Chapter 1

My fiancé, Carter, despised his cheating ex-girlfriend with every fiber of his being.

Even after she supposedly died in a car accident, he would still drive to her grave just to curse her to hell.

I used to softly try to talk him down.

"She's gone, Carter. There's no point holding onto all this hate."

He would snap back at me, his eyes blazing.

"What is that supposed to mean? Does her betrayal not matter to you? Or are you planning to cheat on me too, and that's why you sympathize with her?"

After that, I never dared to say another word. I just let him visit Vanessa's grave whenever he wanted to spew his venom.

Then came the week before our wedding.

A string of bizarre accidents started happening to me.

I was walking down the sidewalk when I mysteriously tripped, took a horrific fall, and broke my leg.

Another day, as soon as I stepped out the front door, a heavy ceramic planter plummeted from above, barely missing my head and leaving me covered in cuts and bruises.

Carter went ballistic. He was convinced Vanessa had turned into a vengeful spirit haunting me from beyond the grave.

"That bitch can't stand seeing us happy, even in death! Don't worry, Chloe. I'm going to her plot right now and scattering her ashes into the wind!"

That afternoon, I quietly followed him.

When I arrived at the cemetery, I didn't see an enraged man desecrating a grave.

Instead, I saw him on his knees, gently pressing his lips against the portrait on Vanessa's headstone.

"I didn't keep coming here to curse you... God, I miss you so damn much."

"All that hate was just because you didn't love me back. If you were still here, I swear I'd marry you in a heartbeat!"

Suddenly, a slender figure stepped out from behind a nearby marble crypt.

"I'm not dead, Carter. And if you still want to marry me, take Chloe's ten-million-dollar trust fund. I want every cent of it as my bridal gift."

A cold numbness crept over my entire body.

If Vanessa wanted my ten million dollars that badly...

Fine. I would give it to her.

I just hoped they wouldn't live to regret it.

In the quiet cemetery, Carter slowly lifted his head.

The moment he realized the woman standing before him was flesh and blood, a flash of raw, ecstatic disbelief washed across his face.

He quickly masked it, his features hardening back into a cold sneer.

"Vanessa? How the hell are you alive? A treacherous liar like you belongs in hell!"

Hidden in the shadows nearby, I let out a bitter, silent laugh.

A few years ago, Vanessa had cheated on him.

Carter had gone completely unhinged. He hired thugs to beat her lover within an inch of his life.

Vanessa fought back without blinking. She stole and sold Carter's proprietary company secrets to his rival for a million dollars.

They tore each other apart in a toxic, violent war.

Maybe out of spite, or maybe just to fill the void, Carter finally agreed to date me.

I foolishly believed that my ten years of unrequited love had finally borne fruit.

I never imagined that blooming season would be so brief, so fragile.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked back at them.

Their story was heading toward a passionate, tearful reunion. And I was nothing more than an inconvenient obstacle in their way.

Vanessa wrapped her arms around Carter's neck, her lips curving into an unapologetic smirk.

"Tell me, Carter... When you say you hate me, is it really hate, or is it love?"

"Just admit it. You never got over me."

She was right.

Carter had once loved her more than his own life.

The memory of his grand, obsessive gestures played like a cruel movie in my mind.

When she casually mentioned craving pastries from Paris, he chartered a private jet that very night just to fly them in fresh.

For her twenty-first birthday, he rented out an entire amusement park so she could watch a private fireworks display alone under the stars.

I shook my head, pulling myself back to reality.

Before I realized it, Carter had pulled Vanessa into a crushing embrace.

He held her so tightly it looked like he wanted to fuse her bones into his own.

"Don't you ever betray me again," he growled, his brow furrowed with a dark, suffocating possessiveness. "Don't you dare talk to another man. If you do, I'll lock you away where only I can see you."

I had been with him for five years.

I had never seen him look like this.

He had never once worried about whether I would cheat on him.

When I went to dinner with male childhood friends, he never batted an eye.

When I smiled down at texts on my phone, he never once asked who was on the other end.

I used to think he was just secure and mature, trusting me completely.

Only now did the harsh truth hit me.

He wasn't open-minded. He just didn't care enough to be jealous.

Right then, the skies opened up. Rain began to pour.

I wiped my face with a trembling hand, unable to tell whether the cold moisture was rainwater or tears.

I couldn't bear to watch any longer. Turning on my heel, I fled back to our apartment.

Inside, everything was already decorated for the upcoming wedding.

Crimson silk sheets, custom floral arrangements, fragrant red roses everywhere.

It had felt so festive and romantic just hours ago.

Now, it looked like a garish, hollow joke.

I couldn't stay in that place for another second.

I yanked out a suitcase and began packing my clothes.

When I finished, the bag was surprisingly light.

Just like the five years I had spent building a home with him, and the five years I spent dreaming of our future.

I thought my life was blossoming. In truth, it was rotten to the core.

Soaked through, I drove to my mother's old estate across town.

It was a magnificent historic property worth tens of millions, left entirely to me when she passed away.

I pushed open the heavy front door, expecting sanctuary.

Instead, my mind went completely blank.

Standing in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling window were Carter and Vanessa.

Carter's hand was wrapped firmly around her throat, his eyes dark with desperate lust.

"Tell me," he demanded, his voice raw. "Do you love him, or do you love me?"