I've been married to Sylvia Fuller, a mafia donna, for ten years.

I'm there with her in every life-and-death situation. My hands, which are meant for playing the piano, have developed calluses from using guns. They are also stained with blood from the enemies.

But when Sylvia turns 28, she falls head over heels in love with Wilson Hink, the young man she's brought back from the slums.

Sylvia has hidden him very well… right until the moment I bump into him accompanying her to a prenatal check-up.

Mad with jealousy, I demand Sylvia for answers, but she just passes me a divorce agreement in a lackadaisical manner.

"Wilson is a man of religion. He can't sire a child without getting married, so I have to give him a legitimate status. Sign this agreement, and I'll give you 40% of my shares."

I refuse to give my position away, so Sylvia keeps forcing my hand. In the end, she even kidnaps my younger brother, who's paralyzed from waist down, and drags him to the spot beneath a hydraulic press.

"Sebastian Chance, either you sign the agreement, or watch him get crushed. Your choice."

I kneel on the ground and beg Sylvia to stop. But soon, I hear the hydraulic press being activated. It doesn't take long before I'm completely covered in my brother's flesh and blood.

I end up collapsing onto the gore-splattered ground.

When I open my eyes again, I realize I've gone back in time—back to the time when Wilson has accompanied Sylvia to the prenatal check-up.

This time, I don't say anything. Instead, I contact a rehabilitation center located overseas before filing for a divorce and leaving Sylvia behind.

But once I'm gone for real, Sylvia actually goes crazy.

I shrank back against the wall around the corner, a hand clamped over my mouth as my body shook uncontrollably. My younger brother, Noah Chance's horrifying death, was still replaying in my mind.

Sylvia Fuller was promising Wilson Hink, "Once my pregnancy is stable, let's get married."

This time, I kept my wits about me when I heard her words. In my previous life, I had immediately rushed out to confront her about it. However, due to her worry about Wilson finding out he was actually a kept lover, she had smashed my jaw with the butt of her gun.

At this thought, I shifted back even more to ensure I was hidden.

Meanwhile, Sylvia turned to leave with Wilson, her arm wrapped around his shoulders.

Once I was sure they wouldn't return, I entered the consultation room with my medical report.

The doctor kindly advised me, "Mr. Chance, the cancer cells are spreading at a rapid rate. I suggest you undergo treatment while it's still in the early stage."

I stared silently at the lab test results in my hands. All I could think of was the way Sylvia had gazed at Wilson when he pressed an ear to her stomach. The gentle warmth in her eyes then had practically been overflowing.

Ten years ago, I fell in love with that same gaze and gave up on the opportunity to head abroad to further my studies. For her, I had given up on my dream of being a pianist.

Yet, the moment Wilson appeared, he turned everything I had ever done into one big joke.

When I didn't reply, the doctor went on, "Mr. Chance, it's best if you have family around to support you when undergoing chemotherapy. Does your wife know about this?"

Raising my head to lock eyes with him, I answered calmly, "My love is dead."

One hour later, I stumbled my way out of the hospital using the walls as support. Once some color had returned to my ghastly pale face, I took out my phone to call my younger brother's caretaker.

"Lester, I want you to secretly transfer Noah to a private rehabilitation center in Yarlaine within this week. Make sure Ms. Fuller doesn't learn of it, no matter what."

After that, I had a close aide of mine prepare a divorce agreement. I had barely finished arranging all this when another subordinate sent me all the information he had found about Wilson.

In my past life, I hated Wilson so much that I couldn't even bear to look at a photo of him. Now that I had gone back in time and gotten a second chance at life, I was a lot calmer. I became curious about just what sort of man he was that Sylvia, who had seen her fair share of men, was so obsessed with him.

After I unzipped the compressed file, I played the video.

In a church that had seen better days, a young man, looking to be about 18, was playing an old piano. The sunlight streaming in illuminated his bleached shirt, causing him to almost glow. The clean, innocent vibe he gave off was like a breath of fresh air, a gentle spring breeze caressing one lightly.

Despite only half her face being visible, it was clear from Sylvia's profile that she was smiling gently. Her gaze was also full of adoration as she lost herself in the soothing music.

My finger slammed down on the pause button before I rushed toward the nearest toilet, where I began retching nonstop.

How utterly ridiculous.

The young man she fell in love with was actually the me from ten years ago.

