The new intern shredded my $75,000 bonus check, giggled that she was just a “clumsy beauty,” and asked whether I’d really get angry over a little accident. My fiancé laughed and told me to stop making her uncomfortable. Three weeks later, when she stumbled into his arms at a company gala wearing almost nothing, I finally understood why he kept forgiving everything she destroyed.
Chapter 1
But understanding came too late.
In my first life, Lily White had been the most expensive mistake Caldwell Holdings ever hired. She ruined contracts, deleted important files, destroyed valuable property, and somehow convinced everyone that her helplessness made her adorable. Whenever I tried to hold her accountable, my fiancé, Arthur Caldwell, accused me of being cruel.
I had spent six years helping Arthur prepare to inherit his grandfather’s business empire. I had protected him from disastrous investments, negotiated contracts he couldn’t understand, and quietly corrected financial reports before his mistakes reached the board.
Arthur called us a team.
I believed him.
Then Lily arrived.
She was twenty-three, fresh out of college, with enormous blue eyes, long blond hair, and a habit of introducing herself as a “beautiful little disaster.”
On her third day, she accidentally shredded my bonus check while sorting paperwork.
“Oops!” she exclaimed, sticking out her tongue. “I thought it was trash. You won’t be mad, will you?”
I explained that payroll would need to issue a replacement and asked her to be more careful with confidential documents.
She burst into tears.
Arthur appeared immediately.
“Evelyn, it’s just a check. You know the money can be replaced.”
“It isn’t the money,” I replied. “It’s the fact that she’s handling documents without checking what they are.”
He wrapped an arm around Lily’s shoulders.
“She’s learning. You don’t have to humiliate her.”
That became the pattern.
Lily accidentally erased six weeks of engineering data. Arthur called it an innocent mistake.
She spilled coffee across a signed acquisition agreement. Arthur said the legal department could print another copy.
She misplaced confidential financial information, forcing our attorneys to contact clients and assess the damage. Arthur insisted that everyone was overreacting.
Meanwhile, the employees who worked with her suffered the consequences. Engineers stayed late rebuilding files, assistants cried in supply closets, and supervisors stopped giving Lily meaningful assignments because correcting her mistakes took longer than doing the work themselves.
Eventually, I fired her.
Arthur hired her back the following morning as his personal assistant.
“You’ve become impossible to please,” he told me. “Lily brings some happiness into this place. Not everybody has to be cold and calculating like you.”
I should have walked away then.
Instead, I continued protecting the business and our engagement, convinced that the Arthur I loved would eventually recognize what was happening.
He never did.
On the afternoon we were supposed to finalize our wedding plans, Lily blocked my car outside the office. She was sobbing, claiming she and Arthur were soulmates and that I had no right to stand between them.
I told her to leave me alone.
That night, she disappeared.
Arthur blamed me for driving her away. When word came that she had been abducted, he accused me of causing everything and spent a fortune arranging her return.
What happened afterward still haunted my dreams.
I was pregnant when Arthur confronted me in our home. He had become convinced that I owed Lily some terrible sacrifice for the suffering she’d endured. In his rage, he attacked me, and neither I nor my unborn child survived.
My last memory was the face of the man I had planned to marry.
He looked at me with hatred.
Then darkness swallowed everything.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing beside the kitchen window of my Manhattan apartment.
My telephone was ringing.
The date on the screen made my heart stop.
It was three months before our wedding, and I had somehow returned to the beginning of the nightmare.
Arthur’s mother was calling.
“Evelyn, sweetheart, don’t forget dinner tonight. Arthur’s grandfather wants everyone together to discuss the wedding arrangements.”
I gripped the counter.
In my previous life, I’d spent that morning visiting a company project site, where I first met Lily after she stumbled into a display and blamed the accident on a broken heel.
This time, I canceled the visit.
I spent the day with my attorney, reviewing my personal investments and the voting agreements between Carter Capital, my family’s company, and Caldwell Holdings.
Arthur’s grandfather, Henry Caldwell, had always been fond of me. He believed Arthur needed a practical partner before assuming greater responsibilities.
His plan was simple.
After our marriage, Arthur would become the leading candidate to succeed him.
Without that marriage, Arthur’s path to controlling the company would be far less certain.
I stared at the contracts until the meaning settled into my bones.
In my first life, Arthur had used my love as a stepping-stone to power.
This time, I would let him stand on his own.
That evening, I arrived at the Caldwell mansion carrying a carefully wrapped gift for Henry.
Mrs. Caldwell greeted me warmly, but her smile faded when Arthur entered behind me with Lily White holding his arm.
“Evelyn,” Arthur said casually, “I hope you don’t mind. Lily and I finished a meeting late, so I invited her to dinner.”
Lily smiled brightly.
“Hello, everybody! I’m Lily White, Arthur’s assistant. People say I’m a clumsy beauty, but I promise I’m really sweet.”
Mrs. Caldwell’s expression tightened.
“Arthur, this is a private family dinner.”
“Don’t be difficult, Mom. She’s practically family already.”
I watched him defend Lily before anyone had criticized her.
Then I smiled.
“Of course she can stay.”
Arthur appeared relieved.
He didn’t notice that I had stopped wearing my engagement ring.
The evening began badly and deteriorated quickly.
When the housekeeper entered with tea, Lily jumped up and insisted on serving it herself.
“I know a special way to pour tea!” she announced. “It makes everything taste extra fancy.”
