The Love I Buried, The Life I Reclaimed

I had been married to my wife, Claire Bennett, for fifty years. I was eighty-two, and she was seventy-seven, and I had always believed we would grow old together. But on our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I got into a car accident. I thought it was an accident. That was until I saw what happened after my death: Claire inherited everything I owned and married her first love. Then she used the company account to post a showy message: “My love, fifty years late. We can finally be together.” The entire internet congratulated her on finally escaping my control, condemned me as the mistress who had destroyed someone else’s relationship, and celebrated the lovers for finally being together. When I opened my eyes again, I discovered that I had returned to fifty years earlier. I had returned to the day Claire knelt before me and begged me to save her sick mother. I looked at her still-cold, distant face, put away the marriage agreement I had prepared, and instructed my assistant: “Print out a kept-woman contract and bring it to me.” I looked at Claire kneeling in front of me. Even on her knees, she held herself straight, like a cedar standing in winter snow, her face cold yet restrained, as though she had suffered the greatest humiliation in the world. In my previous life, I had fallen hopelessly in love with that cold expression of hers. Especially when she looked at me seriously, her eyes filled with my reflection. Back then, her eyes had been full of humiliation, and after I brought out the marriage agreement, the shame on her face had become even more obvious because she believed I was insulting her. I looked at her and wished I could give her everything I had, as long as she agreed. “Claire, if you marry me, I’ll transfer ten million dollars to you immediately, and I’ll arrange the best doctors for your mother.” Hesitation appeared on Claire’s face, and the conditions I offered clearly left her conflicted. I understood that she simply did not love me and did not want to marry me. So I added, “Five years. You only have to marry me for five years. After that, if you want to, I’ll divorce you anytime.” She agreed. Back then, I had believed five years would be long enough—long enough for me to win her heart, because even a dog could develop feelings after five years. But Claire was worse than a dog. Five years really had moved her heart, but they had moved her greedy heart. I thought that after being together for fifty years, she would eventually come to love me, but after I died, she could not wait to marry that man and bring him into our home, even using my company account to loudly announce their relationship. She even slandered me, claiming I had been the mistress who came between them and used my power to force them apart. The story even trended on Instagram, and people said their love was a once-in-a-lifetime romance, that not even fifty years apart could shake their feelings for each other. They called me a despicable thief who had stolen the best years of their lives. Incited by them, people threw trash and eggs at my grave, and my tombstone was edited into memes that were shared everywhere to mock me. Meanwhile, they did not care in the slightest and squandered everything I had left behind. I closed my eyes and forced the memories of my previous life out of my mind before opening them again to look at the young Claire in front of me. A quiet laugh escaped me. The marriage agreement was right beside my hand. Under Claire’s restrained gaze, I picked up the document and put it away in my desk drawer. While she watched, I picked up the internal phone and instructed, “Ethan, bring me a kept-woman contract.” The instant I finished speaking, Claire’s pupils contracted, and her breathing grew noticeably heavier. I pretended not to notice her reaction, hung up, and stopped looking at her, instead picking up another document to read. It did not take long for Ethan to bring the contract over. He glanced at the scene in my office but did not ask any questions, simply delivered the document and left. Only then did I look up at Claire and throw the contract in front of her. “You heard what kind of contract it is. Do I really need to explain it?” Claire reached down to pick up the contract from the floor. When she saw the four words printed on it—Kept-Woman Contract—she abruptly looked up at me, her voice filled with humiliation. “What do you mean?” I replied calmly, “Can’t you read?” When I finished speaking, I saw Claire staring at me with bloodshot eyes, unable to believe I would humiliate her like this. Of course, in my previous life, I had loved her desperately, so how could I have treated her this way? She had grown used to my tenderness and consideration, so she must have thought that as long as she nodded, I would be willing to tear out my own heart and give it to her. I curled my fingers and tapped them several times against the desk, staring steadily at her. “Claire, when you ask someone for help, you should act like you’re asking for help. Sign it if you’re willing. If you’re not, get out. I’ll give you five minutes to think about it.” Her eyes were