After catching Liam cheating, I cut ties with him without hesitation. Later, I joined a tour group to clear my mind, only to encounter a rare blizzard and get trapped in a glacier at minus thirty degrees. On the verge of death, Liam trekked through the snow to find me. He stripped off every layer of clothing from his body and wrapped them tightly around me. "Claire, don't sleep. I'm not asking for your forgiveness. I just beg you to survive." "If there's a next life, I swear I won't betray you." When the rescue team arrived, he was frozen solid in the position of holding me. The rescuers had to cut his hands open with a knife to separate us. After his death, I lived to eighty, carrying the guilt of what he'd done for me. When I opened my eyes again, I'd returned to one year before his affair. In this life, he decisively severed all ties with Mia, even kicking her out of the company right in front of me. Everyone marveled at how deeply Liam loved me, down to his very bones. Until the night before our wedding, I heard his inner thoughts: [Reborn into this life, I'm finally about to have her.] [This time, I'll hide Mia well. Claire will never find out.]
So Liam had been reborn too. But just like in the last life, he chose to betray me again. He just didn't know I could hear his thoughts. Liam was kneeling on one knee before me, helping me into my high heels, his fingers caressing my ankle. "You'll be standing all day tomorrow. If these hurt, I'll get you a different pair." Just as I thought I was hallucinating, I heard him again. [Mia's arch is so beautiful. I could hold it in my hands and admire it all day. Not like Claire's flat feet—no curve at all. Touching them doesn't even excite me.] My stomach churned. The scene of catching them in bed in my previous life flashed vividly before my eyes. The dim hotel suite. Clothes scattered everywhere on the floor. Mia's pale ankle propped on Liam's shoulder as he turned his head to press hot kisses against it. "Claire?" Liam's fingers tightened. "Why are your feet so cold?" I jerked my foot back. The stiletto heel scraped across the carpet with a muffled sound. "What's wrong?" I forced myself to stay calm. "Nothing. Just a little cold." Liam took off his suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders. Mixed in with the fabric was a faint, sickeningly sweet scent of powder and perfume that didn't belong to him. I suddenly spoke up. "What do you think of Mia?" Liam's hand, which had been fixing my hair, froze. His face showed undisguised disgust. "Mia's just pretty, that's all. She's actually worthless. I feel sick just looking at her." He gripped my hand tightly, desperately trying to distance himself. "Claire, I already fired her from the company. I have no connection with her whatsoever. Even if she stripped naked and stood in front of me, I wouldn't give her a second glance!" In this life, every time Mia approached him, he pushed her away mercilessly. He looked like he hated her even more than I did. At my birthday party, Mia barged in recklessly and knocked over the champagne tower. Glass shards cut my calf. Liam was furious. He grabbed an unopened bottle of red wine from the table and poured it over her from head to toe. "Get out! Don't let me see you again, or I'll make sure you can't survive in this city!" After shouting this, he turned to order security to clear her out, then softened his tone toward me. "I'll deal with this crazy woman. Don't let her ruin your birthday." A flash of panic crossed Liam's eyes. "Claire, why are you suddenly bringing her up?" [Did she find out something? I showered twice before coming here today. There shouldn't be any trace.] [I've learned my lesson this life. I've hidden everything perfectly. Just one more day. Once we're married, she'll be mine completely.] I looked at his upturned face. In the last life, this face had been frozen blue and purple in the icy wilderness, frost coating his eyelashes. When he wrapped his last coat around me, even his breath came out with bloody foam. I wanted to spend this lifetime repaying his sacrifice, but he wanted to use this lifetime to deceive me again. He didn't regret the affair itself—only that he hadn't hidden it well enough. Thinking about the wedding, he frowned. [Last time at Claire's birthday party, I poured that glass of wine on Mia and she threw such a tantrum.] [That night I had to coax her for so long, licking the wine off her chest bit by bit before she'd let me touch her. She'll definitely throw another fit after tomorrow's wedding. I need to figure out how to appease her.] His thoughts slithered like a venomous snake, crawling into my mind. After he hurried away that birthday night, he never came back. While I sat in the lounge picking bloody glass shards from my calf with tweezers, waiting from daylight to darkness, he had his head buried in Mia's chest. A chill shot up from my feet straight to my heart. I looked at his flawless expression and asked softly. "You're disgusted by her because she acts like a lunatic?" He nodded without hesitation. "Of course. How could she compare to you?" I slowly withdrew my hand from his palm. "You're forgetting the most important thing." "Mia killed your mother."
