“I’m done chasing, Aurelia. I won’t disturb you again. I hope you and Viktor… last forever.”
My chest squeezed so tight I could hardly breathe. My vision blurred until I forced myself to blink.
And then I saw them. Camellias. Thousands of crimson blooms scattered across the ground, burning like embers against the cold floor.
Lucian Drae Sullivan stood in the middle of it, holding a diamond ring. His suit hugged his broad shoulders and narrow waist, sharp and powerful.
But his eyes. Those dark, deep eyes that always held fire… they showed me something else. Me. Twenty-five years old. A girl who once had no idea how much this man loved her.
My heart twisted.
I was back! Reborn. Back on the day I had thrown him away with my own hands.
“Goodbye, Aurelia.” He closed the velvet box and turned to leave.
“No. No, Lucian—don’t.” My body moved before my mind could. I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind, pressing my face against his back.
He froze. For a second, I thought he would melt into me. But instead, his hands reached down, prying at mine.
“Aurelia,” his voice was low and sharp, “you made your choice. You wanted Viktor Roberts. So why hold onto me now?”
Viktor Roberts.
The name sliced through me, dragging all the pain of my last life back into my lungs like smoke.
I remembered. My mother dying, my father bringing home the mistress and her perfect daughter. I remembered how suffocating it felt in that house, how small I became under their shadow.
I remembered trying to crawl my way out. Viktor, the golden boy of New York high society. Lucian, the boy from nothing, who built himself into a man too powerful to ignore.
And me, selfish, desperate, foolish.
I had picked Viktor.
I thought I was winning. I thought I was building a future. And for a time, I did. Under my hand, Viktor doubled his empire. At a glittering anniversary gala, he swore the company’s shares would be mine.
But the day he tried to give them to me, his favorite woman appeared on the rooftop above us. Before anyone could move, before his guards could stop her, she stepped into the air and fell straight in front of us all.
Her body struck the ground with a sound that split the world in two.
Her death shattered everything.
Viktor lost his mind. He blamed me. Called it murder. Had me dragged to prison like I was filth.
And before I died in that cold, stinking cell, Viktor told me the truth. That Lucian… Lucian had offered everything he owned to set me free.
I never knew. Not until the very end.
Now, pressed against his back, my fingers gripping his shirt, I knew one thing for certain.
I couldn’t let him go again.
In my last life, no one ever really loved me. My father turned his back on me. My stepmother and her perfect little daughter treated me like I didn’t belong. Viktor used me like I was a pawn on his chessboard and paraded his mistresses in front of me. I held it all in. I never let myself cry.
But then… then I saw Lucian’s note. Just one line written in that sharp, steady hand of his: “I regret not protecting my Aurelia.”
I broke down like a child.
And Viktor never let me go. Not even then.
I died caged like an animal, an “accident” in prison, my eyes wide open, still searching for the man I should have held on to.
The only thought before death burned into me like a vow. If I ever got another chance, I would never let Lucian slip away again.
Now here I was. Back.
I swallowed the ache and blurted out, “Lucian, I was wrong before! I thought fool’s gold was a treasure. I don’t want him. I want you. Only you.”
For a heartbeat, I thought I saw something flicker in his eyes, but it vanished. His gaze went hard.
“Aurelia… Don’t play with me. I don’t get played twice.”
Panic swelled inside me. I opened my mouth to explain, to beg, but then—
“Aurelia! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The shout sliced the air.
I whipped my head around just as the sleek door of a black car swung open. Out stepped Viktor. His eyes burned like he was about to set the street on fire.
Yesterday’s golden boy of New York society. The one I once lifted higher and higher with my own hands. The same man who betrayed me and sent me to die.
“You swore to me yesterday you wouldn’t marry anyone else, and now this? Messing around with him?” His lip curled. “So what was I? Just some toy to kill time?”
I stared at him, not a flicker of emotion left in me. The man I once tried so hard to please looked suddenly pathetic.
Before I could think twice, my hand flew across his face.
The slap cracked through the silence. Everyone froze.
Viktor staggered, clutching his cheek, “Aurelia! Are you insane? You dare hit me?”
I looked down at my palm. The sting made me laugh softly. That tiny ache told me it was real. I was alive. I was reborn.
Without a glance at him, I turned back to Lucian. His diamond ring box was still in his hand. I didn’t wait for him to offer it again. I plucked the ring out, slid it onto my finger, and lifted my chin to meet his stunned eyes.
“Lucian, I want to marry you. If you’ll have me, come to my family tomorrow and ask for my hand.”
He froze. Then slowly, that hard exterior cracked. “Aurelia… of course I’ll—”
“Of course you'll do what?” Viktor’s mocking laugh cut him off.
He yanked out his phone and hit play.
The speakers filled with moans, breathless cries, the sound of a bed creaking under weight. My face went cold.
Viktor smirked like the devil. “Sullivan, let me save you some embarrassment. Last night in the presidential suite, she and I went countless rounds. The bed damn near broke. You really want what’s already been used?”
Blood roared in my ears. My hands shook.
On the screen… was me. Twisted in the sheets with Viktor. But that wasn’t me. I knew it wasn’t me. I had never let him touch me like that. Not in this life, not in the last.
Then it hit me.
Viktor wasn’t just cruel. He was reborn too.
