Chapter 1

The wedding day, he left me there alone and disappeared.

With my four-month baby bump, I called him countless times.

At first, he just wouldn't pick up. Then, his phone went straight to voicemail.

Whispers started to ripple through the crowd:

"First time I've seen a groom ditch his own wedding."

"Shotgun weddings rarely work out, and honestly, he probably had every right to bail."

I stood there in the wind, completely helpless, trying to comfort the guests who were now quietly leaving.

All day, I waited like an idiot on the street corner. Even after everyone had gone home, he never showed.

An older woman nearby casually remarked, "Declan, he's like... your dad's ex-wife's kid. What if he's here to get back at you?"

On the drive home, that line echoed relentlessly in my mind.

Lost in a daze, my car collided with a truck. My four-month-old baby and I were buried beneath the wreckage.

When I opened my eyes again, I was three months in the past, on the day I found out I was pregnant.

I clutched the pregnancy test, sitting on the toilet for a long time.

A single beam of light streamed in from the slightly ajar window, highlighting the two stark, vivid lines on the stick.

The dripping water in the bathroom echoed the dull ache in my chest, a heavy, suffocating feeling.

The suffocating pain from my past life hadn’t fully faded when Declan's voice drifted from outside the door.

"What's wrong?" His tone was as calm and composed as ever.

Just half an hour ago, I was standing at our wedding, praying countless times for him to appear.

In my past life, on this very day, he’d just gotten back from work, bringing me my favorite pastries.

I’d excitedly rushed out to hug him, showing him the pregnancy test.

Declan's expression then was complicated. He held it, staring for a long time. "Are you sure?"

The joy in my heart froze, as if I’d been doused with cold water. My smile faltered, and I cautiously asked, "You... you don't want it?"

"No, it's not that." He pressed his lips together, giving me a deep, searching look. "We're not married yet..."

"Can we get married now?"

Declan considered it for a moment. "Okay."

Declan and I had been together for five years, and we were finally about to get married.

But the thought of my humiliation and helplessness at the wedding in my past life, clutching my phone desperately under the glaring eyes of the crowd, praying for him to appear and rescue me from my predicament, made it impossible to breathe.

Before my dad married my mom, he’d been married once before.

I didn’t know anything about their past, nor did I realize that Declan, from the very first day he met me, had been planning to drag me into an abyss.