Chapter 1

In the center of the hall, attendants carried over two bouquets of roses in different colors.

The black roses represented Marcus Zillmann, the eldest son of the Zillmann family and first in line to inherit the family.

He leaned back in his chair with a blank expression, like a perfect but cold sculpture.

The white roses represented Noah Zillmann, the younger son of the Zillmann family. He was the illegitimate child.

A faint smile rested on his lips, making him look gentle and refined.

Before I could even sort out my thoughts, a voice suddenly rang in my ears.

‘This time, I’ll be the first to give birth to an heir!’

It was my sister Amelia Foster’s voice.

Instinctively, I looked toward her, only to realize her lips were tightly pressed together. She hadn’t spoken at all.

Her eyes were locked onto the bouquet of white roses like a hunter staring at prey.

‘Just wait. I’ll steal him away soon enough.’

Her voice sounded again.

In an instant, I understood.

I had been reborn. And somehow, I could hear other people’s thoughts.

From the meaning behind Amelia’s words just now, she had clearly been reborn, too. Otherwise, she never would have said something like, “be the first to give birth to an heir”.

Sure enough, the next second, she stood up and picked up the bouquet of white roses.

Right in front of everyone, she shyly pressed a kiss to the roses. Then she walked straight over to Noah and handed them to him.

“Mr. Noah, please take care of me from now on.”

The headmistress of the Bridal Academy immediately spoke when she saw this.

“Jane, since Amelia chose Noah, you’ll marry Marcus.”

As soon as those words fell, unconcealed triumph flashed through Amelia’s eyes.

She was laughing in her heart.

‘Jane, this lifetime, you’ll be the one living like a widow!’

In our previous life, Amelia had rushed to choose Marcus first in order to become the lady of the Zillmann family.

Marcus had a shark-like instinct for profit.

In just a few short years, he expanded the Zillmann family business across all of Europa.

However, everyone knew he stayed year-round in the top-floor suite of the company building and refused to let anyone get close to him.

Amelia had tried every possible method, from wearing a revealing nightgown and knocking on his door late at night to using document delivery as an excuse to enter his study.

She even sneaked into his hotel room while he was away on a business trip.

Every single time, though, she was mercilessly thrown out and humiliated like a joke.

Later, she never became pregnant.

At a family banquet, Donna Zillmann of the Zillmann family publicly declared that Amelia “had something wrong with her body” before directly kicking her out of the family.

Meanwhile, I married Noah.

Everyone thought I was unlucky.

An illegitimate son had no real power and wouldn’t inherit much of the family fortune. But after we got married, Noah became almost obsessed with me.

Every day, he stayed by my side, shopping and eating with me and taking me on dates.

Every late night, the sounds coming from our room made the servants blush whenever they passed by.

Later, Marcus suddenly died.

The autopsy report showed heavy metal poisoning as the cause of death, but nobody knew who did it.

Noah inherited the entire Zillmann family.

And I went from being the wife of a family outcast to becoming the Donna of the Zillmann family.

Amelia became jealous to the point of madness.

She invited me out shopping, only to drag me off the rooftop of a mall so we would die together.

The moment the feeling of weightlessness swallowed me whole, I only heard her screaming:

“Why do you get to live better than me?!”

…

When I came ‌to my senses, I smiled lightly and answered, “Sure. I happen to like Marcus too.”

I picked up the bouquet of black roses and walked toward Marcus step by step.

The closer I got, the stronger the pressure around him became.

It felt like an invisible wall of ice surrounded him.

No wonder Amelia barely dared to breathe in front of him in our previous life.

I tried to listen to his thoughts, but his mind was completely silent. There was nothing.

Instead, Noah casually rubbed the rose petals between his fingers while turning to look at Amelia.

Immediately, I heard his voice.

‘So beautiful… She’ll probably look even prettier when she’s crushed.’

His tone sounded gentle, but my fingers trembled so hard that I almost failed to hold on to the roses.

Marcus, standing in front of me, lifted his eyes and glanced indifferently at me. Then he reached out, accepted the roses, and pinned them to his chest.

I immediately thanked him softly, and he withdrew his gaze.

His personality was cold, but his fingers were warm.

Looking at the expressionless man in front of me, I felt safe for the first time.

Compared to Noah, who was a poisonous snake hiding beneath human skin, Marcus’ danger was straightforward.

In this life, I wouldn’t hand my fate over to anyone else again.

I wanted to survive and get my own money, status, and right to choose.