…

By the time I left the hospital, it was already evening.

I drove my car in a daze, and just as I turned the corner, an out-of-control truck suddenly came barreling toward me. Despite immediately jerking the steering wheel to the side, I still failed to dodge the collision.

Then, the world spun around me.

I was stuck in the driver's seat, completely unable to move. I knew, without a doubt, that this was Sylvia's enemy, here to seek revenge.

My phone had been crushed in the collision and couldn't be turned on anymore.

At that moment, a familiar black Maybach sped past the intersection—Sylvia's car.

"Sylvia!" I yelled as loudly as I could in a bid to gain her attention.

As the car slowed down, I thought my heart would stop beating.

She had seen me!

However, a second later, the car accelerated once more, leaving this intersection behind without any hesitation. Through the window, I could see Sylvia covering Wilson's eyes with her hands.

In an instant, I lost the energy to open my mouth again.

With Wilson in the car, there was no way she would stop. After all, she couldn't bear to let Wilson see something as ghastly as a car accident, especially not when it was a revenge tactic by her enemy.

Most of the strength I had forced myself to muster left me, and I gradually lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes again, it was to the sight of the white hospital ceiling.

The room door had been left ajar, so I could hear one of Sylvia's subordinates saying to her, "Ms. Fuller, what if Mr. Chance sees Mr. Hink? If he looks into it, there's no way we can keep it under wraps."

Sylvia tossed down her cigarette butt and crushed it under her heel. "You don't have to worry about all that. Your only job is to protect Wilson. Unlike us, he's too pure and untainted. With how innocent he is, there's no way he can win against Sebastian, who knows countless despicable tactics.

"If necessary, use Sebastian's crippled younger brother against him. He's Sebastian's only remaining family member, so there's no way Sebastian can ignore him."

Hearing that, I squeezed the bedsheets tightly, my teeth grinding together so hard that my jaw ached.

Back when she proposed to me, she had said, "I'll always protect you. No harm will ever come to you under my watch."

Yet, the target of that same protectiveness and promise had now become Wilson.

Once, she had so carefully guarded me behind her, but now, I had become a dangerous and despicable man.

As the sound of footsteps neared, I shut my eyes again and pretended to open them slowly.

"You're awake? I've already had my men look into the accident. The Walderburg family was behind it. This is a truce agreement. They agreed to give up on that piece of land in the western part of the city if you sign it."

Sylvia came to a stop before me, but when our gazes locked, not a single word was exchanged between us.

I had almost died in that accident, yet she was treating me like nothing but a bargaining chip for her business negotiation.

Feeling chilled to the bone, I asked, "Sylvia, when did you come up with this plan?"

I wondered if it was after I was caught in that accident, or when she had learned of the Walderburg family's plan to hurt me.

Sylvia frowned slightly, clearly displeased at my probing.

I smartly decided to stop asking questions, as dragging everything into the light wouldn't do me any good.

As though to appease me, Sylvia spent the next two days working in my hospital room. However, she was constantly wearing earphones, her lips occasionally curving into a smile I was all too familiar with, one that had once been directed only at me.

While she was talking to Wilson one day, I took the opportunity to hand her the divorce agreement. I thought she would realize what it was. After all, it wasn't like the words "divorce agreement" were subtle or tiny. They were right there on the front page, in bold letters.

However, Sylvia didn't even read through the agreement. She swiftly flipped right to the last page before signing it. In fact, her gaze never even left her laptop screen.

Hands trembling, I took the divorce agreement back and stared at her signature. The ink wasn't even dry yet.

My mind suddenly drifted back ten years, to the day I first met her.

At the time, she had been attacked by her enemies and was hiding under an abandoned bridge. Her entire body had been covered in blood. The then-18-year-old Sylvia's eyes gleamed with a terrifying glint, one that reminded me of an injured lion cub.

I should have been on my way to piano practice, but the moment I met her gaze, something stirred in me. Before I realized it, I was already turning, my feet taking me toward her.

I never would've expected that one decision would throw me into the abyss.

Sometime later, she took a bullet to the chest when trying to protect me and had to undergo an emergency surgery that lasted 18 hours.

That incident had me realizing one harsh truth—in her world, innocence and kindness couldn't protect anyone.

In the following ten years, I went from a young man who would shake at the sight of blood to someone who didn't even blink when dealing with bloodshed and violence.

