Chapter 1

Seventeen years ago, I was the girl he saved. Seventeen years later, he mistook someone else for me.

I stayed by his side under a different name for four years, only to end up with a contract agreement, a body covered in scars, and a baby I couldn't save.

On our wedding day, he abandoned me in front of everyone for another woman. I faked my death to escape, and returned three years later backed by massive capital, personally sending my enemies to prison and reclaiming my family's business.

Everyone thought I would hate him to the bitter end, until that massive fire where he protected me with his life. Only then did I realize—the white moonlight he had been protecting for seventeen years had been me all along.

But this time, it's my turn to leave first.

"In our next life, let's never meet again."

Rachel's POV

The blanket was violently ripped away before I was even fully awake.

Instinctively, I tried to cover myself, but the next second, Tristan Sterling's freezing voice crashed down on me.

"Rachel Vance, you really have no shame!"

I was completely naked, my waist covered in black and blue bruises.

Tristan stood by the bed, already fully dressed, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust.

"Impersonating Lily to climb into my bed—did you think this would get you into the Sterling family?"

My head buzzed as the memories of last night rushed back.

Yesterday was Tristan's birthday.

I had spent the entire day preparing, cooking Beef Wellington.

But I knew he wouldn't come back.

On every important day of every year, he went to see Lily West.

For four years, there had been no exceptions.

I just thought, what if?

What if he actually came back tonight?

In the evening, I was just about to throw out the table of stone-cold Beef Wellington.

Mrs. Sterling called, saying he was drunk, got caught in the rain at the Peninsula Hotel, had a fever, and was drifting in and out of consciousness. She told me to go pick him up right away.

When I arrived, Tristan was burning hot, his clothes soaked through by the rain, and his tie hanging loosely around his neck.

I knelt down to wipe his face, and my sleeve slid up, revealing the vine tattoo on the inside of my arm.

I had gotten it seventeen years ago to cover a scar.

Tristan opened his eyes groggily, and when he saw the tattoo, his pupils suddenly lit up.

He grabbed my wrist, pulled me into his arms, and rasped out a name.

"Lily..."

I froze.

He was drunk and mistook me for Lily West?

I should have refused, but I craved his embrace. I couldn't bring myself to let go.

So I thought, since I had already decided to leave anyway, I would treat this as a final farewell.

I would slip away quietly before dawn so he would never know it was me last night.

But Tristan held my waist tightly, as if terrified I would run away.

He was delirious with fever, yet he was so wild it felt like he wanted to consume me whole. He called out Lily West's name over and over, taking me the entire night.

In the end, I was so exhausted that I lost consciousness and failed to leave before he woke up.

So now, I was cornered in bed.

"Put this on."

A man's shirt was thrown over my head, covering my face.

Tristan's shirt.

"I'll say this one more time. The contract agreement made it crystal clear what your place is. If you dare use such underhanded tricks again, I won't go easy on you!"

I looked down at the clothes scattered across the floor. The dress I wore last night had been ripped to shreds and was unwearable.

Enduring the aches all over my body, I sat up, swallowing my anger as I slipped the shirt on.

My hands were shaking, but I didn't let myself cry.

"You were the one who mistook me for someone else."

I looked up at Tristan. "You were burning up with fever and mistook me for her. Now, somehow, I'm the calculating one who climbed into your bed?"

Tristan's eyes turned cold.

I didn't stop. "Lily, Lily—you talk about Lily every single day. If she actually cared about you, would I have needed to run to the hotel in the middle of the night to pick you up? Wasn't it your precious Lily who stood you up yesterday?"

Tristan stepped forward, grabbing my chin with so much force that I could almost hear my bones creak.

"Who do you think you are to even say her name?"

To him, Lily West was the person enshrined in his heart.

Even though she had kept her distance over the years, blowing hot and cold, he never complained and accepted it all gladly.

My cheeks went pale from his grip, and my eyes burned.

I grit my teeth, stubbornly refusing to look down.

"Do you think I want to mention her? If you hadn't made me her stand-in four years ago, would I have ever signed that contract agreement?"

"For four years, I covered for you two. I shielded you from your family's arranged marriages and played the role of your loving girlfriend in public."

"Am I just naturally cheap? Did I deserve this?"

By the end, my voice was hoarse. Tears welled in my eyes, but I forced them back.

Tristan stared at my reddened eyes, and his chest suddenly felt a sharp sting.

The sensation came so suddenly that he let go abruptly as if scorched, pushing me away.

My back slammed hard against the headboard, the pain causing cold sweat to break out.

Tristan turned his head, refusing to look at me.

"You signed the contract agreement of your own free will. I gave you money, I gave you the medication, and you played along in public. It was a fair trade, mutually beneficial. Don't start acting like the victim now!"

Hearing "fair trade," I suddenly laughed.

For four years, I played the role of his girlfriend in name, dealt with his parents, and acted with absolute decorum everywhere so Lily West could live her carefree life out there.

Yet with just one phone call from Lily West, he would park the car right on the highway and leave me to find my own cab home.

I was sick of it.

"Fine."

I stood up, looking him straight in the eye.

"Our agreement expires this month. You and I are done. I'm not playing this game anymore!"

Tristan frowned, clearly caught off guard.

A hint of panic flared in his chest, but he quickly suppressed it.

To him, I was just a fallen socialite who had been kicked out by her stepmother and signed the contract agreement out of sheer desperation.

I was used to being spoiled, unable to endure hardship or poverty. Hadn't my submissiveness over the past four years just been a bid to eventually become Mrs. Sterling?

Saying I was leaving now was probably just a new trick to play hard to get.

At this thought, the coldness in his eyes deepened.

"A new strategy?"

Since I was trying to play hard to get, he would just go along with it, letting me play with fire and burn myself. He'd wait to see me regret it and beg him through bitter tears.

"Fine. Have it your way. The contract agreement ends. Nothing would please me more."

"Just don't come crying back to beg me later."

I couldn't listen to another word.

My heart was breaking from the pain. For four long years, this was the kind of person he had thought of me as.

I rushed out the door without looking back.

But what I didn't know was that behind me, Tristan rubbed his temples in frustration, feeling a tightness in his chest.

This woman was actually throwing tantrums now.

He turned to pack his things, preparing to leave as well.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a few dried drops of virgin blood on the bedsheets—so glaringly bright that they were impossible to ignore.