The muscles in Liam's face twitched violently. The scene from five years ago flooded between us like icy water. Liam's mother had suffered from severe asthma for years. That year, in a moment of kindness, she sponsored Mia, a student from a poor background, and even invited her home. But out of jealousy over how well Liam's mother treated me, Mia played a cruel prank—she replaced all the emergency asthma medication on the nightstand with white vitamin pills. Late that night, Liam's mother had an asthma attack and collapsed in the hallway, clutching her throat in agony, gasping for help. And Mia just stood three steps away, holding up her phone with a giggle, recording a video. "Stop pretending. I just saw you—you were fine." Liam's mother died of suffocation amid those piercing, desperate gasps for air. When Liam arrived at the hospital, all he saw was a body covered with a white sheet, and that video Mia had posted on social media, bragging about her "prank." Liam knelt outside the morgue, his eyes bloodshot, and vomited up a mouthful of blood. His mother had raised him alone. She was the only light in his life within this family full of cold calculations. He held me and cried like a child whose soul had been drained. "Claire, I don't have a mother anymore. I only have you." For three months after that, he locked himself in a pitch-black basement. Self-harm. Starvation. I was the one who fed him cold oatmeal spoonful by spoonful into his trembling mouth. I was the one who held his skeletal body and shielded him from the nightmares that wanted to kill him. I was the one who walked with him through that coldest sea of death. "I haven't forgotten." Liam's eyes instantly reddened, his voice vicious as he gritted his teeth. "A woman that evil wouldn't be worth my mother's life even if she died ten thousand times." "Claire, if you hadn't been with me, I would've died long ago. In my eyes, Mia isn't even worth as much as a prostitute." His eyes were red-rimmed, veins bulging on the back of his hand. But his thoughts struck like a sledgehammer, shattering all the devotion I'd given during those years. [It's been so long. Mia was only eighteen then. She just wanted to play a joke. How was she supposed to know it was life-saving medication?!] [She's already been so guilt-ridden she's cut her wrists twice. Her wrists are covered in scars. Why is Claire so vicious, insisting on dragging up things about dead people?] [Mia is so kind she wouldn't even step on an ant. She's been having nightmares and crying lately. I can barely keep up with comforting her.] [The dead aren't as important as the living. The past isn't as important as the future.] My nails dug deep into my palms, leaving crescent-shaped blood marks. How ridiculous. On the surface, he said he'd never forgive her, but secretly he felt sorry for the scars on his murderer's wrists. The three months I spent with him meant less to him than a few fake tears from Mia. Thinking I was caught up in grief over his mother's death, he reached out to comfort me, but I dodged him. I stared hard at his ring finger, my eyes burning, almost splitting open. This wasn't our wedding ring. Our wedding rings were supposed to be a pair of simple bands he'd designed himself, with our initials engraved inside. He'd said the purest love needed no elaborate decoration. But what he wore now on his ring finger was a pink diamond ring—clearly a women's style of couple's ring. It was even the wrong size, stuck at his knuckle and leaving a glaring red mark.
