Arielle's POV

The night I was accepted into both Harvard and Stanford was meant to be a celebration, but instead, it became a nightmare I'd never forget.

Chester McKinsey, the man I'd secretly loved for years, pinned me down that night.

The man who had lived next door, the one I thought I could never have, ended up changing my life forever.

Despite my best efforts to be careful, I ended up pregnant.

In my previous life, I used that child to persuade him to marry me, but it also meant sacrificing my chance to attend Harvard or Stanford.

Even though Chester was the one to start everything and was obsessively clingy to me, on our wedding night, he called me shameless and accused me of drugging him.

"Arielle, don't even dream of touching me ever again!"

From that moment on, he made it his mission to humiliate me.

Without my knowledge or consent, he had our daughter's heart transplanted to save his lover's child.

While he and his precious Lorraine celebrated the success of the surgery, I was left to die tragically, clutching our daughter's ashes on my way to the cemetery.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that absurd, devastating night.

——

Looking over, I saw Chester lying beside me. My heart nearly stopped. Every ache in my body felt like I'd been run over by a truck, and the room was a mess like everything was exactly like it had been before.

That was when it hit me: I had been reborn.

Before Chester woke up, I quickly dressed, trying to escape as quietly as possible.

I tiptoed toward the window, desperate to leave, to get away.

"What are you doing?!"

The voice came suddenly, and I jumped so hard I nearly lost my balance.

I stumbled and fell.

By the time Chester, shirtless, rushed to the window, I was already limping away, my heart pounding in my chest.

What I didn't know was that even though I didn't walk through the front door, the paparazzi were already outside, capturing every moment.

Especially the sight of my torn dress, the one he had ripped, became the subject of endless gossip.

The headlines this time were a little different.

It wasn't the usual: 'The McKinsey heir and the girl next door have a wild night!'

No, now it read: 'McKinsey heir gets slept with by a bold mystery woman, who pulls up her pants and runs away!'

Seeing Chester at the window, reaching out with frustration all over his face, I couldn't help but be furious.

I had gone out of my way to escape him and avoid being involved in his mess, and yet, there he was, acting like he had been the wronged party.

Shouldn't he be celebrating my absence, not standing there looking like he had just lost the love of his life?

Why make that expression that sparked everyone's wild imagination?

The internet went wild with speculation.

Everyone wondered what kind of woman could sleep with the McKinsey heir and leave him so hung up?

I had no idea what part of that picture made people think Chester couldn't bear to part with me. All I knew was that Chester definitely hated me to the core.

I rubbed my swollen ankle as I hurried to delete the thousands of social media posts I had written about my secret love for him.

In my previous life, I couldn't bring myself to delete them. I had even given them to him as a wedding night surprise, alongside my diary filled with my hidden feelings.

But he had just glanced at them and sneered, "Lusting after a man seven years older than you since you were a kid? Arielle, you really are shameless!"

Back then, I tried to argue, "We're not even related by blood, and so what if you're seven years older? Plenty of people marry someone seventeen years older!"

But he was so disgusted by my words that he slammed the door and stormed out.

That very night, he went to a bar and called over a hundred beautiful women to party.

People mocked me, saying I was just an orphan marrying into the McKinsey family only to end up sleeping alone every night.

To me, though, it was sweet as honey.

Just being able to marry Chester, to carry his child, was something I never even dared to dream of.

As my belly grew rounder each day, I thought that maybe this child would be the bridge that would repair our broken relationship.

I believed, with all my heart, that as long as I never gave up, I could melt his frozen heart.

But from the day of our wedding, Chester brought home a new woman every night.

He looked down on those kinds of women, yet forced me to serve them.

They took his money and knew just how to humiliate me to please Chester.

Crawling on the floor like a dog, licking spilled milk off the ground, dancing in degrading ways with my pregnant belly…

All because everyone knew my weakness was the child inside me.

Arielle's POV

"Arielle, do you know? I have a thousand ways to make the bastard in your womb disappear without a trace. I suggest you behave. If I'm feeling generous, I might even spare a glance at the child once it's born."

Chester's words stung, but I was no stranger to his cruelty.

Right at that moment, I thought about getting rid of the baby, freeing us both. But no matter what I did, punching my stomach, throwing myself from heights, and even deliberately tumbling down a flight of stairs, the child refused to let go.

Even his mistresses tried to hurt me more than once, but none of their efforts succeeded. Each time, I was left battered and bruised, but the baby remained unharmed.

The worst that happened was spotting blood for a few hours.

That's when Grace McKinsey, Chester's grandmother, threw a fit.

She called over a hundred doctors, terrified that something would happen to the baby. But in the end, the doctors all congratulated me, saying the child was incredibly strong.

At that moment, I suddenly felt at peace.

I let go of all the resentment I'd been holding onto. Even if Chester didn't love our child, I could still give the baby all the love I had.

I told myself, 'Fine, I'll just treat this as borrowing his seed.'

But who could've known that, after everything our daughter endured inside me, she would survive it all, only to die at Chester's hands?

Haunted by memories of my past life, I purged my social media and burned my diary, destroying every record of my love for him.

To protect my unborn child from further suffering, I chose not to involve her again in this situation.

Just as I was about to head out to buy some medicine, the doorbell rang.

This time, the McKinsey family arrived even faster than they had in my past life.

Besides, what must be faced can never be avoided.

But it wasn't Grace at the door like I had expected.

Instead, it was Chester's younger sister, Penelope.

Without a word, she raised her hand and slapped me across the face.

"Arielle, you ungrateful bitch! My brother pitied you and took you in, and this is how you repay him?"

I swallowed the blood in my mouth and looked at her, confusion clouding my mind.

"Penelope, are you sure you're not misunderstanding something?"

