Chapter 2

No matter how loudly Harper shouted outside, I didn't pay her any mind.

I had no idea how much time passed before her voice finally faded into silence.

That night, one of Ryan's friends actually called me.

All these years I'd been with Ryan, I'd never been part of his circle. His friends always looked down on me because of my poor background, and I couldn't be bothered to suck up to them. I never even dealt with them face-to-face.

"Ryan's in the hospital. Did you know that?" A cold, accusatory voice came from the other end of the line.

If he hadn't told me who he was, I wouldn't even have known these people had my number.

"So what?" I asked.

"He had a car accident not long ago and has to walk with crutches. As his girlfriend, why didn't you stop him from heading up the mountain in such terrible weather? Now he's even more badly hurt, and his legs might end up paralyzed. When he's at his lowest, you don't even bother to check on him. You ignore all his calls and texts. Don't tell me you even blocked him or something," he snapped.

He knew perfectly well that no one could stop Ryan from paying respects to his ex. But they just had to make me out to be the villain.

I replied, my tone cold, "He knew he wasn't fully healed, but he still insisted on going to visit his ex's grave. That just shows he doesn't care about himself at all. If I tried to stop him, he'd just think I was jealous of someone who's already gone. And besides, I broke up with him a week ago. At best, we're just strangers who happened to know each other for a few years."

I dumped Ryan the very next day after I time traveled.

In my previous life, I had no idea why Ryan got into that car accident. I just thought it was an accident.

This time, I checked the surveillance footage. He got seriously hurt trying to protect his ex's younger sister, Lily Carrington.

He sure had a way of loving his ex—and everyone around her, too

When I broke up with him, he thought I was just joking. After all, we were already at the stage of talking about marriage.

Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking completely worn out, and said to me, "Can you not make things harder for me right now? You're really being a pain."

Every year, about a week before his ex's death anniversary, Ryan would turn into the walking dead.

So everyone in his circle always said his one true love would always be her.

I was never the only one, just one among many.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

Just as I was about to hang up, he spoke up, his tone slow and accusing. "You didn't leave Ryan just because he got badly hurt, did you? After everything he's gone through just to be with you all these years, how could you break up with him now? You're really heartless."

I sneered, "The expenses during the years I was with him were always split fairly, and gifts went both ways. His parents publicly insulted me. I put up with it. You all looked down on me and belittled me many times. I endured that, too. So why do you think only he was under pressure? Didn't I have any?"

I continued, "Every year, he goes to pay respects to his late ex-girlfriend. And every time, the media paints me as just a stand-in, like I'm not his real girlfriend, just some replaceable nobody. I swallowed it every time, just because I loved him."

By the time I finished, my voice caught, and I couldn't stop the tears from falling.

I really did love Ryan—once.

In my previous life, around this time of year, we started talking about marriage. I was over the moon, honestly felt like the happiest, luckiest woman.

But what did I get in return? He broke up with me without warning.

And it happened on the very day we were supposed to get our marriage license.

I waited there all alone, blowing up his phone nonstop, right up until the city hall closed for the day.

He disappeared, just like that.

But that very night, the news broke that he'd bid on an outrageously expensive diamond for his ex as a gift.

I hated him.

So this time, I didn't try to talk him into waiting a few days before visiting her grave. I just let him do whatever he wanted.

No matter if he ended up paralyzed or whatever, it had nothing to do with me.

Before he could say another word, I hung up and added his number straight to my blocklist.

After that, I called up my bestie, Sienna Hawthorne.

After I told Sienna what happened, she was so mad that she was grinding her teeth. She promised me, "Don't worry. I'll handle this."

Two days later, a rumor suddenly started making the rounds.

Word was, an heiress from a once-prominent family had faked her death and pretended to have amnesia, all for true love, and now she and her beloved were hiding out in some remote fishing village.

Because nobody dropped any names, it only made the nosy netizens all the more curious.

The power of the internet was amazing. It didn't take long for someone to figure out it was Sandra Carrington they were talking about.

[Isn't this Ms. Carrington, who went to teach in some poor village years ago and got caught in a mudslide? They never even found her body.]

[Teach? More like trying to whitewash her image. Didn't she run someone over? She got out of the car and said, "Poor idiot, you can't even watch where you're going. Now my sports car's got blood all over it." If the cops hadn't shown up so fast, a lot of people would've jumped her right there.]

[I know a bit of the real story. It wasn't even her who hit that person; it was her boyfriend. She took the blame for him because her family was loaded. They could just pay off the victim's family, and she wouldn't have to go to jail. Then that guy got into some trouble and bailed.]

That comment kicked off a whole new wave of gossip. Sienna didn't even have to pay anyone to stir things up; it was already trending number one that day.