The Betrayed Bride

Synopsis

At twenty, Benjamin Robertson broke off our engagement and chose Martha Hunt instead. After the engagement party, he told me, "Martha saved my life. Now the Hunt family wants her to marry a man over fifty. I can't stand by and let that happen." He said he had signed a three-year agreement with Martha. When it expired, he would marry me. In my previous life, I believed him. I willingly became his secret lover, living in a villa on the outskirts, hidden from the world. As the three-year deadline approached, Benjamin's company faced a crisis. His rival, a thrill-seeker, demanded his wife accompany him in extreme sports. For the first time, Benjamin took me out in public. I thought he intended to propose, but I was wrong. He personally sent me, heart condition and all, onto a bungee platform. He coaxed me, "Martha is afraid of heights. She can't do this, Aubrey. Just this once. After this, we'll owe each other nothing. I'll marry you." Ignoring my panic and tears, he forced me to sign a waiver and pushed me off. In the final moments before my heart gave out, I finally saw the truth: The person who was sacrificed was never meant to be kept. But fate, it seemed, had mercy on me. I returned... to the year I turned twenty.