Scarlett.

In their eyes, Scarlett deserved to have it all.

As for me, I just needed to get married—it didn't matter what kind of man I ended up with.

I barely went home after that.

The rumors collapsed on their own.

Because of that, Scarlett started to hate me.

Now, seeing me go head-to-head with Harper, Scarlett could barely contain her glee; her whole face was almost twisted out of shape from trying to hide her smile.

Right now, Scarlett was desperately hoping I'd completely fall out with Harper, so she could have her shot at marrying into the Linwood family in my place.

I didn't bother with Scarlett. As soon as I got inside, I locked the door right behind me.

Scarlett was out there sucking up to Harper, buttering her up like crazy, only to be told, "Shameless bitch, get away from me."

After tearing into Scarlett, Harper turned back to the door and shouted, "Get your ass out here and come with me to see Ryan. If he hadn't absolutely insisted on seeing you, I wouldn't have come anywhere near this place."