Chapter 1

On the day of the court's verdict, my fiancée, Cynthia Reed, begged me to stop fighting for my innocence. She wanted me to sign the plea deal.

"I know you're innocent, Bennett, but Xander is too weak. I can't let him go to prison," she said.

She gripped my hand, tears streaming down her face. "I'm doing this for your own good."

Without a second thought, I signed the confession.

In my past life, I had refused to take the fall for Xander Vance. That refusal sent me to prison, where Cynthia's thugs tortured me until I was sterile.

This time, I decided to give her exactly what she wanted.

The next day, news of my arrest for stealing trade secrets was everywhere. Xander even showed up as the star witness.

"It was him! I saw him break into the Sterling Group with my own eyes!" he declared.

But when the trial began that afternoon, the plaintiff, Isabella Sterling, did something nobody expected. She dropped all the charges.

Under the shocked gaze of the crowd, she pulled out a diamond ring and dropped to one knee.

"Bennett, in this life, will you finally marry me?"

1

The moment I signed that plea deal, a predatory gleam flashed in Cynthia's eyes.

She quickly masked it with a look of fake heartbreak when she realized I was watching her.

"Don't worry, Bennett. I'll hire the best lawyers for you," she whimpered.

"Once you're inside, I'll pull some strings and spend whatever it takes to get you out on parole early."

I swallowed the urge to laugh in her face and kept my voice cold. "Don't bother."

She immediately switched to an act of frantic concern.

"Bennett! I know you're devastated, but you can't just give up on yourself!"

"If you throw your life away, what will happen to your parents?"

She kept droning on about her "concerns" for my family. If I hadn't lived through her betrayal once already, I might have actually believed her.

In my past life, when I refused to sign that paper, she turned into a monster.

She didn't just frame me with fake evidence; she paid off several inmates to use cold, rusted tools to rip away my right to be a father.

I hated her with every fiber of my being. She was the one who ordered Xander to steal the secrets from the Sterling Group.

Why did I have to be the one who lost everything while they stayed happy?

"Bennett?" Cynthia's voice snapped me back to reality. "You look pale. Are you okay?"

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. "I'm fine."

I forced a faint smile. "I'm just scared of going to prison."

She reached out to grab my hand, but I shifted slightly, making her miss.

She looked surprised for a second, but the joy of holding my signed confession was too great for her to care.

She carefully tucked the document into her briefcase.

"I'll hand this over to the judge during the hearing in three days," she promised solemnly.

"I'll keep this a secret until then. No one will know you've already given up."

I nodded coldly, feeling nothing but contempt.

After the signing, I was released on bail. As we left the courthouse, Cynthia played the part of the doting fiancée perfectly.

She held the car door open for me and shielded my head with her hand, just like she had for the last three years.

But I knew the truth now. Everything was a lie.

She stared at me with eyes full of fake tenderness. "Bennett, let's go home."

Home? I sneered inwardly.

That villa was once filled with our memories, but I knew I didn't belong there anymore.

Sure enough, when we stepped inside, the air was thick with a strange, masculine cologne.

The entire decor had changed. The minimalist style I loved had been replaced by gaudy, expensive trash.

Our wedding photo, which used to hang in the center of the living room, was gone. I found it shoved into the storage room, covered in thick dust.

Cynthia saw me looking at the photo and looked embarrassed for a split second. Then, she put on her mask again.

"Bennett, this was all Xander's idea..."

"You know how he is. He's been so sick lately, and his mood is very unstable..."