Chapter 2

I glanced down at my shriveled, crippled legs and let out a soft, chilling laugh.

Chloe jumped, startled by the sound. "She heard us! Why is she laughing?! She's planning to take revenge through Leo once he grows up!"

Luke pulled her into a comforting hug, then yanked me up by my hair from the mattress and slapped me hard across the face.

"Shut up! You're scaring Chloe!"

Cupping my stinging cheek, I started laughing again.

"Serena, you pathetic bitch, you're still laughing?!"

Luke kicked me violently in the ribs.

Yes. That was the ungrateful, venomous Luke I knew.

I swallowed the metallic taste of blood pooling in my mouth and pulled out an old fountain pen.

"Luke... do you remember this pen?"

It was the first gift he had ever given me after my family took him in. He had handed out flyers on street corners, saving a dollar at a time for six months just to buy it for me.

I still remembered the boy blushing crimson, thrusting it toward me. "Here... this is for you."

Luke's gaze glazed over with a flicker of nostalgia.

I looked up at him with utter devotion. "Luke, I love you. I'd do anything for you, even if you want to ruin my name."

Luke knew how madly I had once loved him. He didn't doubt my words for a second.

A sudden flicker of guilt hit him at the thought of what he was about to do to me. He leaned down and lifted me into his arms.

As he went to lay me gently on the bed, I suddenly pulled him down and pressed my lips against his.

The sneer on Chloe's face instantly twisted into pure rage. "You slut! What the hell are you doing?!"

Blinded by fury, she didn't notice the sudden, agonizing contortion on Luke's face, nor the choked scream muffled against my lips.

She didn't see the fountain pen in my hand driving straight into Luke's ear canal, twisting savagely deep into his brain.

Within seconds, his body went completely limp.

Chloe lunged forward and shoved Luke off me, throwing a vicious slap at my face. "Bitch! How dare you seduce him right in front of me! You shameless whore!"

Using the momentum of her push, I yanked the pen out of Luke's ear, grabbed her wrist, and tackled her straight to the floor.

I raised my arm and plunged the sharp steel nib directly into her right eyeball.

"Aaaagh—!!!"

The sheer agony triggered an animalistic adrenaline surge. Screaming like a banshee, she shoved me off and clutched her bleeding eye socket.

The pen was slick with blood, slipping right out of my fingers.

I tossed it aside and lunged at her again like a rabid animal, sinking my teeth violently into her throat.

Hot, coppery blood gushed into my mouth, flooding my throat. My entire body shook violently.

Not from terror. From pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

I didn't let go until Chloe's body completely stopped twitching and grew cold.

Sitting in a massive pool of dark blood with two dead bodies beside me, I threw my head back and laughed until tears streamed down my face.

This time, I wasn't the one dying in agony.

When I opened my eyes again, Luke was alive.

This was my fifth rebirth.

And for the very first time, the timeline had shifted.

I stared down at my huge, swollen belly, a wave of unspeakable shock and triumph crashing over me.

I had traveled back three whole years. Today was the exact day a drunk Luke beat me so badly that I went into premature labor.

"Smack—!"

A stinging palm cracked across my face. Luke pointed an accusatory finger at my nose, his breath reeking of cheap alcohol as he screamed, "Slut! You went behind my back and fucked another man! I used you until you were broken, and you still went looking for someone else? You whored around and gave me a bastard! I’m going to beat you to death!"

I shielded my belly with my arms, dodging clumsily.

This was my second time living through this nightmare.

In my first life, I had no idea about the truth. I genuinely believed the child in my belly was the product of an assault that happened while I was unconscious.

I tried to terminate the pregnancy multiple times, but Luke stopped me every single time.

When he saw how determined I was to get an abortion, he pointed at my nose and called me a cold-blooded monster for trying to murder an innocent baby.

For seven long months, he used alcohol as an excuse to batter and verbally abuse me every day, only to sober up the next morning and grovel on his knees.

"Serena, I only did it because I love you too much. I just couldn't handle the thought of another man touching you. I'm sorry, please forgive me, okay?"

Drowning in misplaced guilt, I had endured every hit in silence.

Yet my endless compliance only invited more brutal violence.

It was Luke and Chloe who had conspired to drug me and throw me into Preston Kane's bed.

Instead of feeling an ounce of remorse, they used the label of a cheat to grind my dignity into dust.

"Crash—!"

Luke grabbed a heavy ceramic vase from the table and hurled it straight at my head.