Chapter 1
Everyone in Ravenwood City knew Evelyn Shaw was the woman Dominic Vance had taken by force.
She’d had a boyfriend once, until Dominic offered him a hundred million to walk away, and he vanished.
When she refused to be with him, he locked her inside the Vance Estate, keeping her up all night until she was too weak
to even leave her bed.
She’d hated him so much she once grabbed a knife and came at him.
He’d merely wiped the blood from his neck, smirking, “Go on,” he’d taunted softly. “Keep stabbing. If you can’t kill me,
you’ll have to love me.”
Everyone knew Dominic, the man who ran Vance Global Holdings, was dangerously unhinged. Yet when it came to
Evelyn, he’d gladly lay down his life for her.
He’d taken a bullet for her. Knelt to slip shoes on her feet. Sung a love song to her in front of a thousand guests.
Like ice finally thawing in spring, Evelyn’s heart began to soften.
Until the third year of their marriage, when a business partner brought him a bright–eyed college girl named Amber
Rhodes, pure and delicate, the mirror image of Evelyn’s former self.
After a single night, Dominic changed.
He brought Amber home and said, with casual indifference, “Even ancient kings had their mistresses and countless
affairs. I’m worth more than an empire. Having two wives isn’t unreasonable.”
Evelyn stood frozen, her blood running cold. “You promised… you said you’d only ever love me.”
She couldn’t accept it. She went mad, smashed everything in the house, but he still refused to send the girl away.
Desperate, Evelyn found Amber in private and handed her a check worth a fortune, begging her to leave.
But Amber immediately went to Dominic, weeping in his arms with a delicate, pitiable air.
That very day, Dominic had Evelyn’s parents dragged to the old harbor warehouse, suspended above the gnashing blades
of a roaring industrial grinder.
He watched Evelyn’s hysterical sobbing with cold, detached eyes.
“Say the word,” he murmured, his tone flat as steel. “Tell me she can stay, and I’ll let them go.”
Evelyn’s world shattered. Through a veil of tears, she stared at the man she had once loved with her entire being.
Her voice broke. “Dominic! Do you even remember how you took me in the first place? You said you only wanted me!
Only loved me! It’s been three years! You lied to me! Do you love me at all anymore?!”
Dominic frowned slightly, as if her accusations offended him.
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His tone was calm and cruel. When did I say I stopped loving you? Or that I didn’t want you? Evelyn, we registered our marriage in Ireland. You know what that means. It can’t be unilaterally dissolved. I still love you”
He paused, glancing at the trembling Amber. It’s just that now. I’ve also fallen for Amber.”
He said it as easily as if he were commenting on the weather. “If you agree to this arrangement. I’ll let your parents gn.
We can go back to the way things were.”
“The way things were? Evelyn laughed through her tears, the sound half–crazed. ‘Dominic, people only have one heart!
How can you divide yours between two women?!”
He didn’t answer. To him, the question didn’t matter.
He lifted a hand. The man operating the ropes got ready.
Then Dominic began to count, his voice as cold as death itself. “Ten. Nine.”
The ropes suspending her parents began to lower, inch by agonizing inch.
“No! Don’t! Dad! Mom!” Evelyn screamed, struggling to rush forward, but the guards held her fast.
“Eight. Seven. The ropes sank lower. The roar of the machine filled the air, deafening.
“Dominic, I hate you! I hate you!” Evelyn’s voice broke, raw with despair.
“Six. Five.“Her parents‘ cries blended with the grinding of metal blades, shredding her sanity.
“Four! Three!! Their feet were inches from the spinning knives.
“Two!!!”
“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” she screamed, throat tearing, “Let her stay! Just stop it! Please, let them go!”
Dominic raised a hand. The ropes stopped descending.
A faint, cruel smile touched his lips. “See? That wasn’t so hard. Why make it ugly? They’re the people you love most. I
wouldn’t want to hurt them.”
He nodded to his men. “Release them.”