Liam followed my gaze downward. His hand flinched violently. He quickly clenched it into a fist and shoved it into his suit pocket. "Claire." He took a deep breath. When he looked at me again, his eyes brimmed with gentle apology. "I was going to surprise you at tomorrow's wedding, but you found out early." He pulled his hand back out and opened it in front of me. "I saw you staring at pink diamonds in magazines lately, so I secretly commissioned a French craftsman to make one. When I picked it up earlier, the clerk said the size might be a bit tight, so I tried it on myself and it got stuck." He even laughed self-deprecatingly. "I couldn't wait to see how it looks on you." What a seamless excuse. The next second, his thoughts drilled into my ears. [Damn it! How did I wear Mia's ring back?!] [I was in such a rush getting out of bed at the hotel, I put on the wrong ring. I absolutely can't let her know I made wedding rings for Mia too.] Three hours ago, he'd called me in that gentle voice, telling me an overseas acquisition had run into urgent issues and he needed to join a cross-continental video conference. He told me to go try on my wedding dress alone. His "cross-continental video conference" took place in a hotel bed. He'd prepared wedding rings for both of us. With the same hands that had pulled me from a glacier in the last life, he'd caressed Mia's body. With the same lips that had sworn to me "never to betray you in the next life," he'd kissed away Mia's tears. My fingers trembled uncontrollably. "Is that so?" I heard my own voice. "But the engraving inside this ring doesn't look like my name." Liam's pupils constricted sharply. The color drained from his face at a visible rate. Even his breathing stopped for a second. He covered the ring tightly. "The inside says 'eternity' in French. The letters are too small—you must have misread it. Tomorrow when it's on your finger, you can look more carefully." His phone rang. He glanced at me, indicating it was work. He walked quickly toward the floor-to-ceiling window, deliberately lowering his voice. "Didn't I tell you not to contact me at this time?" After hearing what the person on the other end said, his expression changed drastically. He hung up and headed for the door. [Mia's morning sickness is getting worse. She needs me most right now. If I keep stalling, she'll only suffer more.] [I need to get there quickly. Claire can't get pregnant, but Mia's different. That's my first child. Nothing can go wrong!] In sophomore year, he got cornered in an alley by some thugs during a fight. The thugs came prepared with knives. Without hesitation, I rushed forward and took the blade for him. Blood stained his palms. The doctor said my body was damaged. I'd never be able to have children. He slapped himself twice hard across the face. "Claire, I've failed you." "It doesn't matter if we can't have kids. If you want, we can adopt. If you don't, we'll just have our life together, just the two of us." And now, he had a child with his mother's murderer. The lies ground the past into dust, leaving only desolation. He strode toward the door. "There's a major crisis with the investment deal. The funding chain is stuck. I have to go to the office to handle it." After he left, I called a friend and had her pull Mia's medical records. Half an hour later, an electronic medical file arrived on my phone. Six weeks pregnant. Counting back, it was exactly the night of my birthday. A sense of absurdity overwhelmed me. I wanted to call my father to cancel tomorrow's wedding. My finger hovered over the dial button. That was impossible. The invitations had all been sent out. The hotel was booked. No one would believe me. Liam had played his part too well. He'd fooled not just me, but everyone around me. In this world, everyone would vouch for Liam's devotion. Everyone would think I was the unreasonable one in this relationship. I wiped away my tears forcefully, my lips curling into a smile. Then let everyone watch the show. I sent Mia a wedding invitation with a note: "Come watch your man make his vows to me." On the wedding day, I watched the tears glistening in my mother's eyes. She held my hand and patted it gently. "Claire, I'm so happy today. Liam is such a rare, good man. Your father and I are completely at ease with you marrying him." At the groom's table across from us, Liam's father sat upright. Unsmiling, his brow habitually furrowed, yet even he made an exception today and raised his glass. Liam's father was a traditional man. Since his wife's death, he'd never remarried. He looked at me, his voice steady. "I've always taught Liam to be a man of responsibility! To love only one woman his whole life. If he dares wrong you, I'll break his legs."
