All Chapters of Reborn After My Vampire Husband Betrayed Me and I Let My Stepsister Take My Place: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Elena's POVThe blood was draining out of me through the hole in my chest.I lay there shaking, my mind slipping in and out of consciousness from the pain.Even now, I couldn't stop replaying that final scene.Ryan, my beloved husband, now the crowned Vampire Prince, stood in his finest clothes, his arm wrapped around Vicky.He looked at me with cold, contemptuous eyes.“You have no use to me anymore,” he said.Vicky wore the ruby necklace my mother had left me. She was smiling as she drove the knife into my chest.“Elena, what does it matter that your bloodline is purer than mine?”I lay helpless on the bed, still bleeding heavily from childbirth, too weak to lift a hand.“Your child, your husband, your mother's inheritance — all of it is mine now.”I watched her tighten her grip on the blade and force it through my heart. The pain spread through me until I could barely feel anything at all.“I told you long ago: stop hoping that someone will come for you. Stop hoping anyone will ever

Elena's POVThe sitting room stayed quiet for a long time.Vicky held Ryan's coat, her eyes bright enough to be frightening, already picturing herself in a vampire bride's wedding gown, standing at the heir's side while the whole world envied her.Stepmother recovered first.She couldn't quite contain the delight on her face, though she arranged her expression into something soft and maternal as she looked at me.“Elena, I'm glad you've come around.”“You're Vicky’s sister. It was only fitting that you give way to Vicky.”“Vicky has always been delicate, and her heart is pure. Please don't keep making things difficult for her.”I looked at that false, indulgent face of hers and felt only contempt.In my last life, I had wanted so badly to feel some warmth from this family. That want had made me fall for her hollow performances, again and again.She'd told me Vicky was young, so I should be the one to yield.She'd told me she would raise me like her own daughter.And what had come of it

Elena's POVFather agreed to both my conditions in the end.Stepmother's expression soured, but she didn't dare argue further in front of him. Tight-lipped, she sent someone off to gather my mother's belongings.Vicky held Ryan's coat as if it were a priceless treasure, long past caring what I took.I went back to my room and closed the door. Finally, a moment of quiet.This was the room I had been kept away from for so long.Small and remote, the window looking out on a tall, bare tree in the back courtyard, not much moonlight finding its way inside.And yet I stood there and felt, for the first time in ages, something like peace.At least here there was no Ryan.No calculations hidden behind his gentle smile.In my last life, during the height of our closeness, I had once begged him to help me reclaim my mother's inheritance.He had held me and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, his voice tender enough to break my heart.“Elena, don't make things ugly with your family over material

Elena's POVThe night before the wedding, Ryan came again.Vicky had intended to stay close to him all evening, but Stepmother called her away to try on tomorrow's jewelry.Ryan and I were alone in the sitting room.He looked at me quietly.“Elena. Walk with me in the garden.”My fingers tightened.The night before my last wedding, he had done exactly this.Back then, I had no defenses at all. The chance to be alone with him had kept me awake with happiness all night.This time, I knew I shouldn't go.But I also wanted to know if he would use exactly the same approach.So I lowered my head and kept the compliant expression.“All right.”Ryan took me deep into the back garden, to a glass greenhouse.White roses grew thickly inside, and no one ever came there at night.When the door closed behind us, the scent of roses mingled with damp earth.Moonlight fell across Ryan.He was still devastatingly handsome.This was the man I had loved so far past reason in my last life.And the man who

Ryan's POVHalfway through the ceremony, I glanced at the Elder Council's section.The elders' expressions were not good.My brother Caleb had sent word that he was ill and hadn't come.He was also a candidate for the throne, and competition between us had always been fierce. His absence from my wedding had already earned the Elder Council's displeasure.Father sat in the place of honor, his face a degree darker than usual.I lowered my eyes, concealing the cold satisfaction beneath them.Good.The more deliberately Caleb kept his distance, the more guilt it would imply when the assassination attempt happened.The music continued.The bride stood beside me, her face hidden under the heavy veil.I had just begun to take her hand when I caught a faint sound out of place.I glanced up.In the shadow of the second floor above the banquet hall, someone had moved.The next second, the dark barrel of a gun was leveled at me.The guests hadn't noticed yet. Several members of the Elder Council