Before anything had happened between Chester and me, he had treated me well. So well, in fact, that Penelope had grown jealous of the attention he gave me, and from there, her hostility only grew.

Now, Penelope had the look of someone who had just seen a ghost, her eyes full of suspicion.

And I understood why. Ever since I realized my feelings for Chester, I had stopped calling him Mr. McKinsey and naturally stopped calling Penelope by any term of familial endearment, too.

Right then, Penelope snapped me back to reality.

Without saying a word, she threw a paparazzi photo in my face. It was the dreaded night with Chester, captured from the side, showing me collapsed on the ground.

"Unbelievable! Acting so ignorant won't save you, Arielle!"

Penelope jabbed her finger at the photo and even said, "Others might not recognize you in this picture, but I sure as hell won't mistake you! I'm warning you, Arielle. Get rid of those horrible thoughts of yours. Our family isn't a place you can latch onto. Even if you try to win my favor, I still won't let you marry into our family!"

Penelope was right. I couldn't rely on the McKinseys for support.

My father once saved Chester's life. But after my father died, Chester, who was seven years older, took me in and acted as my legal guardian. He looked after me for five years, even better than he looked after his own sister.

It was that difference in how he treated me that made me fall for him.

But because of our status gap, I always hid those feelings deep down.

If Chester hadn't been the one to push me down that night, I would have kept trying my best to be his obedient little ward.

I picked up the photo and looked at it before calmly denying everything.

"Penelope, the paparazzi are always full of crap. Are you really going to let them mess with your head like this?"

In my past life, I had left through the front door with Chester. The obscure marks on my body had been photographed clearly.

Chester, who was always so distant from women, had been caught breaking his vow of abstinence. That gave Grace, who was desperate for him to marry, the perfect excuse to pressure him into marrying me.

Unfortunately, Chester refused, no matter what.

It wasn't until I found out I was pregnant before starting university that Grace, desperate for a grandchild, finally pressured Chester into marrying me.

Arielle's POV

Looking back, I realize how foolish I was to be willing to give up my dreams of attending Harvard or Stanford, all for the chance to marry the man I loved and have what I thought would be the perfect result of that love.

Now, the gossip photo that was making the rounds online only showed a blurry side profile of me.

The only thing that stood out was my torn evening gown.

But as long as I didn't admit that Chester had been the one to rip it, who could really do anything to me?

Seeing how calm I was, Penelope started to hesitate.

"You really didn't do anything with my brother?"

I kept my cool, shaking my head. "Do you want something to have happened?"

Penelope's face twisted with anger. "Don't be disgusting! Then explain why you and my brother were in the same hotel? Why does he have all those red marks on his body? And why was your dress torn?"

Penelope might have had some brains, but not much.

I glanced at Chester, who was approaching in the distance, and shrugged nonchalantly.

"It was my birthday last night. Isn't it normal to drink too much and stay at a hotel? I got a little too excited about getting into Stanford and Harvard, went a little crazy, and cut up my own dress—totally normal, right?"

I paused, then added with a smirk, "As for why your brother was at that hotel too, you should ask him. How would I know what he's up to?"

"Plus, it's summer. Mosquitoes are everywhere. Getting a few bites isn't a big deal. Penelope, why do you always jump to the worst conclusions? Maybe you should lay off those trashy romance novels."

I shot a glance at Chester and smirked. "Don't you agree, hm?"

With his hands in his pockets, Chester stood looking dark and unreadable, his expression sharp, as if he were trying to determine whether I was serious or just playing with Penelope.

"Chester, is what she said true? Because those don't look like mosquito bites to me…"

Penelope jabbed her finger at the red marks on Chester's neck, trying to use them as proof that I'd laid a hand on him.

But Chester didn't flinch.

He simply pointed to the fresh handprint still visible on my cheek and asked, "You hit her?"

Penelope's face faltered. She could tell, even if she didn't want to admit it, that Chester had always favored me.

"I didn't want her to lose her sense of boundaries! She's the reason you're the center of all this gossip and ridicule right now! If she really slept with you and then ran off, what would become of our family? I was just giving her a little warning!"

Chester's face darkened, his voice cold as ice. "Penelope, where did all that noble upbringing of yours go? You're grounded for three days. No going out."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Since I'd already decided to distance myself from the McKinsey family, there was no need to pander to Penelope anymore.

Knowing Chester would probably back me up on denying everything, I let out a bitter laugh.

"Penelope, do you really think your brother is someone I could just boss around? I didn't even have the means to do anything. And if something did happen, who knows who was really taking advantage of whom…"

To my surprise, Chester touched the bite mark on his neck and suddenly said, "You didn't?"

His cryptic tone made my eyebrows twitch.

I wasn't the one who drugged him, and I certainly wasn't the one who made the first move.

I was doing everything I could to distance myself from him, so why was he choosing to play along like this?

"Mr. McKinsey, you must be joking. Even if I had a hundred times more guts, I still wouldn't dare lay a finger on you."

Thinking back on everything that had happened in my past life—about our daughter, about him—I just wanted to get as far away from Chester as I could.

Penelope's eyes kept shifting between us, her suspicion growing.

"There's something weird going on with you two."

Chester and I both answered in unison, "Nothing is going on."

A flicker of surprise passed through Chester's eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly.

I limped away without another word, determined to leave this mess behind me.

But before I could get far, Chester grabbed my arm.

"We're going to the hospital," he stated, his tone leaving no room for refusal.

The sudden touch of his hand felt like a burn. I immediately pulled my arm back.

"Don't touch me!"

In front of a stunned Penelope, Chester grabbed me by the waist. I fought to get free, but he was too strong. I smacked him across the face, my anger rising.

But instead of getting angry, Chester actually laughed.