Their laughter echoed through the lavish banquet hall. I looked at Liam in the distance, mingling with guests. He wore a perfectly tailored custom suit, his posture upright. A perfectly measured gentle smile played on his lips. If I didn't know that the hickeys on his neck were covered with concealer, I might have been fooled into thinking this really was just an ordinary wedding. Suddenly, the heavy doors of the banquet hall were forcefully pushed open. Mia stood at the entrance. She wore a glaringly inappropriate bright red halter dress, the slit reaching her upper thigh. So red it was blinding—like a piece of bloodied flesh freshly torn from someone's body. The guests around fell silent instantly, their gazes shifting between her and me. She walked straight toward Liam and reached out to grab his sleeve. In that instant of pulling and tugging, I saw clearly—Mia discreetly slipped a crumpled note into Liam's suit sleeve. "Mr. Blackwood, I came to see how beautiful Claire looks today." "I don't mean anything by it. I just wanted to be part of the most important day of your life." The smile vanished from Liam's face instantly. He jerked his hand away from Mia as if electrocuted, stepping back two large paces. "Get out! Where's security? How did trash like this get in here?!" He turned to look at me, panic flooding his eyes. "Claire, don't misunderstand. I never invited her! She's like a leech, showing up on her own." Liam's father's expression darkened. "Liam, deal with this disgusting woman. Don't let her dirty Claire's eyes." Security rushed over and grabbed Mia by both arms, forcibly dragging her toward the exit. "These clothes she touched make me sick." Liam's eyes filled with apology. "There are twenty minutes until the ceremony. I'll go upstairs to the suite and change into a backup suit. I'll be right back." Before the elevator doors closed, I heard his thoughts. [Mia looks so beautiful today. That dress definitely has nothing underneath.] [The note says room 8012 upstairs. This little vixen, demanding I give her passionate sex right now.] [Got to make it quick. Having sex with her while wearing the groom's suit—she's definitely going to scream loud.] Mia had prepared ahead of time, slipping through the back door upstairs to wait for him in the suite. Seems my words yesterday really got to her. Only openly cuckolding me could satisfy her. Ten minutes later, I activated the micro-camera in my necklace pendant and looked at my parents and relatives beside me. "Liam prepared a wedding gift for everyone. Come with me to get it." Dozens of friends and family followed behind me in a grand procession. Liam's father walked at the front, his face wearing a gratified smile. Walking on the thick wool carpet, my high heels made no sound at all. Closer and closer to him. The man's heavy panting exploded in my mind again. [So pale, so soft. The way that waist moves—I'd give my life for her.] My mother reached out to help adjust my heavy wedding dress train, then said: "Claire, you're going to be so happy. A couple years ago when you had that high fever, Liam brought a folding bed into your hospital room and stayed by your bedside all night. Even the nurses said they'd never seen a man who loved his wife so much." A relative immediately chimed in: "That's right! Everyone in our circle knows how devoted Liam is, and how much he dotes on you." "Last Christmas, to buy you a strawberry cake, his car broke down halfway. He walked five miles through the snow. When he got back, his ears were frostbitten." Liam's father's voice was steady as he advised me: "Liam's been raised by me to be rigid since childhood. He doesn't know romance, but he takes after me—he only has eyes for his wife." "That crazy woman Mia just now, don't give her a second thought." "You saw Liam's attitude. Even touching her makes him sick." But at this moment, my attention was focused only on Liam's thoughts: [Mia really isn't wearing anything under that dress. I was getting hard downstairs in the hall.] [If Claire and Dad hadn't been right there, I would've wanted to bend Mia over the table right then and fuck her hard.] I lifted my feet and walked forward step by step. The heavy train of my wedding dress dragged across the floor with soft rustling sounds. Closer. Even closer. I stopped at the suite door. Dozens of relatives and friends stopped behind me. Everyone was smiling warmly at this door. I gripped the cold metal handle and pushed down with all my strength. Click. The door opened.
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