But as they fumbled with the machinery, the rope holding her parents suddenly snapped.
“No!!!“Evelyn watched, powerless, as they fell straight into the roaring grinder.
The scream that followed was inhuman,then silence.
Only blood remained. And fragments. The world went mute.
Evelyn’s eyes went wide, unfocused. All sound, all color drained away.
A coppery, metallic taste flooded her mouth.
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A violent cough wracked her body. Blood burst from her mouth, splattering the cold floor.
She collapsed backward, consciousness swallowed by endless black.
When she opened her eyes again, her vision was blurred.then sharp.
A crystal chandelier. Soft Egyptian cotton sheets beneath her. The master bedroom of the Vance Estate
She bolted upright, heart hammering against her ribs. Her hands flew to her face, then down to her arms, as if to
confirm she was real, she was here.
She wasn’t dead?
Frantic, she grabbed her phone from the nightstand. The date glowed on the screen, she had gone back in time.
Back to the day Dominic had first brought Amber home.
The image of her parents falling into the machine flashed in her mind. Pain and terror crashed over her.
Dominic. Amber. In this life, she would never love him again. Not even a little.
If he loved Amber so much, then she’d let him have her. She only wanted one thing, her parents safe and alive.
Wiping her tears, Evelyn leapt from bed and ran out of the mansion, nearly stumbling in her haste.
When she reached her family’s home and saw her mother pulling a tray of fresh cookies from the oven while her father laughed beside her, her tears came again–hot, unstoppable.
“Dad! Mom!” She rushed forward, hugging them both tightly, shaking as if afraid they might vanish.
“Evelyn? What’s wrong, sweetheart? Bad dream?” Mrs. Shaw asked softly, patting her daughter’s back.
It took Evelyn a long time to calm down. When she finally lifted her head, her eyes were steady, burning with resolve.
“Dad. Mom… I’m divorcing Dominic. After that, we’re leaving Ravenwood City, and we’re never coming back.”
Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Shaw stared at her, stunned.
“Evelyn, what are you saying?” Mr. Shaw frowned. “Dominic might’ve been impulsive when he first pursued you, but he’s
treated you well all these years.”
“We’ve all seen it, he took a bullet for you, humbled himself to make you smile, even gave up a billion–dollar deal just because you said you wanted to see the Northern Lights. You two went through so much to be together, Why?”
Mrs. Shaw added gently, “You two must’ve fought.”
“It’s not a fight!” Evelyn cut in, her voice cracking.
Yes, he had once loved her. Deeply. But somehow, that love had rotted into something cruel and monstrous.
She couldn’t tell them about her rebirth. All she could do was beg, her eyes fierce and wet.
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‘Dad. Mom, please, just trust me this once. I have to leave him. I have to. Please.”
Her pain was so real, so raw, that they finally sighed and nodded, choosing to believe her.
Once she’d calmed them down. Evelyn did two things immediately.
First, she filed to have her household registration canceled with the Ravenwood Police Department.
Second, she began the process to legally change all their names.
She knew Dominic’s obsessive nature, he’d never sign a divorce agreement.
But if she was legally declared dead, the marriage would dissolve on its own.
And new identities would ensure he could never find them again.
The paperwork would take days. To avoid suspicion, she had to return temporarily to the Vance Estate.
The moment she stepped into the grand living room, she saw Dominic holding Amber by the waist, murmuring
something low against her car.
When he noticed Evelyn, he lifted his eyes casually, his tone no different than if he were addressing a servant. “Evelyn.
Come here.”
Pulling Amber closer, he said the same words he had in her last life.
“This is Amber. She’s going to live here from now on. I love you both. My fortune’s more than enough for two women. I want peace between you, and I want both of you by my side for the rest of my life.”
In her past life, those words had destroyed her. She would’ve screamed, cried, begged.
This time, she simply looked at him–calm, almost serene–and even managed a faint smile.
“All right,” she said, her voice unnervingly calm. I agree.”
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
