Chapter 1

I was the one who saved Lucas Thornfield, but he believed it was Serena who was his savior.

He called me vicious and forced me to donate blood to the pretending-to-be-sick Serena again and again.

"Having your blood flow into her body is the greatest honor of your pathetic life."

After three years of torment from constant blood draws, I finally signed the "Deep Sea" memory erasure agreement, willing to risk a 50 percent mortality rate just to completely forget him.

But when I was reborn with a completely new identity and stood on the international stage, he knelt before me, begging through tears for my forgiveness.

I sneered and pushed him away. "Mr. Thornfield, you've mistaken me for someone else."

Stella POV

"Miss Winters, this is the 'Deep Sea' memory erasure and identity reconstruction agreement you applied for. The procedure is irreversible, with a mortality rate as high as thirty percent. Once you sign, in seven days, Stella Winters will cease to exist. Please confirm one final time."

In the sterile white therapy room, the doctor pushed a document toward me.

I lowered my eyes and gripped the pen without a moment's hesitation, signing my name at the bottom.

The scratching sound of the pen tearing across paper severed the absurd and pitiful obsession that had consumed the last ten years of my life.

Ten years. I'd finally decided to let myself go, and to let Lucas go.

The entire city knew I was the woman Lucas couldn't shake off.

To marry him, I'd stopped at nothing, even driving away the woman Lucas loved most, Serena Marlowe, forcing her to leave town.

But no one knew that when I was fifteen, it was Lucas who slipped a hand-carved wooden ring onto my finger under a sky full of stars, his face flushed as he said, "Stella, when I grow up, I'll marry you and make you my one and only Mrs. Thornfield."

At eighteen, during that terrible fire, Lucas shielded me from harm. A burning beam struck his head, leaving him blind and robbing him of all his memories.

To save him, I was left with horrifying burn scars covering my back.

But when Lucas woke up in the hospital and regained his sight, the first person he saw was Serena in her white dress, looking delicate and pitiful.

Serena took credit for saving him.

From that moment on, Lucas's memory held no trace of me. Only the image of Serena, the one who "risked her life to save him."

For the past seven years, I'd exhausted every method trying to awaken his memories, only to be met with escalating disgust and torment.

Especially three years ago, when Serena was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder requiring long-term transfusions.

And I happened to have the same rare blood type that matched hers perfectly.

Lucas married me not out of compromise, but to turn me into Serena's personal walking blood bank.

"Stella, as long as Serena needs it, draining you dry is what you owe her!"

Lucas had been saying this for three years.

I gathered my thoughts and handed the agreement to the doctor, then stood and left.

Walking out of the discreet private clinic, the autumn wind whipped fallen leaves against my face. The cold cut through to my bones.

I'd barely gotten into my car when my phone screen lit up.

The name "Lucas" flashed on the display.

I pressed accept. A voice as cold as ice came through the speaker.

"Get to Grace Memorial Hospital within half an hour. Serena fainted from anemia."

No greeting. No pleasantries. Just a cold command.

In the past, I would have felt heartbroken, made excuses about not feeling well myself, tried to beg for even the smallest scrap of his pity.

But today, I simply replied with one word.

"Okay."

Lucas seemed to pause on the other end.

After all, every previous time I'd been summoned for a blood draw, I'd cried and made a scene, forcing him to come back to the villa and have dinner with me before I'd agree.

"Don't try any tricks."

Lucas snorted coldly and hung up.

Half an hour later, I arrived at the VIP ward on schedule.

The hospital room door was half-open. Lucas sat by the bed, carefully peeling an apple for Serena.

His usually hard jawline softened impossibly when facing her.

"Lucas, I'm fine. Don't keep making things difficult for Stella. She's your wife, after all. Constantly drawing her blood makes me feel terrible..."

Serena leaned against the pillow, her voice so weak it seemed a breeze could blow it away.

"Wife? What kind of wife is she?"

Lucas's voice turned cold instantly, dripping with undisguised sarcasm.

"She's just a woman who'll do anything to climb the social ladder. Having her blood flow into your body is her honor."

I stood outside the door listening to these words. My heart felt like an invisible hand was squeezing it tight, but in the next second, it went completely numb.

I pushed open the door and walked in.

"Go ahead and draw it."

I proactively rolled up my sleeve, exposing an arm covered in needle marks, and spoke to the nurse beside me.

Lucas looked up, his sharp gaze fixed on me.

Today I hadn't become hysterical, hadn't questioned him with red-rimmed eyes, hadn't even glanced at him once.

"400cc."

Lucas spoke coldly.

The nurse gasped.

"Mr. Thornfield, Miss Winters just donated 300cc last week. If we draw another 400cc today, her body won't be able to handle it. She might go into shock..."

"I said 400cc."

Lucas's tone was freezing, brooking no argument.

I didn't object. I simply watched quietly as the thick needle pierced my vein.

Dark red blood flowed through the tube. I felt the warmth draining from my body bit by bit, my vision beginning to darken.

But I didn't cry out in pain. I didn't even furrow my brow.

Seven days.

Just seven more days, and I could be completely free.

What was this little bit of pain?