Chapter 1

We were out at sea on a chartered boat. My wife insisted on diving in a dangerous reef area.

I begged her not to, warning her that these waters were infested with lethal sea snakes.

Her childhood best friend, standing beside her, sneered with dripping sarcasm:

"If you really loved her, Ian, you’d risk your life for her!"

Before diving in, my wife posted a cozy photo of the two of them on her Ins story with the caption:

[Nothing hits harder than a childhood best friend who’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.]

Shortly after, she surfaced, frantically dragging her bitten best friend back onto the deck. She lowered her head, desperate to suck the venom out of his wound, but I stopped her immediately.

Despite the emergency CPR and first-aid measures I applied, the poison killed him.

Seven days later, my wife drugged my drink and threw me alive into a snake-infested reef. Her eyes burned with pure malice:

"It's your fault! If you hadn’t stopped me from sucking out the poison, he wouldn't have died!

Did you know I was pregnant with his baby? You killed my child, and you killed his father!"

When I opened my eyes again, the phantom agony of sea snake venom still tore through my body. The memory of my wife's twisted, demonic expression before I drowned felt straight out of a horror film.

I had no idea I had been cheated on all along. They had been sleeping together behind my back for who knows how long—she was even carrying his child.

"Are you coming with me or not?" Julia’s impatient voice rang in my ears.

She stood there with her hands on her hips, looking as arrogant as ever. At this moment, she had no clue she was pregnant yet, which was why she was screaming to go diving.

In my past life, after her best friend Lucas died, she vanished for a whole day. Looking back, she must have slipped away to have an abortion.

Seeing that throwing a tantrum didn't work, Julia softened her tone and grabbed my arm, pouting cutely.

"Baby, please, just dive with me this once! The ocean out here is just too gorgeous."

"No. Highly venomous sea snakes frequent this area." I pulled my arm away, completely sickened by her touch.

Still, to avoid blowing my cover, I kept my voice steady and gave her the exact same warning I did in my past life.

My friend Mark chimed in from behind: "Ian's right, Julia. It's way too risky. There's no antivenom on this boat. If you get bitten, you're dead."

"Don't be so dramatic! What are the odds? Besides, real ocean exploring takes a little risk!" Julia scoffed, insisting she loved the sea and that snakes rarely attacked unprovoked.

Her tone turned sour, whining about how rare it was to go on vacation and how I always managed to be a buzzkill.

Right on cue, Lucas walked in and cooed at her, "What's wrong? Who upset my gorgeous Julia?"

Julia pouted in silence. Lucas let out a soft chuckle. "I thought it was something serious. Come on, I'll go with you."

He affectionately pinched her nose, and Julia threw herself into his arms without a second thought.

In my past life, I always felt they were uncomfortably close. We had fought over Lucas dozens of times.

Every single time, she flipped the script on me.

"We grew up together! He’s practically family to me, Ian! If there was anything going on between us, would I have ever ended up with you?"

"Dirty minds see dirt in everything. You're so pathetic!"

Julia was stunning, and her line of suitors stretched around the block. I simped after her for an entire year before she finally agreed to be with me, and we got married right after college.

Yet, Lucas was always there. He even crashed our honeymoon, booking our hotels himself. Looking back, they were probably already sleeping together back then.

"Words are cheap. What's the point of saying you love her if you won't even risk your neck for her?"

Lucas tossed the insult at me with a smirk. I said nothing. Before heading into the water, they posed for a set of intimate selfies, their faces inches apart.

Julia uploaded it with the caption:

[Nothing hits harder than a childhood best friend who’ll follow you to the ends of the earth.]

My hands shook as I gripped my phone. I never realized that the woman sleeping beside me was deadlier than any viper. The phantom burns of thousands of fangs tearing into my flesh hadn't faded.

Mark noticed my pale face. "Hey man, you okay? You look terrible."

"Just feel a bit feverish."

I used the sickness as an excuse to lie down in the cabin. In this life, I wouldn't lift a single finger to stop Julia from sucking that venom.

Let them both drop dead together.