The moment I was reborn, my sister had already been drugged. "Ash, I'm so hot..." Her warm breath ghosted over my earlobe. But this time, instead of making the same mistake, I knocked on the door of the man she truly loved. In my last life, I fell for my adoptive sister. Fueled by alcohol, I gave in to the impulses I had long suppressed. Even though I knew she was calling out another man's name, I carried her into my own bedroom. The next morning, when we were discovered, she was forced to marry me. On our wedding day, the love of her life, her "white moonlight," went hiking to clear his head. He fell from a cliff. As he lay dying, he sent her one last text message. [My dear Luna, let's be together in our next life.] My sister, Luna, stared at that message in silence for an entire night. Then, during our honeymoon, she pushed me off the very same cliff. I clung to the edge, begging her to pull me up, but she just laughed, a wild, terrible sound. She pressed her foot onto my hand, grinding it back and forth into the sharp rock. Through her maniacal laughter, I finally understood. She blamed me for his death. And then I woke up, back in the present, watching my sister, flushed and feverish with desire. 1 "I'm so hot, Ashton..." she murmured, her voice thick with a desire that wasn't for me. "Hot... help me..." Under the influence of the aphrodisiac, Luna's consciousness was fading. Her glossy red lips were slightly parted, emitting soft, breathy moans. The feeling of her soft body pressed against my arm was a visceral reminder that I had been given a second chance. In my last life, emboldened by alcohol, I lost all reason to her whispered pleas. I crossed a forbidden line, and it led to my brutal death at the bottom of a ravine. But now, reborn, I refused to repeat that mistake. Ashton, the man she loved, was staying in the guest room on the second floor. The moment he opened the door, I pushed Luna into his arms. "My sister's had too much to drink," I said, my voice flat. "She's been calling your name." I turned and walked away, ignoring the complex look in Ashton's eyes. The sound of his door closing behind me was a profound relief. Because of one selfish choice, my past life had ended with Luna forced into a loveless marriage with me, and Ashton dead. Luna's heart had filled with a murderous hatred, and she'd changed our honeymoon plans specifically to lead me to that cliff and exact her revenge. Even now, the visceral terror of that fall lingered in my soul. This time, I had given them their chance. Surely, the ending would be different now. The next morning, a servant woke me. As I entered the dining room, my eyes met Luna's. Unlike the dead, hollow look she'd had in our last life, this time her eyes were practically overflowing with joy. Seeing me, she cleared her throat and lifted her hand from under the table, her fingers intertwined with Ashton's. "Now that everyone's here, I have an announcement," she declared. "Ashton and I have decided to get married. We'll let you all know the date once it's set." "I'll take good care of Luna," Ashton said with a slight bow. "Soon, we'll all be family. I hope you'll all be patient with the new guy." Watching them, a perfectly matched pair, my mind drifted. If this were my past life, what would I be doing right now? Throwing things? Screaming? My silence seemed to bother Ashton. "Caden isn't saying anything," he teased, a malicious glint in his eye. "Don't you want your sister to get married? Or... do you just hate me?" I snapped back to reality just in time to see the corner of his mouth twitch into a smirk before it vanished. He immediately turned to Luna, his expression one of wounded innocence. "Luna, Caden is your brother. I don't want any trouble between you two. If he can't accept this right away, I can leave for a while." Luna frowned at me, her gaze sharp. "Ashton is going to be your brother-in-law. If I see you giving him that sour face again, don't blame me for being harsh. Do you understand?" I had no intention of getting between them this time, but they seemed determined to drag me in. My already small appetite vanished completely. I mumbled that I understood and turned to leave. Luna slammed her hand on the table. "Get back here and eat. Are you going on a hunger strike just because I said a few words to you? Where did you pick up such a pathetic habit?" I had already decided to leave this house soon. I didn't want to spend my last days here fighting. Seeing the anger in her eyes, I sat back down and forced a few bites of food. Then I stood up and smiled. "I'm done, Luna. Ashton. You two enjoy your meal." I had barely reached my room when the doorknob turned. Luna walked in, her expression serious. 