Chapter 1
My husband was born without love, without warmth.
Yet one day, he brought home a forbidden fruit.
She came from the slums–scarred, broken, but somehow pure as snow.
And for Robert Johnson, a man raised in blood and violence, she became an addiction he couldn’t resist.
He thought he hid it well.
But I found out.
At the Johnson family’s Christmas dinner, I snapped. I flipped the table in front of everyone, rage burning through me.
Robert didn’t flinch. He simply wiped his hands clean and slid divorce papers across the table.
“Sign here, Sarah. Three private hospitals in Washington will be yours.”
I tore them to shreds.
That was when he showed me how ruthless he could be.
He shoved me off a dock. He blew up my family’s factory. And finally–he kidnapped my parents, chaining their bodies to five motorcycles, engines roaring.
“Sign… or watch them torn apart.”
I fell to my knees, begging.
00-2113
Chapter 1
A deafening bang split the air.
My parents‘ limbs, covered in blood, flew through the air and hit my face.
“No… no!”
And then… I opened my eyes.
I was back on the day I first discovered Emily Clark.
This time, I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream.
I quietly booked tickets to New Zealand, messaged a lawyer, and prepared my divorce papers.
But when I truly disappeared-
why did Robert lose his mind?
ག
***
In my past life, I had only seen Emily’s picture in Robert’s study.
This time around, I wanted to see for myself what made this girl so special.
What kind of power did she have that could make a cold, loveless devil actually feel “pain“?
“John, get my parents moved to New Zealand within a week. I’ll join them as soon as I can.” After giving those orders, I reached out to a lawyer to start drafting the divorce papers.
After that, I headed to the run–down church where Emily was.
She was up on her toes under a stained glass window that leaked rainwater, signing Bible stories to a group of kids who looked like they
13.29%
00:23
Chapter 1
hadn’t seen a bath in weeks.
Sunlight came through the broken glass, casting colorful spots all over her. She looked so innocent, like she wasn’t from this world.
No wonder… Robert couldn’t get enough of her.
“Look out!” Outta nowhere, that old, shaky chandelier came crashing
down.
288 Vouchers
I jumped back on instinct, but Emily suddenly ran forward and blocked the falling metal frame with her back.
Boom!
A sharp hook sliced into her shoulder, and blood soaked right through her white nun outfit.
But she barely winced. Instead, she turned to the crying kids and signed, “Don’t be scared. God takes all the pain away.”
I just stood there, completely frozen.
Her blood dripped onto the floor like red plums blooming in the snow.
Half an hour later, I was helping her wrap up her wound in that rundown infirmary.
Her skin was so thin you could see the blue veins underneath, and there was an old scar right on her collarbone.
“What’s this?”
She smiled and signed back, “I got it as a kid–cut by a piece of metal. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
But I knew how it went in the slums, For kids like her, the only way to
2824%
00:23
Chapter 1
stop a wound from bleeding was to burn it with fire.
255 Vouchers
Suddenly, she grabbed my wrist and traced letters into my palm. “Sarah, your hand is shaking.”
I pulled my hand away fast.
Yeah, I was shaking.
Because in my last life, these were the very hands Robert used to press the button that tore my parents apart.
“Wait,” I said, pulling the check out of my bag and shoving it into her hand. “In a month, I’ll give you something even better.”
A month from now, that divorce decree will finally be mine.
Emily shook her head, shoved the check back, and signed, “Helping people shouldn’t be about money.”
Just then, her old phone buzzed. One glance and I knew the number–it was Robert’s personal line.
She picked up, and a deep, icy voice came through. “Where are you hurt?”
Emily couldn’t hear him, but the phone had a real–time text–to–speech feature.
She looked down to type a reply, and I caught her eyelashes fluttering, her ears turning a little red. “I’m fine, just a small injury. Don’t worry, you don’t need to come.”
But from the other end, I could already hear the sound of an engine roaring to life.
He really was something else–managed to have eyes on her even here.
44.38%
00.23
Chapter 1
258 Vouchers
Emily had just gotten hurt when he called. Guess his “spies” only cared about her, not me–the wife he’s been married to for ten years.
I let out a bitter laugh.
Last time I was stuck in the hospital for three days with a stomach bleed, Robert didn’t even show up. He just had his assistant send some flowers.
The note said, “Don’t die in the hospital. I’m too busy to come to pick up your body.”
So it wasn’t that he didn’t have time. It was just that I wasn’t worth the effort.
“You handle things first. I should get going.‘
”
વાસ
I figured Robert had already left with Emily, so I grabbed the divorce papers and headed straight to Johnson Group Tower.
“Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Johnson is in a meeting. Please wait a moment,” the secretary said politely, trying to stop me.
A meeting? But I could clearly see Emily inside.
The blinds weren’t completely shut. Through the crack, I saw Emily sitting in his leather office chair. Her white dress was dusty, and she was wearing a pair of old canvas shoes–washed until they were almost white -swinging her feet in the air.
And Robert, the guy who wouldn’t even flinch if someone stabbed him in the chest, was down on one knee, carefully pulling a splinter out of Emily’s hand with tweezers, like that tiny piece of wood hurt worse than a knife wound.
“Mrs. Johnson…” The secretary stood behind me, awkwardly.
I gave a slight tug at the corner of my mouth and said, “It’s okay. When
67.51%
00230
288 Vouchers
Chapter 1
will he be free? I have a document for him to sign.”
The secretary took the agreement and, smartly, buried it under a pile of contracts waiting to be signed.
I thought Robert would at least pause for a second, but no–he didn’t even look at it. He flipped straight to the last page and signed his name without blinking.
When I took the paper back, my hands were shaking so bad I could barely hold it.
Back when I was 15, I found out I had a fiancé named Robert-
emotionally cold, numb to pain, and repulsed by any kind of warmth or affection.
He didn’t love me, but then again, he didn’t love anyone else either. So I thought, if I was good enough, obedient enough, maybe one day I could melt this block of ice.
I followed him like a shadow for ten years. But now, ten years of hoping and pretending are finally over.
When I got home, I told the maid to take the wedding dress out back and burn it. Victoria looked confused. “Mrs. Johnson, wasn’t this your favorite dress?”
Yeah, I used to treat that wedding dress like a prize.
Back then, I thought, “Look, I’ve finally tamed this cold–hearted guy. He’s mine now.
But it was time to wake up.
“A new lady will be moving in soon. Better get rid of this before she sees it.”
82.15%
