Chapter 1

On our third wedding anniversary, Adrian shoved my head into the freezing pool.

"Your parents killed my entire family. You haven't finished paying for their sins."

Three years I endured his cruelty, trying to atone. Until he found her. A substitute who looked seventy percent like me.

He took her to galas. He shredded the scarf I'd knitted for him. He even took my bone marrow to save her.

That was when my heart finally died. At midnight, the moment our agreement expired, I walked into the sea.

But at my funeral, he held my cold body and screamed. "Please come back to life... We can start over."

Then I opened my eyes.

We had been reborn. To before any of it happened.

In this life, he clung to me, eyes red, begging me not to leave.

I only pushed him away, my voice calm.

"Adrian, love is too exhausting. This time, I'm the one letting go."

Yulia's POV

I stood by the pool, looking at Adrian.

Today was our third wedding anniversary. The Hayes family was throwing a grand winter party in my honor.

Then icy water swallowed my head. My lungs screamed.

"Adrian! Please..."

I struggled to surface, but before I could finish speaking, the bodyguard pushed me under again.

He stood by the pool with a wine glass, completely indifferent to my struggling.

"Please?"

He finally spoke, his voice colder than winter snow.

"Three years ago, when your parents drove exhausted and killed my entire family, did they show any mercy?"

He crouched down and grabbed my freezing purple chin. "Yulia, these three years are just the beginning."

I held it in desperately, but tears still poured out.

Just as Adrian was about to say something, a coquettish female voice interrupted him.

"Adrian, why are you still here? Didn't you say you'd wait for me?"

I looked up to see a girl in a white dress running over.

That face was seventy percent similar to how I looked three years ago.

This was Chloe, the substitute Adrian had found.

"Giving my wife a gift."

Adrian stood up and considerately adjusted her shawl.

Chloe glanced at me contemptuously.

"A criminal. Don't waste your time."

As they were about to leave, Chloe deliberately bumped into an ice sculpture.

The massive sculpture toppled, and fragments crashed toward me as I climbed out of the pool.

Sharp pain hit me, and my blood stained the pool water red.

But Adrian took Chloe's hand and kissed the tiny red mark on her fingertip.

I watched them kiss, my heart pierced as if by ice shards.

As Adrian carried Chloe away, he only left one sentence behind.

"Take care of it. Don't let her die."

For three years of marriage, all I ever saw was his back.

We had grown up together, until the engagement party three years ago.

That day, my parents, driving while exhausted, caused an accident that killed his family.

My lover became my enemy overnight.

He sent my parents to prison, where they couldn't bear the torment and took their own lives.

Before dying, they asked me to atone for three years, and if I still saw no hope, to join them.

I pulled out the waterproof bag from my soaked clothes containing our family photo.

In the photo, we were smiling so brightly. Only one month remained of the three-year term.

For love of him, I had destroyed myself beyond recognition, only to receive this humiliation in return.

"Mom, Dad, wait for me one more month," I whispered.

Just one month. Once the agreement was fulfilled, I would join them.