On our tenth wedding anniversary, I drove my car straight into my husband, Ethan Carter, and killed him.

When I opened my eyes again, we were back to the days before our marriage.

In my previous life, at eighteen, Ethan and I were caught after our first reckless night together. My mother demanded justice, and the Carter family had no choice but to take me in as their daughter-in-law. From then on, he despised both me and my mother.

The day my mother died, he danced into my view holding the hand of his beloved Sophia.

“Olivia, your mother’s gone. Now you’re the mother,” he sneered.

“When Sophia’s baby is born, it’ll have to call you stepmom.”

That night, I killed their unborn child. In retaliation, he dug up my mother’s grave and scattered her ashes.

From then on, we became the most infamous “pure hatred” couple in our social circle—each the thorn in the other’s flesh.

After being reborn, I fled the country that very night at eighteen.

When we met again, he had become the sole heir to the Carter family, basking in glory with his beauty by his side. Yet his eyes were red as he cornered me outside the restroom, demanding,

“Olivia, didn’t you dream of marrying me? Why did you run away eighteen years ago?”

So, in this life, I had become the unattainable love of his heart.

“I was too young back then to understand. Now that I do, I don’t want to marry you,” I said with a smirk.

“Of course I ran.”

He grabbed my throat with one hand, and I held my breath, letting my face flush red. When his bloodshot eyes finally released me, I sank my teeth into the flesh between his thumb and forefinger.

The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth before I let go. He pressed me against the wall with alarming force.

“You’re insane, Olivia.”

“You’ve always known I was insane, Ethan,” I shot back, never losing ground.

Truth was, we were both insane.

In our previous life, forced into marriage, we agreed to live separate lives—anything was fine, as long as no one ended up pregnant. At first, we kept our distance, each enjoying our own scandalous freedom.

Then Sophia returned, and he began to force me into divorce, using every tactic short of chopping off my hand to make me sign.

Those were our fiercest days. Even bound by mutual interests, we couldn’t pretend to be at peace. Still, I never believed he would truly leave me.

Then he drove my mother to jump to her death. When he arrived at the memorial hall with a pregnant Sophia, I finally understood—he meant it.

“Ethan?”

A clear, gentle voice cut through my thoughts, and his grip on me loosened.

In the long, dim hallway, I saw Sophia—the white moonlight of his past life.

“The auction’s about to start,” she said sweetly. “I heard Daniel Foster is here today. You’ll need his support for your project. Let’s go in.”

She straightened his collar and tie, smoothed his hair, then turned to me with a polite smile.

“Are you a friend of Ethan’s? Want to join us?”

In our previous life, Sophia and I rarely met, but the hatred never ceased.

This was our first meeting in this life. I shook my head and turned back toward the hall.

The auction was about to begin, but my bidder’s card hadn’t arrived. I picked up a plain white card instead and took a seat.

As soon as I pushed open the door, I saw a room full of familiar faces.

“Well, if it isn’t Miss Bennett?”

“I thought you’d run away for good back then and would never come back!”

“How could she? Sure, she ran, but didn’t her dear mother still show up at the Carter family’s door demanding justice like a mistress’s mother?”

“Now that you mention it, I’d almost forgotten—don’t you and your mother always use your bodies to clear a path?”

“So who’s the new sugar daddy this time, letting you into a charity auction like this?”

“What’s she bidding for, anyway? Or is she auctioning herself?”

…

Laughter rippled through the room, each mocking jab prickling in my ears.

I casually yanked at the dessert table beside me. Glass platters shattered on the floor, making a few timid women shriek and fling themselves into their men’s arms.

“Olivia, aren’t they just telling the truth?”

“Struck a nerve?” Ethan stepped around the shards, stopping in front of me with a crooked smile.

“Wasn’t it you who came to my bed willingly all those years ago? How’s that any different from being paid?”

“I’ve never met another woman who could let go the way you do in bed. Your mother must’ve trained you well, hands-on.”

“If your mother had run a brothel, she’d have made a fortune.”

Every word out of his mouth was a knife, meant to slice at me and my mother.

Back then, he’d been drugged, and I’d been the only antidote. With the Bennett family already in trouble, my mother used that night to force the Carter family to marry me, securing their protection.

Rumor had it my mother was the one who’d spiked his drink—and I’d believed it too.

On Ethan’s wedding day, his beloved Sophia stormed off overseas in a fit of anger. That was when our decade-long saga of love and hate began.

Only later did I learn someone else had done the drugging.

I glanced at Sophia, standing beside him, as laughter rolled through the crowd.

“Seven years, Ethan, and you still can’t forget our night together?”

“Or is it that your white moonlight hasn’t been satisfying you in bed all these years?”

