I followed Elliot into the apartment.

The interior was decorated in a familiar and simple style with cool tones. It was similar to Elliot’s personality, noble but distant.

Only this time, I was not moved in the slightest.

Elliot took out a bottle of water from the fridge and tossed it to me. Then, he walked up to the floor-to-ceiling windows and lit a cigarette.

The smoke curled around him like a layer of fog that separated us.

“Samantha, I know you’re not happy about this,” he started. His voice was low through the smoke.

“It’s my fault for not finding out more about your background. But Celeste is in poor health right now. She… can’t handle any agitation.”

Celeste Dent again.

I ducked my head and twisted the cap of the bottle open.

Quietly taking a sip of water, the cool liquid flowed down my throat.

However, it did nothing to wash away the bitterness I felt.

Elliot had said the same thing in the previous timeline.

He mentioned that Celeste had always been weak and prone to depression. He told me to be nice to her after the Dent family took me back in.

I went along with it.

I allowed Elliot to give Celeste all his favor and affection. Whenever Celeste threw a tantrum or started a fight with me, I was always the one who gave in. I would choose to stay quiet and let her have her way.

Yet, she ruined my marriage for ten years with a suicide attempt.

At my silence, Elliot probably assumed that I was sullen because I could not go to the Dent family and prove my relation to them. Feeling resigned, he stubbed out his cigarette.

Elliot turned around and bent down before me. Looking up, he tried to sweet-talk me with those puppy-dog eyes.

“Don’t be mad at me, okay?”

His voice was gentle as his hands covered mine. I was still holding the water bottle at this point.

“I admit I was wrong for not confirming everything before going over. I gave you false hope. Just tell me what I can do to make it up to you. As long as it’s within my means, I’ll do it.”

Elliot paused before his voice turned even more earnest. “But let’s forget about the Dent family for now, alright?”

He had literally and metaphorically lowered himself during this conversation. The love in his eyes was clear.

I could tell he was terrified that I was mad and that I would leave him.

However, the price for his love was the truth of my birth.

As I raised my chin and met his gaze, I suddenly felt like laughing.

“I don’t want anything.”

I calmly retracted my hands, which made his eyes go dull for a split second.

“Don’t worry. Even if the Dent family offers me untold riches, I won’t give them a second glance. You don’t need to apologize either. You don’t owe me anything. Let’s just call it quits.”

Elliot frowned deeply before abruptly standing up with a frosty expression.

“Call it quits? Are you throwing a tantrum, Samantha? Are you pulling this nonsense with me because I didn’t let you rejoin the Dent family?”

He stalked closer to me and caged me in with both hands on the couch.

“Yes, I’m not allowing you to rejoin the Dent family. But I didn’t say anything about breaking up! We can keep things as they’ve been between us. I’ll treat you even better than I did before!”

I looked at him and just felt extremely tired.

He thought that things could go back to normal as long as he stripped the identity of “Dent family heiress” from me, that we could go back to being peacefully in love.

Unbeknownst to him, tragedy did not start from my return to the Dent family.

“Elliot,” I said as I pushed him away and stood up to move away, “I’m tired. I want to go back to campus.”

After that, I walked straight to the door without sparing him another glance.

This time, he did not stop me.

Over the next few days, I threw myself into preparing for a trip abroad.

Soon, I received an offer from a university overseas. I would be leaving next month.

It was the day before I was to leave, and I had just left the library. Right then, two bodyguards clad in black blocked my way.

“Ms. Kane, Mr. Wendell has requested your presence.”

I was forced into a car, which sped to our destination. It stopped at a skyscraper that overlooked the entire city, and I was led right to the top floor.

“Mr. Wendell is busy at the moment. Please wait here.”

The bodyguards brought me to a room before leaving me there and locking the door behind them.

The view from the room was fantastic, and one wall was completely made of glass.

I could see the city’s premier top-floor garden restaurant outside.

At this time, the whole place was brightly lit. Voices filled the place, as there was a huge birthday bash going on.

The star of the event was Celeste.

She was wearing a luxurious gown and was the center of attention.

Elliot was standing next to her and putting a tiara on her head while gazing at her tenderly.

I watched as he took Celeste’s hand and led her in the first dance of the night.

They spun around together and stood closely as they spoke in low voices to each other. Their intimate actions made them out to be the perfect couple.

The guests around them clapped, and their faces made it clear that they wished the couple well.

I suddenly felt like laughing. I wanted to mock myself from the previous timeline, who was so stubborn and unyielding.

I had forfeited my life for a man who did not love me. Was it worth it?

Unwilling to bear witness to this scene any longer, I closed my eyes.

Right then, I could see Elliot’s bloody and unrecognizable face in my mind again. In that earthquake in the previous timeline, he had protected me and strained his back in the process.

He hated me, but he still saved me.

