"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.

A man in a black suit stood with his back to me, laughing and chatting with a group of friends.

Perhaps he sensed eyes on him. He turned his head.

Our gazes collided.

My breath stalled in my throat.

*Impossible.*

How could there be someone in this world who looked so much like me?

He froze for a second, his eyes widening slightly. Then he looked me up and down—a slow, deliberate assessment.

A smirk touched his lips. Cold. Disdainful.

He turned his back on me and walked away.

"Wait!" I shoved past a waiter. "Please, wait!"

The man quickened his pace.

"Wait... Ah!"

The floor beneath me lurched. My foot slipped, and I crashed to my knees. I tried to scramble up, but the ground was vibrating violently.

It wasn't a slip. The entire building was shaking.

"Why is there a timer here?!" someone screamed.

"Oh god! It's a bomb!"

Panic erupted. Screams tore through the elegant music. But I couldn't focus on the chaos.

The man was heading for the stairs.

"Wait!"

I stumbled forward on the shifting floor, my eyes locked on his retreating figure.

Above me, a sickening *creak* echoed.

"Stop running! It's going to fall!"

"The chandelier! Move!"

I didn't hear them. I only saw him.

"Wait! I just have two questions!"

"Vincent!"

A massive force slammed into me from the side.

Tessa.

She tackled me, her arms locking around my waist as we rolled across the fracturing granite.

*CRASH!*

The massive crystal chandelier shattered exactly where I had been standing a second ago, smashing a crater into the floor. Shards of glass exploded like shrapnel.

Before I could speak, another violent tremor shook the building. Tessa didn't hesitate. She dragged me up, her grip bruising.

"Move!"

We stumbled out just as smoke began to billow from the windows. Tessa collapsed onto the pavement, gasping for air.

I caught her before she hit the ground.

Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead. She slumped against my chest, her teeth gritted in pain.

"Are you crazy?" she hissed.

For a moment, I was back in the wrecked car. She was shielding me again. Her body, so thin and fragile, blocking the danger for me.

Yet she still recoiled from my touch.

"Tessa..."

"Fire! Hurry, put out the fire! There are people still inside!"

The screams of the survivors shattered the moment.

Tessa went rigid.

She shoved me away, ignoring her own exhaustion, and staggered to her feet. Her eyes darted frantically through the crowd of evacuees.

Panic seized her features. Her eyes turned red with terror.

She spun around and sprinted back toward the burning building.

"Tessa!"

I lunged to stop her, but a wall of security guards blocked my path.

"Let me go!" I roared.

Too late. Tessa's figure disappeared into the smoke and flames.

"Tessa!!"

My legs gave out. I collapsed, screaming her name until my throat felt raw. The crackling roar of the fire threatened to swallow my sanity.

"Sir, calm down!" a guard shouted, holding me back. "We will stop Ms. Henson. The building is sealed off. She can't get back in."

"Sealed off?" I stared at him with wild eyes. "Then... can the people inside get out?"

The guard's face fell. "In this situation... those who didn't make it out already... it's not looking good."

The world spun.

That meant... that man...

"Vincent Delgado!"

The voice cut through the noise like a whip.

My head snapped up.

Tessa.

She was rushing toward me, her face smeared with soot, blood mixing with ash on her forehead.

"Tessa! You're safe..."

*SMACK!*

Her hand connected with my face. Hard.

The sting silenced my greeting instantly. My head whipped to the side.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she screamed, her voice breaking with rage. "You deliberately followed me here! You set this up just to kill him!"

In our previous life, we had fought for five years. She had hated me, mocked me, ignored me.

But she had never raised a hand against me.

Now, held back by security guards, she looked like she wanted to tear me apart.

I held my burning cheek, staring at her.

It was like looking at a stranger.

"Where do you get the nerve to make an accusation like that?"

"Hah." Tessa's voice sliced through the air. "Your father deals in restricted munitions. That specific blasting device? You're the only one at that meeting with the connections to procure it!"

Heat rushed to my eyes, stinging, blurring the world around me.

"And what's more—" She shoved past the security guards, each step deliberate, predatory, her voice dripping venom. "You usually lose your mind if I so much as speak to another man. How could you possibly tolerate me initiating a meeting with him? Or agreeing to break off our engagement?"

"Tessa..."

A hollow laugh escaped her throat. Her eyes were bloodshot, mirrors of the raw agony clawing through my own chest.

