"Dr. Thornton’s really got it rough. She finally got pregnant, and then she lost it again."

"Rough? What’s rough about it? The abortion medicine was prescribed by her own husband at our hospital."

"Isn’t it obvious? He just doesn’t love her. Doesn’t matter how hard she tries, she was never going to keep that baby."

Celeste Thornton stood outside the office door, clutching the miscarriage report in her hand. As she listened to the nurses gossip inside, the color drained from her face.

She was cold all over, shaking so hard she could barely stand, her lips trembling without stop.

Ten years of marriage. Seven miscarriages. Folk remedies, bitter herbal medicine, every kind of treatment people swore by—she had forced it all down until she wanted to throw up. And still, she could never hold on to a child.

But now she was hearing that the reason she kept miscarrying... was that her husband had personally prescribed abortion drugs?

How could that be?

What she drank yesterday was clearly the pregnancy medicine Adrian Shelton had prepared for her with his own hands.

Bang!

She shoved the door open and rushed in. "What did you just say?"

The women chatting inside jumped in fright. Once they saw it was her, they couldn’t even be bothered pretending anymore.

"Dr. Thornton, everyone in this hospital knows the one Vice Director Shelton loved was Isabelle Thornton."

"If she hadn’t died back then, do you really think it would’ve been your turn to marry him?"

"You think he’s been good to you out of real feeling? Let me tell you something—every single time you got pregnant, he came to get abortion medicine."

"..."

Celeste looked at the scorn in their eyes, one face after another, and felt like she’d fallen straight into an ice cellar.

In a daze, she made her way home and dropped onto the sofa, sitting there stiff and blank.

"I’m back!"

That familiar voice rang out.

Adrian Shelton came in carrying a bag of brown sugar. The door opened and a gust of cold wind swept in with him, sharp enough to make her shiver.

Seeing her sitting there pale as paper, he walked over at once and took her hand, his voice full of concern.

"Don’t be upset. If this baby is gone, we can always have another."

"Take care of your health first. I’ll go make you some brown sugar water."

Every time she lost a child before, she would cry till her heart felt torn apart, and he would always comfort her this gently.

Could a man like that really bring himself to kill his own child with his own hands?

Celeste Thornton felt like her heart had dropped into an ice cellar. "The doctor said it. I won’t ever be able to get pregnant again."

Adrian Shelton paused ever so slightly while holding her hand, his voice flat, almost like he had expected this all along.

"If you can’t, then fine. Xiaocheng can be adopted into our family."

"We’ll raise him as our own. I’ll go get the paperwork done tomorrow."

Xiaocheng?

Wasn’t that her cousin Isabelle Thornton’s son?

Adrian Shelton carried the bowl of brown sugar water into the kitchen, then took off his coat and hung it on the rack in the sitting room.

Celeste walked over slowly, opened the inner pocket, and pulled out a folded sheet of paper and a small bottle.

It was an adoption application.

Adrian Shelton’s name was already written on it.

And the date on it was today. So the adoption had been arranged long before now.

Her fingers trembled as she looked at the medicine bottle. Three words were printed on it, plain as day:

Abortion pills.

The moment Celeste Thornton saw them, her legs nearly gave out under her.

For ten years of marriage, they had seemed loving and peaceful on the surface. All this time, she had lived with guilt, thinking she had failed to give her husband a child.

She had always thought it was her body that was the problem.

How could she have guessed Adrian Shelton had never meant to let her keep a baby in the first place?

He had even fed her the abortion medicine himself, just so he could bring Isabelle Thornton’s son into their home.

"What are you looking through?"

Adrian Shelton came out of the kitchen with the brown sugar water ready.

The instant he saw the abortion pills and the adoption form in her hands, his eyes turned cold, hard as ice.

Celeste Thornton clenched the medicine bottle so hard her fingers went white. "Adrian Shelton, you forced that medicine down me to make me lose the baby... just so you could adopt her son?"

"Since you already know, there's no point pretending anymore."

A dark, ugly look spread across his face, full of mockery and cold hatred.

