Chapter 1

When I met Samuel Fletcher once again, it was at an art exhibition he was hosting.

I never really liked art exhibitions, but my husband had insisted on buying me a painting as a gift and wanted me to pick one out first. So I threw on a comfortable cotton jacket, didn't bother with any makeup, and headed over to the exhibition. I never expected it to be Samuel's show.

I walked in to see him standing in the middle of the crowd with his arm around his first love, Sienna Blake.

A group of bootlickers surrounded him, including quite a few old classmates from back in the day. Their mouths were full of nothing but hollow flattery.

"This is amazing, Sam! It's only been a few years since we graduated, and you're already holding your own art exhibition!"

"It's a good thing you didn't choose Isabella Spencer back then, or you'd never have achieved all this today."

I paused for a moment when I heard them gossiping about me. But I paid them no attention and carried on looking at the paintings to kill time.

The largest portrait in the hall was covered with a white cloth.

Right at that moment, a draft blew through the hall, lifting a corner of the cloth and revealing part of the portrait's chin. For some reason, it looked strangely familiar.

Meanwhile, Samuel was saying to the crowd, "I only managed to achieve this level of success today because I chose Sienna back then. As for Isabella, she was just the most ordinary one among all my admirers. In fact, she's not worth mentioning at all."

The crowd started flattering him again. "Exactly. Sienna casually handed Sam 500 thousand dollars so he could focus entirely on his art. If he had chosen Isabella, a genius artist like Sam would have been dragged down by everyday struggles."

"I heard you and Sienna are about to get married, Sam. Is that true? You've got to invite us to the wedding when the time comes!"

Samuel took Sienna's hand and said, "Yes, we've set the date for the 14th of next month. We'll definitely invite everyone."

Cheers erupted from the crowd.

Then, someone interrupted, "Hey Sam, are you still in touch with Isabella? I heard that back in college, you gave her all you had, and even painted a huge portrait of her."

Samuel's expression grew complicated. He paused for a moment, then hid whatever he was feeling behind a smile.

"What are you talking about? She was the one chasing me in college, but I rejected her proposal at graduation. It's been seven years since we last spoke, and honestly, I've already forgotten what she even looks like."

Sienna, standing next to him, chimed in, "Come on, Sam and I are about to get married. Why are you still bringing up that pathetic and desperate woman?"

Samuel then turned to look at Sienna with eyes full of love and affection.

In my previous life, Samuel and I had been the envy of the entire campus. To win me over, he had given me countless portraits of myself.

He once said, "Your face appears in my mind whenever I close my eyes. I've painted a hundred portraits of you, and your face will forever be etched in my heart."

Moved by his affection, I agreed to date him.

Then, at our graduation ceremony, I showed up in a wedding dress and created a grand, romantic moment for him.

But only after marriage did I realize how wrong I had been. He had never been able to let go of Sienna.

And one day, in order to see her, he disregarded my life and boarded that doomed flight, dragging us both to our end.

When we were reborn into this life, I chose to abandon him. Yet here he was, telling everyone that I had been the desperate one who had chased after him.