Fatal Vows: Tears Behind the Blade

When I woke up again, I found myself lying on the couch at home, still terrified from my experience. Liam came out of the kitchen with a slice of cake, making me jolt in shock.To my surprise, I found that the stab wounds all over my body had disappeared. I wasn't in pain, either. It was as if nothing had ever happened.Liam looked at me, gentle as ever. "Are you that stunned by the surprise? Hurry up and eat your cake. You were clamoring about wanting this, remember? I went to line up outside the store early this morning. Happy birthday, my gorgeous Izzy. I hope every day of your future will be as happy as today."I broke out in a cold sweat when I saw his uninjured arm. It looked like I'd been reborn on the day of Liam's accident. The bloodiness of my past life was still vivid in my mind, and I wanted to flee despite having a high fever. I had to get away from Liam, who was a monster!He didn't understand what was happening and thought he'd done something wrong to upset me. He follow

The story I heard from Liam was completely different from what I knew. In his version of events, he and I were still perfect lovers. Since childhood, he'd vowed to become a renowned artist. He would use his paintbrushes to draw us a world that only we lived in.What differed from my memory was that in his world, I'd witnessed a horrific accident three months before our marriage. From then on, he'd noticed something was off about me.I frequently had illusions of him or myself being in that accident. I would also often stand on our balcony with a ragdoll and toss it into the air, making it fall to the ground below. I would tell him the doll was my substitute—my perfect stand-in.That had worried him, so he'd taken me to the hospital. After a series of checks, the doctor diagnosed me with schizophrenia. I'd been forced to remain at the hospital for treatments until my birthday.Liam had taken me home so we could celebrate my birthday together, but I'd broken free and run off to Joey.

Eugene looked at me as I lay in bed, my face wrapped in gauze and bandages. He listened as I recounted to him what had happened.Yes, he was alive. He'd even saved me from the fire.According to him, he'd found some evidence to prove something was wrong. Later, he'd gotten injured in a mission and had faked his death while on the job to make Liam lower his guard.Sure enough, Liam had fallen for the lie and quickly dealt with Joey's body before bringing it home to store it with his "masterpieces".Eugene felt guilty for not protecting me. My face and voice had been ruined in the fire. I smiled and shook my head, telling him that I was thankful enough he'd saved my life.He smiled, too. Then, he looked at the sketchbook I had on my bedside table. "Did you draw these?"I nodded. "Yeah. It's too boring here; I needed something to do."Eugene flipped through the sketchbook, his gaze landing on one in particular. I leaned over to see that it was one of a towering tree with roots that curled