Celeste felt the chill run through her whole body. "If you cared that much about Isabelle Thornton, then why did you marry me in the first place?"

His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice came out sharp and freezing. "Why did I marry you? Don't you know that yourself?"

"Back then, you used that so-called life-saving favor to pressure my father into making me marry you."

"If it hadn't been for saving you that day, how could Isabelle have died?"

Celeste's mind exploded with a loud buzz. Her father had died trying to save Adrian's father, Maxwell Shelton.

Maxwell had no wife, no family to lean on, so he took Adrian in as his own son. To look after her, he arranged the match between the two of them.

Back then, Celeste had been young and foolish. The moment she first saw Adrian, she fell for him and happily agreed to the engagement.

Who could have guessed something would go wrong on the day of the betrothal? She and her cousin Isabelle both fell into the river.

Adrian jumped in and dragged Celeste out, but Isabelle sank to the bottom. All she left behind was a little boy barely over a year old.

After the wedding, their life had looked peaceful enough. Without ever saying it aloud, the two of them had doted on that child and raised him like their own.

Who would have thought Adrian had been hiding that much hatred all these years, blaming Isabelle's death entirely on her?

Just to seek justice for the woman he could never forget, he had drugged her again and again, making her lose every child, making sure she would never become a mother.

Celeste trembled with rage from head to toe. "Adrian Shelton, you're really vicious. That was your own flesh and blood too!"

Adrian did not even turn around. "This is the punishment you deserve for causing Isabelle's death!"

"Ha... hahaha!"

Celeste laughed until tears streamed down her face. So all the years between them had only been a dream she told herself.

"That's right. I deserve punishment. The worst mistake of my life... was marrying you..."

"Cough, cough—!"

A mouthful of blood burst out, and she dropped straight to the floor.

Her body grew colder and colder. The moment her eyes shut, the last thing she saw was that man’s icy face.

...

"Someone, hurry! Somebody fell into the river!"

"Help! Help!"

The feeling of suffocation crashed down on her from all sides, almost swallowing her whole.

Celeste Thornton was wrapped in freezing river water. She fought with everything she had to swim upward, choking down mouthful after mouthful of water.

Her chest hurt like it had been stabbed clean through, and her body kept sinking against her will.

Then her mind jolted clear. Her ears were full of panicked shouting, and she realized she was in the middle of a fast-moving river.

Not far from her, another person was thrashing in the water, screaming for help with all her strength.

It was her cousin, Isabelle Thornton!

But Isabelle had died in this river long ago, hadn’t she? So why was she here?

Celeste suddenly understood. She had been reborn.

She had gone back ten years, to the very day she and her cousin fell into the river together.

"Help! Is anyone there? Help me!" Celeste struggled desperately in the water, shouting until her voice turned ragged.

Splash!

Hurried footsteps sounded from the riverbank, and then someone jumped into the water.

The man swam straight toward her, moving fast, closing the distance bit by bit.

Water sprayed up around him, and when she saw his face clearly, her whole body turned stiff—

It was Adrian Shelton!

Celeste instinctively reached out, wanting him to pull her up. "Adrian... quick... save me..."

Adrian’s eyes swept over her. They stayed on her for less than a second before shifting away.

"Isabelle! Hold on, I'm coming right now!" he shouted, calling out to his cousin-in-law by name, panic thick in his voice.

Then he swam straight past Celeste, just like that.

This time, the one he chose was not her. It was Isabelle Thornton.

Celeste understood at once. Adrian Shelton had been reborn too.

So that was the truth. Ten years as husband and wife still could not measure up to the woman he had never truly let go of.

In their last life, because he had failed to save Isabelle, he had held that grudge against Celeste for ten whole years. He would not even spare the children in her womb.

Now that fate had handed him another chance, of course he would go save Isabelle first. Why would he care whether Celeste lived or died?

Celeste watched with her own eyes as he grabbed Isabelle, who was on the verge of sinking, and turned toward the shore.

The two of them drifted farther and farther away, their figures growing dimmer, blurrier, until even her last sliver of hope went out.

Her body kept sinking lower. The strength in her limbs drained away bit by bit. This time, she really was going to die.