I took a deep breath before I squared my shoulders and smoothed my dress.

Who would have thought I would fear being inside the bedroom that Evan and I shared? As I checked my reflection in the mirror, I caught Cedric’s eye and he nodded with appreciation at the dress that my mother had given me for my wedding photo.

I had left the dress inside Evan’s and my apartment yesterday.

In my old life, I hadn’t wanted to wear the dress that my mother gave me for my wedding, thinking it was cheap and below my status. The rebirth, however, prompted me to think things through.

This time, I was going to wear it.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to buy you a new one?” Cedric asked. Since we left his apartment earlier, he had been talking about buying dresses and jewelry for his new bride.

“No, I love this dress.”

“But you weren’t wearing it yesterday, were you? When you were going to marry Evan?”

I pouted and didn’t respond, not being able to bring myself to admit that just yesterday I had considered this dress beneath me.

“Evan didn’t deserve to see it anyway,” Cedric concluded.

I let him believe this instead of the shameful truth of my vanity, then turned toward the master closet to grab some more of my things. When I passed the door to the hallway, however, I realized the corridor light, that I had definitely left off, was now on.

Was someone in here?

An electrifying sensation crawled into my stomach. The only people who had access to this apartment were Evan and the cleaning lady who cleaned the house once a week, and I knew she had just been here yesterday. That meant the only one inside could be Evan.

I signaled Cedric to stay quiet and follow me towards the living room. I honestly didn’t want a confrontation. “If you are planning to kill him, I would help you hide the body.” I heard Cedric joking behind me.

I elbowed Cedric and motioned to him to stay silent.

The huge curtains that covered the floor-to-ceiling glass walls were still closed. Evan wasn’t in the living room.

From the living room, I could see that the dining room was empty as well. Then… maybe he was in his office? But what would he do inside his office? He created the office to keep up appearances. He did nothing inside that room, unless, of course, he wanted to put on a show to avoid spending time with me.

I scoffed inwardly.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I made my way towards the room. If worse came to worst and he caught me, I could just tell him I was here to get my clothes — which was partly true.

In my previous life, I had returned to this place even after he postponed our wedding, only holding out on our breakup for less than 24 hours. Why, you ask? Because I was shamelessly hoping that Evan would come home and apologize to me! Man, I didn’t know how stupid I was back then.

I froze when I heard Evan’s voice inside the office. The door was slightly open. He must have forgotten to close it. I stood there, staring at the mahogany door that separated me from him.

“I know! I already told you… I didn’t register our marriage. We are fine Monica. You should stop overreacting.”

What did he just say?

Monica?

I clenched my hands.

Why would Evan already know my cousin Monica? This… this was too early for them to know each other! I hadn’t even met Monica yet!

“Ah, yes… hold on. Let me grab the rest of the papers. I will put you on speaker.”

“Oppa…”

It was Monica’s cutesy voice that I used to find adorable.

“If you don’t hurry… our flight will…”

The rest of her words rang inside my ear like a bell. Why was Monica talking to Evan as if… as if they were close?

It was as if a bucket of cold water was dumped on top of my head.

What…. What the hell is going on here?

“Calm down… I needed to come back and get some documents in the office. You can fly ahead of me. I will meet you there.”

“But you promised me! You promised you would travel with me and that you would have already broken up with her?”

“Monica…” I could hear a hint of irritation could in Evan’s voice. “You know how dangerous it is. If breaking up with her was that easy, I would have done it a long time ago.”

Numbness seeped in as my hand dropped to my sides. So, they had already known each other before I became the Fang Family heiress? In my past timeline, I had suspected he was cheating on me with random, unimportant women from the beginning, but I never suspected his relationship with Monica until the very end! I forced myself not to barge in there and confront him. No, this was not the time for a confrontation.

“She’s trying to blackmail you! Evan, I think you should ask your father to help you out. If this woman— “

Blackmail who? Blackmail Evan?

I winced when I realized what Evan had been telling Monica. I helped him become the CEO by doing all the dirty things behind the scenes. I was his dog!

But he was telling Monica that HE was being used by ME?

“Monica, you know my father would never believe me.” Evan let out a loud sigh. He was always good at convincing people he was pitiful. Isn’t that how I always believed him? I clenched my jaw before I forced myself to move away from the door. I wanted to listen, but I was not confident that I could stop myself from exploding.

“Your father would never allow you to marry her, anyway. If he knew that she was trying to blackmail you, he would surely help you out.” Monica said.

That’s it.

I needed to walk away. I turned to leave but bumped right into Cedric. I hung my head, embarrassed that he overheard how little his brother thought of me. However, there was no pity in his eyes. The gentleness was no longer there, either.

What was left was… anger.

Deep, unfathomable anger.