scarlet, but in the end, the pressure of reality defeated her. She bent down, knelt on the floor, and signed the agreement. Claire spoke hoarsely. “I’ve signed it. You can save my mother now, right?” Under her gaze, I picked up the phone. “Ethan, make the arrangements with the hospital.” When she heard that, Claire immediately let out a breath of relief and stood up. Her legs had poor circulation after kneeling for so long, so she limped as she walked, but she did not care. She only wanted to leave this place where she had suffered such humiliation. Before leaving, she gave me a deep look, her eyes fixed on me as though I were her enemy. I knew she probably wanted to kill me. But so what? After loving me for so many years in my previous life, she had still killed me in the end. That day had also been our fiftieth wedding anniversary. During that period, I had noticed that she was in a bad mood, so I bought a yacht for her as an anniversary gift. I had also planned to announce that day that I would hand the company over entirely to our daughter. That way, I could spend my time peacefully with Claire and travel around the world with her on our yacht. After signing the documents at the marina, I got into my car and headed home. Because I wanted to surprise her, I had not brought a driver and was driving home alone. But halfway there, I discovered that the brakes had failed. By then, my speed had gradually climbed to nearly 140 miles per hour, and I was driving along a mountain road where every turn could become the place I died. I called her again and again, but all I heard was the cold mechanical voice. “The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later…” Even when I crashed into the guardrail and died, I was still thinking: Claire, there are so many things I never got to say to you. I remained lost in those memories for a long time until the phone on my desk rang and pulled me back. I was silent for several seconds before answering. It was Ethan. “Mr. Cole, everything at the hospital has been arranged. Do you still want me to tell Miss Bennett about the property transfer you mentioned yesterday?” I froze for a moment before remembering what I had arranged in my previous life. “No, there’s no need. Also, investigate Claire. I want every detail written down. Send me the report when it’s ready.” After saying that, I hung up. In my previous life, after she married me, I had transferred ten million dollars to her and signed a luxury house over to her, terrified that she might suffer even the slightest grievance. And what had I gotten in return? My eyes darkened. This time, I wanted to see how she planned to continue her so-called magnificent love story with her first love without my money.Ethan worked quickly, and the investigation report soon appeared on my computer. I opened it and began reading carefully. When I saw the name of Claire’s first love, my breathing caught. I had been thirty-two and Claire twenty-seven when we got married, which meant it was this very year. But according to the investigation report, she and Marcus Reed had fallen in love when she was twenty. In other words, she had already been lying to me when we met, claiming she did not have anyone she liked. If I had known she was already in a relationship, I never would have fallen for her at first sight and pursued her so recklessly. We had first met at my alma mater. At the time, I had been invited back as an outstanding alumnus to attend the school’s anniversary celebration. Claire had been chosen as the outstanding student representative, standing onstage and reading her speech. Her cool, youthful voice echoed through the auditorium, and all the other sounds around me seemed to disappear until only her voice remained. That first glimpse had not immediately stirred any romantic thoughts in me. It was only after I saw her interning at my company that I decided to pursue her. Although I no longer loved her, I still felt a pang of sadness when I saw those details. I was not sad because she did not love me. I was sad for the man I had once been. Marcus’s love had treated her like a precious jewel, while Adrian Cole’s love had been nothing but a pile of trash. I took a deep breath, trying to pull myself out of those emotions. The sadness did not last long. Especially after I saw the next section of the report, I felt as though I had fallen into an icy abyss. It said: “Claire Bennett is more than three months pregnant and is currently staying in the inpatient department of St. Mary’s Hospital. The child registered under the couple’s names is listed as Sophie Bennett.” Sophie Bennett? Wasn’t that the name of the child Claire and I had in my previous life? It felt as though someone had slammed a hammer into my head, and scenes from after my death in my previous life flashed through my mind. At Claire and Marcus’s wedding, Marcus had announced to everyone that he would treat Sophie as his own and would not neglect her because of me. My daughter had also cried as she called him Dad, the word flowing from her lips as naturally as though she had been calling him that for decades. Everyone had praised him again, saying that Marcus was so