Chapter 1

The operating table was ice-cold. A bone-deep chill crept up my spine, inch by inch.

This was the third time I'd lain here.

My husband, Dante Vane, stood on the other side of the sterile room's glass window. His eyes were flat and indifferent — like he was looking at a pile of garbage.

"Clean her up. I don't want Seraphina getting any bad luck from this."

He dropped those words and turned away, pulling Seraphina Rose gently against his side. She was pregnant with his child.

And I — the true heiress of the The Rose family — had been slowly poisoned for three years through the prenatal medication he made me drink every single day. I died on that operating table, torn apart from the inside out.

Then I opened my eyes.

Salt-laced sea air hit my face.

I had gone back. Back to the night of the cruise ship gala.

The ocean wind screamed. Beneath it, the low, relentless thrum of the ship's engines.

My eyes snapped open. I gasped, dragging in breath after ragged breath.

It felt like my lungs still carried the thick, iron smell of blood from the operating room in my last life.

Every bone in my body ached.

"Liliana, look at the seagulls over there — aren't they gorgeous?"

A soft, saccharine voice floated into my ear.

I turned stiffly. Seraphina Rose's eyes met mine — eyes that looked innocent but harboring hidden calculations.

Her arm was hooked through mine. She was slowly, steadily steering me toward the unguarded maintenance zone at the edge of the deck. No railing. Nothing but open air and the sea below.

This spot.

Right here, in my last life.

She had faked a slip and shoved me with everything she had, sending me plunging into the freezing water.

And Dante — heir to the Vane family, who was supposed to be entertaining guests in the top-floor VIP suite — had "just so happened" to appear on the deck.

He jumped in without a second thought.

But in the pitch-black water that night, fate played a cruel trick. He pulled out the wrong girl. He pulled out me.

That night, a storm knocked the cruise ship off course. We spent the night on a deserted island nearby, huddled together just to survive.

When we were rescued the next morning, The Vane family pushed Dante into marrying me — damage control for the rumors spreading through their elite social circles.

Meanwhile, Seraphina had stood on the deck and sobbed — and Roman Vane, the Vane family's disgraced illegitimate son, had draped his jacket over her shoulders and walked her away.

From that day on, Dante hated me.

He was convinced I had staged the whole drowning incident on purpose — all to marry into the Vane family and steal the title of Mrs. Vane right out from under Seraphina.

In his eyes, I had taken what belonged to someone else. I was scheming. I was vicious.

Three years of marriage. Three years of him punishing me in the most brutal ways he could think of.

He tampered with my food. He killed our three children with his own hands.

While I screamed on that operating table, he never once turned around.

"Liliana, what are you spacing out for? Come a little closer — the view is way better from here."

Seraphina's impatient voice yanked me back from the dark.

A flash of cold, vicious urgency crossed her eyes.

The arm hooked through mine suddenly tensed, shoving me toward the edge.

The corner of my mouth curved into a slow, icy smile.

This life? That perfect match that was supposed to be yours?

I'm sending it right back to you.

Just as her hands were about to reach my shoulders —

My eyes sharpened. I stepped aside — half a step, quick and silent as a ghost.

"Ahh — !"

Seraphina clearly hadn't expected me to move. I had always been the one who just took it.

She had pushed too hard. Her body lurched, completely off balance.

A piercing, broken shriek split the air.

She went over the edge of the deck and plummeted straight down, like a kite with its string cut, into the churning sea below.

Splash.

A massive wall of white water exploded upward.

"Help! Help me — glug glug glug —"

Seraphina thrashed wildly in the freezing water. Her carefully done makeup washed off in seconds. She flailed her arms above the surface, utterly undone.

I stood on the deck and looked down at her desperate struggle.

I felt nothing.

Actually — no. It felt good.

"Seraphina!"

A raw, anguished shout erupted from behind me.

Dante was in a perfectly tailored couture suit. His eyes were bloodshot red. He charged toward the edge of the deck like a man who'd lost all reason.

He didn't even stop to pull off his jacket. He threw himself over the railing without a second thought.

Splash.

Another crash of water.

I watched the two figures in the sea with cold, dry eyes.

Dante fought through the waves to reach Seraphina and locked his arms around her — shielding her completely — as if she were something priceless he had almost lost forever.

In his previous life, he had jumped in without hesitation — just like this.

What a shame. He saved the wrong person, and blamed the wrong one.

This life, I'll give you both exactly what you want — you tragic, star-crossed lovebirds.

"Nice reflexes, Liliana Rose."

A lazy voice — smooth but laced with dangerous amusement — drifted out from the shadows.

My whole body went rigid. I spun around, every instinct on high alert.

Roman Vane.

The Vane's Family's darkest secret — the illegitimate son they'd rather pretend didn't exist, cold-blooded and ruthless to the core.

He was leaning against the worn cabin door, a cigarette burning slow between his long fingers.

Through the curl of smoke, those dark, unfathomable eyes were watching me with something between a smirk and a threat.

He saw everything.

He saw me step aside on purpose. He watched Seraphina fall with his own eyes.