Chapter 1

Adriana’s POV

I felt my insides constrict with every contraction. Fire and burning waves tore through me like nothing I had ever felt before. None of my menstrual cramps had prepared me for this.

A cool hand wiped sweat from my forehead, but my mind was foggy.

Yet no physical pain compared to the raw, emotional agony that had shattered me only hours earlier... when I discovered my husband, Damian, passionately making love to my cousin in my own office.

In shock, I had stumbled against the doorframe. Damian hadn’t even heard me. He continued thrusting into Selene’s body, and she... sleek chestnut hair glinting—smiled at me, wickedly, knowingly, squeezing tighter until he groaned her name.

He had never moaned mine in all our nights together. I should have known.

Half in rage, half in despair, I had fled my firm. In hindsight, I should have smashed the glass walls, hurled awards, and torn everything apart. But fear held me back… fear for the baby inside me. I stumbled down the marble staircase of the governor’s mansion, and that was when my water broke.

“How long will she last?” a male voice asked.

“Too early to say,” the private doctor replied.

At first, my marriage had been sweet. Damian smothered me with attention. Though he disapproved, I continued running my architectural firm. Being Senator Frederick Cole’s daughter had given it prestige and international recognition.

Maybe that was my first mistake.

I had been so consumed with my work that I hadn’t seen Damian’s betrayal. My second mistake: hiring Selene as my assistant. Orphaned and without inheritance, I had thought I was helping her. In truth, I had invited a parasite into my home.

The pain ebbed slightly as the doctor received a tiny, messy bundle, born eight weeks too soon.

“A daughter,” the male voice said with disgust. “Useless thing.”

I snapped through my haze. I wanted to sit up, scream, hit Damian. Why was I never enough?

I had given him everything: my heart, my body, control of investments, parts of my firm. Yet he had never thrown more than a cold glance. First love, first kiss, first night ..and none of it mattered. To him, I had been a trophy until a shinier one came along.

What drew him to Selene? I was golden-haired, sun-kissed; she was chestnut-haired, porcelain-skinned, with wide innocent eyes that didn’t match her traps. Damian had clearly fallen.

I had believed the baby would change things. After three years of marriage, I thought he might finally see me again. But my body betrayed me. The stress, the fall, the mysterious illness had drained me.

Damian hadn’t come near me in ten hours of labor, entering only after the baby was delivered to check the gender.

The doctor lowered her beside me. Though one of Damian’s men, he looked at her with pity. Every staff member had been handpicked by Damian and treated me with indifference.

I turned to my child. Tiny blonde hair, fragile. She was an angel. And like an angel, she was gone too soon. Born too early, weakened by my fall and the poison festering inside me, she couldn’t survive.

My heart broke. I could not hold her. The doctor quietly removed her. Damian turned his back.

Fever spread across my skin. I was still bleeding. No one came... except Selene, who slipped inside.

“Oh, no need to rise to greet me,” she said, mocking.

Had everything been a lie? Her sweet face twisted with triumphant contempt.

“So sorry about your child, Adriana,” she cooed. “But don’t worry—you’ll follow her soon.”

My blood ran cold.

“You’re going to die soon, so I have no problem telling you,” she said, eyes gleaming. “Ever wonder why you’ve been sick? Damian and I have been slipping poison into your juice every night. And you never suspected a thing.”

Damn. Every night, Damian or Selene had brought me “vitamins” or juice. How blind I had been.

“It’s a slow poison,” Selene said gleefully. “I wanted your death to be gradual.”

Why? I had given her everything: a job, wealth, status. What had I done?

“All my life I’ve been compared to you,” she spat. “Your father a senator, mine nothing. You had everything. I had nothing.”

Not true. Her father had worked, but her mother squandered money. Now, draped in ivory silk, she wore a wedding gown.

“But you know what’s funny?” Selene whispered. “When you got engaged to Damian, I was already with him. I encouraged it because I could take him back whenever I wanted.”

The poison spread deeper. My body turned cold.

“And now I will,” she said. “After your death, Damian inherits your firm. He’ll marry me. With his wealth and political rise, he might even become president. You’re not needed, cousin. Have a nice afterlife.”

Rage boiled inside me. Had I lived only for others? When had I ever lived for myself?

Tears streamed down my pale cheeks. Selene pressed a pillow over my mouth.

As life slipped away, I cursed them both. I swore I would return. I swore I would have vengeance.

Unbeknownst to her, the simple silver locket I wore... my late mother’s, glowed faintly.

Three days later, I was laid to rest beside my daughter. Twenty-six. People whispered they had never seen a prettier corpse or a more sorrowful husband. The funeral suited a governor’s wife and a rising presidential spouse. Afterwards, every kind staff member was dismissed.

Rumors spread quickly as Damian courted another woman... Selene. They claimed he was helping her heal, fulfilling a “family duty.”

My grave was soon forgotten, untended. Forgotten by all but one man.

A stranger dressed in black left a single blue rose on my grave. “May you find happiness in your next life,” he prayed.

That night, the blue rose took root, feeding on my grief and fury.

“My lady? Miss Adriana! Senator, Madam, come quick—she’s awake!”

Footsteps rushed to my bedside.

I blinked. Had it been a dream? Three years of marriage, betrayal... all vivid.

My gray eyes landed on the red velvet canopy above me. Wait. The governor’s mansion had ivory silk ceilings. This was my childhood bedroom in the Cole estate.

“Oh, Adriana!”

My father and stepmother rushed to my side. To them, I had been bedridden for a week with the fever sweeping the city.

I remembered clearly. The epidemic had taken countless lives, rich and poor alike. This illness was four years before my death.

I had gone back in time