Chapter 1
The four of us stared at the pigeon-egg-sized diamond, completely baffled.
Every eligible woman in the family had already tried marrying him.
Who on earth did this man actually want?
My stepmother, Meredith, kept questioning the secretary. “Are you sure there's been no mistake? I don't believe Mr. Sterling's beloved is anyone in the Ashwood family.”
Otherwise, four attempts wouldn't have left us with a family collection of corpses.
The secretary frowned. “At Mr. Sterling's gala, the four of you had a table to yourselves. He looked your way and told me the ring's owner was one of the four Ashwood women. There's been no mistake.”
He held out the velvet box with an arrogant tilt of his chin. “Shall we try it on, one by one?”
Seraphina, the fake heiress who cared most about her looks, shrank back. “I'm... allergic to diamonds. I'd die on the spot.”
Lily, my adopted sister who would do anything for money, waved her hands. “I'm so fat I'd break the ring!”
Meredith, who had wanted to escape widowhood for years, forced a strained smile. “My heart still belongs to my late husband. Mr. Sterling couldn't possibly love me.”
Finally, everyone looked at me. The secretary broke into a grin. “Miss Elara Ashwood, didn't you exchange a glance with Mr. Sterling? Love at first sight, wasn't it?”
“This ring must be meant for you.”
Love at first sight? My heart was barely beating.
In my last life, those words had brought me to tears. Alistair Sterling and I had been seeing each other in secret. He'd even had the ring made to my measurements. When I finally got away from the other three and married him, I thought my suffering was over. I waited for him in our bed, trembling with excitement and shy anticipation.
But the moment he saw my face clearly, rage twisted his features. He grabbed a fruit knife and stabbed me until my body was riddled with wounds. His furious eyes reflected my terrified face.
“How dare you take her place? You are not her!”
I bled out in agony. Even after I woke in this new life, I couldn't understand it. If I wasn't the woman Alistair wanted, who was?
Lost in thought, I stood there without taking the ring from the secretary.
He gave me a condescending smile. “Marrying into the Sterling family is a lot to take in. I suppose you need time to think. Mr. Sterling will come tomorrow, so you have tonight. I'll leave the ring here.”
He left the box on the table and drove away in a diamond-studded stretch Maybach. We stared at the dazzling ring, but none of us dared touch it. We were too afraid to die.
For the first time in years, the three women who had made my life miserable were on my side. We held an emergency meeting in the living room. Each of them tried on the ring again. In the end, my finger was still the only one that came close to fitting it.
Meredith eyed me. “Are you sure he killed you on your wedding night too?”
I rolled my eyes. “They brought my body back here looking like a sieve. You all saw it.”
Lily nodded. “It was brutal. There wasn't an inch of skin left untouched.”
Even Seraphina sighed. “I fought with Elara for ten years, but when I saw her like that... even I felt sorry for her.”
We looked at one another and let out a hopeless sigh.
Meredith broke down. “If we can’t produce the right woman tomorrow, is he going to kill us all?”
The other two looked just as grim.
An idea struck me. “There might be a way. The gala had security cameras, right? If he isn't looking for one of us, maybe the footage will show the woman he wants.”