Chapter 1

On our wedding day, Julian’s first love ripped my wedding ring off my finger, hurled it into the lake, and shoved me straight in after it!

"Julian said you’d do anything for him! Now go fetch that ring, Claire!"

Weighted down by layers of soaked silk and lace, I struggled for air, screaming for Julian to pull me out.

Instead, he stood at the edge of the stone terrace, staring down at me coldly. "Prove it, Claire. Show everyone here that you'd literally die for me!"

With a desperate lunge, I lunged forward, grabbed his suit trousers, and dragged him right down with me!

If I was going down, he was coming too.

Neither of them was getting away with this!

The splash threw the entire crowd into pure panic.

Bianca’s face went chalk-white. "Julian! Let him go, Claire! You're going to kill him!"

I locked my arms around Julian’s waist as we bobbed in the deep water, screaming at the top of my lungs, "You wanted me to prove my devotion? Then we live together, or we drown together! If we can't find that ring today, we die right here!"

I dragged him beneath the surface. Julian panicked. "Claire, have you lost your mind?!"

He tried to kick me off, but I held on like a vice, using every ounce of strength I had.

Just thirty minutes ago, our wedding had just begun. That was when Bianca showed up in a floor-length white lace gown, her eyes swollen and red.

The second Julian and I finished exchanging vows, she intercepted us at the cocktail bar.

"Claire, you got so lucky," she sneered quietly. "If I hadn’t moved abroad, you’d never have had the chance to stand next to Julian."

I ignored her pathetic jealousy and called a server to escort her to a seat. But she grabbed my wrist instead. "Claire, can I just look at your ring? Just once, please?"

I didn't want to make a scene, so I let her look. But the next second, she yanked it violently off my finger and threw it into the estate pond!

She turned around, laughing with Julian's smug group of frat-boy friends. "See? I told you she couldn't resist showing it off! She takes every chance she gets to flaunt what she didn't earn!"

"Are you insane?! That's my wedding ring!" I yelled, furious.

Before I could react, her hands slammed against my chest, shoving me into the water!

Julian stood on the bank, actually trying to calm me down. "Claire, just swim down and get it. Bianca is having a rough day. Once you bring the ring back up, we’ll call it even!"

Watching Bianca fake-cry while Julian's toxic circle sneered and laughed at me made my blood boil. The heavy gown dragged me downward. Pure survival instinct made me thrash wildly.

But the more I fought, the faster I sank.

A familiar terror from a childhood near-drowning incident surged back, choking the breath from my lungs. Seeing the malicious triumph in Bianca’s eyes, a surge of adrenaline hit me. I lunged up, grabbed Julian by his ankles, and pulled him down with me!

The entire shore erupted. Bianca screeched like a banshee. "Get off him! You're going to drown him! Claire!"

I wasn't letting go of my only lifeline.

Julian choked, flailing and thrashing his legs in a desperate dog-paddle, struggling to stay afloat with me clinging to him.

Then Bianca shrieked, "Knock her off him! Hit her!"

At her command, the rich snobs on the bank grabbed heavy crystal wine glasses from the tables and hurled them down at my head!

A sharp, searing pain exploded across my forehead. Blood poured into my eyes. My grip slipped, and Julian took that split second to shove my head underwater, using me as a springboard to hoist himself onto the dock.

As he hauled himself up, his wet leather shoe kicked right into my shoulder. "You nearly drowned me, Claire! Stay down there and think about what you did!"

He scrambled onto the stone pavement, drenched and shivering, looking like a drowned rat.

And I, half-blinded by my own blood and dragged down by eighty pounds of wet gown, sank into the icy darkness.

"Wait... she's not actually drowning, is she?" someone muttered.

Bianca rolled her eyes. "She knows how to swim. She’s just being dramatic."

"Besides," she added casually, "I’ll tell the staff to fish her out in a minute. She just needs a lesson."

Julian stayed silent. From beneath the rippling surface, I watched those blurry silhouettes laughing so casually, and a blazing rage ignited in my chest.

Beneath the fury, a profound, bone-chilling cold washed over me.

I had known Julian for three years. When his family filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and lost everything, Bianca had packed her designer bags and caught the first flight out of the country.

She hadn't looked back once, no matter how desperately Julian begged her.

I was the one who pulled him out of the gutter. I built the software, rebuilt his company from scratch, and made him a tech prodigy again.

And the second he was back on top, Bianca flew back, bat of an eye, expecting to take my place.

Like hell she would.