Chapter 1

On the eve of our arranged marriage, I played a game.

I pretended to be my eighteen-year-old self and made a call through time to my fiancée.

I asked her, laughing: "Isabella, how's life at twenty-seven? Are you happy, married to me?"

Silence on the other end. A long silence.

Then Isabella's voice came through—exhausted, cold: "No."

"Luca, I've wasted my whole life on you."

"I'm begging you. In some other parallel universe, just let me go."

I froze. I almost thought I'd misheard.

When I came back to my senses, I swallowed my fury and called my mother.

"Mom, Isabella and I—"

"I know." She cut me off with a tender sigh. "Sweetheart, I know everything."

"You're the eighteen-year-old Luca, aren't you?"

"Isabella is such a good girl."

"Even after carrying on with your brother behind closed doors for five years, she's still willing to sacrifice herself and marry you."

"Luca, listen to your mother—in your next life, step aside for her and your brother."

I felt as though I'd been struck by lightning.

In the end, my hand moved almost on its own, dialing my older brother.

On the other end, he was in the throes of passion with Isabella.

Between ragged breaths, he said to me in a low voice: "Luca, forgive your brother. Just this once."

"Only tonight. She's only mine tonight."

"In this lifetime, I'll never fight you for her. All I ask is that in the next life… you give her to me."

Fine. Fine. Fine.

I hung up with a cold laugh, tears streaming down my face.

Everyone had been hiding this from me, running interference for their love story.

Only me—the fool, kept in the dark.

Forget it.

No need for a next life, or a parallel universe.

In this life, I'd set them free.

Isabella didn't come home until the next morning.

She brought with her the scent of an unfamiliar men's cologne, her hair still damp at the tips.

She saw me sitting in the living room and froze. A flicker of guilt crossed her eyes.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep," I answered calmly.

After a pause, I spoke again. "Isabella, let's call off the engagement."

She stiffened, turning to meet my bloodshot eyes that hadn't seen sleep all night.

"You… what kind of joke is this?"

"I played a game last night." I looked straight at her. "A game called the Time-Space Call."

Isabella's hand went rigid.

She stared at me, and her expression slowly changed.

"Luca, were you testing me?"

I laughed—a bitter, self-mocking laugh.

I hadn't expected her accusation to come before any explanation.

"If I hadn't tested you, would I have spent my entire life as the idiot kept in the dark?"

"Isabella—a sister-in-law sleeping with her brother-in-law?"

"Don't the two of you feel any disgust?"

Slap. A palm struck my face, neither too hard nor too light.

I tasted blood in my mouth and looked up at her in disbelief.

Isabella stared at her own hand, stunned as well.

She seemed surprised at herself for having slapped me.

She pressed her lips together, withdrew her hand, and looked at me with reddening eyes.

"Luca, say whatever ugly things you want to me. Marco hasn't wronged you—I was the one who made the first move."

All the blood in my body rushed to my head.

My eyes went red. I raised my hand but couldn't bring it down.

"Isabella, do you really think I won't hit a woman?"

"Didn't your parents teach you what shame means?!"

She didn't flinch. She kept her face tilted up, staring at me defiantly.

That face—the face I both loved and hated—no matter what, I couldn't bring my hand down on it.

My hand trembled uncontrollably.

She glanced at my shaking hand and let out a cold smirk.

"Yours did, though."

"Luca, your parents knew about me and your brother. Every last detail. Did you know that?"

"Last time you came home for the family gathering, you hadn't even sat down yet."

"Your mother rushed over to drag you out shopping, your father said let's all go for a walk."

She leaned in closer, those beautiful eyes gleaming with provocation.

"Your entire family was covering for the two of us."

I felt as though I'd been struck again. I jerked my head up, staring at her in disbelief.

She stepped back with a look of contempt.

"Even your own parents don't love you. What right do you have to point fingers at me?"

"Luca, if I were you, I'd make good use of whatever guilt your future wife still feels toward you."

"That's the only way this life of yours keeps limping along."

"Some things, once they're said out loud, lose all their meaning."