Jake was wearing the suit I designed for him and the diamond ring I picked out for him, but he was not marrying me.

He pressed a hand to his temple irritably.

“I already told you, I’m just helping her recover. Can you be a little more understanding?”

My heart clenched.

I still remembered the moment the system’s deadline notification appeared. I begged him desperately, “Jake, if I don’t marry you this time, I’ll die. Can you please come register the marriage with me?”

Back then, he just gave me a cold stare.

“I told you, Whitney is just someone from my past. Can you stop making a scene?”

When I refused to give up, he finally gave in reluctantly.

“As long as you give the project to Whitney, I’ll marry you.”

I thought that if I pleased him, if I let him stay with his first love and even handed over a billion-dollar project, I would be able to survive.

However, I was wrong.

He agreed to marry me, only to stand me up on the day of our registration and instead marry Whitney.

He let her take everything from me. Now that I had nothing left, including my own life, he was still telling me to be understanding.

How ridiculous.

I calmly handed him the gift.

“Congratulations on your marriage.”

Inside was a women’s watch he bought for me ten years ago, when he confessed his love and spent everything he had on me.

It cost over a thousand dollars, an unimaginable sum for us back when we could barely afford food.

I once believed it was the symbol of our love and had kept it carefully all this time.

It was over between us now, so this symbol should be returned to him.

Jake held the gift in his hand, realizing he had misunderstood me. He opened his mouth awkwardly, as though he was about to say something.

At that moment, Whitney arrived.

“Jake, everyone’s waiting for you.”

She only then seemed to notice me and asked, confused, “Who is she?”

She pretended not to recognize me, but the sharpness in her eyes betrayed her.

I was certain that Whitney had never lost her memory.

However, Jake, who had always been so perceptive, could not see through her act. Instead, he quickly explained, “Just a friend. She’s here to deliver a gift.”

Whitney immediately smiled and thanked me, then opened the gift in front of everyone. She said in surprise, loudly enough for everyone to hear, “A watch?”

Whispers spread through the crowd.

“Giving a watch at a wedding? Is she here to cause trouble?”

Tears welled up in Whitney’s eyes.

“I believe you, Jake. Your friend must be here to bless us. I’ll wear it so she won’t feel embarrassed.”

She put it on while crying.

Jake shot me a reproachful glance and soothed her, “If you don’t like it, don’t force yourself.”

However, she shook her head stubbornly.

“No, I have to wear it. It’s from your friend.”

During their struggle, the watch slipped and shattered on the ground.

Whitney acted like a naive child, pressing her hand directly onto the shattered glass.

She cried out in pain, holding up a fingertip with a bead of blood on it.

Jake’s expression darkened when he saw this. He grabbed the watch strap and hurled it at me.

“I knew you came here with bad intentions. Guards, kick her out!”

He called in an entire medical team to tend to her tiny wound, holding her finger like it was something precious.

He pretended not to see how the watch cut my face when he threw it at me.

Blood slid down my cheek, yet I felt no pain.

“Miss Hoyles, please get out!”

The same bodyguards who once protected me now lifted me to please their new master and threw me out.

I collapsed onto the gravel path. My body ached as though every bone had shattered. I did not even try to get up. I just lay there staring at the sky.

After a long while, my phone buzzed. Jake had wired me $100,000.

[Head to the hospital. If your face gets disfigured, I really won’t want you anymore.]

I did not accept the money. I just forced myself up and threw the blood-stained, broken watch into the trash.

It did not matter anymore.

I just want to live for myself for the last seven days of my life.

…

I stopped sending Jake good-morning and good-night texts, and I no longer replied to his messages.

On the second day after my death sentence, I went to the bar he hated most. I smoked, drank, and danced until dawn.

On the third day, I sold all the gifts he had given me and donated the money to charity.

On the fourth day, I burned all thirty thousand photos we had taken together.

The butler tried to persuade me.

“Mr. Field is just confused for a moment. He still loves you.

“You two built everything together, and it wasn’t easy. You should try to win him back before Whitney really takes your place.”

Jake started out as an ordinary man. The system tasked me with winning him over, so I stayed by his side while he built his business.

I handled the hardest work and took on the most difficult projects. There were countless times when I drank so much with clients that I was hospitalized, just to secure a deal.

Jake wanted a reputation and the position of CEO.

I gave him everything he wanted.

When we finally made enough money to buy this villa, he cried and promised he would treat me well for the rest of his life.

However, in the end, he was the one who ended my life.

I shook my head and flicked my cigarette butt into the fire.

Whitney was the one he truly loved. No matter how hard I tried to win him back, I would only humiliate myself.

The butler heaved a sigh, but he still wanted to call Jake.

That night, when I came downstairs, Jake returned with a row of luxury watches for me to choose from.

“I misunderstood you that day, but if you hadn’t shown up, Whitney wouldn’t have been injured.

“Anyway, forget it. I broke your gift, and I’m sorry.

“That watch was too cheap anyway. I’ll buy you a better one. You actually benefited from all this.”

He joked like he always did and reached out to touch the injury on my face.

I dodged him.

It was a gift that had once cost everything he had, but he no longer remembered its significance, calling it cheap.

