chapter 1
I had raised the villain from the time he was still a boy.
Back then, I had dropped into a sugary romance novel as the cannon-fodder female side character, and the system gave me one simple mission: make life miserable for the hero and heroine.
I refused.
Not only did I refuse, I went looking for the future male supporting lead instead—the one who, in the original plot, would grow up, turn dark, and become the cruelest villain in the entire book.
So I found him early.
I stayed by his side.
I raised him carefully, stubbornly, almost like I was trying to wrestle fate itself into submission.
Every day, whenever he ran into the hero and heroine, I would remind him, over and over, “See those two? They’re meant to be together. We are absolutely not getting in the middle of that.”
And every single time, Ethan Reed—back then still young, still quiet, still willing to listen to me—would nod obediently and say okay.
He never went after the heroine.
Instead, he started chasing me.
And somehow, somewhere along the way, that turned into five years of marriage.
For five whole years, Ethan treated me with a tenderness that sometimes felt too good to be real. He gave in to me everywhere. Took care of me in every detail. Loved me so openly and so fiercely that I slowly forgot this world had once been a novel and that he had ever been written as a villain at all.
So the moment I heard he’d been in a car accident, I dropped everything at work and ran straight to the hospital.
When I pushed open the door to his room, he was sitting on the bed in a blue-and-white hospital gown.
He didn’t look sick.
If anything, he looked sharper than ever.
More dangerous.
I set down the thermos of soup I’d brought and lifted my head.
His eyes met mine.
And for one strange, cold second, it felt like he was looking at a stranger.
I paused, thinking maybe he was in pain or still dizzy from the accident. I walked over, leaned down, kissed his cheek, and pressed my hand to his forehead.
“Do you feel any better?” I asked softly. “Does anything hurt?”
He didn’t answer right away.
He just looked at me, like he was trying to place me.
Then, after several silent seconds, he finally spoke.
“Avery Cole.”
My fingers tightened around the soup spoon.
There was something wrong with the way he said my name.
Still, I forced myself to smile and opened the thermos. “I made this for you. Try it while it’s hot.”
I scooped up a spoonful and held it to his lips.
He didn’t move.
We stayed like that for what felt like forever, me holding the spoon between us, him staring at me with an expression I had never seen on his face before.
Then suddenly, he laughed.
It was lazy, mocking, almost amused.
And the next words out of his mouth turned my blood cold.
“Isn’t this somebody’s pathetic little lapdog?” he drawled. “What, you couldn’t crawl into Noah Parker’s bed, so now you’re climbing into mine instead?”
The bowl slipped from my hand.
It shattered on the floor, soup splashing everywhere.
I stood there, very still.
Noah Parker.
The male lead of this romance world.
In the original plot, the woman I was supposed to be was a greedy, brainless side character obsessed with Noah, constantly tripping up the heroine and humiliating herself trying to climb higher.
And Ethan?
In the original story, once he grew up, he became the darkest version of himself. Reckless. Ruthless. Untouchable. A man who only saved one scrap of softness for the heroine.
The man sitting in front of me now had that exact same expression.
That same careless cruelty.
That same dangerous smile.
This wasn’t the Ethan I had raised.
My Ethan was steady. Gentle. Reliable. He would never look at me like this.
A chill ran through me.
In one horrifying flash, I understood.
The car accident hadn’t just hurt him.
Somehow, it had reset him.
The version of Ethan Reed sitting in front of me now was the Ethan from the original novel—the villain who had blackened completely.
And the husband who loved me was gone.
At least for now.
My face slowly cooled.
There was no point staying.
I picked up my bag and turned to leave, but right before I walked out, I looked back at him and smiled sweetly, mostly because I wanted to disgust him.
“You’re right, Mr. Reed,” I said lightly. “After all, without your permission, I couldn’t exactly get into your bed, could I?”
Then I turned and walked away.
I had barely taken two steps when something smashed hard against the wall behind me.
Glass exploded.
A sharp shard grazed my cheek.
Warm blood trickled down my skin.
I stopped.
And in that instant, the truth settled in with brutal clarity.
The man in that hospital room was no longer the husband who loved me.
I wiped the blood from my cheek with the back of my hand, said nothing, and walked out.
Outside the room, Ethan’s assistant, Daniel, was standing guard.
The moment he saw my face, his expression went white.
“Mrs. Reed—what happened to your face?”
I glanced at him and smiled without smiling. “Why don’t you go ask your boss?”
He rushed inside.
A second later, I heard him let out a horrified shout.
“Mr. Reed! Did you just throw something at your wife?”
Inside the room, Ethan sounded impatient.
“Why are you yelling? I was just looking for something new. It’s not like I’ll die without her.”
Daniel went silent for a beat, then said in a strained voice, “You… you’re angry, right? Let me go bring her back. If you apologize, things can still be fixed.”
Ethan gave a short laugh.
“Apologize? To her? Who does she think she is?”
Daniel was quiet for another second.
Then his voice turned strange.
Careful.
Uneasy.
Like he was standing in front of a cliff edge and had just realized the ground was gone.
“Mr. Reed,” he said slowly, “did you lose your memory?”
Ethan sneered.
Daniel sounded more panicked now. “You forgot? You and Ms. Cole are legally married. She’s your wife.”
Another beat of silence.
Then Ethan laughed again, disbelieving this time. “I married her? Daniel, if she bribed you to help her lie to me, you picked the wrong side.”
Daniel started pacing.
Then suddenly he blurted, “Wait—under the pillow!”
There was a rustle.
A pause.
And then complete silence.
Because under Ethan’s pillow were two bright red marriage certificates.
Daniel practically exhaled in relief. “See? Memory loss isn’t the worst thing. I’ll call the doctor. You should start thinking about how to make it up to your wife.”
But I was already gone.
And as far as I was concerned, apologies weren’t even on the table.