Years of illness and isolation had chipped away at Rong Ci, leaving fractures too deep for time to mend. Life had been cruel, a slow, suffocating descent into a marriage that drained the breath from her lungs and a fate she never chose. But the universe, in its twisted, reckless way, had handed her a second life. A clean slate. No more silent suffering. No more playing a role in a story that wasn’t hers. This time, she would rip the script apart and write her own ending. And she sure as hell wouldn’t be caged again. ... more>>

But fate wasn’t the kind to sit back and watch. It had a habit of slipping in through the cracks, just when she thought she had control. In this life, it came in the form of a child—a remnant of a past she didn’t remember, abandoned in an accident that had nothing to do with her, yet everything to do with her at the same time.

And just when she thought she could taste freedom, he appeared. Solid. Unshaken. The kind of man who didn’t need to raise his voice to command a room, whose mere presence made the air feel heavier, charged. He wasn’t loud, wasn’t obvious, but his existence pressed against hers like an unspoken challenge.

She should’ve turned away. Should’ve left him behind before his presence unraveled the fragile edges of her new beginning. But there was something about him—something relentless, something that wrapped around her like a force of nature, impossible to ignore. And the moment he stepped into her life, she knew.

Her choices were no longer just her own. <<less