Chapter 3

Jasmine slid an arm around the back of Dexter's waist and patted his back with the other hand, speaking in a gentle voice that I found extremely foreign.

"It's okay. I'm here."

The concern and anxiety on her face were real. They were also something that I'd rarely ever seen in our seven years of marriage.

I stood at the doorway, watching them, and suddenly broke into a smile.

How hilarious.

This woman, who thought of me as an obsessive madman, was actually treating another person with such tenderness.

I opened the front door, allowing the night breeze to blow in. I heard Jasmine's voice behind me say, "Be careful on your way back."

Who did she think she was fooling?

…

I went to my studio the next day and realized that the lock was broken. Someone had broken in and completely trashed my studio.

My drafts and sketches had been ripped up and scattered across the floor, my easels and paintbrushes were broken, and three large words were spray-painted on the walls in red.

"Get lost, cheater!"

I had spent three months preparing drafts and sketches for my exhibition next month, but now they were all gone.

I hadn't even snapped back to my senses when I heard my neighbors whispering amongst themselves.

"Heard that? Noah finally agreed to the divorce."

"Yeah. And you know what a good person Jasmine is. I bet Noah did something outrageous to her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have insisted on divorcing him."

I was dazed.

Those words felt too familiar. It had been the exact same situation as back then, in my past life.

Jasmine protected Dexter by spreading lies and rumors about me being insane in the head, accusing me of obsessively stalking and pestering her, and painting me as the root cause of the divorce. I fought back by exposing her misdeeds and making a huge fuss at her company, spilling all the beans to the public.

But as it turned out, everyone only treated me like I'd lost my mind, accusing me of being a psycho and deserving of being locked up in a mental hospital forever.

And so, Jasmine seized the opportunity and locked me up in the psychiatric hospital when I threw another fuss at the general hospital.

Back then, the "diagnosis" report read, "This patient has paranoid personality disorder. In-patient treatment is highly recommended."

Jasmine was the one who signed the document.

I shook off the memories and walked straight up to the people who were gossiping about me.

"You think that I cheated? Then, tell me, who exactly did I cheat on her with?"

They were shocked by my sudden appearance and stammered for a long time trying to answer me, exchanging glances with one another.

Just then, Dexter suddenly appeared in the hallway and walked up to me with an innocent smile on his face.

"Come on, Noah. Of course you're the only one who would know whom you cheated on Jazzy with."

His eyes were smug when he spoke to me. I just met him with my expressionless eyes and said, "Everyone, there's only one of us here who is the real cheater. Wanna guess who it is?"

Dexter's face turned pale. The people around us were stunned as well.

But right at that moment, Jasmine also turned up out of the blue and rushed over to us, shielding Dexter behind her.

She frowned at me and said, "We're already divorced, Noah. Stop attacking Dexter like this."

I stared at her. "So, you're admitting that you were the ones who spread the false rumors about me?"

She didn't admit it, but she didn't deny it either. She only said, "You're going overboard."

"I'm going overboard?"

I turned to Dexter and said, "Tell me, Dexter. Have I ever let you down or wronged you growing up?

"I was the one who paid for your college tuition. I was the one who recommended you for a job at the company. I was the one who offered to let you move in with us. And this is how you repay me? By harboring impure thoughts toward your own sister-in-law?"

Dexter glared at me without a word.

I then turned to Jasmine and enunciated each word clearly.

"You're the one who kicked me out of the relationship, and now, you're also the one playing the good person in the public eye. You're absolutely disgusting."

Jasmine's gaze turned cold. However, she didn't let it show on her face. Instead, she spoke to me condescendingly.

"You've gone overboard this time, Noah. You'd better calm down right now before things get ugly."

She was always like this—calm, collected, and most concerned about her ego.

I straightened up and made myself clear.

"You think that I've gone overboard, Jasmine Maynard? I'll show you what it really means to be going overboard."

The reason I was reborn was to protect myself. I was here to exact revenge on them and make them pay, not to suffer another round of torment.