magnanimous that he could accept even the child left behind by someone like me, unlike a petty man such as myself. In my previous life, I had wanted a child between Claire and me to tie her to me. At first, she had been completely unwilling. Then, one day, she suddenly changed her mind and agreed. I had always thought I had finally touched her heart. I never imagined she had wanted something else from me. No wonder she had become sleepier as her pregnancy progressed, sometimes sleeping through the entire day without waking. Claire had insisted that I sign the cesarean-section consent form for her. I thought she was trying to spare me worry and protect the baby, which was why she had said those things. After the birth, she had remained groggy throughout her recovery. Claire kept telling me it was a side effect of the pregnancy, and since her health really had deteriorated after that period, I believed her. I never imagined it. None of this had been accidental. It had all been planned. The child she gave birth to had probably never been ours. Or perhaps our child had never even survived. Large tears fell from my eyes, hitting the floor and shattering into countless pieces. Claire, Claire, did you really have no heart at all?I had Ethan arrange for Marcus to visit Claire’s mother under Claire’s name. I went to the same hospital myself. Just as I expected, Marcus was inside, chatting happily with Claire’s mother. In my previous life, Claire had told her mother that I was the one who had pursued her. Her mother had disliked me from the beginning and made things difficult for me in every possible way. I had moved them into a luxury house, but she complained that the housekeeper had not cleaned properly and made me clean it again myself. When we drove out for a road trip, she insisted that bringing an outsider along was inappropriate, so I had to drive personally. She and Claire spent the entire journey eating and drinking in the back seat, while I had to stay focused on the road and could barely get a word in. I had always assumed Claire’s mother disliked me because I was several years older than Claire and not her preferred type. I also felt guilty toward Claire, so I endured all of her mother’s mistreatment. But now, seeing the affectionate scene between them, I finally understood. She had not disliked me for some other reason. She had already chosen the son-in-law she wanted. No wonder she had constantly looked down on me in my previous life while treating Sophie with such affection. Their entire family was like a terrifying parasite attached to my body, draining the last bit of value from me. With that thought, I pushed open the door and entered the hospital room. There were more than just the two of them inside. Several other people were there as well, and from what I had heard outside, they seemed to be patients who had previously shared the room with Claire’s mother. Everyone inside looked up when I opened the door and walked in. Marcus immediately stood up with the posture of a man defending his home and asked with a frown, “Who are you? This is a VIP room. What are you doing here?” I gave a quiet laugh. “Are you the security guard? Why are you asking me that?” My words clearly stung Marcus, and he turned toward Claire’s mother with an aggrieved expression. Seeing her beloved future son-in-law being mistreated, Claire’s mother immediately said, “Why are you being so rude? What kind of behavior is that… Wait, why do you look so familiar? Oh, you’re that man who’s been harassing my daughter!” As soon as she said that, Marcus’s expression changed. His eyes flickered as he stared at me. From the looks of it, she had probably known about me from the very beginning. That meant Claire’s first meeting with me—and even the later meeting at my company—might not have been as simple as I had believed. I sneered inwardly twice, feeling disgusted by the shameless pair. As expected, Claire had never told her mother the truth. Her mother probably still believed that I had shamelessly chased after her daughter, and that I had arranged this hospital room merely to curry favor with her. Claire’s mother continued complaining about me to the other patients. “He speaks so aggressively. No wonder my daughter doesn’t like him. A grown man chasing after a woman like that—how shameless. He even followed her here. Look at him. He came to visit me empty-handed, without bringing a single thing, and he claims to be some rich businessman. He has no manners at all!” I listened to her muttering and replied without the slightest courtesy, “What? You’re staying in a room I arranged, and you’re still not satisfied? Without my arrangements, you would never have gotten into a room like this.” At that, Claire’s mother exploded. “What do you mean? Do you expect me to worship you? Is that how you speak to your elders? I should tell my daughter to teach you some manners!” The other patients in the room also looked at me with disapproval. “That’s no way to speak to someone, young man. You chose to spend your own money arranging this room for her, so you can’t hold it over her head.” “Exactly. How rude. Didn’t anyone in your family teach you manners? