On the eve of our engagement, I was in a car accident. To protect his mother and his brother and sister-in-law sitting in the back, my boyfriend swerved the wheel, sending me straight into the path of an out-of-control truck.

My legs were shattered beyond repair. Lying in the ICU, I saw him cry as he slid a diamond ring onto my finger.

“Don’t worry, baby. Once you recover, we’ll get married.”

“My family will cover the medical bills.”

But later, my father was sent away, the money ran out, and his family vanished.

I cried and confronted him, but his phone call was cold and impatient.

“How many times do I have to tell you? Your legs are broken, and they can’t be fixed. I’m not marrying someone disabled. If you keep this up, sue me.”

Then I opened my eyes, transported back to half an hour before the accident.

This time, I didn’t get into the car.

I smiled and wished them a safe trip.

——

“Renee, this engagement gift cost me half my life.”

“But I love you. I’m not saying this for anything else. I just want you to live well with Derek Tate.”

My mother-in-law’s frowning eyebrows came into view. Under the blazing sun, she shaded her eyes with her hand, but couldn’t hide the calculating look on her face.

I barely noticed her. I hadn’t realized yet—wasn’t I lying in a hospital bed, struggling with medical bills? How could I be standing safely downstairs in the community? Was this a dream?

Especially seeing my legs—whole, intact—standing beneath me.

“Hahaha, so funny.”

A familiar laugh suddenly came from behind me.

My fiancé, Derek, was stuffing a camping tent into the car, chuckling and showing his phone to his brother and sister-in-law in the back seat.

The three of them laughed so hard at a funny video.

I gasped. This scene was so familiar.

Everything was unfolding right before my eyes.

I was sure this was the day Derek invited me and his family to camp.

Of course, it was half an hour before the crash.

I could still hear the screeching brakes, the creak of the car door, the muffled thud of bones breaking.

I could never forget the despair in my father’s eyes as he knelt on the ground, begging the doctor to save me.

I could never forget the dread and fear when I looked down and saw the empty space where my legs should have been.

All of it could have been avoided.

But Derek, to protect his mother and his brother and sister-in-law in the back seat, let me face the truck head-on.

What was worse, he knelt before me, weeping bitterly, promising to slide a diamond ring on my finger.

He said he’d marry me once I recovered.

He promised to pay all the medical expenses.

But after my amputation, they sent my father away, and his family disappeared.

The hospital kept pressing me for payments, and I couldn’t reach Derek. I borrowed a fellow patient’s phone to call him.

When he answered and heard it was me, his voice was sharp and impatient.

“Your legs can’t be fixed, and you want to drag the whole family down with you?”

“To be honest, I won’t marry a disabled woman. We’re done. Don’t call me again, or you can sue me.”

We had been in love for five years, all through college.

He always said I was his only treasure.

But in the end, I was just a debt he wanted to escape.

A reporter called his family on my behalf to demand answers.

His

The truck driver would rather go to jail than pay. My father’s hair turned white overnight, and he collapsed in his hospital bed, exhausted from working late into the night.

I lay awake all night, hating myself for giving my true love to someone I never wanted, and also hating my own naivety.

It took losing my legs to see things clearly.

“Renee, what are you doing standing here in this scorching heat? Get in the car.”

Derek’s thoughtful reminder pulled me out of my memories.

Seeing that hateful face, I wanted to rush over and slap him hard. But one slap wouldn’t be enough.

In this life, I would make them all pay.

“Derek, I can’t go on this trip with you.”

I frowned, pretending to be embarrassed.

“What’s wrong?”

Derek’s face filled with concern.

Of course, I wanted to cut ties with his family as soon as possible. But I couldn’t say that out loud.

“Derek, the betrothal gift is being cut from 200,000 to 100,000. My dad agrees, but my aunt objects.”

“She says our Foster family has never given such a low betrothal gift, and we’ll be the laughingstock of the whole village.”

At the mention of money, Derek’s face darkened noticeably.

“But didn’t we already agree? Besides, the engagement is tomorrow. We can’t come up with that much money now.”

“I never even met your aunt when I visited your house before. Why is she suddenly against it?”

I sneered inwardly.

Yeah, he didn’t know. In my previous life, my aunt was against it. I got engaged under pressure and kept it a secret from her.

“Renee, the 100,000 is all I borrowed from others. Another 100,000 would cost me my life.”

“Everyone in the neighborhood knows about this. If anything goes wrong over the betrothal gift, how can we save our family’s reputation?”

Derek’s mother cried, “Taking out a loan to buy a house in the city is already a huge burden. You’re almost 30—why do you still listen to your family?”

“Her aunt is a bit too controlling,” Derek’s brother muttered quietly in the back seat, thinking I couldn’t hear him.

Derek’s sister-in-law, however, took my hand and offered some advice.

“Renee, it hasn’t been easy for you and Derek to get this far. It would be a shame to break up over what others think.”

“You live your life for yourself, not for others.”

When he preaches great truths, he sounds like an expert.

Yes, you shouldn’t live your life for others to see.

But his brother and sister-in-law took out a loan to buy a used BMW just to impress people. To avoid being laughed at, they act affectionately in public but fight behind my back.

He’s become a joke himself—and yet he comes to preach to me.

I didn’t expose his words, just nodded awkwardly. “Yes, I know what you mean.”

“But my aunt also wants me to live a good life.”

“You know, my mother passed away early, and my father worked away from home. It was my aunt who raised me. I can’t let her down.”

“But I love Derek deeply, and I know your situation. I’ll talk to my aunt when I get home.”

“You guys should go, or your camping tickets will be forfeited.”

I urged them to hurry. After all, if we were any later, we wouldn’t have caught the car accident.

“Well, I’m sure you can convince your aunt.”

Derek pondered for a moment, fastened his seatbelt, and started the car.

He seemed mysteriously confident in my love for him.

As soon as they left, I called a ride-hailing app.

I really needed to go back to my hometown.

After getting in the car and giving my phone number, I was thinking about how to tell my dad when I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder.

“Renee Foster?”

Taking a closer look at the person in front of me, I almost cried out. It was my college classmate, Sienna Young.

We had been part of a small group, but he and Derek had a falling out for unknown reasons and left the group.

He dropped out soon after, and we lost contact.

Seeing we were acquaintances, he opened up and began to talk.

When he mentioned that incident, his face still held a trace of anger.

“That day, we went to a bar. I had my eye on a junior girl, and Derek offered to help me hook up.”

“But he ended up sleeping with her himself that night.”

“I treated him like a good friend, but he treated me like Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Vacation series." How could I not beat him up?”

I remembered that day clearly.

I had gone back to my hometown, and Derek lost contact with me all night.

He said he was playing games and not checking his phone, and eventually went to bed because he was too tired.

At the time, Derek and I were secretly together and didn’t want our counselor to know, so no one else knew.

When I asked him why he got beaten up, he lied and said it was a misunderstanding.

Later, he claimed the junior girl who was looking for him was a suitor. Now it seemed she wasn’t attracted to him but was there to hold him accountable.

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my skin.

He had always pretended to care, but I never expected him to cheat on me back in college.

“You didn’t know, but we’re getting engaged tomorrow.”

I pulled out my headphones and spoke softly.

“Huh? You two are together?”

Sienna was stunned, but after years in the real world, he didn’t try to hide it.

“That doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t dare call him a bad person to his face.”

“But I don’t get it, Renee. You’re fair-skinned, beautiful, and smart. Why did you end up with him?”

“I don’t think he’s a good person.”

“Are you saying I’m blind?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying.

“I think so, too.”

“Huh?”

He was about to say more when a sudden buzzing sound came through my headphones.

Then I heard the voice of Derek’s brother.

“Derek, why is your partner talking about the betrothal gift the day before the engagement? What’s the point?”

I hadn’t expected them to be talking about me.

I turned up the volume on my headphones.

Derek’s car CD player had a monitoring device.

I hadn’t installed it—he did when he first bought the car.

He was afraid I’d cheat on him during business trips.

Later, he seemed to forget about it.

I found these headphones while cleaning the house before the engagement.

In my previous life, I was too busy preparing for the engagement to question him.

It wasn’t until after my amputation, when I was heartbroken and clung to this one item, that a fellow patient told me it was a bug-in headset.

At that moment, I felt like a complete joke.

“If you ask me, she might have gone to visit her ex under the pretense of going home.”

“No, brother, why bring that up all of a sudden?”

“What are you talking about?”

Denver Tate’s hoarse voice spoke with conviction.

“Don’t you know? Many people, before getting engaged, secretly see their exes to make love, to avoid regrets.”

“She comes back saying she’s talked with her family. We take advantage of it, and she enjoys the thrill. Who loses out? Silly brother.”

“No way. I’ve watched her for years. She hasn’t had much contact with the opposite sex.”

“Silly brother, things happen when people are most vulnerable. You haven’t dared touch her for years. If she’s been with someone else before the engagement... it would be a shame for you to have such a life...”