Chapter 1

Back when I was chasing Julian Reed, the brooding, broke golden boy of our college class, I was utterly shameless.

I didn't just cover his tuition and living expenses; I even paid for his sick mother's life-saving surgery.

Armed with pure devotion and an unlimited black card, I finally wore him down and made him mine.

After we married, I thought I had secured my happily ever after.

I was wrong. Julian never loved me. Not for a single second.

Behind years of quiet compliance, he secretly despised me, convinced I was a manipulative heiress who bought him and trampled his pride.

So, on the day I went into labor—which happened to fall on the wedding day of his childhood sweetheart—he took his revenge.

Drowning in bitterness, he refused to sign the emergency C-section consent form.

He left me to bleed out on the operating table, taking our unborn twins with me.

Three lives, snuffed out in cold blood.

When I opened my eyes again, I turned right around and donated the tuition money straight to the university's emergency scholarship fund.

Ignoring Julian’s shocked, humiliated glare, I turned with a radiant smile toward the billionaire heir who actually matched my status.

"A power couple? That sounds like what we were always meant to be."

"Julian, if you're facing financial hardship, you can apply for a tuition waiver."

"Why bother, Professor? Everyone knows Miss Vance will pay it for him!"

My eyes snapped open.

I wasn't in that sterile, blood-soaked delivery room anymore. I was sitting in a sunlit college lecture hall.

Right now, the professor was gently urging Julian Reed to apply for financial aid.

Around us, our classmates were laughing and catcalling, waiting for me to step in and foot his bill like I always did.

I pinched my thigh hard.

The sharp sting grounded me. I had really gone back—fifteen years into the past.

Back to when I was still Julian’s pathetic, lovesick doormat.

Every single day, I had chased after this aloof campus prince, throwing money and dignity at his feet.

I had covered every dime of his fees, and I had even begged my parents to pull strings with the city's top surgeons to save his dying mother.

In my past life, I was completely obsessed with him.

I gave him my heart and my family's wealth, but all I ever received in return was icy disdain.

Yet, after years of relentless pursuit, he finally agreed to date me.

I foolishly thought I had melted the ice king's heart. In reality, he only gave in because his precious childhood sweetheart, Heather Green, had been injured in an accident and desperately needed money for surgery.

When I found out the truth, I wept bitterly and offered to let him walk away.

Instead, his eyes rimmed with red, and he took my hand. "Chloe, I’m not leaving."

He swore he would truly build a life with me, and he began treating me like a queen.

Fool that I was, I believed him. I forgave him.

Later, he took over my family's corporation while I stepped back into the role of a devoted housewife. Soon after, I became pregnant with twins.

Then came the news of Heather's wedding.

That single announcement shattered my carefully constructed illusion.

When my labor went south and I hemorrhaged, Julian coldly refused to sign the consent form for the C-section.

As the agony consumed me and my vision blurred into black, Julian leaned down.

With bloodshot eyes, he whispered every word like poison into my ear:

"This is your payback. If you hadn't used your dirty money to bribe and threaten me, using Heather's and my mother's medical bills as leverage, Heather and I would never have been torn apart."

"You deserve to die. Once you're dead, I’ll inherit every cent of the Vance fortune and marry Heather. Consider this your compensation to us!"

Because of his refusal, my labor was dragged out. Deprived of oxygen, my twin babies suffocated inside me, and my heart gave out soon after.

Three lives, erased in sheer agony.

I bought this lesson with my life: you can never force love from a hollow heart.

The memory of that visceral horror made me instantly yank back the hand reaching for my checkbook.

I looked up at Julian, standing tall and proud by his desk.

He wore that same familiar expression of untouchable arrogance, outright rejecting the professor's suggestion to apply for financial aid.