Stormwater Collection Station
My wealthy fiancé was kidnapped, and I poured everything into finding him. I fought tooth and nail to restore him to his rightful place in high society, to help him track down the real culprits. In return, he honored the engagement between our families and eventually married me.
Yet he hated every single day of that gilded life—and he hated me even more, the one who had dragged him back into it. His heart had always belonged to that girl from the small town, his “white moonlight,” Joyce.
Then came the day the traffickers returned for revenge. He rushed out and took a fatal knife meant for my father. With his last breath, he gathered every ounce of strength to whisper, “Ashley, in the next life… don’t come looking for me. Let me and Joyce live a peaceful life in Clearwater Town.”
Now he was finally free. I couldn’t shed a tear; I only nodded, my voice a hoarse rasp. “All right. I promise you.”
If there is a next life, Alan… I’ll let you have it.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I went to Clearwater Town to find him.
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Chapter 3
In my past life, love blinded me, turning me into a pitiful beggar pleading for even a single glance from Alan.
But after living it all again, I finally understood: love cannot be begged for, but dignity can.
Before hanging up, I said my final words: "Mrs Alan, this is my decision—and it’s final. I hope you will respect it. Whether you look for him or not is the Alan family’s affair. I will no longer be involved."
I gave her no chance to argue. The call ended, and her number was blocked immediately.
Peace, at last.
Back home, my father noticed my exhaustion, his eyes full of concern as he asked what was wrong.
I told him everything—only leaving out the part about my rebirth.
"Dad, I'm sorry," I said, hanging my head. "I might have let you down. The marriage alliance with the Alan family… it's over."
He was silent for a long moment before sighing softly. Reaching out, he patted my head, his gaze tender. "Silly child, what are you saying? All your father wants is your happiness. If that boy’s heart isn’t with you, then ending this marriage is for the best. A daughter of Ashley’s Group will have no shortage of suitors."
My eyes stung with warmth, and I buried myself in his arms.
Yes—how could I have been so foolish before? In that past life, I’d broken my family’s heart for a man who never loved me.
The next day, I gathered my resolve. With a project proposal drafted overnight, I walked into my father’s company.
It outlined a preliminary plan to pivot the family business from traditional manufacturing into the new energy sector—a more promising path I’d chosen for Ashley’s Group, guided by memories from my previous life.
As my father read through it, surprise and approval filled his eyes.
"Ashley," he said, "you’ve really grown up."
I smiled.
Yes, I had.
A life without Alan… turned out to be far less heartbreaking than I’d feared.
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7.2
Since she was ten, Noreen had been by Caiden's side, watching him rise from a young boy into a respected CEO. After two years of marriage, though, his visits home grew rare.
Gossip among the wealthy said he despised her. Even his beloved mocked her hopes, and his circle treated her with scorn. People forgot about her decade of loyalty.
She clung to memories and became a figure of ridicule, worn out from trying.
They thought he'd won his freedom, but he dropped to his knees and begged, "Noreen, you're the only one I love."
Leaving behind the divorce papers, she walked away.
8.5
I checked my reflection in the glass wall of the conference room, smoothing down my navy Armani suit. The board meeting had gone exceptionally well—another acquisition secured, another step toward expanding my tech empire. My phone buzzed with a calendar reminder: Ryan's birthday tomorrow. I smiled, thinking of the Rolex Daytona nestled in my purse. Ryan had been eyeing it for months, casually pointing it out in magazine spreads, sighing about how men like him "deserved nice things." Little did he know I'd purchased it weeks ago. The $40,000 price tag hadn't even made me flinch. "Victoria, that presentation was brilliant," Jessica, my executive assistant, said as she collected my documents. "The board practically ate out of your hand."
"Thanks, Jess." I glanced at my watch. "What time is my flight tomorrow?"
"2 PM. You'll be back in New York by 10."
I bit my lip, an impulsive thought forming.