Mrs. Caldwell tried to object, but Lily had already lifted the porcelain teapot.
She spun it awkwardly in her hands, stumbled toward the dining table, and sent scalding tea across Mrs. Caldwell’s arm.
“Ah!” Mrs. Caldwell cried, springing from her chair.
Lily shrieked.
The teapot flew from her hand and struck an antique vase displayed beside the fireplace.
Porcelain shattered across the marble floor.
I recognized the vase immediately.
It had belonged to Arthur’s late father, who’d purchased it at an international auction decades earlier. Mrs. Caldwell treasured it because it was one of the few possessions he had personally chosen for their home.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Arthur rushed toward Lily.
“Are you hurt?”
He took her hand, examining a small red mark near her thumb.
Mrs. Caldwell stared at him.
“Arthur, I’ve been burned.”
He barely looked at her.
“Mom, Lily’s upset. Can’t you see she’s frightened?”
I retrieved a clean cloth and helped Mrs. Caldwell cool her arm while the housekeeper called for assistance.
Arthur suddenly turned toward me.
“Evelyn, you were standing closest. Why didn’t you catch the teapot?”
I looked at him.
“You want to know why I didn’t catch a falling pot of boiling tea?”
“You could have helped.”
“I am helping. Your mother needs attention.”
His face darkened.
“You always have to make Lily look bad.”
Before I could answer, Lily stamped her foot.
“It’s just a vase! Why is everybody acting like I murdered somebody?”
Mrs. Caldwell’s eyes widened.
Arthur’s aunt set down her napkin.
The entire room fell silent.
Then Henry Caldwell appeared at the top of the staircase.
At seventy-eight, he still carried himself like the engineer and businessman who had built the family company. His silver hair was neatly combed, and although he used a cane, his eyes remained sharp.
“What’s all this commotion?” he asked.
Lily brightened immediately.
“Grandpa!”
She hurried toward him with several colorful bags.
“I brought you presents!”
Arthur suddenly looked alarmed.
“Lily, where’s the painting I asked you to bring?”
She smiled proudly.
“Oh, that old thing? I sold it.”
Arthur froze.
“What?”
“It was so gloomy. Just gray mountains and trees. The man at the antique store gave me twenty dollars for it.”
Henry’s hand tightened around his cane.
Arthur stared at her.
“That painting was worth millions.”
Lily waved away his concern.
“But look! I bought Grandpa gummy bears. They’re colorful, and fruit is healthy for older people.”
I lowered my eyes to hide my expression.
The painting had been a rare landscape Henry had spent years trying to acquire. Arthur had borrowed it from the family collection without asking, hoping to impress his grandfather by presenting it as a gift.
Now Lily had exchanged it for candy.
Henry accepted the bags without smiling.
“How thoughtful.”
Lily beamed.
She apparently failed to hear the ice in his voice.
Then she pulled a folded paper charm from her purse.
“I have something even better!”
Before anyone could stop her, she lit the corner of the paper with a small lighter, dropped the ashes into Henry’s tea, and stirred them with a spoon.
“This is a good-luck charm,” she explained. “Drink it, Grandpa. It’ll help you live forever.”
Arthur grabbed her wrist.
“Lily, stop!”
She blinked.
“What? I thought old people liked spiritual stuff.”
Henry stared at the ruined tea.
He had spent decades working in aerospace engineering before expanding into advanced manufacturing. Few things irritated him more than people presenting superstition as medical advice.
I stepped forward with my gift.
“Mr. Caldwell, I brought you something I thought you’d enjoy.”
Inside the package was a carefully restored first edition of a scientific work he’d mentioned during our last conversation.
Henry’s expression softened.
“Evelyn, you remembered.”
“Of course.”
He turned the book gently in his hands.
“Your father would have appreciated this.”
The mention of my father brought a familiar ache.
My parents had died when I was twenty-two, leaving me their investment business and the responsibility of protecting everything they’d built.
Henry had become something of a second father to me.
I had once believed marrying Arthur would finally give me the family I’d lost.
Now I understood that belonging to a family and marrying into it weren’t necessarily the same thing.
Dinner was served.
Mrs. Caldwell tried to restore the atmosphere by opening several bottles of wine she’d been saving for the engagement celebration.
Everyone raised a glass.
Then Henry frowned.
“What on earth is this?”
The wine tasted strangely sweet.
Lily jumped up again.
“Surprise! I added lemon-lime soda. It tastes much better now, doesn’t it?”
Mrs. Caldwell stared at her glass.
Those bottles had been carefully selected for an occasion she’d planned for months.
She set the glass down.
“Arthur, I want this woman out of my house.”
Lily’s eyes filled immediately.
“You’re all so mean to me!”
Arthur stood in front of her.
“Nobody’s throwing her out.”
His mother rose.
“This is supposed to be the evening you and Evelyn announce your wedding date. Instead, you’ve brought another woman here who has insulted this family, injured me, and destroyed property.”
Arthur’s face twisted.
“She didn’t mean any harm!”
Lily suddenly clutched her stomach.
“Oh, no! You’re upsetting the baby!”
The room went utterly silent.
Arthur wrapped his arm protectively around her.
“That’s enough,” he declared. “Lily is pregnant. She’s carrying my child.”
I looked at him.
In my first life, I’d been shocked by his betrayal.
This time, I felt only a strange, peaceful certainty.
Arthur had finally made his choice in front of everyone.
And I no longer had to protect him from it.
