To test his loyalty, my stepsister, Wendy Lidell, drugged my childhood friend. Then, she shoved me into his room. Unable to watch Connor Gordon suffer, I willingly helped him through the night.

In a fit of pique, Wendy ran off and married a cruel mafia don.

I got pregnant, and Connor was forced to marry me. At that point, he started to despise me.

During the ten long years of marriage, he treated me and our son coldly. But during a flood overseas, he sacrificed his life to get me and our son back on solid land.

I failed to keep my grip on him. As he sank into the depths, he looked at me and said, “If we could redo everything, make sure you don’t help me that night.”

Those words stung me greatly, and I fainted right away.

When I next opened my eyes, I found that I had gone back in time. I had traveled back to the night when Wendy had drugged Connor and locked me in his room.

To test Connor Gordon’s loyalty, Wendy Lidell had drugged him and then shoved me into his room.

“Willow…” Connor was panting slightly as he looked at me in a daze.

I knew that he had always loved Wendy. However, since they were unmarried, he could not bear to touch her yet.

To survive, he would pick the lesser evil; he would sacrifice me.

In the previous timeline, I could not control the feelings I had had for him since I was younger. Thus, I spent the night with him.

The next morning, Wendy spotted the hickies on my neck and started throwing a tantrum about becoming a nun.

After we stopped her from doing that, she married a mafia don in Hurac in a fit of pique. Soon after that, she had passed away in an accident, becoming that mafia don’s fourth dead wife.

After I got pregnant, Connor married me out of a sense of responsibility. However, he treated me and our son as though we were strangers.

I knew that he resented me for letting Wendy discover what happened between us that night.

If Wendy had remained clueless about us, she would never have left.

At that point, I broke off from my thoughts. I brought Connor the antidote to the drug and some cold water. After helping him with the pill, I put a cold compress on him.

After all, in the previous timeline, he had sacrificed himself to save me. I had to pay him back for that.

“Where’s Wendy?”

The antidote and cold water had helped him regain some of his senses.

He no longer yelled out my name while panting. Instead, his first instinct was to wonder about Wendy.

“Don’t worry. The driver has sent her home.”

“Good. About tonight…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone what happened. Besides, we didn’t do anything, right?”

Connor stared at me in surprise because I was acting differently.

From the time I was a child, I loved chasing after him and calling his name. I was his biggest admirer.

Twenty years had passed in a flash, though, and we all grew up.

Still, I never once hid the love I felt for him.

The self-control and distant aloofness I presented were clearly out of his expectations.

Since I was not as enthusiastic and proactive as before, he angrily turned away.

I left the room and contacted Connor’s executive assistant to come and take care of him.

Back at home, Wendy was picking through the newest dresses of the season.

When I returned, she beamed. “Didn’t Connor ask you to stay, Sis?”

“Don’t call me that,” I said icily.

As if she had expected my combative response, Wendy walked to stand before me.

She said in a low voice, “I’m only calling you that because I pity you. So what if you’re the oldest daughter of the Lidell family? Your mother’s dead, and Dad doesn’t love you. My mother and I are the mistresses of this family.

“And let’s not forget Connor. You really like him, don’t you? You were practically wrapped up in a bow and presented before him tonight. But you weren’t even worth being his outlet for release. You can’t beat me.”

I smiled slightly in the face of Wendy’s haughtiness.

“I’m not interested in beating you at anything. Everything you have, you got from me.”

There was some noise at the door. Dad was home.

The vicious expression on Wendy’s face immediately disappeared. She slapped herself hard and fell to the floor.

Dad walked in on the scene. Instantly, he assumed that I had been bullying Wendy.

“Willow, how long will you act so petulantly? All these years, you’ve never given me a day of peace!”

“Peace? Ever since she and her mother came into this house and forced my mother to her death, this family was never destined for peace!”

Dad ignored my tears and helped Wendy up from the floor.

“I’ll fulfill the marriage agreement with that mafia don in Hurac.” I passed the agreement to my father. “I’ve already written my name on the document. You don’t have to think up ways to get me to go.”

Dad looked at me in surprise. He could not hide his joy.

The mafia in Hurac was very powerful, so Dad did not dare to go against the marriage agreement. However, he was unwilling to let his precious younger daughter marry its don, whose past three wives had all died.

The look in Wendy’s eyes as she glared at me grew even more jealous and spiteful.

