"Before the wedding, didn’t you say the biggest regret of your life was marrying me? You’d rather die than let me touch you. So what now? It’s only the first night after the wedding, and you already couldn’t hold back, huh? Came here to seduce me?"
The cold, hard tiles dug into her back so badly it felt like her bones were being crushed. The chill seeped through her soaked skin and drilled straight into her marrow.
Serena Harrington’s eyes flew open.
For a second, her vision blurred, then snapped into focus.
What she saw was not that filthy, blood-soaked hell from before, but the misty steam of a luxurious bathroom... and a face right in front of her. Stunning, flawless, and cold enough to freeze someone dead. A face filled with fury.
"You’re awake?" Sebastian Harrington’s voice was low and terrifying, every word edged with ice. "Serena Harrington, so this is your version of 'I’d rather die than let you touch me'? Crawling into my bathroom like some desperate stray and throwing yourself at me?"
A splitting headache crashed into her skull. Broken memories came at her all at once—mud, agony, Lydia Caldwell’s twisted smile, the numb cold of a bullet tearing through her body... and then the sharp, unmistakable pain deep inside her, the pain of being taken by force.
The truth hit Serena like lightning.
She had been reborn.
She was back on the night Lydia had set her up, back to the very first night of this marriage, back to the night she and Sebastian ended up together.
Humiliation. Rage. The towering hatred from her last life. The bitterness of being misunderstood.
Everything slammed together until her chest felt ready to explode.
"Let go of me, Sebastian Harrington! You think I wanted this? If it weren’t for—"
If it weren’t for Lydia.
If it weren’t for that drugged glass of milk.
If she had never slept with him—
Then maybe, in her last life, she would never have ended up dying that miserably.
"If it weren’t for what?" Sebastian let out a cold laugh, and his grip tightened even more.
His icy gaze swept over her body, over every intimate mark left behind, and the mockery in his eyes was brutal.
"If it weren’t for the fact that you’re shameless by nature and can’t stand being alone? Or what, is this one of the Caldwell family’s grand little schemes? On the wedding night, you climb into your husband’s bed on purpose, then turn around and accuse me of forcing you? So you can cry your way back into your childhood sweetheart’s arms with a perfect excuse?"
"That’s not true!" Serena was shaking all over, furious, hurt, and so wronged she could barely think straight. The despair from her previous life surged up with it, and the words burst out before she could stop them. "You don’t know anything! It was Lydia! She—"
"Shut up!" Sebastian cut her off sharply, his eyes turning dangerous in an instant. "Blaming someone else, throwing responsibility around—is that what passes for manners with you, Miss Caldwell? Looks like Mr. Caldwell really spoiled you rotten."
He suddenly let go of her like he had just touched something disgusting.
The force sent Serena stumbling hard to the floor. Her naked body was instantly swallowed by the freezing air of the bathroom.
Sebastian grabbed the bathrobe nearby and threw it on with casual ease. Even the way he tied the belt carried that same cold elegance, that same untouchable distance.
He looked down at the woman curled up on the ground, his disgust almost tangible.
"Drop the act. I have zero interest in you. I have no desire to touch a woman who has another man in her heart and uses such filthy tricks. Get out. And don’t let me see you again."