I spent ten years running this household, holding it together with bloody knuckles and sleepless nights. And now, on my deathbed, straining to breathe through an oxygen mask, my husband was right beside me—moaning and gasping with another woman.
Not just any woman.
His childhood sweetheart.
“Oh, Glen,” she purred in a voice dripping with false innocence. “If you hadn’t tricked her into nine abortions and slowly poisoned her, we’d never get to enjoy this much wealth so soon.”
That voice—Emily Cox—was unmistakable. And Glen Rivera, my husband of a decade, held her like she was something precious. He spat on the floor, eyes narrowing at me with pure disdain.
“I never thought she’d be this damn hard to kill,” he sneered. “Compared to her parents, this idiot woman is a cockroach. She still doesn’t even know that her mom and dad didn’t die in a plane crash. We kidnapped them, tied them up and dumped them into the lake. Drowned 'em like dogs.”
He chuckled, like it was a fond memory.
Glen smirked. “Good thing I had the foresight to transfer all their assets to your name early on. Once she’s dead, we’ll finally get full control of Snow Enterprises. It’ll be just you and me, baby—living large and free.”
Mom… Dad…
Tears rolled silently from the corners of my eyes. My heart shattered all over again as I lay helpless in that sterile hospital room, suffocating on betrayal. Their laughter—cruel, loud and unashamed—echoed around me like a death knell.
I tried to scream, but the oxygen mask muffled it into a broken, muffled sob.
Then came the beeping. Sharp, high-pitched. Alarms blaring.
And that’s when the door burst open.
A man I barely recognized—tall, broad, wild-eyed and soaked in blood—burst through the door. Without missing a beat, he raised a machete and lunged at the two devils standing beside me.
In the final moments of my life, he dropped the blade and rushed to my side, hands trembling as he cradled me like I was something sacred.
“Lana,” he whispered, his voice cracking with raw grief. “I came too late…”
But I could no longer answer him.
As the last thread of consciousness slipped from me, I heard a guttural, heart-wrenching scream echo in my ears.
And then… I opened my eyes again—only to find myself back on the day I married Glen Rivera.
——
I stood outside the bridal suite, bouquet clutched tight in my trembling hands. Inside, unmistakable sounds made my face flush hot with humiliation. Moans. Gasps. Skin on skin.
“You know you feel so good. Thousand times better than that Lana ever did,” Glen murmured, brushing Emily’s hair behind her ear with a lover’s tenderness. “That woman’s like a corpse. Always playing the pure and innocent card, won’t even let me touch her. And when she finally does, she just lies there like a slab of meat. Brings down my whole mood.”
“If it weren’t for her family’s money, do you really think I’d waste my time sweet-talking her every day? Just be patient. Once we’ve dealt with her family, all that money is ours and I’ll marry you. It won’t take long I could taste those money at the tip of my tongue.”
“Sure, I have all the time in the world,” Emily giggled and snuggling closer. “But I don’t think the baby would.”
She rubbed her belly with a sultry smile.
“What?” Glen jolted upright. “Wait, are you saying you’re pregnant? With my baby?”
She nodded, her eyes gleaming.
“Emily! That’s amazing!” he breathed. “You have to keep it. You know what I’m thinking?” His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “I say we let you have the baby and after I marry Lana, we give it to her. Make her raise it like some unpaid nanny while you and I have all the fun.”
“This is why I love you, Glen,” she purred. “You always know just what to do. Always coming up with the best ideas. But…” Her voice faltered. “What if… what if she ends up getting pregnant too?”
Glen burst out laughing. “Not gonna happen. I’ve made sure of that,” he said proudly. “Had a doctor whip up something special. Slow-acting poison. Tasteless, colorless, completely undetectable. Just a drop in her drink every day and she’s gone. She won’t even know. Neither the police. Saves us whole lot of trouble.”
So that was it…
Everything—the betrayal, the manipulation, the tragedy—it had all started from this moment. Long before I realized the truth, they were already plotting my end.
And even though I knew how the story played out, my heart still twisted painfully in my chest.
I thought of all the miscarriages I had in my past life. Every night I held Glen while sobbing into his shirt, thinking we were broken together—
It was all a lie.
I remembered how he used to hold me after every loss, whispering, “Lana, I’m the last male in my family. I love you, but if you can’t give me a child, the Rivera bloodline ends with me.”
I’d always known Glen was an old-school, traditional kind of man. So when he said things like that, all I felt was guilt. Heartbreaking, soul-deep guilt. And I tried to make it right.
Every day, I worked hard at the office, only to come home and play the role of the perfect wife—cooking for him, cleaning, tending to his needs like some live-in nanny—just to make up for the shame I felt in not being able to carry a pregnancy to term.
But what I never imagined… was that every single one of those miscarriages was intentional.
They weren’t tragic accidents or bad luck. They were calculated. Cold-blooded.
And the man responsible? The one I trusted with my heart, my body, my future?
He did it.
The man who claimed to love our unborn children had been the one killing them—one by one.
The truth hit me like a freight train, knocking the wind out of me. My knees buckled and I had to brace myself against the wall just to stay upright, one hand pressed to my chest, trying to keep my heart from shattering completely.
And then, Emily’s voice floated out from the suite again.
“Oh, by the way,” she said breezily, “you two are heading off for your honeymoon after the wedding, right? While you’re gone, her parents will be all alone here. I’ve already made arrangements. The minute you leave, my people will take care of it. Once her parents are out of the picture, she’ll have no one left—only you.”
She paused, her voice taking on a note of triumph.