She had always been this way. She craved riches and power, but she never wanted to take any risks.

Her tone was pitiful as she said, “Dad, Willow doesn’t really want to marry him and go all the way to Hurac. I saw her drugging Connor with my own eyes last night. They spent the night in the same room…”

I wanted to refute her, but Dad had already raised his hand and slapped me.

“Nothing happened between Connor and me.”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking, Willow. Your marriage is a done deal. Don’t keep thinking of how you can use Connor to get out of it. Besides, Connor has never liked you.”

Wendy shot a pleased look at me.

“Since you’re so shameless, you should be punished. You know the rules.”

I took the marriage agreement and went outside. I stood under the burning heat for the whole day.

According to the family rules, I had to stand outside for an entire day if I did not admit my fault. If I did, the punishment only lasted two hours.

My legs had gone numb, and my knees felt weak. Just then, Connor arrived in a rush. He glared at me before going inside.

When he came back out, his expression had lost the urgency of before. He came by my side.

“Willow, I know your mother and mine had made a marriage agreement between us. But I can’t marry you right now. I can’t let Wendy go to Hurac.”

I scoffed internally. He did not seem to know that I was the one going overseas to fulfill that marriage agreement.

“If she doesn’t go, then I have to.”

“I will plead the case to Mr. Liddell. The Gordon family will also do its best to find a way out of this marriage agreement.”

Connor looked at the document in my hand and suddenly laughed. “Willow, were you trying to beg your father to make me marry you? He must have made you come out here because he’s so troubled right now.

“Go inside. Once I make sure Wendy is safe, I’ll marry you as agreed. You no longer have to worry about this matter.”

After saying this, Connor turned to look at me tenderly and patted the back of my hand gently.

He behaved just as he had when he was a boy.

Perhaps he may have liked me as we grew up together.

However, after living through everything in the previous timeline, I knew that he truly loved Wendy.

We would inevitably torment each other and run into bad ends.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” I moved away from his touch.

Connor frowned and grabbed the document from me to take a peek.

“What are you talking about, Willow? Haven’t I worried about you plenty growing up?”

That was true. Our mothers had arranged for us to marry in the future. Thus, we grew up together.

After my mother died, I relied on him more and more.

But it was long past time that I woke up from my daydreams.

I pushed his hand away and took the marriage agreement away. “We’re all grown up now, Connor. This time, we’ll all get what we want.”

“What are you talking about? The marriage agreement is set in stone. Who else would you marry?”

I looked at him silently.

In this timeline, I would be the one to leave. Thus, Connor would not die in that horrible flood.

Even though I knew that everything in the previous timeline would only end in pain and heartbreak, the love and trust I felt for Connor was not so easily vanquished.

In the end, I could not withstand the heat of the day and fainted.

Before I fully lost consciousness, I saw Connor worriedly pull me into his embrace.

When I woke up, I smelled the hospital’s disinfectants.

Connor was sleeping in a chair beside the bed. A hand rested on the corner of my blanket.

As I looked at him in that state, I would have believed that he really loved me, too, if not for his last words in the previous timeline.

As if he could sense that I had woken up, Connor quickly awakened as well. He frowned and asked, “What’s the matter with you? I was just telling you to chill out, and you fainted from the heat. Don’t you know your body’s always been weak?”

“Connor.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you remember the amusement park we always went to as children?”

“Of course. The first time you got on the carousel, you even cried. You only stopped bawling after I bought you some candy.”

I looked at him and smiled. “Take me there one more time, please?”

Connor looked a little displeased. “Why are you talking like that? We can go as many times as you want after we get married in the future.”

‘There’s no more future for us,’ I told myself. But I did not say that out loud.

Surely it would be a huge surprise to him when Wendy marries him.

“Let’s go this evening. I feel fine now.”

“Alright, just this once. After that, I still need to deal with that marriage agreement between your family and the mafia in Hurac.”

Connor did not stay long. He returned to the office to handle some matters after making arrangements to meet me at the entrance of the amusement park.

I went back to my apartment to pack up some things.

After my mother died, Dad took Wendy and her mother to Lidell Manor. I moved out.

Before Wendy showed up, Connor would make me a carved figurine every year for my birthday.

These figurines came in various shapes. One was a dog I used to own, and some others were delicate bouquets of flowers. There was even one of my mother and myself.

This only lasted until my eighteenth birthday, when Wendy was taken in.

