"He was right about you. You really have become cruel."
I froze.
Tessa didn't realize I was still within earshot. She had already walked into the cemetery and was kneeling before my mother's tombstone.
That slender back... the same back that had borne the weight of crushed steel to save me.
"Mom," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I came to tell you... I'm getting married. It's Vincent."
She paused, her fingers tracing the cold stone.
"You always said your greatest wish was for me to find someone I truly loved, someone to grow old with. But I'm going to break my promise. I don't love him."
My heart hammered against my ribs.
"He insists on marrying no one but me," she continued softly. "You know how stubborn he is. If I refuse, I'm afraid he'll do something stupid to hurt himself. I know you liked Vincent. I don't dislike him, really. But love... love isn't something that comes from effort."
She looked up at the sky, her expression wistful.
"When the right person appears, one glance is enough. That's all it takes."
She sighed, standing up and dusting off her knees. "In two days, at the investment summit, I'll go see him one last time. After that... that's it. For this lifetime."
Tessa turned to leave. When she saw me standing there, waiting for her, she stopped dead.
"Tessa," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Take me to the summit."
She blinked, confused.
"Let me meet this 'younger brother' of mine. I'll make it clear to him." I stared straight into her eyes. "And then, I will give you to him."
I expected surprise. Maybe relief.
Instead, her face darkened like a thundercloud.
"You treat this engagement like a child's game?" She stepped closer, her aura radiating fury. "You were the one who made a scene, insisting on marrying me. Now the whole world knows I'm to be your wife, and suddenly you want to back out? Do you have any idea how that makes me look?"
"But—"
"There is no 'but'!"
She marched to her car. Before opening the door, she shot me a glare that could freeze water.
"If you truly wanted to break off the engagement, you wouldn't have waited until today."
"I..."
She didn't listen. The engine roared to life, and the Maybach vanished down the road.
She thought she understood me. She knew that going back on my word wasn't my style.
But she didn't know I had died. She didn't know I had seen the end of our story.
In my past life, I never realized her love for this mystery man was so consuming. Tessa, you and I are fated, but we are not destined. I learned that lesson with my life.
I wanted to fulfill her wish. I wanted to repay the debt of her saving me.
I sent her a message that night, begging her to give us both a way out.
She didn't reply.
Instead, one of her friends passed along a message: *She said after marriage, you'll have decades together. Stop talking nonsense.*
I had no choice.
Two days later, the Maybach pulled up to my front door.
The window rolled down slowly, revealing her flawless, indifferent profile.
"Get in."
I didn't hesitate.
The summit was a grand affair, a gathering of the city's elite. The moment Tessa and I stepped into the venue, we commanded the room.
The union of the two most powerful families—the news had spread like wildfire.
Tessa accepted the congratulations with a stiff, practiced smile. It didn't reach her eyes. The bitterness lurked beneath the surface, yet she remained glued to my side.
She was torn.
On one hand, a blazing loyalty to her lover. On the other, her sense of duty—an iron chain. Everyone knew she was my fiancée. She wouldn't humiliate me by abandoning me to chase another man in public.
In my previous life, I hated that sense of duty. It gave me false hope. It made me believe she might eventually love me.
"Tessa," I said quietly, leaning in. "You don't need to babysit me. Go. Find whoever you want to see."
Her gaze was fixed on a point in the distance, blank and unreadable.
"I'm going to the restroom."
With that, she walked away.
But she didn't go to the restroom. I watched her. She moved with purpose, not toward the facilities, but toward the terrace.
I looked in the direction she had been staring.
