Chapter 1

"I wanted to blame Vincent, but he is my husband. We spent our whole lives together, through thick and thin. No matter how I looked at it, the only thing I could do was give this honor to Lucian. Let it make up for what I owed him."

Lucian’s head began to buzz. His legs gave way, and he slowly slid down the wall.

Make it up to him? The words made his eyes burn with pain.

It was not fate that had dealt him a cruel hand, leaving him with broken legs and throwing him into the mountains. It was Bianca Rose, the woman he had loved for years, who had destroyed his entire life.

It happened because of something Vincent said, and she sent him into the mountains without caring whether he lived or died.

Even after learning that he had been innocent, she still could not bring herself to punish Vincent.

"Heh..." The pain grew so intense that the veins on the back of Lucian’s hand stood out as he clenched his fist.

He and Bianca had grown up together. Their families assumed they would marry one day.

It lasted until Vincent Cabell, a young man from the city, appeared, and Bianca changed.

She refused to go to an outdoor movie with Lucian, yet she used every connection she had to find him a job.

She would not buy Lucian a cheap roll of black-and-white film, yet she found a tailor to rush out a fashionable suit for Vincent.

She claimed she had no time to accompany Lucian to the clinic when he was sick, yet she stayed up all night taking care of Vincent when he caught a cold.

Lucian felt uncomfortable, but Vincent was Bianca’s lifesaver, so he swallowed his feelings and let it go.

When he thought about it now, Bianca must have fallen in love with Vincent back then. Lucian had become an obstacle in their way.

In a haze of memories, Lucian remembered the day he was first taken into the mountains. Trapped in a cellar, he begged again and again for Bianca to find him.

Even after countless failed attempts to escape left his body beaten bloody, even after he lost the hearing in one ear, he never gave up.

It was because he believed Bianca was waiting for him.

Even after waiting ten years without hearing from her, he found excuses for her.

Perhaps the mountains were too high and too far for her to reach him, or her parents stopped her from searching.

He never imagined that the person who sent him into hell was her.

Devastated, Lucian turned and left. A figure stepped in front of him, blocking his way.

"Lucian, if you were already rotting away in the mud, why did you bother coming back?"

Lucian stared at Vincent’s twisted expression and forced himself to hold back the urge to strangle him.

"Everything I suffered all these years was because of you two. What right do you have to say something like that?"

He raised his fist and slammed it into Vincent. Anger burned in his eyes.

Vincent did not dodge. A smug smile spread across his face.

The next second, Lucian was shoved aside. His temple struck the hard floor with a sickening crack, and blood began to trickle down.

Bianca froze for a moment. When she realized what happened, guilt flashed across her face, and she moved toward him.

"You knew everything?"

Lucian laughed bitterly. It was the first time he saw fear in Bianca’s eyes.

Was she afraid that he, a crippled man, would come after her for revenge?

"I know." Lucian clenched his fists. "I hate myself more than I hate either of you, for spending all these years believing you were innocent. Now get out of my way. I am going to find my parents."

A complicated look flashed through Bianca’s eyes, but her lips pressed into a tight line.

"Lucian, back then, I wanted to make sure you would never try to escape again, so I had people spread the word that your parents went abroad. The truth is, they spent more than thirty years looking for you. They passed away a long time ago. If you go looking for them now, all you will find are two old graves.

"If you are angry, take it out on me. Leave Vincent out of this. He only messed up because he loves me too much."

Lucian’s eyes widened in disbelief, and his entire body trembled.

Twenty years earlier, after he finally got a wheelchair and left the mountains, he tried to find out what happened to his parents.

When he learned that they supposedly went abroad and did not want to look for him, he felt heartbroken, but he accepted it.

He believed he was nothing more than a disabled son who brought shame upon them.

Now he discovered that his parents spent more than thirty years searching for him, and he learned of their deaths from the person responsible for destroying his life.

Lucian tried to demand answers, but before he could speak, his body toppled from his wheelchair.

When he opened his eyes again, Lucian found himself back at Chase’s residence, the place he called home for twenty years.

He had been reborn.

He threw his arms around his parents, with only one thought in his mind.

This time, he would never let anyone destroy his life.

Soon, everyone noticed that Lucian changed.

He no longer chased after Bianca. He did not complain or insist on tagging along whenever she went out with Vincent.

He did not get jealous whenever he saw Vincent holding Bianca.

He asked his parents to apply for a transfer to the South City. In half a month, they would leave together.

By then, he and Bianca would have nothing to do with each other.

The day Lucian was about to leave, Bianca, whom he had not seen in a long time, stopped him.

Her expression was dark and unreadable. "Lucian, you were reborn too, were you not?"