Chapter 1

"Even if Candice Jenkins is really dead, there should at least be a body. There's nothing at all. Are you really going to stop looking for her?"

I clenched my phone so tightly my fingers hurt, but for a long time, I said nothing.

At the same time, angry voices drifted out from the private room behind the door.

"Faking your own death is one thing, but you could've at least left your sister's body behind. At least then Jon Cole would've given up."

"He's practically gone insane searching for her everywhere. It's honestly pitiful to watch."

Candice lounged lazily against the sofa, her expression unreadable.

"I was afraid Austin Ryles would be too upset, so I had my sister's body cremated right away. If Jon wants to keep searching, let him."

"After what his family did to force me into submission back then, this is the least they deserve. Think of it as payback."

Bitterness flashed through her eyes.

She had never forgiven my mother for drugging her in a moment of desperation, unable to bear watching me suffer through my hopeless one-sided love. That single impulsive act had trapped Candice beside me for five whole years.

Who would have thought that the wife who had always seemed so gentle and caring toward me had secretly hated me this deeply all along?

After a bitter laugh at myself, tears finally spilled from my eyes, cold against my skin.

On the day of the plane crash, all of Candice's coworkers from the airline came to comfort me. They told me to accept reality and move on.

But everything had happened too suddenly. I could not accept it.

I knelt outside the airline company for three days and three nights, begging for an explanation.

Why was there no trace of my wife's body?

Why did this plane crash end without answers?

I kept believing she was still alive. But after hearing nothing from her again and again, there were countless nights when I wanted to die with her and end everything.

And now I find out it was all fake.

A ridiculous, cruel performance that Candice staged herself from beginning to end.

All this time, right under my nose, she had been showing off her love with Austin day after day. Did she really not feel even the slightest guilt?

She brought me into her home under the identity of her 'sister,' occasionally throwing me scraps of kindness as if that could somehow make up for the damage she had done.

I leaned weakly against the wall and slowly slid to the floor. After a long silence, I finally spoke.

"Mom, from now on, I'll put the Cole family business first.

"If I'm going to remarry anyway, then arrange for me to marry the Scott family's eldest daughter.

"The one in the wheelchair."

The Scott family was a perfect match for ours in both status and power.

My mother clearly could not bear the thought of me marrying a disabled woman, but after hearing the ugly truth, she quietly agreed.

"Then… are you really not going to tell Candice about your kidney injury?"

"What if she softens after hearing about it? After all… you loved her so much back then."