The night before my engagement, my billionaire grandfather asked me to pick from the three women raised to be mine.

Bernice Dombey was my childhood dream. Everyone assumed she’d be the perfect wife for me.

But I looked past her. Geraldine Godwin—my aunt—was outside the room, squatting on the floor and poking at a cat.

In my past life, I didn’t hesitate to marry Bernice.

By day, she played the perfect wife.

But by night, she cried herself to sleep.

I didn’t know why until one day, in her second trimester, I saw her blushing like a teenager secretly having an affair with Phineas Yates—our driver’s son.

The truth killed me: I was never Bernice’s choice.

Later, a fire broke out at home, burning her lover alive.

Like a madwoman, Bernice shouted and blamed me for her loss.

“Phineas is the only one I love! Even the baby in me... It’s his! I was his five years before I ever set foot into this damn family and met you! You took him from me, Cyril! So once I kill you, I’ll burn all your fortune—as payment!”

She drove a knife straight to my heart, and before I bled out, she cried, “I’m begging you! If there’s a next life, don’t force me to marry you again!”

I died… only to find myself back on the day I had to choose between the three women.

Grandpa’s eyes were expectant until I said, “Grandpa, I don’t want any of them.”

Under his stunned gaze, I gave a confident smile and a woman’s name. “Aunt Geraldine. She’ll be my bride.”

——

“What?!”

Grandpa choked, spit his tea halfway across the room.

“She raised you, boy! After your parents died, she pulled you out of that orphanage! Fed you! Educated you!

“You may not be blood relatives, but still… That, my boy, is completely out of line!”

I didn’t say anything, but my fists clenched.

In my past life, after I married Bernice, Geraldine left the city. She never married.

She only returned when she heard I’d died—only to hold my corpse, wailing like her heart had been torn out.

“Cyril… I loved you,” she said, “and not like an aunt. I loved you like a woman. If there’s a next life… give me the courage. Just a little. I swear—I’ll never let anyone hurt you again!”

Then in that cold, godforsaken morgue, she stabbed herself and died beside me.

Back in the present, I looked out the window at her.

The sun lit up her side profile—radiant and gentle. For a moment, the world faded around her.

My heart stirred, but I forced myself to stay composed.

“So what?” I said.

“Those girls—those engagement promises—that was orphanage nonsense.

“But Grandpa, what if those three don’t actually love me?

“What if they just want our family’s name and power?

“What if they want to secretly take over this family?

“Wouldn’t that be a disaster?”

Grandpa slammed the table so hard it rattled, and his beard puffed up like a cat about to pounce.

“They wouldn’t dare!”

‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘but Bernice did.’

I drew a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye. “Please, Grandpa. Let me choose who I love.”

His expression shifted. He followed my gaze out the window… to Geraldine.

Then finally, Grandpa gave in. “Fine. After the ceremony, send the others away. They’re done here.”

Once our agreement was settled, I walked from the garden back into the living room.

Unexpectedly, my three so-called potential fiancées—who all secretly wanted me gone—were there, sitting in the hallway, glaring and waiting.

Bernice lifted her eyes from her phone—from a picture of Phineas—and sneered at me.

“Oh, come on, Cyril. I know you want to force me to marry you,” she said confidently. “You know what, I don’t mind... as long as you buy Phineas a riverside villa. Standalone.”

“And every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” Bernice continued, “you’re not allowed to bother me. I’ll be spending time with Phineas… just talking with him.”

She said those conditions straight-faced, like she wasn’t tearing open her own dignity and tossing it on the floor.

It wasn’t the shamelessness that surprised me.

It was how boldly she aired it out, like she was proud to be someone’s kept woman.

Last time, she at least pretended to be cold and distant. She never dared flaunt her affair with Phineas in the open like this.

Now, she wasn’t hiding it at all.

Slowly, I smiled. ‘So,’ I figured out, ‘Bernice… You also came back to this life, huh?’

“Just buying a villa is enough to win me over completely. Oh, boy, you must be thrilled.”

“But don’t get ahead of yourself, though,” she added quickly, curling her lip. “Even if we marry, you don’t get to touch me. Not without my consent!”

Her words made me laugh.

‘Of course. That’s exactly how it was last time.’

I bent over backwards to please her, and what did it get me? A knife in the chest and a child that wasn’t mine.

The one time she actually touched me, I thought she was finally softening and letting her walls down.

Turns out, she was just pregnant—with Phineas’s kid. Bold of her to want me to raise their child.

I smirked and told her the truth about the marriage arrangement.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Bernice, but you’re never going to be part of the Gainsboroughs.

“My family never forced any of you to stay.

“As long as you give up everything my family gave you, you can be with whoever you want. Why don’t you just give them up?”

She gave me a long, mocking look—top to bottom, like she was inspecting dirt under her nails.

“Oh, grow up. Here you are throwing a tantrum again.

“You still can’t accept the fact that you’re a useless nobody, can you?

“You think you can compete with Phineas? He’s the chauffeur’s son, sure—but he knows business. He’s got money. He’s got brains. He’ll be something. You?”

Her words almost made me laugh out loud.

Back then, I tanked my grades, my reputation, my future—just to chase her shadow through nightclubs and racing circuits.

