Chapter 1

1.

After the miscarriage, Herman Butler came home carrying a child.

"Tabby, his name is Noah. Maudie had him for me."

He kept talking, oblivious to the pitying looks from the nurses.

"You were in a coma for six years. I had needs too."

"After you woke up, she didn't want to put me in a difficult spot, so she went abroad."

"But the child is innocent, after all."

Just then, my beloved corgi's voice came into my head.

"Master, whatever you do, don't agree to let him in the door!"

"Just bring up how you saved his life back then, and he'll do whatever you say."

In my last life, I did exactly that.

I screamed the question at him until my voice broke: what about the bullet I took for him, what did that count for?

But in the end, he still claimed the child, and he brought Maud Baxter into the Butler family too.

And I, pregnant for the second time, walked in on the two of them in bed, hemorrhaged, and died in misery.

Reborn, I nodded thoughtfully.

The child was innocent, true. The one who deserved to die was someone else.

...

"Tabby, does this mean you agree?"

Herman studied my face carefully, clearly not believing I would agree so readily.

He probed, hesitant.

"If you're not willing, then this whole thing can just..."

"Just what?"

I broke in, pulling up the faintest smile.

"Then, then we could give it more time."

Herman's voice dropped lower and lower, but I heard every word.

I took the child from his arms.

"Herm, your child is my child."

"Once I'm discharged, I'll take him to register the birth."

At the foot of the bed, the corgi suddenly burst into furious barking.

"Master! You really are a hopeless love-brained fool!"

"You'll have your own children someday. Why raise someone else's son for them!"

"The master's heart clearly went soft just now. What on earth are you doing being this stupid?"

Stupid?

In my last life, I was the truly stupid one.

I slept for six full years, and in those six years Herman had long since changed.

Yet I still foolishly believed I was his one true love.

So I brought up how I'd saved his life, over and over again.

"Herman, do you have any conscience left at all?"

The wound in my body tore open again. Getting so worked up landed me back in the ICU, and when I next woke, Herman was gripping my hand tight.

"Tabby, don't be angry. I've already had the child sent away."

In my last life, I did stop him. I kept that child out of the house.

But I couldn't stop him from building another family outside.

He started coming home later and later.

When I heard Maud Baxter was back in the country, I panicked completely.

To win him back, I hired one of those gossip accounts.

They spread the story everywhere, how I had risked my life to save Herman.

I thought it would stir up his feelings for me again.

Instead, Herman's slap knocked me awake.

"You idiot. Do you know how much effort the Butler family spent cleaning up our name?"

"Did you really have to make people remember how I got my start?"

That slap shattered whatever was left between us.

The society wives were the quickest to read the wind, and they piled on, taking their turns to grind me down.

I finally understood that after six years asleep, I had no way out except to cling to Herman.

So I swallowed my pride and went to make peace.

I believed that no matter what, Herman still had some place for me in his heart.

But when I was pregnant the second time, I caught him cheating.

Remembering how wretchedly I'd died in that life, my eyes reddened again before I could stop them.

"Tabby, don't cry!"

Herman gripped my hand, anxious.

"You know I can't stand it when you cry."

I smiled and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes.

But in my last life, he watched my tears fall all night long with cold eyes.

He clenched his jaw, as if steeling himself for some decision.

"How about, how about I have this child sent away."

Before I could answer, the corgi under the bed suddenly barked twice.

"Master, I told you he has you in his heart!"

"He offered it himself anyway. Master, hurry up and say yes!"

But this time, I was not about to let it have its way.

"No, don't!"

I clutched his hand, tears in my eyes.

If he truly meant to send the child away, then why bother bringing him home at all?

"Your child is my child."

"I'm only sorry our own baby couldn't be saved."

At that, the tenderness and guilt in Herman's eyes deepened.

"Don't worry. From now on, Noah has only one mother, and that's you."

He didn't notice at all the flicker of scorn that crossed my eyes.

Come to think of it, I should thank Herman for bringing me this child. It made it that much easier to keep the son and erase the father.