His Three Regrets, My One Price

For ten years, Julian Blackwood hated me. All because his first love, Chloe Davenport, lost her company.

I spent that decade trying to please him, and all I ever got in return was his cold indifference.

"If you really want to make me happy," he’d said, his voice laced with contempt, "then get out of my sight."

His words were shards of ice in my heart. But when our helicopter engine failed and the fuselage ripped apart in mid-air, he gave me the only parachute and fell with the wreckage.

He lay in my arms, his life fading with every breath. I reached for his face, and he used the last of his strength to speak into the radio.

"Genevieve Reed, if I had chosen Chloe back then… would everything have been different?" he whispered.

At the funeral, his mother, Eleanor, cried so hard she couldn't stand.

"It's all my fault," she sobbed, her body wracked with grief. "I never should have forced him to marry you for the company. If I had just let him be with Chloe, would this still have happened?"

His father, Richard, looked at me with undisguised hatred. "Julian saved you three times, and you brought him nothing but disaster. Why are you the one who's alive, not him?"

Everyone wished Julian had never married me.

So did I.

In the end, I leaped from the top of the Blackwood Tower and returned to ten years ago.

This time, I would sever the ties between us. I would give them all the ending they wanted.

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1

"Genevieve Reed, you've got some nerve." The deep, cold voice sliced through the air, sharp as a winter wind in Manhattan. "You had your parents force my hand with a business alliance. Did you really think marrying into the Blackwood family would make you happy?"

I groggily opened my eyes to find myself face-to-face with Julian Blackwood.

He stood before me in a finely tailored black suit that accentuated his tall, powerful physique. His features were sharp and untamed, his eyes holding a primal fierceness. Everything about him was different from the somber man he would become in ten years.

This was the twenty-year-old Julian Blackwood.

It seemed I had truly returned.

I suppressed the sharp pain in my chest, my eyes greedily drinking in every detail of his face.

"You don't want to marry me," I began, my voice surprisingly steady. "Because the person you want to save is Chloe Davenport. Right?"

He scoffed. "And what if I do? What are you going to do about it? Let us be together?"

"I can," I said.

When my parents, founding partners of the Blackwood Group, died in a plane crash, they left me a key stake with veto power, enough to influence any major decision the board made. It also meant I could easily push through an acquisition to save a company teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Julian froze. Then, his lips twisted into a smirk, as if I had just told the world's worst joke. "You're using that damned stake of yours, and my parents are pushing me. This marriage is a done deal."

His gaze raked over me, his disdain as sharp as a blade.

"And now you're going to 'let us be together'? How, exactly? Gen, I don't have time for your mind games." He gestured toward the ballroom with his chin. "Go on in and announce our engagement yourself. I'll wait here for you to finish your little performance."

He turned, leaning against the hallway wall, his posture lazy yet oppressive. The disgust in his eyes was a physical blow, sending a sharp pain through my chest.

Through my past life and into this one, I had loved Julian for what felt like an eternity.

He had risked his life to save me three times. I mistook that reckless protection for love, foolishly believing that he must care for me. I had eagerly accepted Richard and Eleanor's arrangement and married him.

It wasn't until Chloe's company went bankrupt that I finally understood his heart had belonged to someone else all along.

My ten years of love had become his ten-year shackles.

In that life, I had tried everything. I donated my assets, dedicated myself to charity, wore myself to a shadow—all to beg fate for another chance. In the end, I traded everything to give Julian a chance at a new life.

Before this, a voice had echoed in my mind: Resolve his three deepest regrets within twelve hours of your return. Once the task is complete, you must leave him immediately.

From that moment on, you will go your separate ways. He will no longer die at thirty because of you. You will live separate lives.

But there is always a price for returning to the past. Think carefully, madam.

As long as Julian could live, I feared no price. So, I went to Arthur Sterling, a veteran of the group, and used my stake to force through the acquisition of Chloe's company.

I knew his three regrets, which he'd written in a private journal.

Regretting marrying Genevieve Reed. Regretting not resisting the family's arrangement. Regretting not being able to save Chloe.

Now, the first regret was resolved. Wasn't it?

I walked out of the conference room with the signed documents and went straight to him.

Julian's gaze was fixed on me, as if watching a victor savoring her prize. His hand reached for the document, ready to open it.

I pressed my palm over his, stopping him, a soft, teasing smile playing on my lips.

"Tomorrow," I said. "Watch the news tomorrow. You're in for a surprise."

He shot me a sideways glance, impatience flashing across his face. "What's the difference? The result is the same. I still have to marry you."

He squinted, studying me as if I were a strange new species. "You're acting odd today. What, so happy you're finally marrying me that you've lost your mind?"