Chapter 1

I spent three years as a vegetable after a truck slammed into me while I was saving my fiancée.

For those three years, she never left my side, even praying on her knees across miles of rugged mountain trails to beg for my recovery.

The day I finally woke up, she spent a fortune on a rare pink diamond at an auction.

She proposed to me in front of millions on a live stream:

"Hudson, whether in life or death, I want to be by your side. Can we have our wedding next week?"

Looking at her tear-filled eyes, my heart felt absolutely nothing.

She had no idea that even in my coma, I could hear everything happening in the room.

I knew exactly how she and another man had been intimate right next to my hospital bed.

1.

The moment I stepped out of the hospital, a swarm of reporters surged forward, shoving cameras into my face.

"Mr. Hudson, we heard you and Miss Rowena are finally tying the knot. When is the big day?"

"Hudson, Miss Rowena's loyalty has moved the entire country. How do you feel about such a devoted love?"

I stood there with a blank expression, my lips sealed tightly despite their persistent questioning.

Now, the whole world believed Rowena loved me more than life itself.

Three years ago, I took the hit from a speeding truck to push her out of the way, leaving me in a persistent vegetative state.

She was devastated, even hinting at wanting to follow me to the grave.

But when the doctors said there was a slim chance I'd wake up, she stepped up and personally cared for me for three long years.

To ensure my safe return, she climbed nine thousand stone steps to a remote mountain monastery on her knees, just to pray for a miracle.

When I finally opened my eyes, she sobbed with joy, clutching me like a long-lost treasure.

She even bought the most expensive diamond ring in the world to propose to me on a national broadcast.

It was a perfect fairy tale.

But in her bubble of happiness, she never imagined one thing.

During those three years of darkness, I had already decided I didn't want her anymore.

This marriage was nothing more than her own twisted delusion.

The reporters grew restless when I refused to answer.

In the chaos, someone shoved me, and I stumbled, nearly hitting the pavement.

Rowena suddenly appeared, pushing through the crowd to steady me while glaring at the cameras.

"Hudson is still recovering! Even a small cough from him breaks my heart, yet you people almost knocked him down!"

"You should be glad he's okay, or I would make every single one of you pay!"

She stood in front of me, her petite frame acting as a shield.

I felt a sudden sense of vertigo, my mind drifting back to a night many years ago.

Back then, my family had lost everything, and I was a scrawny kid being cornered by thugs in an alley.

Rowena had appeared out of nowhere, standing between me and the world, pulling me out of the mud.

Naturally, we fell in love.

Then came the accident that turned me into a ghost in my own body.

Rowena never gave up on me, or so it seemed.

While I lay motionless, she spent her days whispering sweet nothings into my ear.

But at some point, a man's voice began to join hers.

Rowena started confessing her love to me while tangling with that man right there on my bed.

She was so focused on the thrill that she forgot one thing: a vegetative state doesn't always mean a dead mind.

I had been fully conscious the entire time.

I heard everything she did with Logan.

For three years, while my body was frozen, my heart was being hacked to pieces.

Every single day, I prayed to wake up just so I could run away.

Rowena's bodyguards violently cleared the area, leaving us in a heavy silence.

She grabbed my shoulders, checking me over with frantic eyes: "Hudson, I'm so sorry I'm late! I should've walked out with you. Are you hurt?"

The worry in her eyes was so convincing it could move anyone to tears.

I quietly pulled my arm away, my face a mask of indifference: "I'm fine."

Rowena let out a long breath of relief.

My phone buzzed with a notification. I glanced down at a message from my best friend in Brazil:

"Hudson, are you sure about this? I'd love to have you here, but once you step on that plane, you might never see Rowena again."

I knew he was worried because I used to love her more than my own life.

But now, I just wanted to be as far away from her as possible.

Without a second thought, I typed back: "Pick me up at the airport in three days."