Geraldine scolded me, warned me again and again. The night she cried for the first time in front of me—I still remember.

I skipped Bernice’s invite that night. One time. Just one.

And what happened? She went out alone. Got followed.

I dropped everything to find her. Took a knife for her. I bled for her.

But when I woke up, somehow, it was Phineas who had saved her. His father died heroically.

And from that day on, she funneled Gainsboroughs resources straight to Phineas.

He stole my homework. My projects. My awards.

And I let it happen. I didn’t dare make her mad.

But here’s the truth—Phineas could barely read a textbook. He was a fraud wearing my skin.

“So if he’s that great,” I said, voice low and steady, “why not go tell my grandfather you want to marry him?

“Or is it that you want to be Mrs. Gainsborough, but you can’t stomach being with me?”

For a second, she had no answer. Then she snorted twice, brushing it off.

“Oh, I get it. You’re trying to make me angry. Classic Cyril—throwing fits just to get my attention.

“Well, okay. I forgive you. I know it must sting—having to buy Phineas a villa. That must hurt your pride.

“But if I don’t see that villa within three days? Don’t even think about me showing up to the engagement announcement party.”

As she turned on her heel like a queen walking away from trash, I stared after her, my lips curling in contempt.

‘Delusional. Let her keep that smug confidence.’

She got one thing right—I am buying the villa.

But it’s not a gift.

It’s a trap.

That place will be laced with cameras.

‘And when the whole world sees the Gainsboroughs’s “expected bride” in bed with the chauffeur’s son?’

That’s when I’ll pull the trigger.

Public. Humiliating. Final.

I sent my most trusted man to take care of it.

The execution’s already in motion.

I knocked on Geraldine’s door, but no one answered.

In the end, it was the cleaning lady who told me—Geraldine had booked a flight and left without a word.

I stood there, stunned, for a moment, and then I let out a helpless laugh.

After what happened to Bernice—the day she almost got hurt—I blamed Geraldine.

She was the one who stopped me from going out, and because of that, Bernice turned her back on me.

Three years had passed since then. Her phone number was still on my blacklist. We hadn’t spoken a word.

Thinking of that, I removed her number from the blacklist.

A second later, my phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.

It was Geraldine. All the old messages started pouring in.

[Idiot! You got played like a fool by a woman, and you still had the nerve to yell at me?!]

[Wow. It’s my birthday and you really didn’t get me anything? Fine. But just so you know—I’m totally holding this against you!]

[Cyril… you’ve grown up. Maybe it’s time I leave. I’m scared I won’t know how to stop loving you…]

Each message struck deep. My heart stirred, unable to stay calm.

But fortunately, this life gives me a chance to fix my regrets.

And so, I turned to leave… only to be suddenly stopped by someone barging in.

It was Phineas.

He dropped to his knees the second he walked in, his voice trembling, his eyes nearly in tears.

“Sir, please don’t give up on Bernice just because of me!

“She’s really innocent—nothing ever happened between us!

“You must be mad. I’ll punish myself so you can vent it out!”

He started hitting himself hard over and over.

Everyone nearby began pointing and whispering, looking at me like I was the villain.

Right then, Bernice stormed in.

And the moment she saw Phineas on his knees, her face twisted with fury.

“Cyril! I knew you were this kind of person!

“You act all calm, pretending you didn’t care, and now you’re taking it out on Phineas behind everyone’s back?

“Get down and apologize to him—right now! Or I swear, Cyril, I’ll never forgive you!”

But I just let out a cold laugh.

“He slandered me. What the hell did I do wrong?”

Her anger only burned hotter.

“Phineas would never lie! He’s kind and decent—he wouldn’t do something like that!

“You, Cyril, you’re petty and power-hungry. You used your status to force him to kneel!

“If you don’t get on your knees and apologize, I will marry Phineas. I swear, I won’t marry you!”

Phineas seemed to panic the moment those words came out of her mouth.

He tried to stop here, say something—anything.

But before he could get a word in, Bernice grabbed his arm and dragged him away in rage.

“Phineas, we’re leaving!” she said impatiently. “When no one’s around, Cyril will kneel and beg. You’ll see.”

I didn’t say a word the entire time. Because honestly?

‘She’s not worth it.’

I let her shout. I let her make a scene.

But once my family announces the official bride-to-be tonight, she’ll be kicked out of our place.

‘I don’t need to stoop to her level.’

Later that night, while I was sketching out the wedding gown for Geraldine, Bernice barged into my room, full of herself.

“Cyril, I got the villa you sent. I’ll let it go this time,” she said, her arms crossed.

“But if you ever try to save face in public by making me look bad again? You won’t be forgiven so easily.

“Oh, and here—your apology gift.”

‘Apology gift?’

That made me put down the fashion magazine I was flipping through.

She handed it to me. It was a brand-new luxury watch, one of the newest models.

She smiled proudly. “The back’s engraved with your birthday.”

I turned it over.

Yeah, there were numbers etched in.

But I immediately gave it back, laughing from sheer disbelief.

“Bernice… Is it even my birthday? And you’re really here giving this to me?”.

She frowned at the back of the watch, and then she laughed it off.

“Well, you know how it is—hang around greatness, and a little of it rubs off,” she said. “Phineas’s on another level. Even stuff he turns down still feels… special because of him.”