Chapter 1

“Mr. Carter, I know my request is incredibly presumptuous, but everything I’m saying is true!”

“If I don’t become Claire’s husband in name for six months, I really will die!”

My wife Claire’s male secretary, Ryan Blake, was kneeling on the floor, his forehead pressed firmly against the office floor.

The desperation in his voice was so intense that even though I had been reborn, I could still feel it clearly.

Before I could say anything, my wife Claire stepped forward.

There was a trace of concern in her voice. “Ryan, get up. What are you doing?”

She hurried over, helped Ryan to his feet, and brushed the dust from his clothes.

As she straightened his clothes, she spoke to me coldly:

“Ethan, did you hear him? He’s already kneeling and begging you. Why are you still standing there like an idiot?”

“Can’t you show even a little compassion? This is a matter of life and death!”

“Let me tell you, I know what you’re thinking. You think I’m cheating on you, but I’m telling you, Claire Morgan would never do something so disgusting!”

Her tone was colder than the weather outside.

I felt as if I had become the enemy of the wife I had been married to for ten years, while that male secretary was her real husband.

I stared at the man in front of me, his face covered in tears but his eyes still filled with smugness and hope, and clenched my fists.

Ryan had been Claire’s college classmate. Rumor had it that the two of them had dated for a while during graduate school.

But whenever I brought it up, Claire would only shake her head and deny it.

Still, there was no denying that she had always held special feelings for Ryan.

After my company grew bigger and bigger, Claire said she wanted to join the company and help out too.

I had never planned to make her busy herself with company affairs, but she insisted on coming, so I agreed without arguing.

Less than a month after she joined, she said she was overwhelmed by the workload and wanted to hire a secretary.

That was how Ryan came into the company.

As Claire’s husband, I naturally had to investigate when she wanted to hire a male secretary.

When I learned about their rumored relationship, I refused.

But Claire seemed bewitched, desperately determined to keep Ryan.

She begged, grew furious, acted spoiled, and finally even threatened to kill herself, all because she wanted to hire Ryan as her secretary.

When I saw Claire holding a knife against her own throat, I softened.

How could I bear to let the woman I loved actually die?

In the end, I agreed, and Claire promised me that she would never have any kind of relationship with Ryan.

But the moment she turned around, she forgot all about it.

She stayed glued to Ryan every day. Whenever I complained, she threatened to kill herself, leaving me with no choice but to watch.

On this day in my previous life, the scene had been exactly the same.

Ryan had knelt before me and begged me to give him a way to survive.

He claimed that he was a transmigrator and could only complete his mission by becoming Claire’s husband in name.

Otherwise, the system would execute him.

He wanted me to stay away from Claire and my daughter for six months. If I didn’t, he would suddenly drop dead.

He lowered his eyes and kept begging me to agree.

But his gaze continued to wander toward Claire.

“Mr. Carter, please, I’m begging you. Say yes!”

“Believe me, I’m not that kind of person. I swear to God, I have absolutely no improper intentions toward Claire!”

“Please, Mr. Carter. Take pity on me!”

I stared at the man before me as tears fell one by one onto the floor.

Yet the corners of his mouth carried a smile.

Just as I was about to say something, my daughter suddenly burst into the office.

She ran to Ryan’s side, raised her head, and glared at me with her little face scrunched up.

“I don’t want you to be my dad. I want Uncle Ryan to be my dad!”

“Hurry up! Hurry and say yes!”

A bitter smile appeared on Ryan’s face as he stroked my daughter’s cheek.

“Lily, be a good girl. Mr. Carter is your real dad.”

As he spoke, his eyes slowly dimmed, and despair entered his voice.

“But how could I ever deserve to be your dad?”

Seeing Ryan like that, Claire’s concern deepened. Right in front of me, she took Ryan’s hand.

“Don’t worry. You deserve it, and you can be a good father to Lily.”

The tenderness in her voice felt strangely unfamiliar to me.

Then her tone suddenly turned impatient and cold.

“Ethan, answer me. Are you saying yes or not?”

“If you refuse, I’ll…”

“I agree.”

Claire froze when she heard my answer.

A trace of surprise even appeared on her face.

“Ethan, what did you say?”

I looked at the three people in front of me who seemed like a real family and smiled.

Then, with deliberate clarity, I spoke to Claire one word at a time:

“I said, I. A. Gree.”