9.3
The neon lights of the nightclub pulsed around us as Laila's bachelorette party reached its peak. I watched my best friend since childhood—my maid of honor—dancing with a group of our friends, her laughter echoing over the music. Tomorrow, I would become Mrs. Daniel King, marrying the man I'd loved for five years. "You need to hydrate, Eden," Sarah Chen, my colleague from Seattle, handed me a glass of water. "Big day tomorrow."
I smiled gratefully, taking the glass. "I can't believe it's finally here."
"Daniel's going to be the luckiest man alive," she said, squeezing my arm. If only she knew how my stomach fluttered at just the mention of his name. Daniel—tall, handsome, successful Daniel who had swept me off my feet during our first date at that little Italian restaurant downtown. Laila stumbled toward us, her face flushed from dancing.
9.5
The September sun cast a golden glow across the marble steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral as I stood in my wedding dress, a vision in white lace and pearls. Curtis had insisted on the grandest venue in New York City—nothing but the best for his bride. Photographers circled like elegant vultures, capturing every perfect moment of what the society pages would surely call the wedding of the year. "You look breathtaking," Victoria whispered, adjusting my veil. "Curtis won't be able to take his eyes off you."
I smiled, my heart swelling with a happiness I'd fought so hard to claim. Against my mother's wishes. Against the Kennedy name and all it stood for. "He already can't," I replied, catching Curtis's gaze from across the reception hall. Even surrounded by New York's elite, he only had eyes for me.
9.5
For two years, Clementine played the perfectly obedient wife to billionaire Donovan Bray, wearing his heavy diamonds and enduring his cold indifference.
Until she accidentally saw his tablet and discovered she was just a "collateral asset"—a cheap lookalike prop hired to make his ex-girlfriend, Gisela, jealous.
When Gisela returned to New York, Donovan's mask completely slipped.
During a vicious argument where he mocked Clementine as a pathetic shadow, he grabbed her, causing her to fall down a flight of marble stairs.
Waking up in the hospital, Clementine learned she had miscarried a six-week-old baby she didn't even know she had.
But what truly shattered her was hearing Donovan's voice through the cracked hospital door.
"It changes nothing."
He coldly lied to his friend that the fall had caused permanent infertility.
"It was probably for the best."
He had killed her unborn child and casually dismissed her worth, truly believing she was a penniless nobody who would suffer his abuse in silence.
He thought he held all the power, leaving her broken and discarded for his true love.
What Donovan didn't know was that his fragile, dependent wife was secretly "C.", the billionaire genius behind Aurelian, the world's most exclusive luxury jewelry empire.
Lying in the sterile room, Clementine dried her tears, filed for a ruthless divorce, and permanently froze his supplementary black card.
It was time to show him who really held the strings.
9.1
“You think I wanted you?” Sebastian’s voice was cold, his blind eyes fixed on her trembling form.
“You bought me,” Anastasia whispered, her heart cracking. “You married me only to punish me.”
His lips curved into a cruel smirk. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re nothing but a substitute, a stand-in for the woman I truly love.”
Her hand shook as she clutched the ring he forced onto her finger. “Then why bind me to you at all?”
“Because I’d rather rot in hell with a stranger than beg for scraps from the woman who betrayed me.”
******
Anastasia never dreamed her life would end up like this. Married to Sebastian, the ruthless billionaire heir whose world was ripped apart the night an accident left him blind and abandoned by his fiancée. To save her sick mother, Anastasia agreed to his cruel bargain: be his substitute wife, his shield in public, and his prisoner in private.
But Sebastian is not a man who forgives and he never forgets. Every touch he denies and every word he spits is a reminder of the vow he made to destroy the woman bound to him.
When the torment becomes unbearable, Anastasia makes the most painful choice of all. She divorces him and vanishes without a trace. What Sebastian never discovers is the truth she carries with her. His children. Not one, but four lives growing inside her. The quadruplets who become her greatest secret and her greatest strength.
Years later, when fate forces their paths to cross again, Anastasia is no longer the weak woman he once broke. Winning her back will take more than apologies, more than confessions, and more than promises he failed to keep.
But can a broken marriage and a hidden family survive the fire of betrayal?
Or will the truth destroy them once more when Sebastian discovers that the children he never knew are his own?