Chapter 1

Evelyn's POV

The first thing I felt wasn’t pain.

It was the cold.

A cold so deep it seemed to seep past my skin and anchor itself straight into my bones.

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t speak.

I couldn’t even open my eyes.

Yet, I could hear.

Voices.

Hurried footsteps.

A phone ringing somewhere.

Then a trembling female voice, repeating my name over and over.

Evelyn…

I wanted to answer.

I wanted to say that I was still here.

That I hadn’t left yet.

But no sound escaped my throat.

My body no longer obeyed me.

Another voice spoke up.

A man’s voice.

Calm.

Terribly calm.

She won’t survive.

My heart constricted.

I knew that voice.

Even through the haze wrapping around my mind, I would have recognized it among a thousand.

Ethan.

No.

Not Ethan .

I shook my head internally.

It wasn’t possible.

Nathaniel Hayes wasn’t here.

He couldn’t be here.

The man I had loved all my life was somewhere else.

With her.

With the woman who had destroyed my life.

With my own half-sister.

A tear slipped from the corner of my eye.

Or perhaps it was merely an illusion.

Because in the final minutes of my life, I could no longer tell my memories apart from reality.

Five years.

Five whole years.

That was how long it had taken me to understand that love could be a weapon.

When I first met Nathaniel, I thought I had met my destiny.

He was rich.

Powerful.

Respected.

The kind of man whose name alone was enough to silence an entire room.

And I was Evelyn Sterling.

A famous actress, admired by millions, loaded with prestigious contracts, ad campaigns, and a career that seemed destined for the stars.

I had everything.

A career.

Money.

A family.

And above all, a man I believed incapable of betraying me.

I had been stupid.

Because when Ethan asked me to be his wife, I didn’t think twice.

I said yes.

I gave up contracts for him.

I turned down roles because his family felt a married woman ought to know her place.

I endured his mother’s passive-aggressive remarks.

The humiliations.

The disdainful smirks of his relatives.

Every time someone told me my career was taking up too much room, I backed down.

Every time Ethan asked me to make a sacrifice, I made it.

I thought that was what loving someone meant.

To give endlessly.

To forgive without question.

To stay even when walking away would have been easier.

I didn’t know that while I was helping build his empire, he was orchestrating my ruin.

It had all started a few months before my death.

Ethan started coming home later and later.

He barely looked at me anymore.

His calls became secretive.

His phone never left his hand.

At first, I convinced myself he was just busy.

Then I began noticing small things.

A scent of perfume that wasn’t mine.

Deleted messages.

Meetings I had never heard of.

And above all…

Victoria.

My half-sister.

She had always been jealous of me.

Ever since we were kids, she compared everything.

My clothes.

My grades.

My friends.

Then my career.

When I became famous, she smiled in front of others and cried when she was alone.

Yet I had stood up for her.

I had helped her.

I gave her a position in my company.

I even introduced her to Nathaniel.

What an irony.

I was the one who brought them together.

Me, who opened the door.

Me, who handed them every weapon they needed to destroy me.

I still remembered the day I uncovered the truth.

I had come home earlier than expected.

The house was silent.

I called out for Ethan .

No response.

Then I heard voices upstairs.

I climbed the steps.

Slowly.

Unaware that every step was leading me straight to the end of my life.

When I opened the master suite door…

Everything stopped.

Time.

My breath.

My heart.

Victoria was there.

In my husband’s arms.

I remembered her look.

No shame.

No fear.

Only surprise.

Nathaniel turned around.

Evelyn…

I didn’t scream.

I didn’t cry.

I just looked at him.

How long?

He didn’t answer.

Victoria, however, smiled.

A smile I would never forget.

Long enough.

Those words shattered me more definitively than a blade ever could.

But that was only the beginning.

I discovered their secret accounts.

The wire transfers.

The falsified contracts.

The documents bearing my signature.

They had slowly transferred my investments.

They had set up the sale of my shares.

They had even manufactured scandals to ruin my reputation.

And when they were finished…

They wanted to leave me with nothing.

Not just penniless.

Careerless.

Nameless.