Yes, he was right.

The love he gave me had always been cheap. I was the fool who treasured it for so many years.

I lay on the sofa and replied calmly, “No need. Give the watches to Whitney instead. She’s your wife, after all.”

Jake hesitated for a moment, as though he wanted to say something.

At that moment, Whitney walked out of a room in her nightgown, deliberately showing off the watch on her wrist.

“No need. The watches Jake buys me are all worth hundreds of millions and are one-of-a-kind. I don’t care for something so tacky.”

Jake raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Whitney let out an ‘oops’, lightly smacking herself on the mouth.

“Sorry. I’m too straightforward. I don’t think before I speak. If I’ve offended you in any way, please forgive me.

“Jake said you’re his senior who helped him a lot, so I should toast to you.”

I turned to look at Jake sharply.

He once said this was our forever home, but now, he had brought another woman into it.

Sensing my reaction, he looked at me pleadingly, hands pressed together, silently asking me to play along.

However, I was no longer the obedient woman I used to be.

I refused to endure this anger anymore.

I raised my glass and clinked it into empty air.

“What a joke! You don’t even have a brain.”

Silence.

Whitney’s face turned deathly pale instantly.

Jake’s expression also darkened.

“Apologize!”

She came into my home to stir trouble, yet I was the one who had to apologize? What kind of logic was that?

I ignored him and made my way up the stairs.

I could hear Jake’s gentle voice comforting Whitney from downstairs, treating her like a child.

It was a treatment I had never once received.

After a long while, the villa finally fell silent.

I went downstairs to get something to eat.

Unexpectedly, Whitney had not left yet.

She walked up to me with a smile.

“How does it feel to have your husband taken away?

“Let me tell you the truth. I didn’t lose my memory. I did it on purpose.”

I poured myself a glass of water.

“Oh.”

I knew she wanted to provoke me, but a dying person no longer had anything left to care about.

Whitney noticed that I remained unmoved and suddenly panicked when she heard approaching footsteps.

She flipped over a chair to fake a fall, slapped her own face, and curled up on the ground with a pitiful cry.

“Whitney, what happened?!”

Jake hurried over to check her injuries.

Whitney immediately covered her face and wailed, “Jake, I just wanted to apologize to your senior, but she hit me.”

Jake’s face darkened with anger as he kicked over the food container.

“Estelle, when did you become so unreasonable? You even hit someone?

“I bought you your favorite food. Now, I’d rather feed it to a dog than give it to you.”

The dishes scattered on the floor were indeed all my favorites.

Who cared?

He did not ask me for my side of the story nor check the surveillance. He took Whitney’s words as truth and pinned the blame on me.

In the end, it was simple. He did not love me, so he refused to believe me.

He roared when I did not respond.

“Apologize to Whitney right now!”

Apologize?

Fine!

I had already taken the blame, so I might as well make it worth it.

I picked up the wine bottle from the table and smashed it hard against Whitney’s head.

“Sorry. I hit you too lightly earlier. I hope I didn’t disappoint this time!”

Blood began to seep from Whitney’s head.

Jake screamed in panic. He rushed to tend to her wound while calling an ambulance, drenched in sweat from panic.

Only after she was taken away did he remember to punish me.

“Guards, lock her in a room. Let her reflect on her actions for three days.”

He glared at me.

“So, you like hitting people? You can keep being arrogant.”

Then, he got into the ambulance and left without another word.

Several bodyguards dragged me away like a dead dog.

Afraid I would escape, they locked me in a windowless room and shackled my limbs with heavy chains.

When the door shut, darkness swallowed everything.

I did not expect the last three days of my life to be spent in a place like this.

Still, things only got worse.

On the first day, Whitney came in with her head wrapped in gauze, confiscated my food, and ordered them to cut off my water and meals for the next three days.

On the second day, she kicked me until my stomach churned and I vomited acid.

On the third day, she used a whip with barbs, leaving my skin torn and bleeding beneath my clothes.

I looked at her coldly.

“Aren’t you afraid Jake will find out what you did?”

She shrugged indifferently.

“So what if he does? He loves me. He won’t believe your side of the story.

“Estelle, you’re about to be released. Why don’t you try to see who he believes, you or me?

“I suggest you don’t bring this storm upon yourself.”

She pressed down on my wounds.

She only left in satisfaction after my blood soaked through the dark fabric.

She was right. Jake would not believe me.

However, it no longer mattered.

The countdown in my mind had already reached zero.

The moment the door closed, my consciousness began to fade.

Memories of our past love flashed before my eyes. They were beautiful, warm, and once real.

In the end, they shattered like glass, dissolving into nothingness.

I let out a broken laugh as my arm went limp and fell.

Jake, in my next life, and the one after that, I never want to meet you again…

…

That evening, Jake returned from work and finally remembered the girlfriend he had locked up.

He carried a lunchbox and pushed open the door.

“Estelle, I’m here. I locked you up for three days. You must be starving. I made you something myself to nourish you.”

There was no response. His eyes scanned the room.

Suddenly, his gaze locked onto something. His pupils shrank violently, and the lunchbox slipped from his hands, crashing to the floor as the soup and food spilled everywhere.