Chapter 3

After leaving the hospital, Heather hailed a cab. "Please take me to Eventide Manor." It was the house she had shared with Devon in her previous life. It was their marital home, yet he had only returned a handful of times. On the rare occasions he had come home, it had only been to force her to donate blood to Esme. Heather opened the front door. The place was as silent as she had expected. To marry Devon, she had missed the licensing exam for traditional medicine practitioners. After the wedding, Devon had told her that as a wife, she should be a homemaker. So, she turned down a prestigious hospital's offer, gave up her profession, and chose a small hospital closer to home, settling for a basic assistant position. Heather had forced herself to learn how to do chores she despised and cook. Her days revolved around the kitchen, her nights spent waiting in the living room until deep into the night, only to be swallowed by darkness and despair time and time again. Heather had dulled into something like a stain in the kitchen sink. Devon, on the other hand, was either having candlelit dinners with Esme while admiring the night view or staying at the hospital to coax Esme to sleep. Now, to hell with it all. She would never humble herself and suffer for a scumbag again! Heather walked into the dining room. The housekeeper had left a glass of sugary, sweet orange juice on the table, as usual. In her previous life, there had been a day when she had donated so much blood that her face had become drained of color. Devon had seen her, and after that, this glass of orange juice started appearing. Heather had assumed her sincerity had finally touched him. Yet, he had said, "Essie needs healthy, fresh blood." In his eyes, she was nothing more than a walking blood bank. Sadly, she had still been foolish enough to endure that humiliation, draining the glass every single time. Now… All of a sudden, she recalled something. So, she went into the kitchen, found a small sealed jar, poured a little orange juice into it, and dumped the rest down the sink. Heather loathed cloyingly sweet things. Then, she turned on all the lights in the house and walked upstairs along the banister. Heather prepared a medicinal bath and soaked herself in hot water, washing away the chill that had seeped into her bones. The mirror revealed a fair, delicate face, which also looked far too pale. She had been married to Devon for less than a year. So, she couldn't believe that the young woman who had been full of life had been reduced to this. It hit her that instead of a man, she should love herself. Heather picked a lullaby that her mother, Carolyn Lovegood, liked. As the soft music played, she opened her wardrobe and realized that nearly three-quarters of it was filled with clothes she had bought for Devon. Her own clothes were squeezed into a sad little corner. The wardrobe was packed with sequined gowns, glossy fabrics, and glittering embellishments, all chosen to suit Devon's tastes, or rather, Esme's style. Heather shook her head. "I was so foolish." In a heartbeat, she hauled all the men's clothes out and tossed them into the trash. Then, she pulled out a suitcase and packed a few outfits from before her marriage, along with her personal belongings and documents. Heather pulled the drawer of her vanity open. It was filled with yellowed paper cranes. Devon used to give her paper cranes that he had folded himself every year on her birthday. Inside each one were wishes for her to grow up healthy and happy. From the day they met until before the wedding, he had never missed a year. He once said he would look after her for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, she was the only one who remembered his promise. Paper cranes could start foxing, and men could change just as easily. Heather closed the drawer and left everything inside. Just then, her phone, which was on the bedside table, lit up twice. One was a bank notification, and the other was a text from an unfamiliar number. It was Micah. Micah said, "Your card has hit its transfer limit." There was a cap on large personal transfers. Her card could only receive 30 million dollars a day. So, the 500 million dollars couldn't be transferred in one go. Heather's lips curled slightly. He had kept his word. Hence, she thanked him, saved his number, and messaged her best friend, Esther Aurelli. The latter was away on a business trip in Baleigh, asking her to help look for a villa and discreetly inquire about well-known lawyers in Metrovale. Having done all that, she turned off the lights and lay comfortably on the bed in the guest room, replaying the entire day in her mind. Heather had been reborn into the first year of her marriage with Devon, and she had donated blood to Esme earlier that day. She weighed less than 110 pounds, yet he had pinned her down and forced them to draw a full 20 ounces of blood from her. Even a healthy adult man was only allowed to donate about 14 ounces at a time. Heather had been frail to begin with. Then, she had been abandoned by Devon in a torrential downpour. To make matters worse, she couldn't get a cab, so she had no choice but to walk home. Consequently, she had developed pneumonia. Later, her health spiraled downward. She had been in and out of the hospital every few days, yet Devon had never visited her once. Heather had lain alone in the hospital bed, enduring everything in silence. The excruciating pain was still fresh in her mind. Now, she needed to rest, recover, and never let herself be tormented by a scumbag and a two-faced woman again. Soon, she fell into a nightmare. Raging waves towered around her. Then, a colossal ship capsized as flames soared into the sky. Heather was swallowed by the ocean, sinking gradually until darkness enveloped her from all sides. "Help… Help me!" she cried out, reaching out desperately, but no one answered. In the end, her body plunged into the depths of the ocean. Her consciousness was slipping when a white figure swam toward her at astonishing speed, like an angel sent from above. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her out of the terrifying darkness. Heather tried her best to turn around so she could see his face. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make it out. Who was he? The scene abruptly shifted. Now, she was already on the shore. When she forced her eyes open, the first thing that came into view was Devon at 26, his cold, unfeeling face staring back at her. Heather jolted awake. Before she could gather her thoughts, her phone rang. It was Devon's exclusive ringtone. In the past, she would've been thrilled and answered in an instant. But now, she thought the scumbag really was impossible to get rid of. So, she set her phone on silent and drank some lemon water to calm herself. Then, she pinched the bridge of her nose to wake herself up, and at last, answered the call. "What took you so long?" Devon's tone had always been cold and impatient after the wedding, tinged with reproach and displeasure. It struck her that he had always used this commanding tone to belittle and control her in her previous life. Heather lifted her gaze with disdain. "Cut to the chase, will you?" Devon's gaze darkened when he heard her indifferent tone. He turned around, took a look at the hospital room, and ordered, "Hurry over to the hospital right now. Essie needs your blood." Then, the line went dead. Heather let out a derisive chuckle. In her previous life, she had foolishly assumed that she could move Devon if she donated blood to Esme. In reality, it had been nothing more than Esme's way of tormenting her for fun. Forget being touched, Devon had never even treated her like a human being. It was time to get her blood back. Heather went back to sleep before choosing a simple, elegant white dress. Then, she leisurely ate a nutritious breakfast to replenish her blood and sauntered over to the hospital. Before that, she stopped by the lab to look for her university alumna, Vivian Prescott. Heather took out the sealed jar from the night before. "Could you help me run a test on this, Vivian?" "I can, but the components are complex. It'll take quite a while." "That's fine. I can wait."