The rain fell like a curse.
It poured over the black sedan that had crashed through the roadside barrier, its front completely deformed, smoke hissing from beneath the hood. The windshield was shattered. Blood ran down the steering wheel, mixed with rainwater, and dripped onto the cold leather seat.
Inside the car, Evelyn Hart could barely breathe.
Pain spread through every part of her body, sharp and burning, yet strangely numb at the same time. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled for her phone, the cracked screen glowing weakly in the darkness.
Her vision blurred.
She could taste blood in her mouth.
Still, she tapped the only number she had memorized by heart.
Her husband.
Her fingers were so slippery with blood that it took her three tries before the call finally connected.
For one second, hope flickered inside her chest.
"Damian…"
Her voice was barely audible, broken and trembling. "Please…"
On the other end of the line, there was a pause.
Then came the familiar cold voice that had haunted her for five years.
"What is it?"
Evelyn's breath hitched. Behind him, she could hear soft music, laughter, and the clinking of wine glasses. It was warm there. Bright. Alive.
Nothing like the freezing hell she was trapped in.
"I…" She coughed, blood staining her lips. "I had an accident. I'm on South Bridge Road. Damian… I can't move. Please come get me…"
Another pause.
Not worry. Not panic.
Annoyance.
"You're still using these tricks?"
Her fingers tightened weakly around the phone.
For a moment, she thought she had misheard him.
The rain hammered harder against the broken glass.
"Damian," she whispered, tears mixing with the blood on her face. "I'm not lying. Please… I think I'm dying…"
A woman's voice suddenly sounded from the other side, soft and sweet.
"Damian? Is she calling again?"
Evelyn froze.
She knew that voice.
Selena Vale.
The woman Damian had protected for years. The woman he said was "just a friend." The woman everyone knew he could never forget.
The silence that followed was louder than thunder.
Then Damian spoke, his voice lower now, gentler—but not to her.
"It's nothing."
Nothing.
Evelyn's heart seemed to stop for a second.
She heard Selena laugh softly. "You should stop indulging her. Tonight is important to me."
Tonight.
Of course.
Tonight was Selena's return banquet.
And Damian was with her.
Evelyn shut her eyes. Her lashes were wet with rain and despair.
She had called her husband while dying, and he was comforting another woman.
"Damian…" she whispered one last time, her voice so weak it was almost gone. "Please…"
This time, his tone was completely emotionless.
"If you're really in trouble, call an ambulance."
Then the line went dead.
The screen dimmed in her hand.
Evelyn stared at it, as if she still couldn't understand what had just happened.
For five years, she had loved Damian Laurent with everything she had.
Five years ago, she had married him knowing he did not love her.
Everyone in Solmere City knew the truth: Damian married her only because his grandfather demanded it. Evelyn had been nothing more than the acceptable bride—quiet, educated, obedient, from a respectable family.
Not loved.
Never loved.
Even on their wedding night, he had looked at her with cold indifference and said, "Don't expect anything from me except the title of Mrs. Laurent."
And yet she stayed.
Like a fool, she stayed.
She learned how he liked his coffee. She waited for him at midnight dinners that went cold on the table. She defended him in front of board members, smiled in front of reporters, cared for his sick grandfather, and buried every insult his family threw at her.
She thought if she gave enough, endured enough, loved enough…
One day, he might look at her differently.
One day, he might choose her.
But now, in the final moments of her life, the truth had never been clearer.
He never would.
The rain kept falling.
Her breathing became shallower. The pain in her chest was unbearable now, each breath like broken glass.
Her phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.
The battery was almost dead.
So was she.
A weak laugh escaped her lips, fragile and bitter.
How pathetic.
She, Evelyn Hart, heir to the Hart family—once praised as the brightest jewel of high society—had wasted five years chasing a man whose heart had always belonged to someone else.
No.
Not wasted.
Destroyed.
She had lost far more than time.
She had lost her pride.
Her family's trust.
Her own life.
Because just before the accident, she had discovered something she was never supposed to know.
The brake line of her car had been cut.
This was no accident.
Someone wanted her dead.
And she knew exactly who had the most to gain from it.
If she died, Damian would finally be free to marry the woman he truly loved.
A shiver ran through her body that had nothing to do with the cold.
Was it Selena?
Or…
Did Damian know?
The thought crushed what little warmth remained in her chest.
She remembered the way he had spoken just now. Calm. Distant. Unmoved.
As if her life meant nothing.
