Here's to Your Forever… Without Me

To force the golden bachelor of Morrisey City's high society into marrying me, I once staked my very life as the price. I rammed my car into the one carrying him and his first love as they tried to elope, and I forced her to give up Wade Grant to me. He drove a shard of broken glass through my palm and swore he'd make me wish I were dead once I became his wife. On our wedding night, Wade hung me from the balcony railing with his necktie and forced me to kneel before his first love—the same woman who'd once tried to jump from a rooftop—and beg her forgiveness. I pulled the pin from my hair and drove it through his shoulder, laughing that he was a worthless man who couldn't even protect the woman he loved. For decades after that, the two of us tore at each other like a pair of demons trapped in the same marriage, until we'd both burned down to nothing. Then I was reborn, waking up back at my engagement banquet at twenty years old. In front of everyone in the room, Wade smashed the pocket watch we'd exchanged as a token of our engagement. "Dad. Mr. Rodney. I won't accept a marriage that is forced onto me. "In this life, I will only ever marry Rose Barrymore. Even if you throw me out of the Grant family today, I still won't marry Elisa Rodney!" The whole room went still. Everyone there knew exactly what I was capable of to win Wade. I was the kind of woman who'd stop at nothing and was willing to die just to get what she wanted. Wade glared at me, waiting for me to do exactly what I'd done in my last life: smash a wine bottle and hold the jagged edge to my own throat, threatening to bleed out right there if I didn't get my way. Rose, shielded behind him, had gone pale with fear. She was gripping the hem of his jacket, trembling. I looked at the pieces scattered across the floor and felt nothing but indifference. I picked up the wine glass beside me and drained it in one go. "Congratulations," I said. "I wish you both a happy ever after." Chapter 1 "Elisa, what tricks are you playing now?" Wade Grant stepped forward and pulled Rose Barrymore firmly behind him, shielding her. "Tricks?" I set down my wine glass. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted?" Wade let out a cold laugh. "You know full well that Rose has depression, yet you choose today, of all days, to put on this show of generosity. Are you trying to make everyone think she's the one who drove you away?" I looked at his face. Familiar, and yet a stranger's. It had been the same in my last life. One tear from Rose, and every accusation landed on me. "Wade, don't talk to Elisa like that..." Rose tugged at his sleeve, her eyes reddening. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have come. I'll go now." "You're not going anywhere." Wade caught her wrist and held it fast. Levi Grant slammed his palm on the table and pointed at his son. "You insolent brat. Do you even know what you're saying?" "Dad, I'm perfectly clear-headed." Wade didn't back down an inch. "If it weren't for Elisa, Mom wouldn't have died in that kidnapping three years ago! She owes our family a life!" The hall went silent. The scene of the kidnapping, three years ago. By the time Wade arrived, all he found was his mother's body and the phone clutched in my hand, the one she'd used to call for help before she died. From that day on, anything I said was written off as a lie. "Why was the phone in your hand? "Why did the kidnappers let you go and no one else? "Why was my mother's last call for help placed from right next to you?" He'd asked me these three questions more times than I could count. I'd answered them just as many times. But he never listened. Wade stepped closer. "Give up your headline spot at the art exhibition. Let Rose have it." My fingers curled. I'd pulled countless all-nighters to earn that spot. Five years earlier, a falling pane of glass had sliced open my right hand, and the nerves had nearly died. Wade had knelt outside an old herbalist's door for three days and three nights, just to beg the man to save it. Back then, he'd held my bandaged hand with his eyes rimmed red. "Elisa's hand is meant for painting. It's going to stand on the highest podium in the world." Now, he was the one dragging me down from it with his own hands, clearing the way for the woman he loved. "That spot is mine." I looked at him. Wade took another step forward. "You owe her this. You owe me this." He lowered his voice, biting off every word. "Three years ago, if you hadn't been such a coward, my mother would still be alive. Elisa, you're alive today because my mother isn't. And giving up one exhibition spot to make up for it is too much to ask?" Something invisible closed around