Chapter 2

The system asked me, “Are you sure? The countdown to your return is seven days. This body will gradually grow weaker and die on the seventh day.”

I looked at the two of them as they chatted happily in the living room and said so softly that only I could hear myself, “I’m sure.”

As I leaned against the wall, I suddenly remembered what happened seven years ago.

Back then, Yarden had just gone bankrupt. Someone had broken his leg and left him in an alley in a heavy downpour.

Everyone avoided him. Even his parents had publicly cut ties with him.

I was the only one who carried him back to that run-down rental with the leaky roof because my system had given me a mission to “save the male lead.”

I remembered how badly the fever had affected him. He was barely conscious and kept saying that he was in pain.

I spent night after night wiping him down with rubbing alcohol and feeding him water.

The first thing he saw when he woke up was my face. His eyes were so bloodshot that they looked like they might ooze blood.

His fingers trembled as they caught the edge of my clothes. He looked so helpless when he whispered, “Lily, don’t leave me.”

Later, when he made his comeback, he held me in his arms and said softly, “Lily, you’re the only one I’ll ever love.”

Back then, the affection in his eyes was so intense that it made my heart race. I truly believed I was special to him.

But later, I understood that I was only slightly more deserving of his sympathy than everyone else. I was never truly one of a kind to him.

With a bitter smile, I picked up the plate of fruit and walked out.

The living room was empty. I could hear faint laughter and chatter from upstairs.

I followed the sound to the master bedroom. The moment I pushed open the door, I froze.

Quiana was wearing my wedding dress.

I had locked away that old wedding dress in my closet.

Yarden stood behind her and slowly tied the laces at the back of the dress.

They were standing very close. His chin rested against the side of her neck, and their breaths mingled.

I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms.

In this lifetime, I had worn a wedding dress for Yarden twice.

The first time was in that rundown rental with the leaky roof.

We were too poor to afford a wedding dress back then. Yarden saved up for six months to buy the fabric. Then, he sewed the dress himself.

His right leg was still in a cast, so he sat on a stool and stayed up countless nights to finish it.

Whenever I woke up in the middle of the night, I would see him with his head down, his fingers covered in tiny bloody pricks from the needle.

He had not noticed me. Under the dim yellow light, he simply smoothed out the wrinkles in the skirt again and again.

Later, we had the lavish wedding we had always dreamed of. I wore a custom-made wedding dress with 100,000 tiny diamonds sewn into it. It was worth a fortune.

The most precious dress to me was always that old one with its crooked stitches.

Yet, he had let another woman wear it.

Crash!

The fruit plate slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor. Bright red raspberries scattered across the floor like drops of blood.

Only then did Yarden notice me. He instinctively rushed over and grabbed my wrist. He checked my hand from top to bottom.

“Did you cut yourself on any of the broken pieces?”

His worried frown looked completely genuine.

But at that moment, his concern only made the pain in my chest even harder to bear.

The next second, he looked at my pale face, let go of my wrist, and his voice turned cold.

“Are you overthinking things again? Quiana was just curious. She wanted to know what it felt like to be a bride.”

Quiana walked over to me. She hooked her arm around mine and said in a sweet, childish voice,

“Mom, you promised me you’d give me this wedding dress in the future. You said I could wear it and continue with the happiness it brought you!”

The provocative look in her eyes made me feel sick.

So, this was how she could use the excuse of being my “daughter” who had traveled from the future.

Yarden frowned, but he did not interfere. He seemed curious about my reaction.

I chuckled and pulled my hand free. “Of course! You can have it.”

Yarden froze for a moment. His face darkened.

“Lily, you know how much effort I put into making that wedding dress. Are you just going to give it away?”

I met his eyes with a gentle yet distant smile.

“You were the one who told me not to be so sensitive and overthink things. If I can’t even give this to my own daughter, wouldn’t I be petty?”

Yarden was at a loss for words. Then, he sneered and said, “Fine.”

He grabbed Quiana by the wrist and slammed the dressing room door shut.

Quiana’s sweet, breathy cries came from inside right after.

I looked up. Through the gap in the door, I saw Yarden pin Quiana against the mirror. He kissed her with all the anger he had.

I felt bitter and sad.

He was the one who had put my wedding dress on another woman because he wanted to provoke me. Yet, when I said I did not want it anymore, he got angry.

What was he really angry about? Was he angry because I did not care about the effort he had put into making it? Or was he angry because I had finally stopped acting hysterical like he expected me to?

I smiled bitterly, turned around calmly, and walked over to the desk.

I took my diary out of the drawer and wrote the first line of my final letter.

There was bumping and falling inside the dressing room. The noise was loud. They were probably getting quite carried away.

I tightened my grip on the pen until my knuckles turned white, but I never once looked up.

Two hours later, the dressing room door finally opened.

Yarden helped Quiana out.

Her legs were so weak that she could barely stand. She leaned against him, and there were tearful traces around the corners of her eyes.

Yarden looked at me as if nothing had happened. “Quiana was curious about what our wedding was like. I showed her what we did back then. It took a little while to explain the whole thing.”

I quietly closed my diary. My stomach churned.

The only part of our wedding they had probably revisited was the intimate night.

I lowered my eyes and took the beaded bracelet off my wrist. I held it out to Quiana. Her face was still flushed.

I smiled and said, “Since you like my things so much, you can have this too.”

Yarden’s eyes fell on the beaded bracelet, and his eyes widened.

He rushed over, snatched the bracelet from my hand, and glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

“How dare you give this to someone else?!

“Lily, you know what this is! I almost died to get this for you back then!”