I had thought that would turn me into an equal, someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

Only now did I understand her true thoughts—I had become tainted and filthy, just like everyone else.

I rubbed my fingers together, feeling the calluses that had formed from holding a gun so often. Unbidden, the image of Wilson playing the piano popped into my mind again, and I suddenly found all my resentment and hatred pointless.

After I was discharged from the hospital, Sylvia excused herself by saying she had to go on a business trip. She didn't return for an entire month, which was the mandatory cooling-off period before a divorce could be finalized.

…

I didn't expect to run into Wilson.

To pray for my poor younger brother who had died such a tragic death in my past life, I purposely made a trip to the church to ask the priest for a Mass.

Upon entering the church, I spotted Wilson playing the accompaniment for the choir children.

The last chord rang out jarringly, clearly wrong.

I wasn't sure what possessed me to walk forward and press the correct keys.

"This part should be played like this."

This was my first face-to-face meeting with him, and it was a lot calmer than I had thought it would be.

Wilson's eyes immediately lit up. "You play the piano too? Despite practising nonstop, I always make a mistake at this part."

I simply shot him an indifferent smile, yet he began chatting with me like we were already friends.

When he learned that I was here for a deceased loved one, he kneeled before the statue of the Virgin Mary and prayed sincerely, "Oh, Mother Mary, please pray for this pure soul and bring peace to his family, who still lives in pain."

For a moment, I was lost in a stunned daze. He reminded me so much of myself that it was uncanny. A well of pity rose in me, followed by the urge to save my past self. I was sorely tempted to tell him to leave Sylvia, that being close to her would only bring misfortune upon himself.

However, when I thought about the baby Sylvia was currently carrying, I chose to keep my mouth shut.

If Wilson were to learn of my relationship with Sylvia, he would definitely fall apart and break up with her. If that happened, Sylvia would certainly go mad and take revenge on me.

The bloody memories of my past life filled my mind.

I excused myself into the confession booth by saying I needed to repent. Once I was inside, I checked in on Noah using the surveillance camera in his room. Only after seeing that he was safe and sound at the rehabilitation center did I relax.

He was the only family member I had left after our parents passed away. I couldn't drag him into the messy conflict between Sylvia and me this time.

After composing myself, I stepped out of the confessional, only for a gun to press against my forehead.

My entire body immediately tensed before I turned to look for Wilson.

Upon seeing his limp form crumpled on the ground, I swore silently, but before I could do anything else, the butt of a gun smacked into me and knocked me unconscious.

When I next awoke, I discovered that I was in an abandoned warehouse. Our abductors had also tied Wilson and me together.

Wilson was pleading tearfully, "The debt's already been paid long ago! What else do you want? Sylvia warned you—"

A resounding smack cut off his words.

The leader of our abductors, a scar-faced man, yanked Wilson up by the hair. "Sure, we've gotten the money back, but she broke three of our boss' ribs! As members of the underworld, how could we possibly lie down and accept that? You're incredibly precious to her, aren't you? Well, I'm going to have so much fun torturing you today!"

Ah, so they were small-time loan sharks. It was no wonder they failed to recognize me.

Taking a few breaths to prepare myself, I released the tiny blade I had hidden in my ring and began cutting through the ropes. This wasn't my first time being taken, so I had naturally learned from my past experiences.

When the scar-faced man noticed that I was awake, he started rummaging through my Hermès bag.

"Sebastian Chance, huh? Well, Mr. Chance, you sure are unlucky. Tell your family to transfer three million dollars over if they want you back."

"Sir, I'm sorry for getting you involved in this. Don't worry, though. My girlfriend is really amazing and will definitely come rescue us!" Wilson said, his eyes shining with worship, as though Sylvia was his savior.

My hands froze briefly, but I didn't respond to his words.

Suddenly, the scar-faced man cursed before raising his phone and snapping, "Fuck! How dare she not believe me! It seems like I'll have to send her a little present."

Tossing a knife to the ground before Wilson and me, he ordered, "Men, cut off all ten of his fingers and send them to her."

A hint of apprehension flashed in my eyes. If Wilson were to die here that day, Sylvia would definitely rip me to pieces to vent her anger.

Wilson was so terrified that all the blood had drained from his face. He kept squirming backward, pleading, "Please don't do this to me! I still need my hands to play the piano!"