Chapter 1

I died on the satisfies operating table, and the last thing I heard was my husband laughing in the hallway.

"The baby's out. What about Vivienne?"

"Mr. Ashford, your wife lost too much blood. We're doing everything we can—"

"Save the baby first."

He didn't even hesitate.

Seven years of marriage. I managed his empire, fought off his enemies, and carried his child through a danger-ridden pregnancy. In return, Ethan Ashford chose the baby over me without a second thought.

But it wasn't the betrayal that killed me.

It was the voice that came next.

Soft. Sweet. Practiced.

"Ethan, don't cry. I'll raise the baby as my own. Vivienne would want that."

Luna Pearce.

His "childhood friend." The woman who had been circling him like a vulture for seven years.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to tell him that Luna was the one who switched my medication, who made sure my pregnancy went wrong, who engineered every "accident" that brought me closer to this table.

But my mouth was full of blood, and the monitor flatlined.

The last thing I saw was the fluorescent light above me, cold and white, like a door opening.

Then I woke up.

Not in a hospital. Not in a coffin.

In a wedding dress.

The mirror in front of me reflected a version of myself I barely recognized—twenty-one, wide-eyed, radiant, and utterly naive.

The date on my phone confirmed what my racing heart already knew.

April 12th.

My wedding day.

Seven years ago.

"Viv! Hurry up, the ceremony starts in twenty minutes!" My maid of honor, Scarlett, burst through the door, her red hair pinned up in a messy bun. "God, you look like you've seen a ghost."

I had.

My own.

I stared at the wedding dress—Vera Wang, custom-fitted, paid for by the Ashfords as a "generous gesture" to the bride whose family had just gone bankrupt.

In my last life, I'd been so grateful.

Now, I saw it for what it was: a leash.

"Scarlett." My voice was calm, terrifyingly calm. "Where's Ethan?"

"In the groom's suite, obviously. Why—"

"And Luna?"

Scarlett's face shifted. "She's… also there. She said she was helping him with his cufflinks."

Of course she was.

On my wedding day in my last life, Luna had kissed Ethan in the groom's suite, and he'd let her. I didn't find out until three years later, when she threw the photos in my face, laughing.

"Viv, what's wrong? You're shaking."

I wasn't shaking from fear.

I was shaking from rage.

Seven years. I had given Ethan Ashford seven years, my family's last connections, my body, my child, and my life.

He repaid me with a mistress, a stolen baby, and a flatline.

I looked at Scarlett and smiled.

"Cancel the wedding."

"WHAT?!"

"Actually—" I turned back to the mirror, adjusting my veil. "Don't cancel it. I have a better idea."

The woman staring back at me wasn't the naive Vivienne Langford who'd walked down that aisle the first time.

That woman was dead.

This one had come back with a list.