Chapter 2
“Hey, Tessa Vaughn!”
Chloe’s voice rang in my ear, and the sounds around me slowly came back into focus. I sucked in a sharp breath.
Had I really been reborn?
Chloe folded her arms and walked up to me. “Addie and I grew up together. If you hadn’t barged into our lives, he would’ve married me like he was supposed to!
“You think having a little money means you can do whatever you
want?”
I came back to myself and, hearing her words, fell into thought.
Adrian and I were headed for an arranged marriage between our families‘ companies.
Before that, we had only been classmates who barely knew each other.
He was the golden boy of the school, the kind of guy everyone knew by name. As for me, I had money, but I never cared much about dressing up. I spent all day with my nose in books, the kind of girl who blended into the background.
His family needed an investment from mine, and I just happened to have a crush on him, so his parents gave him an order: do whatever it takes to win me over.
0.00%
11 37
Chapter 2
288 Vouchers
From that point on, it was like he became a different person. The way he treated me felt almost scripted, as if every kind gesture had been rehearsed in advance, and whenever he looked at me, there was
disgust in his eyes.
He didn’t want to spend even one extra second with me.
I only learned all of that in my previous life, after we’d already gotten married.
But even then, I still clung greedily to the tiny scraps of affection he pretended to give me, using them to numb myself into believing that he loved me.
I turned a blind eye to his childhood sweetheart and all her unreasonable outbursts, burying myself in the role of his perfect girlfriend.
Now that I look back on it, it was ridiculous. I could have been known for my intelligence, for being exceptional in my own right, and instead I chose to be Adrian’s hopeless simp.
That was how, after we got married, he and Chloe did whatever they pleased. They flirted and got intimate right in front of me, acting as if I were invisible.
And now they had gone so far as to murder me.
“Hey! Don’t stand there pretending you can’t hear me, you little hick! This is all your fault for insisting on marrying Addie. Just hearing your name annoys him now. I’m scared you’re going to drive him into depression.”
29.00%
11:27
Chapter 2
288 Vouchers
Chloe’s shrill voice yanked me back to the present. I let out a cold laugh, cleared my throat, and said, “If he’s that miserable, then maybe he should marry you instead.”
She froze for a second, then curled her lips into a smile. “What is this supposed to be? Playing hard to get?”
I let out a soft, incredulous sound of laughter. “If you can’t understand plain English, I’ll say it again. Adrian isn’t some precious prize everyone has to worship. If he doesn’t want to marry me, I don’t want to marry him either.
“If getting married depresses him that much, then why doesn’t he just go die?”
“You… how can you say that?” Chloe panicked. She clearly couldn’t understand how the bookish nobody in thick–rimmed glasses standing in front of her had changed so completely.
“If you want to marry him, then marry him. What’s the point of coming to me and putting on a show?”
I brushed past her shoulder and started to leave.
But Chloe called after me. “Hey! You really mean it? You’re not marrying him?”
“Heh. Whoever wants him can have him.” I rolled my eyes, but the moment I turned my head, Adrian was standing there in front of me, slightly out of breath.
His eyes reddened. “Tessa, say that again.”