my heart and squeezed. Wade pulled a plane ticket from his pocket. "Since the engagement is off, there's no reason for us to keep tangled up with each other. Leave Morrisey City, and that plot of land in Braaten City is yours. We'll treat it as the Grants' compensation to the Rodneys." I stared at the ticket for a flight abroad to a country called Topheria. A tightness spread through my chest. In my last life, I'd torn up my acceptance letter to Topheria University right in front of him, thinking that giving up my own future might be enough to make him look back at me, just once. He hadn't even lifted his eyes. He'd only said two words. "Suit yourself." Now, the very sacrifice I'd made had become his bargaining chip to drive me away. "No need." I walked past him. "My family and I will earn that land in Braaten City on our own merit. And going abroad is my own business. No need for you to trouble yourself over it." I walked out without looking back. Wade Grant. Not this time. I don't want you anymore. Chapter 2 "Elisa, are you sure you've thought this through?" My father's brow furrowed as he looked over the share transfer agreement I'd pushed toward him. "The Grants and our businesses are tied together too deeply. Pulling our investment out of Grant Group now will cost us at least thirty percent of the returns." I picked up the black coffee in front of me and took a sip. The bitterness spread down my throat, but it cleared my head. "Dad, keeping those shares will only cost us more in the long run." My father sighed and signed his name. "As long as you've thought it through. I've always worried you'd get stuck on this and do something foolish over that scoundrel." I smiled and tucked the documents into my bag. In my last life, I really had done every foolish thing imaginable, handing over the Rodneys' resources with both hands. All it had bought me was his endless torment and the ruin of my own family. After leaving the office, I stopped by the apartment and packed up every one of Wade's belongings. Shirts, a razor, the few books he liked to flip through before bed. I packed them into a box, one by one. When I pulled open the last drawer of the nightstand, my hand went still. Tucked at the back was a palm-sized wooden box, its clasp already loose. I lifted the lid. Inside was a yellowed prescription, its edges worn soft from handling. The one he'd knelt outside an old herbalist's door for three days and three nights to obtain. On the back, Wade had written down the days, line after line. [Dose one: Elisa's fingers can move again.] [Dose thirty: Elisa held a spoon by herself today.] [Dose seventy-three: Elisa drew a bird. It was ugly, but she smiled.] The handwriting went from neat to increasingly hurried. Back then, he'd fed me the medicine himself every day, always keeping a piece of candy on hand in case I complained about the bitterness. I smoothed the paper flat with my fingertips and closed the box again. The paintbrush pendant he'd had made for me had hung against my chest for five years. These things ought to go back to him too. I set the box on top of the carton and had my assistant, Nick Mann, deliver it to Grant Group along with everything else. Half an hour later, my phone rang. I answered it. "Elisa, what tantrum are you throwing now?" Wade's voice came through, laced with impatience. "What's the meaning of packing up my things and dumping them on Nick?" "Exactly what it sounds like," I answered while straightening my easel. "The marriage alliance is off. There's no reason for us to keep this unclear thing going between us. It isn't appropriate for your things to stay here." The line went quiet for two seconds, followed by a cold laugh. "Unclear? Elisa, do you think the more thoroughly you back off, the guiltier I'll feel?" "Think whatever you like." I didn't argue. "Don't think I don't know you've had people quietly digging into the kidnapping case from three years ago." My breath caught. I really was digging into it. It wasn't until I was dying in my last life that I learned about the anonymous transfer from the Barrymores that had shown up in the kidnappers' account back then. "That case was closed three years ago." His voice dropped low. "Why are you digging it back up now? Trying to pin it on someone?" I didn't answer. The line went quiet again. "Rose only came off her medication last month. I don't care who you're investigating. But if you touch her, I'll shut down every path your family has in Morrisey City." Listening to him, I suddenly found it almost funny. "Wade." I cut him off. "And if it turns out, in the end, the Barrymores were behind it?" His breathing grew heavier through the phone. "Impossible." "Then just wait and see." I