From then on, the figurines went to Wendy. The gifts I got were half-hearted things his assistant bought.

I kept the figurine of my mother and myself on my person. The rest were shipped off.

After it was all done, I stood at the rendezvous and waited for Connor.

But even after all the lights were turned off at the amusement park, Connor still did not show up. There were also no messages or calls on my phone.

It started to rain, but I did not have an umbrella with me. I also did not have a driver to pick me up.

The rain soaked my clothes and drenched my hair. As it did, I recalled the flood of the previous timeline.

My heart clenched painfully.

I took one last look at the amusement park behind me, the place where Connor and I had shared so many happy memories.

‘Goodbye, Connor. I hope we never see each other again. I hope you’re happy in this life,’ I thought.

Before I even turned to go, something hit me hard from behind.

When I next woke up, my eyes had been covered. I could not see even the smallest pinprick of light.

My hands and legs were bound. Pain radiated from my back.

The rope that bound me was lifted. Then, my feet were submerged in icy water.

The water rose, slowly enveloping my chest and head…

I could not breathe. I could not even scream for help.

Eventually, I was raised up again as I thrashed violently.

I gulped in huge lungfuls of air and coughed so hard until I could not make any more noise. The person at the edge of the pool finally spoke up.

“You’ve offended somebody you shouldn’t have. That person has sent me to torment you.”

Before I could say anything, I was tossed back into the water.

It happened many times. Every time I felt like I was about to drown, I was lifted out of the water.

Finally, I was left on the ground as my tormentor made a phone call. “It’s done, boss.”

I could hear Connor on the other end of the line. “Leave immediately. I’ll deal with the rest of it.”

Not long afterward, the sound of hurried footsteps came from afar. After that, I was released from my bonds and held in a warm embrace.

Before I blacked out, I saw Connor’s teary eyes.

“I’m sorry, Willow. I can’t bear to hurt you, but you should not have hurt Wendy. You must remember this lesson well.”

Why was Connor acting like he could not bear to hurt me, when he was the one who ordered my torment?

This was just like the contradictory relationship we had in the previous timeline.

Connor brought me back to my apartment.

After my mother’s death, Connor would visit me often to look after me. I had even given him a key.

He got a doctor to make a house call. After the doctor made sure I was okay, Connor spent the night at my bedside, caring for me.

“I’m sorry, Willow. After our wedding, I’ll make it all up to you.”

That was what I heard him say at dawn before he left.

But there will not be any weddings. I would make certain of it.

I sat up. My head was still hurting.

Because my legs had been bound last night, I walked with a slight limp in my right leg.

I patted my pocket. The figurine of my mother was still there, thankfully.

The door was suddenly kicked open. Wendy stormed before me.

Behind her were the usual wealthy socialites who followed her around.

Seeing how ragged I looked, Wendy burst out laughing. “What happened to you, Sis?”

I did not reply. Just as I wanted to leave, Wendy said, “Do you know why you nearly drowned last night?

“Connor didn’t go to the amusement park with you last night, did he? It’s such a shame that he doesn’t know you’ll be going overseas to fulfill that marriage agreement, or that you wanted to say goodbye to him last night.

“All I said to him was that you went home, threw another tantrum, and pushed me into the pool. After that, he arranged for someone to kidnap you to punish you. I paid the kidnappers extra so they would keep dunking you into the water. You poor thing, Willow!”

“Shut up. Aren’t you worried that Connor will find out the truth? He hates liars.”

Wendy looked even more delighted. “And how would he know? You’ll be going overseas soon. Three wives of that mafia don died. How long do you think you’ll survive?”

Wendy gave a signal, and several people came up to pin me to the floor. Wendy took the figurine from my hand.

“Didn’t you say that I got everything I have from you?” As she spoke, she raised her hand high. “In that case, I want you to watch as I destroy everything you have.”

“No!” I shouted.

But it was no use. The figurine landed on the floor and shattered into unrecognizable pieces.

Before I could pick the pieces up and try to put them back together, Wendy ordered the bodyguards to toss me into the car and send me to the airport.

By the time Connor finished his work and came to the apartment to look for me, the place was blanketed in darkness.

He felt a sense of unease rise within him, and he rushed to Lidell Manor.

“Mr. Liddell, where is Willow?”

“Willow? She should have arrived in Hurac by now.”

Connor’s heart kicked into overdrive. His voice trembled as he asked, “Why is she in Hurac?”