Sophia’s porcelain skin flushed scarlet, and the laughter around us died in an instant.

When it came to verbal sparring, Ethan had never beaten me in our last life. In this one, he still couldn’t.

His temper flared. A sharp slap landed on my cheek.

“Olivia, watch your filthy mouth!”

I laughed at the sound of it. He hadn’t changed at all—if it involved Sophia, he lost his mind completely.

“Ethan, don’t make a scene,” Sophia said gently. “It’s just a few words. I’m not upset.”

A few sentences from her, and the roaring lion went calm. She stepped forward with composed elegance to face me.

I had to admit—Sophia had skills. From a poor college student working as a tutor to the CEO’s executive assistant, her climb had been smooth.

But I couldn’t stand how smooth it had been.

“All these years by his side, and you’re still just a secretary?” I tilted my head. “Well, that’s on you.”

I stopped mid-sentence, letting the pause hang in the air. Ethan’s brows furrowed, warning and probing in his eyes.

Sophia’s panic was plain to see.

“Miss Reed, next time don’t buy your pills from that place,” I said smoothly. “They’re too strong—made Ethan so out of it he couldn’t even tell if the person was a man or a woman.”

“Otherwise, you’d already be Mrs. Carter today.”

Those few lines were enough to whip the room into a storm. Conversations rose into a frenzy.

After all, back then, the scandal of Ethan being drugged was second only to the uproar over him and his tutor, Sophia. She’d taken the Carter family’s payout and broken up with him.

Back then, Ethan nearly starved himself for love, almost earning the title of the man who would defy the world for a beauty.

Later, things between him and me completely imploded.

Strangely, Sophia didn’t leave—she stayed by his side for seven full years.

“Miss Bennett, you must be mistaken,” she said lightly, as if brushing away a speck of dust. “What happened back then had nothing to do with me.”

She calmly instructed staff to clean up the mess and bring fresh dishes and seats, as if nothing had happened.

Ethan gave a cold snort, then turned to me with open disdain.

“Olivia, you and your mother did those things, yet you want to fling your filth onto someone else?”

“If I’d wanted to marry Sophia back then, all it would have taken was one word from her—why bother with any schemes?”

On that point, he wasn’t wrong.

The Carter family had originally been set to marry my half-sister, Claire Bennett. But on her eighteenth birthday, she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. Rumor had it my mother killed her for the inheritance.

I never knew if it was true.

But the Carters didn’t want an illegitimate daughter like me in their home, so they called off the engagement.

Later, when the Bennett family’s fortunes collapsed, my mother took the marriage contract to their door several times, demanding they honor it.

At the time, eighteen-year-old Ethan was head over heels for Sophia.

So in their eyes, the only villains could be me and my mother.

“You said it yourself—back then. So why can’t you marry her now?”

I turned to Sophia, my tone deliberately sharp. “Is it that the Carter family doesn’t want you either?”

My words hit home. I clearly saw her palm tremble.

“My parents adore Sophia,” Ethan cut in. “It’s only a matter of time before we marry.”

Her eyes lit up instantly, shimmering with tears.

I arched a brow and gave a cool nod.

“Then I wish you two a lifetime of happiness—and a quick first child.”

Ethan straightened at my words, a strange emotion flickering in his gaze.

“Thanks in advance, Miss Bennett.”

Sophia’s voice stayed soft and genteel, her “Miss Bennett” deliberate. To me, it was all an act.

A few of Ethan’s friends, eager to join in, offered their congratulations.

“So, Ethan, when’s the proposal?”

He glanced at me. “Today. Once I win the Eternal Diamond, I’ll propose to Sophia.”

My eyes snapped to him.

The Eternal Diamond—my mother’s keepsake.

The night I left home, my mother had fought desperately to stop me, begging me to stay and protect my father and the Bennett family. I hadn’t listened.

In my past life, I’d learned the hard way—what happened to the family was none of my concern.

“Why should an illegitimate daughter guard the Bennett family?” I’d thought.

We parted on bitter terms, and for the next seven years, with the Pacific Ocean between us, we didn’t exchange a single call.

This time around, my mother had died of lung cancer from years of smoking.

By the time I returned from the United States, she was already lying in the morgue.

She’d left a letter willing the Eternal Diamond to me. But I was too late—everything of value on her had been stolen.

I’d asked Daniel Foster to help me find it, but there was never any news.

Until I spotted it at this charity gala’s auction.

I hadn’t waited for Daniel to return before coming here myself—only to discover it was the Carter family’s event. By the time I thought to leave, it was already too late.

During the first half, I hadn’t raised my bidding paddle once.

“Got yourself a white guest pass just to eat and drink for free?”

“Olivia, how far you’ve fallen.”