Chapter 1

"Wendy, your classmates are here."

It was my mom's voice.

I jerked my head up from my desk and instinctively pressed a hand to my lower abdomen.

No baby. No blood. No pain.

My mom was knocking on the door outside, reminding me again.

I was still wearing my high school uniform.

However, the memory of that agony still clung to my mind, refusing to fade.

I stood there, frozen, thinking for a long time before I finally understood.

I had been reborn.

In the living room, Matthias Jackson and Evelyn Lowell sat stiffly on the couch.

Just as expected, today was the day Matthias had brought Evelyn over to study with me. It was the beginning of everything that went wrong in my previous life.

On the day I was about to give birth, Matthias came home from a business dinner and started hitting me.

Amniotic fluid mixed with blood spread across the floor. The pain was so intense I nearly passed out.

After we got married, we were not as clingy as other newlyweds, but we had never even argued, let alone laid a hand on each other.

I looked at him, my eyes filled with shock and fear.

What was happening?

A dull pain throbbed through my body again. The baby…

Tears streamed down my face as I begged him to take me to the hospital. However, Matthias locked the door and stood over me, looking down like a judge passing a sentence.

"Matthias… please, help me…" I could not understand why he was doing that to me.

He stood with his back to the light, his face hidden in shadow.

"If you hadn't caused Evelyn to get hit by a car back then, how would she have ended up rushing into marriage and getting abused?

"This is what you owe her. Wendy, you should know what it feels like to be completely helpless."

He stressed the last words so heavily they felt like knives.

Blood kept flowing beneath me, and Matthias continued to curse me with bitter hatred.

The pain was unbearable. Still, through his words, I managed to piece together what had happened.

Earlier that day, at his business dinner, someone had told him that Evelyn was being abused by her husband. So, when he came home, he decided to make me suffer everything Evelyn had gone through.

Back then… Back then…

All I had done was refuse to let him bring Evelyn along when he tutored me. For that, he blamed me for her accident.

He had hated me for an entire lifetime.

If that was the case, why did he marry me? Why did he accept all my kindness as if he deserved it?

Thinking of that, I clenched my fists.

…

The moment I stepped out, Matthias jumped to his feet, eager.

"Evelyn's foundation isn't very strong. When I tutor you in the future, can I bring her along?"

Evelyn stood beside him, glancing at me cautiously. Her brows were slightly knit, as if the request embarrassed her.

Matthias gently patted her hand, signaling her to relax.

I noticed every little gesture.

Facing their hopeful looks, I shook my head lightly.

"No."

In my previous life, it was the same. I refused Matthias, and he hated me for it.

Evelyn had transferred to our school during our senior year.