"Help... help..."
A woman’s terrified cry drifted over, so faint it was almost swallowed by the wind.
By the man-made lake at the old Holloway estate, the place was already packed with guests who had come for Mr. Holloway’s seventieth birthday banquet. But it was early spring, and the lake water looked brutally cold. On top of that, every person standing there was rich, polished, and important enough to hold up half of Tongcheng’s social scene. No one wanted to risk jumping in to save her.
Serena Holloway stood frozen, staring at the woman thrashing in the water, her mind flashing back to what Bianca Whitfield had said to her right before she jumped.
"Serena, wow, you really have no shame. You just can’t let go of your spot as Mrs. Holloway, huh? You know full well Nathan never loved you, but you still cling to him like a stray dog..."
"Serena, I’m pregnant. The baby is Nathan’s..."
"Serena, believe it or not, I can make Nathan hate you for the rest of his life..."
So this was Bianca’s plan.
Frame her for pushing her into the lake.
This woman was seriously ruthless. When she went all in, she didn’t even care about her own life.
Suddenly, a tall figure in black shoved through the crowd and strode over.
The man’s dark, deep-set eyes cut across Serena’s face like blades. His handsome, aristocratic features were instantly covered in frost.
"Serena, how dare you push Bianca into the water? Do you have any idea she’s only been awake for half a year? You’re greedy, vicious, and completely disgusting."
There was a frightening chill in his eyes, and the disgust in his voice was impossible to miss. "If that’s how you want to play it, then you can get in there and keep her company."
Serena felt wronged to the core. Her chest tightened so hard it hurt. She wanted to explain, wanted to say it wasn’t her, but he didn’t give her even a second.
"Husband, I didn’t—"
Splash.
Before she could finish, her body lurched, and the furious man kicked her straight into the lake.
The freezing water rushed into Serena from every direction, sharp as countless ice needles stabbing into her skin, making her whole body go numb with cold.
But no matter how freezing the water was, it still couldn’t compare to the chill rising from the bottom of her heart.
Two years of marriage, and she wasn’t even worth one sentence of explanation?
While she was still fighting for breath, Serena Holloway saw Nathan Holloway’s strong, clean-cut body suddenly dive up and into the lake, slicing through the water as he swam straight for Bianca Whitfield like his life depended on it...
Of course.
That was the woman he loved.
And the child she carried, the child not even born yet...
And her?
She was the monster who had supposedly tried to kill both his lover and his baby.
Serena’s tears broke loose right then, all at once.
Her arms, which had been thrashing a second ago, seemed to freeze solid in an instant. She couldn’t force out even a shred of strength, and just let herself sink.
When the heart was dead, what was the point of staying alive?
Water crashed in from all sides, swallowing her whole, covering her head...
Serena forced her eyes open with difficulty. All she could see was darkness. Thick, hopeless darkness.
It took a while for her eyes to adjust. Once she made out the familiar white furniture in the room, she finally realized she was lying on the bed in her room at the Holloway family old mansion.
Only then did she remember—
Right before she sank to the bottom of the lake, someone had pulled her out.
The man who saved her had solid, powerful arms. With just one arm locked firmly around her waist, he brought her up through the water with shocking ease.
Her stomach had been full of water. His large hands pressed hard against her chest several times, not gentle at all, and she coughed up mouthful after mouthful of water before finally dragging in a breath.
So yeah.
She hadn’t died after all.
In the dark, Serena wiped hard at the tears on her face.
Wow, look at you, Serena.
Acting all tragic over love, crying like the whole world ended.
Honestly, she was almost moved by her own pathetic mess.
She tried hard to recall what the man who saved her looked like. She had suffered all that and still hadn’t died. One day, she’d definitely get payback... no... pay him back.
But the image that surfaced in her head was something else entirely.
At the time, when she realized she hadn’t died, she’d actually glared at him in resentment.
And that man, without wasting a single word, had lowered his head and pressed his lips directly to hers, giving her mouth-to-mouth.
His lips had been soft. Warm too.
And he was seriously good-looking.
No worse than Nathan Holloway.
Before Serena could remember that rescuer’s face any more clearly, the bedroom door was suddenly shoved open from outside. The force was so brutal that even the door seemed to let out an angry bang in protest.
The next second, a pair of icy, powerful hands clamped around her slender neck.
And the grip tightened, little by little.