2 "You should knock before entering." My words made her brow furrow. "Are you avoiding me?" she asked abruptly. "Or are you throwing a tantrum because of Ashton?" "We're not children anymore. I just think we should be mindful of appearances. I don't want your fiancé to get the wrong idea." I shook my head and offered a small, formal bow. "I'm very happy for you and Ashton. I wish you a long and happy life together." I tried to sound playful, but for some reason, it only seemed to anger her more. "Are you sure you mean that?" "At your eighteenth birthday party, you kissed me while I was drunk and asleep. On your twentieth, you stood outside my door all night. On our graduation trip, you buried a stone with our names on it under the lover's rock at the shrine..." As I stared at her in shock, a cruel smile spread across her face. "Caden, did you really think I didn't know? You thought you were being so clever, hiding your feelings, but you were so obvious. Everyone in this family knows you're in love with me!" She lifted my chin with her fingertips, her red lips parting. "I was adopted by our parents before you were even born. We were raised as brother and sister. But the moment you found out we weren't related by blood, you started having inappropriate feelings for me." "And what makes me angriest," she continued, her voice dripping with venom, "is that you knew I loved Ashton, yet you deliberately antagonized him at every turn." In the privacy of my room, she unleashed all the malice she had kept hidden. "So you should be grateful you never confessed your feelings to my face." "Because if you had... it would have only disgusted me." Even though I had already let go of my feelings for her in this life, her words still sent a sharp, stabbing pain through my heart. I lifted my head, meeting her gaze, searching for an answer for the me of the past. "In your eyes, was I really that terrible?" "What else would you be?" She pulled her hand back and wiped her fingertips with a tissue from the desk. "Last night, even though I was drugged, I wasn't completely unconscious. I saw the desire in your eyes. And I'm telling you, if you had dared to do anything, I would have killed you." She threw the used tissue at me. "The thought of you touching me makes my skin crawl." I never knew. I never knew she had started hating me so long ago. I pressed my lips together, forcing back the tears. It was a good thing I had already moved on. If I hadn't, this truth would have been unbearable. "I understand," I said, my voice low. "I'll be more careful from now on." I lowered my head. My professor from abroad had just emailed me, accepting my application. I just had to get through these last few days. I had no fight left in me. But I didn't know Luna could be even crueler. She walked to the window, glanced outside, and then turned back to me. "Ashton's room is a bit damp. He's not sleeping well. Your room gets the best sunlight. You can move out today. He'll take this one." Sunlight streamed through the window, framing her in a halo of light. I couldn't quite make out her expression. Her voice turned cold. "What, you're not willing?" I kept my head down, my voice as neutral as I could make it. "No. This was your room to begin with. You can give it to whomever you want." This room had been Luna's a long time ago. But when I was seven, I nearly drowned and suffered from a persistent chill for a long time afterward. She had insisted I take her room, the one that got the most sun. I had almost forgotten. She used to be good to me. But now, she had someone she loved more. And she was giving him all her affection, without reservation. Luna narrowed her eyes. "You're really okay with this?" I just grunted in affirmation. It wasn't until the servants had moved almost all of my belongings into another room that she finally spoke again, unable to contain her suspicion. "You used to cry and throw a fit if I was nice to anyone else. Why are you suddenly so well-behaved? Are you plotting something?" She was testing me. "I don't care what you're planning, but if you hurt Ashton, don't blame me for what I do. You know what I'm capable of." The last of my things were moved into the guest room. I stepped inside, and just before closing the door, I looked back at her. "A well-behaved, obedient little brother. Isn't that what you've always wanted?" "I'm not going to target anyone. I just want to be left alone." I shut the door, cutting off her hissed reply: "You've got a lot of nerve." She was angry. But this time, I wasn't going to comfort her.
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "393489", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel