Chapter 1

I'm the most notorious woman in New York, and Jace Monroe is the clean-cut heir to a prestigious family.

During that kidnapping, he was drugged with a powerful aphrodisiac, but he'd rather die than touch me.

That was the first time I truly fell for someone. I thought he was honorable. A man who wouldn't take advantage of a woman in distress.

For three years of marriage, he shielded me from explosions and kept me safe. I thought this was love.

Then I heard him tell his mother. "I married her to get revenge on you."

That kidnapping? His design. The car accident? His arrangement. The rumors that ruined my reputation? Spread by his own hand.

The man I gave everything to for three years used me as a pawn to win another woman.

After I disappeared, he searched the world for me. He knelt in the rain, begging me to come back.

But I was already lying in someone else's arms. I didn't even bother to look at him.

Jace Monroe, you're tainted now. I don't want you anymore.

Ruby's POV

I'm the heir to a New York fortune with the worst reputation, and while my beauty is well-known, so is my heartlessness.

I'm the wildest one in our circle, the one who changes boyfriends faster than handbags, the one photographed making out with strangers at nightclubs. I'm arrogant and reckless.

And Jace Monroe is New York's most famous heir to the Monroe family.

He has an impeccable reputation. In his twenty-five years, he's never had a single scandal, never even set foot in a bar.

We were from two completely different worlds with no connection, until that citywide kidnapping case bound us together.

In a dark, damp basement, Jace and I were locked in an iron cage.

The kidnappers wanted to film our most degrading moment to extort a fortune in ransom and ensure we wouldn't dare pursue them afterward.

So I was stripped and tied to a bed, while Jace was forcibly drugged with a powerful aphrodisiac.

But even burning with fever, he struggled to resist the desire and said, "I know you're not like the rumors say. You're not that kind of woman. So don't be afraid. As long as you don't agree, I'd rather die than touch you."

And he kept his word.

When the drug ravaged his body like wildfire, he bit down hard on his own forearm until blood flowed, using pain to gain brief moments of clarity.

The kidnappers weren't satisfied. They forced a second dose of the drug down his throat, but he slammed his head against the iron bars, preferring death to making love to me.

Watching him bloody and wounded, blood streaming down his face, in that moment, the walls I'd built around my heart completely crumbled.

Unable to bear watching him hurt himself anymore, I said with a trembling, choked voice, "Jace, stop fighting it... You'll die like this."

"But I promised..."

"I'm willing." My tears fell. "If it's you, I'm willing."

Finally, with my consent and under the drug's control, he was driven by desire.

The moment he entered me, Jace discovered in shock that despite my countless boyfriends, I was still a virgin.

For five whole days, we were forced to make love, filmed in countless obscene scenes.

Five days later, Jace's assistant arrived with a rescue team and all the kidnappers were captured.

And Jace used every means at his disposal to destroy all footage of us.

But somehow news leaked that I'd been kidnapped and filmed in pornographic videos, and it quickly spread throughout our social circle.

Everyone in the circle said I was completely ruined, after all, I'd been in those kinds of videos.

However, Jace publicly declared his love with over ten thousand drones. He presented me with a ten-carat pink diamond ring under fireworks, kneeling on one knee to propose.

"Ruby, those five days were both the worst memory of my life and what I'm most grateful for." He looked at me, his eyes full of deep affection and guilt.

"I failed to protect you. Marry me. Let me spend my lifetime making it up to you, protecting you. Will you?"

After that heart-stopping kidnapping, my heart, hardened like iron walls, had already softened for him.

And now, it completely fell.

I put on that ring.

Our wedding was unprecedentedly grand, and also met with much ridicule.

Almost none of his family attended our wedding. Only Jace held my hand, firmly making vows before the priest, as if standing against the whole world.

After marriage, Jace treated me very well.

I had a sensitive stomach, so he cooked stomach-soothing meals for me. During my period, he personally took care of me.

I was ostracized by the elite wives' circle because of my past, so he brought me to the most important occasions again and again, announcing his regard for me to everyone.

So I also began to rein in my wild and arrogant nature, working hard to be a good wife.

I knew the Monroe family elders strongly opposed my notorious self marrying into their family. So to change the Monroe family's attitude toward me, I started learning flower arrangement, etiquette, all those things I'd once scorned.

And Jace always held me gently and said, "Ruby, just be yourself. I didn't marry you to make you change for me. No matter how my family views you, you're the wife I've chosen. As long as I know how wonderful you are, that's enough."

Whenever he said this, I felt so moved, felt he was the most unique man I'd ever met.

Until that day when my car's brakes failed and I plunged down a hillside.

The moment before the explosion, it was Jace who pried open the deformed car door with his bare hands, dragged me out, and used his back to shield me from the blast and flames.

The second before losing consciousness, I vowed to spend the rest of my life loving this man who valued me as much as his own life.

I finally woke up in the hospital. The first thing I did was ask the nurse, "Where's my husband? Where is he? Is he okay?"

"Mr. Monroe has severe burns across his back, but he's not in life-threatening danger. He's in the VIP room next door."

Hearing this, my heart leapt with joy, and I stumbled to the room next door.

I took a deep breath, about to push the door open, when I heard a sharp female voice suddenly rise from inside.

"Jace! Three years! How much longer are you going to keep this up?!"

It was the voice of Jace's mother, Catherine, full of anger and a kind of... exhaustion and sarcasm I couldn't understand.

My hand froze in midair.

"You know perfectly well that Ruby has had countless boyfriends! The whole circle is saying she was filmed in porn by those kidnappers!"

"A woman with such a ruined reputation. Everyone wants to stay as far away from her as possible! But you? Not only did you confess your love, you actually married her and brought her to all kinds of elite social events, acting like you're madly in love! Are you trying to kill us with anger?!"

"This time, you even risked your own life to protect Ruby!"

"You just hate us and want revenge because three years ago we stopped you from marrying that Serena girl, don't you!"

What are they talking about... who's Serena?

My heart contracted sharply, as if gripped by an invisible hand.