Maybe he didn't need to kill her.
Maybe all he had to do was choose not to save her.
And that was enough.
Tears slipped silently from the corners of her eyes.
For the first time in years, Evelyn didn't cry because Damian didn't love her.
She cried because she finally understood that she had never loved herself enough to leave.
A sudden burst of headlights appeared through the rain.
A car was approaching.
Her heartbeat stuttered.
Help?
She forced her head up slightly, every inch of movement tearing pain through her body. But when the vehicle stopped several meters away, nobody rushed toward her.
The driver's door opened.
A woman stepped out under a black umbrella.
Elegant. Slender. Calm.
Selena.
Even through the rain, Evelyn could recognize that face instantly.
Selena walked slowly toward the wrecked car in high heels, as though she were attending a private show rather than visiting the scene of someone's death.
She stopped beside the shattered window and looked down at Evelyn.
There was no concern in her eyes.
Only satisfaction.
Evelyn's pupils shrank.
"You…" Her voice was little more than air.
Selena smiled faintly. "You look terrible."
The world around Evelyn seemed to collapse into silence.
Selena leaned down slightly, careful not to let the rain touch her silk dress.
"You really should have signed the divorce papers earlier," she said softly. "This could have been much less painful."
Evelyn's fingers twitched.
It really was her.
Rage flared weakly inside her dying body.
"You… did this…"
Selena did not deny it.
Instead, she looked almost amused. "Does it matter now?"
Her words were light, but her eyes were cruel.
"Do you know why you lost, Evelyn?" she continued. "Because Damian never wanted you. Not from the beginning. You were just standing in my place."
Evelyn stared at her, trembling with hatred.
Selena's smile deepened. "Even tonight, when I told him you kept calling, he didn't leave my side. I didn't even have to stop him."
Every word was a knife.
Selena took out a folded document from her handbag and held it up against the window.
Even through the blood and rain, Evelyn could see the title.
Divorce Agreement.
"I was going to wait a few more days," Selena said. "But now that you're dying, I suppose this saves everyone time."
Evelyn's nails dug into her palms.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to drag this woman into hell with her.
But she had no strength left.
Selena studied her with pity so false it was insulting. "Don't worry. After you die, I'll take very good care of Damian."
That was the moment something inside Evelyn finally broke.
Not her heart.
That had shattered long ago.
It was the last piece of foolish hope she had carried for five years.
Gone.
Completely gone.
She forced herself to lift her head, meeting Selena's eyes with everything she had left.
Then, with blood on her lips and hatred in her gaze, Evelyn whispered, "If… I could live again…"
Selena frowned slightly, leaning closer.
Evelyn smiled.
It was not a gentle smile.
It was the smile of someone standing at the gates of hell, making a vow.
"I would never love him again."
A flash of lightning tore across the sky.
For one brief second, the whole world turned white.
Then darkness swallowed everything.
When Evelyn opened her eyes again, she was breathing.
She bolted upright instantly.
The sudden motion left her dizzy. Her chest rose and fell violently as she gasped for air, her hands flying to her body.
No blood.
No broken bones.
No shattered windshield.
No rain.
Only the warm glow of crystal chandeliers above her head.
She froze.
In front of her stood a long mahogany table, a row of lawyers in dark suits, and the unmistakable emblem of Laurent Group on the wall.
Her breath caught.
This room…
She knew this room.
No.
That was impossible.
Her pulse thundered as she looked down at herself. She was wearing a fitted ivory dress, her hands smooth and uninjured, her wedding ring still on her finger.
Then a deep, cold voice sounded across the table.
"If you're done playing silent, sign it."
Evelyn's entire body went rigid.
She lifted her head.
And there he was.
Damian Laurent.
Alive.
Cold.
Impossibly familiar.
He sat at the head of the table in a black suit, his expression sharp and impatient, as if her presence itself wasted his time.
Beside him lay a document already turned to the final page.
Divorce Agreement.
Evelyn stared at it, her mind in chaos.
This was the day.
The day she had once cried, begged, and humiliated herself to stop him from leaving.
The day she had refused to sign.
The day everything had begun to spiral toward her death.
Her fingers slowly curled.
A strange stillness came over her.
Then Damian spoke again, with the same merciless indifference she remembered too well.
"Evelyn, don't test my patience."
This time, she did not cry.
This time, she did not beg.
Instead, she looked at the man she had once loved enough to die for… and felt nothing but ice.
Then, very slowly, Evelyn reached for the pen.