"I was a fool. I actually thought you'd let me have my way for once. I personally brought you here—brought a murderer to the scene—heh..."

The laughter cracked. Splintered into something jagged and wrong.

Then her hand cracked across her own face.

The sound echoed like a gunshot through the silent hall.

"Now there is no one standing between us." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm going to spend my whole life tethered to you. Are you happy now?"

"Tessa!"

The words died in my throat.

But she was already turning away. Her gait unsteady. Staggering. Crimson dripped from her sleeve, leaving a macabre trail across the floor tiles—souvenirs from the chandelier she'd shoved me away from moments ago.

She didn't look back.

---

A memorial wall rose from the ruins.

His photo stared back at me.

Tessa came too. From a distance, I watched her lay white chrysanthemums before his portrait. I didn't dare call out to her. I watched until she disappeared from view.

I truly wanted them to be together.

I had exhausted myself investigating this "long-lost brother." But before I could find a single lead—before the slightest sign of his existence could be confirmed—he was dead.

For Tessa. For me. The "One That Got Away" who died young had become an unsolvable riddle.

A ghost we could never defeat.

I drifted home in a daze. For three days, food turned to ash in my mouth.

On the fourth night, a knock at my door.

Father stood there, a bowl of seafood porridge in his hands.

"Eat. Then I will tell you the truth about that younger brother."

My head lifted. My expression hollow. "He's dead. It doesn't matter anymore. What I wanted to do... it's impossible now."

Tessa would hate me, just as she had in my previous life. The debt of a saved life, the regrets of a past timeline—none of it could ever be repaid.

"I don't think he's dead," Father said quietly.

My breath stopped.

He stayed for half an hour after I finished the porridge. When he finally left, I opened my door to find my subordinate waiting in the hallway.

I handed him a slip of paper. An address.

"Go. Bring him back."

"Yes, sir."

I watched him walk away.

A solitary tear escaped the corner of my eye.

If Father was right, then I hoped—truly hoped—that this time, those two could be together properly.

---

Not long after, the investigation concluded.

A contract killing. A rival businessman had hired a hitman, bribing the stage crew to bury explosives during setup.

Tessa came to see me.

I refused.

She begged my father. Only then was she allowed to stand outside my door. She didn't ask to come in. Instead, she spoke through the heavy wood.

"It was me. I couldn't distinguish right from wrong. I pinned the blame on you because I lost my mind with grief. I'm sorry. Your face... is it healing?"

Silence. I stared at the grain of the door.

"He's gone, and I've given up. In this life, as long as you're willing, I will play the role of the perfect wife. I will be your helper. If you ever regret this arrangement, I will leave with nothing."

A pause.

"Consider it... my atonement for that slap."

She had come to apologize. But beneath the contrition, I heard only resignation. We had grown up together; I knew every inflection of her voice.

A heavy sigh drifted from the other side of the door.

Her footsteps faded down the hall.

I yanked open the door.

Gone. I couldn't even catch a glimpse of her retreating back.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips. "Don't worry, Tessa. The wedding suit has already been altered to his size. You won't have any regrets in this life."

My subordinate approached, a document in hand. "Young Master, the Ruan family's marriage proposal. President Lu says he will only sign off on the merger if you agree to the union."

"Sign it."

I stared in the direction Tessa had disappeared.

I didn't ask about the Ruan family's status. I didn't ask which daughter I was agreeing to marry.

It didn't matter.

---

Before the ceremony began, Tessa stood frozen before a photograph.

His photograph. The "dead" man.

Only when my subordinate came to urge her forward did she tear her gaze away. Reluctantly, she tossed the photo into the trash can.

She pushed open the doors.

The groom stood with his back to her.

Twenty years of looking at my face had dulled any anticipation. Her eyes held only a quiet acceptance of duty. She reached out, casually turning him around.

"Let's begin—"

Her hand froze mid-air.

A chill raced down her spine, numbing her scalp.

"You... you aren't dead?"

The man was ready. In one smooth motion, he pulled her into his arms. "I jumped from the building that day and lost consciousness. I couldn't contact you while I was recovering. I'm sorry."

Tessa went rigid. "Where is Vincent?"

She shoved him back, panic rising in her voice. "Vincent—"

He wouldn't answer. Or couldn't.

She spun and bolted.

Her fingers stabbed at my number as she ran. No answer. She ignored the man chasing after her, shouting her name. She threw herself into her car and floored the gas pedal.

"Vincent Delgado, what the hell are you doing?!"