CHAPTER 1: UNTIL DEATH DO US PART

“If there was another life… if only there were another life.” Those were the words I managed to choke out as I stumbled over nothing and collapsed onto the cold marble floor of our mansion.

Blood spilled from the corner of my mouth, staining the pristine marble until the crimson became indistinguishable from the wine seeping out of the shattered crystal glass lying beside me—the very glass my loving husband had handed me only minutes earlier.

I clawed uselessly at the floor, the glass shards digging deep into my skin, but that sharp pain was nothing compared to the agony consuming my chest. My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, but I forced them open with everything I had left. I couldn't die like this… not like this.

I choked, blood spilling over my lips again as I clutched my chest in a desperate attempt to dull the burning inside me.

A pair of polished leather shoes stopped a few feet away from me.

“Stop fighting it, Evelyn, it’s over already,” my husband Gale’s voice cut through the haze, followed by the light chuckle that had once brought me so much joy.

“I have no idea what she’s still holding on for, baby,she’s so stubborn” Chloe’s sultry voice cooed. She latched herself onto Gale’s chest, and even as I bled out, I forced my gaze upward to see them clearly. My murderers.

“I guess spending ten years with me wasn’t enough for her—after all the effort it took to convince someone as thorough as her to sign all her assets over to my name,” Gale added, and another wave of laughter echoed through the high-ceilinged room.

That was their motivation. My best friend and the man I loved—the man I had given up everything for, the man I had borne a child for , the man who had handed me that glass of wine only moments ago with a smile and a kiss to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary were taking my life for the fortune I had spent years building.”

I forced my body to move, clawing frantically at Chloe’s ankles. “My… son…” I cried out, the words coming out as a garbled mess. If they could poison me, what would they do to him? The poor boy shouldn’t have to suffer the same fate for loving the wrong people.

“Mom!” my son called out—that familiar, sweet voice approaching us with small, hurried footsteps.

No… no, I wept silently. He can’t see me like this. It will scar him for life.

“Come here, my sweet boy,” Chloe called out smoothly. She kicked my bleeding hands away from her legs and pulled my son, Ronald, tight against her side. “You must have missed me so much, baby, since you only got to see me once a week.”

Every ounce of my resolve shattered into pieces. Son? Mom? Why would my son call her—

“Oh, you thought he was yours?” Gale sneered, dropping to a crouch beside me. His face was inches from mine, clear even through the haze of blood in my eyes. “Why would I raise a child of yours, Evelyn? That would be pathetic.”

“He might still be alive somewhere out in the world,” Chloe added with a malicious grin. “Or maybe he died years ago, who knows?” She burst into another laugh. “How does a mother not even realize the baby she birthed was swapped out right at the hospital? Just how much more naive can you get, friend?” She pulled Gale back against her side. “Watch and see what a real, perfect family looks like before you die.”

They looked down at me with pure disgust. But my mind was screaming. No… no. Not my child.

Tears streamed down my blood-stained face as the poison paralyzed my body. They had forced me to raise Chloe’s child while my own flesh and blood grew up somewhere in the world without ever knowing his mother.”

After everything I did to build Gale’s empire—after everything I gave to make the Ashford Group what it was today—this was my reward. Death. Driven out without ever seeing the face of my real child. I refused to accept this. I refused to let them live in luxury over my corpse.

Even as my vision darkened, memories flooded my mind of the years I believed we were a happy, loving family. Realizing it had all been an illusion—a calculated plot to strip me of everything—made my failing heart hammer erratically. If Chloe’s child was the same age as the boy I raised, their affair had started long before I could have ever imagined.

Was it a crime to be a supportive wife? A loyal friend? Why did it have to end like this?

“Why is she taking so long to die, damn it?” Gale barked, stomping his foot in frustration.

“Looks like the first glass wasn’t enough.”Chloe said, her heels clicking away and returning seconds later.

Through blurry eyes, I watched her kneel beside me. She pried my jaws apart and forced another glass of poison down my throat. My weakened body couldn't fight back, absorbing the toxin as I grew colder by the second.

My eyes fluttered shut, but the fire in my soul burned hotter than ever. If only I could get another chance. Just one chance to live again, I would take everything back. I’ll protect my company, secure my assets, and find my son. Most of all, I will never fall victim to Gale again. Just one chance…

“I’m sorry, my son,” I choked out in a final whisper.

Just as death took me, frantic, muffled voices echoed through the darkness, shouting my name. I could make out three distinct masculine tones, Three men.

They sounded desperate…

As though my death meant something to them.

But why?

I had never heard them before. But before I could register who they belonged to, total darkness claimed me.

I waited for the empty void of death that people always talked about, the endless emptiness, but it never came.

Instead, my eyelids pried open against my will, struck by a wave of bright sunlight. Is this the next world? I breathed, forcing my eyes to adjust to the glare. My limbs ached, but the agony in my chest was gone.

I sat up and looked around, realizing I was in a familiar decorated bedroom. The moment my eyes landed on the large canvas at the far end of the room, I scrambled to my feet and rushed toward it, oblivious to my wobbly legs.

This painting… this painting was supposedly damaged three years ago. I had bought it for our seventh wedding anniversary, and Gale claimed he accidentally ruined it a week later—a lie I only uncovered right before my death when I learned he had secretly gifted it to Chloe.

So why was it hanging here, completely untouched?

The deep green colors of the painted forest pulled me in. Right next to it, an electronic calendar glowed on the wall: July 30, 2023.

I stumbled backward, clutching my chest in disbelief. I had just been in 2026. I had just died moments ago.

My fingers slowly curled into fists.

I was back!.