“And once she’s dead, you—her legal husband—inherit everything. The Snow Family empire will be all yours, baby. We’re so close. Our good days are just around the corner!”
Inside the suite, Glen laughed. Not a chuckle. A full-blown, triumphant, villainous laugh.
“I’ve waited so damn long for this. Finally—finally—I’m gonna get everything I deserve. If it weren’t for this stupid wedding today, I’d never leave your side. Your body drives me insane, Em. I swear, I can’t get enough of you.”
Another wet, hungry kiss followed, echoing out like a slap to the face.
I couldn’t breathe.
I could still remember the night I got the call about my parents’ plane crash. I’d collapsed to the ground, hysterical and Glen had swept me into his arms like a hero in some twisted romance.
He held me, kissed away my tears and whispered, “Lana, don’t cry. I’m your family now. You’ll always have me.”
God, I was so naïve.
I never once questioned the accident. Never considered that the wreckage of that plane might not have been an act of fate—but a carefully orchestrated disaster.
Murder.
And it was all for money.
My legs shook, but I forced myself to stand. No matter what it took, I wouldn’t let Glen Rivera get away with this. Not after what he did to my babies. To my parents. To me.
I had been given a second chance at life.
This time, I’d fight back.
The suite door creaked open.
Glen stepped out, adjusting his tux jacket, not even bothering to check if Emily had lipstick on his collar. The moment his eyes met mine, his expression faltered—panic flickering behind those familiar, honey-brown eyes.
“Lana, w-what are you doing here?” he stammered. “The ceremony is about to start. Is everything okay? You don’t look good. Are you sick?”
That voice—so gentle, so worried. The same voice that used to lull me to sleep at night.
He walked right up to me, wrapped his arms around me like he hadn’t just been screwing another woman five minutes ago.
Emily’s cloying perfume still clung to him, thick and bitter. My stomach twisted.
Still, he whispered in that soft, familiar way, “Lana, baby, don’t scare me like this. Today is the most important day of our lives. I’ve dreamed of this for so long. I love you. I need you. Please, don’t let anything ruin this. If something happened to you, I’d be devastated—for the rest of my life.”
His voice trembled. His eyes even glistened, as if on the verge of tears.
And anyone looking would’ve thought: Wow, this man must love her so deeply.
But the truth is?
All I wanted to do was throw up.
I shoved him away. Sting at him coldly, my gaze swept over to Emily, who had just stepped out of the private room behind him and I said, “Glen, there’s something I want to tell you.” I try so hard not to vomit when my I glare at him. “The wedding’s off.”
“What?!”
Both Glen and Emily shouted in unison.
“What are you talking about? Why would you call off the wed—” He stopped mid-sentence and I swear I could see a light bulb flick on above his head. “Did someone threaten you?” he asked, wide-eyed, like he couldn’t even fathom the truth staring him in the face.
“Tell me who it was! I won’t let them get away with it. I’ll always have your back. You can always rely on me, remember?”
I almost laughed hearing those words come out of his mouth. Like hell I would.
He was nothing but a small-town nobody who somehow managed to climb his way up. If it weren’t for me, he’d be completely irrelevant in this city. No name, no money, no future.
But me? I’m the daughter of the Snows—the richest family in the Asterfield. If my parents so much as stomped their feet, the entire city would tremble.
And yet, I, the precious daughter raised in the palm of their hands, was blinded back in college. I fell for that pretty face of his and the fake concern he wrapped me in. I’d gotten drunk on the way he made soup for me when I was sick, how he’d rub my stomach when I had cramps, whispering, “I’ll always be your strongest support, Lana.”
After graduation, I fought tooth and nail with my parents, insisting I would marry him. I even convinced them to give him access to our best resources—connections, contracts, you name it. In no time, I handed him the golden ticket to becoming one of the city's new elites.
Looking back now, it was all cracks and holes.
Every single thing Glen has today came from us, the Snow. Without us, he’s nothing. What does he have to back me up with? His six-pack abs?
I scoffed and threw my bridal bouquet to the ground.
“No one threatened me, Glen. I just change my mind. I don’t want to marry you.”
My gaze shifted to Emily, standing just behind him. “I’m not interested in secondhand trash. You can keep her,” I flicked my head toward that vixen.
The moment those words came out of my mouth, I saw a flash of malice flicker in Glen’s eyes. But he quickly masked it with that fake, affectionate smile, like he was some romantic hero in a soap opera.
Even now, in this mess, he still tried to regain control. He reached out for my hand and said in that same patronizing, condescending tone, “Come on now, baby, don’t be mad. This is just a misunderstanding. Emily was just helping me look for a red rose I wanted to add to your bouquet. That’s all it was. A misunderstanding.”
He tried to pull me in, smiling like we were back in those early days, saying with that half-teasing, half-scolding tone, “Lana, seriously, this temper of yours… you really need to work on that. Who else but me could ever handle you?”
He reached up to brush my bangs aside, but I glared at him, stepping away with clear disgust.
“Don’t touch me! You make me sick, Glen Rivera!”
Finally, the mask slipped.
Glen’s face twisted. His voice dropped, sharp and cold. “It’s not a time for jokes, Lana. There’s a whole room full of guests behind this door—do you really think you can just cancel a wedding on a whim? Don’t forget, you were the one who begged to marry me in the first place!”
He took a breath, trying to rein it back in.
“Okay I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shout a t you. I know you’re upset because Emily and I came out of the same room. It’s just a misunderstanding. I’ll explain everything on the way to the venue, okay?”