Futureless.

I wanted to fight back.

I wanted to expose the truth.

But nobody believed me.

Nathaniel had always been better at that game than I was.

He knew when to smile.

What to say.

How to shed the right tears.

He told the world I was unstable.

Obsessive.

Jealous.

A woman incapable of accepting that her marriage was over.

Then everything collapsed.

My contracts vanished.

My accounts were frozen.

My assets were seized.

Reporters swarmed outside my house.

My friends stopped answering my calls.

Even my family turned their backs on me.

And Ethan…

Ethan watched me sink.

Without ever reaching out to help.

I remembered my last night alive.

I was driving alone.

Rain pounded against the windshield.

I had nothing left.

No home.

No career.

No family.

No love.

I just wanted to get somewhere far away where no one could find me.

Then the headlights appeared.

A truck.

A slick road.

A deafening crash.

And then…

Darkness.

Evelyn?

The voice yanked me back to reality.

I felt something against my hand.

A soft pressure.

Then a man’s voice.

Stay with me.

I wanted to open my eyes.

I wanted to see his face.

But something inside told me I shouldn’t.

Because if Ethan was truly here…

Then it meant I wasn’t dead yet.

I gathered every ounce of strength I had left.

My fingers twitched.

Once.

Then twice.

The man’s voice cut off.

She’s moving.

A second voice spoke up.

Impossible.

My heart beat faintly.

I tried to draw breath.

Then my eyelids fluttered open.

The light blinded me.

I blinked several times.

A white ceiling came into focus.

A familiar scent drifted through the room.

I turned my head slowly.

And I saw him.

Nathaniel Hayes.

I stopped breathing.

He was standing near the window.

Younger.

So much younger.

No fine lines around his eyes.

None of that cold, hardened expression I knew so well.

He wore a dark suit.

His hair was slightly longer.

And his gaze…

His gaze was exact to the memory I held.

I stared at the man in front of me.

Impossible.

This couldn’t be happening.

Nathaniel stepped closer.

"Evelyn, can you hear me?"

I pulled back instinctively.

My heart began pounding wildly.

I looked around.

The bedroom.

The furniture.

The white vase on the table.

The painting hanging on the wall.

I knew this place.

I had seen it a hundred times before.

Then my eyes landed on the date displayed on the small calendar beside the bed.

My breath hitched completely.

June 12.

Five years earlier.

The exact day I knew by heart.

The day Nathaniel was supposed to ask me to marry him.

My hands started to shake.

No.

I pressed a hand to my chest.

My heart was beating.

Really beating.

I scrambled up abruptl Ethan tried to hold me steady.

"Easy!"

I pushed his hand away.

I sprinted straight to the mirror.

A young woman stared back at me.

My hair was long.

My face was radiant.

My skin was flawless.

No scars.

No exhaustion.

No trace of the five years of agony.

I touched my face.

Then my lips.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

I recognized this face.

It was mine.

But it was the Evelyn of before.

The Evelyn who still believed in love.

The Evelyn who didn't know she was about to lose everything.

I backed away from the mirror.

A single thought burned through my mind:

I have a second chance.

A second chance.

Not to love Ethan .

Not to repair our marriage.

Not to stop Victoria from becoming his mistress.

No.

I clenched my fists.

This time, I wouldn't hand them a single thing.

Not my career.

Not my fortune.

Not my name.

And above all…

I will never become Ethan wife.

The door swung open behind me.

I turned around.

Nathaniel walked in, wearing the exact smile I had once found irresistible.

"Evelyn, we need to talk."

I looked at him.

For the first time in my life, I clearly saw the man hiding behind that smile.

I smiled back.

But mine held nothing innocent anymore.

"I know."

He knit his brows.

"You know what?"

I took a deep breath.

Then I uttered the words that would rewrite our destinies.

"I know you’re going to ask me to marry you."

His face froze.

And for the very first time,Ethan realized he was facing an Evelyn Sterling he had never met before.

An Evelyn who remembered everything.

An Evelyn who had already been betrayed.

An Evelyn who was no longer afraid.

And this time…

I was the one writing the ending.