hung up without another word. A cool breeze drifted in from the balcony. It turned out that not loving someone was so much easier than loving them. But I'd underestimated just how ruthless Wade could be. He wouldn't let me leave quietly. What he wanted was to see me utterly destroyed. Chapter 3 A week later, a crisis broke out in the Cloud Project, the joint venture between the Rodneys and the Grants. The Rodneys had provided the land; the Grants, the technology. The project had already reached its final review stage when Grant Group's core data was suddenly leaked, forcing the whole thing to a halt. As the Rodneys' project lead, I marched into Grant Group's conference room with legal counsel in tow. Wade sat at the head of the table, flipping through documents, not even lifting his head. "Wade, the Cloud Project's core data has been leaked. The Rodney Group stands to lose nearly 300 million dollars." I slapped a report down in front of him. "We need an explanation." Only then did Wade look up, his gaze sweeping over me and my legal team. He gave a short laugh and pushed a document across the table toward me. "An explanation? Elisa, you don't actually think a 300-million-dollar hole can be pinned on someone else, do you?" I looked down at the document. A data authorization agreement, my name signed at the bottom. My eyes narrowed. "That signature is forged." "Whether it's forged is for a forensic examiner to decide." Wade leaned back in his chair. "Right now, every piece of evidence points to you. Elisa, you leaked the data on purpose, to get back at me for calling off the engagement." No one in the room spoke. I looked at his face and suddenly understood everything. It had happened at exactly this point in my last life too. The Barrymores' tech company had lost a bid to Grant Group, leaving a hole in their books they couldn't fill. Rose had stolen the core data, using half of it to patch the Barrymores' finances and the other half to break the engagement between the Rodneys and the Grants. Afterward, she'd cried and claimed it had all been an accident. In the end, Wade had buried the whole thing. Now, to protect Rose, he was forcing the blame for a 300-million-dollar loss onto me instead. "You know exactly who did this." I stared into his eyes. Wade's gaze flickered away for a moment. He stood, came around to stand in front of me, and lowered his voice. "Rose has depression. She can't handle this kind of pressure. But you, Elisa, you're tough enough. Hard-hearted enough. You can take it." The sound around me began to warp, blurring into static. Tough enough. Hard-hearted. For all these years, how many attacks, open and hidden, had I taken for him? But now, in his eyes, I was nothing more than a shield he could shove forward to take the blame whenever he needed one. "Those seventy-three doses of medicine five years ago, I knelt outside the old herbalist's door and begged for those. The fact that you can even stand here talking to me right now, that's because of me." So that wooden box had been his ledger all along. Every dose recorded, principal and interest, tallied all the way to today. "And if I don't confess?" I looked at him. Wade let out a cold laugh. "You could refuse." He took out his phone and pulled up a video. The footage showed a private room at a club three years ago. My father was pushing a case across the table into someone else's hands. The angle was clean, the lighting good enough that even the watch on his wrist was clearly visible. The case held the ransom money. To buy Wade's mother back, my father had scraped the cash together overnight, keeping it off the Rodney Group's books entirely. "One word from me, and your father gets hauled away tomorrow for financial crimes." Wade looked at me. "Elisa, you don't have any room to negotiate." I looked at my father's aged face on the screen and closed my eyes. Outside the window, the wind knocked against the glass, a dull, muffled sound. After a long moment, I opened my eyes and picked up the pen on the table. "Fine." I signed my name on the confession document. Wade frowned. He probably hadn't expected me to agree so readily. No arguing. No crying. Not a single word in my own defense. "You..." He opened his mouth. I ignored him and walked out of the conference room. I pulled out my phone and called Nick. "Liquidate every asset under my name and transfer it to my father's account. And book me a flight to Topheria. As soon as possible." Chapter 4 Half a month later, a fire broke out suddenly at a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The last of the Cloud Project's paper records were stored there. The flames spread with terrifying speed. "Ms. Rodney, there are still four workers