Proposal Day Heist: Eloping With the Enemy

My name was Linda Green, and I was a trainee nurse from Harlan Town.

I took my own life a minute ago because I couldn't endure how my husband, Kieran Zucker, controlled my life possessively, but the heavens decided that I should be reborn.

I gazed at Kieran, who was currently proposing to me. Even if I'd been reborn, I still felt a chill run down my spine.

After marrying him in my previous life, he'd certainly done as promised and pampered me as if I were a real-life princess.

Not only did I not have to work, but I also got to wear new clothes that he prepared for me every day.

He would personally cook every meal for me and watch as I ate them, then carefully kiss my forehead in reward.

For the longest time, I considered myself the happiest woman in the world.

Later, I started gaining more and more weight from how much he fed me, but the sizes of the dresses he prepared for me never changed.

When I couldn't stand it anymore, I increased the dresses' waistline measurements by an inch. As a result, he suddenly yelled angrily at me for disobeying his commands.

His actions started becoming more like those of a researcher than a husband.

I assumed it was because he'd spoiled me that I'd begun feeling a sense of distance between us. Humans were emotional creatures, after all, to say nothing of my dearest husband.

In the following months, I obediently followed Kieran's every word. I wore the dresses he prepared and ate the nutritious meals he made.

He never seemed to need to work.

Sometime later, I brought up my desire to work with him. It would be too late to think of working once we ran out of money.

Kieran changed after that. I could no longer leave his sight for a second lest he rain down a flurry of blows on me.

It was only then that I realized everything he did for me wasn't out of love but an extreme, perverted obsession with control.

Yet, I couldn't bring up divorce with him because I would definitely be answered with his fists. So, I instead put on my most comfortable nightgown and leaped from the window to initiate my first escape attempt.

The first time I ran away, Kieran caught me before I even stepped through the villa's front door. In addition to a beating, he even "rewarded" me with three days of confinement in an isolation room and nine days of starvation.

I didn't give up, though. I began my second escape attempt, then my third… until I eventually worked my way up to my 16th attempt.

I cut myself off from the internet, turned off my phone, and discarded it. I even attempted to find refuge in a stranger's house.

I thought my plans were flawless, but he would always show up right on time just when I'd begun settling into my new place and take me away by force.

When I mustered my courage to ask for a divorce, he instead replied, "No! You'll always be mine. My prettiest doll."

I completely gave up and took my own life in the bathtub on a most ordinary afternoon.

I thought death would grant me freedom, but the heavens made me live a second life instead.

It was just as well, as I also wanted to see how he would react if I got together with his most hated nemesis, Scott Quinlan, in front of him.

As such, I walked up decisively to Scott and confessed, "I like you, Scott Quinlan."

"Huh?" Scott asked dumbly, clearly taken aback by my confession.