Chapter 1

When the kidnapper raised his gun to kill him, I threw myself in front of Julian.

The bullet shattered my heart. Overseas, doctors replaced it with an experimental mechanical heart—powered purely by a built-in battery.

Because of that heart, Julian married me.

All our friends congratulated me, saying I had finally gotten what I wanted and married the love of my life.

Yet years later, while doctors were cracking my chest open on the operating table, Julian was kissing another woman under the moonlight.

I didn't react. I just lay there in silence, nursing what little life my heart had left.

Julian hated how numb I had become. He grabbed my shoulders, shaking me, his voice tight. "Vivian, why aren't you angry? Why don't you care?"

What he didn't know was that I couldn't get angry. My heart was running out of beats.

Every single day he spent chasing his new romance was another tick off my countdown.

During my hospital checkup, my best friend Chloe sent me a text on SnapChat.

Julian brought that girl right in front of us again. Are you really just going to let this happen?

Before I could reply, a sudden wave of heart palpitations hit me. My chest clenched in agonizing pain.

I leaned against the hallway wall, taking deep, shaky breaths, barely keeping myself upright.

I locked my phone. I didn't want to reply.

My doctor walked over holding my test results and helped me into the exam room.

He shook his head grimly. "Things are worse than before. You need to prepare yourself. No intense emotions, no stress. Otherwise..."

I smiled politely, tossing a handful of pills into my mouth and swallowing them dry.

"I know, Doctor. I’ve lived with this fake heart for years."

Six years ago, Julian and I were vacationing abroad.

His family’s business rivals set an ambush and kidnapped us both.

When the gunman decided to execute Julian, I jumped between them.

The bullet tore clean through my chest. Fortunately, the police raided the scene just in time and rushed me to the hospital.

My heart was completely destroyed. I had virtually zero chance of survival.

In a desperate gamble, a brilliant surgeon installed his experimental mechanical prototype into my chest cavity.

From that moment on, every single beat of my life depended on that machine.

After we returned home, Julian proposed to me.

He gave me an eight-carat pigeon-blood ruby ring.

He said, "Vivian, you gave up your heart for me. I swear I will cherish you for the rest of my life."

This year was our fifth anniversary. But just as my heart was artificial, his love had turned fake too.

Three years ago, other women started appearing around him.

He would come home smelling of sweet, heavy perfume, pulling me into hugs that made me want to throw up.

Sometimes there were faint red lipstick marks on his white collars. Whenever I looked at them, he would frown and turn my face away.

"Nothing to see," he would say dismissively.

I knew those girls were just fleeting distractions to him.

Until recently, when he actually fell in love.

Her name was Zoe. Innocent, fragile, and sweet—the exact kind of girl who stroked Julian’s ego and need for control.

They had been together for three months.

He brought her to dinner with our mutual friends, took her to private parties, making a silent statement to everyone.

My friends blew up my phone asking what was going on, but I never answered.

Walking out of the clinic, I spotted Julian’s car parked at the curb.

The cold wind cut straight through my coat. I pulled it tight around myself and crossed the plaza toward him.

Inside the car, Zoe saw me first. She stopped giggling with him, her flushed cheeks looking like ripe peaches.

She rested her head against his shoulder, wearing a sugary smile.

She whispered something to him, and only then did Julian glance outside and notice me.

He rolled down the window. "My mom said you had an appointment today. Told me to check on you. Are you alright?"

I shook my head slightly. "I'm fine. Same as always."

Julian nodded. "Thought so."

"Of course she's fine! She has a heart of steel, doesn't she?" Zoe chimed in, clinging to his arm and pouting playfully. "Julian, since Vivian is fine, take me to the movies! And I want to try that new French place downtown. I heard it’s amazing."

I stood in the biting wind, my nose and fingers numb with cold.