inside! The emergency exit is blocked, buried under collapsed formwork!" the project manager shouted at me. I didn't hesitate. I pulled on a gas mask, threw a soaked fire blanket over my shoulders, and ran in. The thick smoke stung so badly I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt my way through the dark to the trapped workers and led them toward the emergency exit. Suddenly, the load-bearing steel frame overhead groaned. "Watch out!" Someone slammed into me. I stumbled and hit the ground. I turned around. It was Wade. He'd thrown his whole body between the falling debris and Rose. "What are you two doing here?" I frowned. "Rose said she'd dropped her USB drive in here and needed to come find it," Wade said, coughing hard, one hand still shielding her. So he hadn't shoved me out of the way to save me at all. Another groan sounded overhead. The steel beam sagged half an inch lower. "The emergency exit's blocked. The only way out is through the ventilation shaft." I pointed at the vent in the corner. "I'll go up first. Follow behind me." I climbed onto a pile of debris and pulled myself up toward the shaft opening, then turned and reached back. The metal frame beneath my feet shifted. "Wade!" Rose screamed, her whole body pitching toward the flames. Wade's hand tore itself from mine instantly. He spun around and threw himself forward, pulling Rose into his arms. "Don't be scared. I've got you." With nothing left to brace against, I dropped straight down from the frame, more than two meters up. The pain whited out my vision. I couldn't catch my breath. Through blurred eyes, I watched Wade climb onto the very pile of debris I'd stacked, hoisting Rose up into the vent, inch by inch. He was less than three meters away from me. From start to finish, he never once looked back. This was the man I'd spent an entire lifetime loving, in my last life. When it came down to life and death, he chose someone else. I gritted my teeth against the searing pain and crawled, inch by inch, toward another vent. By the time I reached safety, the ambulance lights had already painted half the sky red. As they lifted me onto a stretcher, I caught sight of Wade through the crowd. He was holding a completely unhurt Rose, blocking the cameras that had swarmed in around them. "Rose was the first to spot the fire. She only got trapped trying to save people. I don't know anything else. Please, don't photograph her face." I closed my eyes, my stomach churning. On the third day, the fire investigation results arrived at my hospital room. Someone had deliberately stacked flammable material in the warehouse and sabotaged the fire suppression system. The suspect caught on the security footage was me. Wade walked into the room while I was eating porridge. "Elisa, just how far are you planning to take this madness?" Wade slammed a stack of photos down on my hospital bed. "You'd risk the workers' lives just to get back at Rose? Do you have any idea that fire nearly killed all of us?" The figure in the photos, from behind, wore a trench coat like mine, with a build close enough to my own. "It wasn't me." I set down the bowl. "If not you, then who?" Wade sneered. "The footage is perfectly clear." The porridge was still warm, but I suddenly didn't want another spoonful. "Wade, if I really wanted to set that fire, why would I have run in to save people?" "You've always been like this." He cut me off. "Willing to risk your own life just to get what you want. You think running in to play hero clears your name?" I stayed silent. He wasn't wrong. In my last life, I really had been the kind of madwoman who didn't value her own life. "Wade." I looked at him. "The moment I ran in there, no one asked another question about the data leak case, did they?" His gaze shifted just slightly to the side. "I'm only stating a fact." I reached under my pillow and pulled out a miniature voice recorder. "This has a recording of a conversation between Rose and the man who set the fire. Fifty thousand dollars, to put on clothes like mine and torch the warehouse." Wade said nothing, his knuckles whitening. I looked at him and suddenly smiled. "Wade, you're afraid to listen." He snatched the recorder out of my hand. "Physical evidence can't be kept privately. I'll have someone send it for examination." Send it for examination. How nicely put. "A fake like this won't fool me." He clenched his jaw. "No matter how many times this plays out, I will never believe you." How many times this plays out. The hum of the air conditioner suddenly sounded very far away. I looked up and met his eyes. So this whole life, from the very first moment he'd seen me, he'd been collecting on a debt. "Fine. Wade. Have it your way."