What we had between us was like a gigantic web, which trapped me and rendered me immobile.

After goodness knew how long, the party seemed to come to an end.

Suddenly, the door behind me opened.

I turned around and saw Celeste standing there.

She wore a pleased smile on her face as she stepped toward me.

“Samantha Kane.” She stood before me and looked at me condescendingly.

“How does it feel to watch the person you love throwing me such a huge birthday bash?”

In an instant, I understood what was going on.

Elliot had not sent those bodyguards. It had been Celeste.

She wanted me to give up on Elliot completely.

However, there was no need for her to do such a thing. I had stopped having any feelings for him.

So, I only gave her a cold look.

My silence enraged her, and the smile on her face twisted.

“Do you think you can act all high and mighty by not saying anything? Let me tell you something, Samantha. You won’t ever get what doesn’t belong to you!”

Celeste moved closer to me and whispered, “Did you know? If you hadn’t shown up, I would’ve gotten engaged to Elliot ages ago! You ruined everything!”

“Are you done?” I said blandly. “If you’re done, please let me leave.”

Celeste was so infuriated by my response that her body trembled all over.

She suddenly pulled out a knife from her bag. It glinted under the light in the room.

At that moment, my heart clenched with fear.

“What are you doing?”

“What am I doing?” Celeste chuckled as mania shone in her eyes. “I want to show Elliot the lengths you’ve forced me to! I want him to know that your existence causes me no end in grief!”

Before she could finish speaking, she held the knife up high and slashed her own arm with it.

She looked at me, the smirk on her face incongruous as she started shrieking.

“I’m begging you! I’ll give you anything you want! Why do you want to hurt me?”

Immediately, the sound of rushed footsteps came from outside.

Elliot was the first to burst in. He gathered Celeste in his arms with a grim expression.

She clung to him weakly, like some pitiful doll, as she pointed a trembling finger at me.

“Elliot, she said she’s the true daughter of the Dent family. She said I don’t deserve everything I have. She told me that I should die…”

Elliot’s eyes were raging with fiery rage as he looked up.

“Samantha,” he said icily, “didn’t I warn you to keep your ambitions in check? It’s Celeste’s birthday today. It should be a happy day for her, but you ruined it all!”

I looked at Elliot and felt my heart fall to my stomach.

He had forgotten that it was my birthday today too.

Celeste and I were born on the same day.

However, our lives were wildly different. She lived at the top of society, while I was like the mud under someone’s boot.

Elliot immediately ordered the bodyguards to apprehend me. He tossed an army knife before me.

His next words were nearly emotionless. “You must bleed even more than Celeste has.”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“Are you nuts, Elliot Wendell?”

I started to struggle violently.

All Elliot did was give me a look before ordering the bodyguards to cut me.

A sharp sting spread across my arm, and warm blood started flowing out.

I gasped from the pain, and tears began to trickle uncontrollably down my face.

Then came another cut, and another.

I did not know how many times they cut me. The pain had gotten so unbearable that I could feel nothing at all, and my vision became blurry.

I looked at Elliot’s unfeeling expression and the delighted smile on Celeste’s face.

Right then, I felt completely hopeless.

“Just a few more cuts…”

Elliot finally spoke again and put an eventual end to the bodyguards’ actions. “Send her to the hospital after this.”

After that, he did not spare me another glance. He swept Celeste up into his arms and walked out.

I lay in a pool of my own blood as consciousness slowly bled out of me.

Before I lost all awareness, I seemed to see that earthquake in my mind again.

This time, Elliot did not protect me. He only stood coldly to one side and watched as boulders landed on me. He was completely unaffected.

‘I’ve paid back all that I owe you, Elliot Wendell,’ I thought to myself.

When I opened my eyes again, my nose stung with the smell of disinfectant in the hospital.

Elliot was sitting by my bed. His eyes lit up when he saw me wake up.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out.

I froze at that.

“I went overboard last night.”

He lowered his gaze and continued with regret in his voice, “I got too angry, and I couldn’t control my emotions. I—”

“What about it?” I interrupted him and calmly asked, “Are you trying to say that you regret it?”

He looked up abruptly and opened his mouth as if to speak, but he only sighed in the end.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Samantha.” Immediately after, his voice turned gentle. “I know you hate me, but Celeste nearly died.”

“Elliot,” I said as I held his gaze, “you don’t need to apologize. Think of it as me repaying what I owe you.”

“What you owe me?” He frowned, and he was clearly confused by what I said.

“That’s right.” A grimace tugged at my lips.

“In the previous timeline, you saved my life during an earthquake. In this timeline, I’ve repaid you. We’re in the clear, you and I.”

After I said this, Elliot stood up, and the chair clattered to the floor behind him.

His lips trembled as his pupils constricted from the shock.

“You… You went back in time too?”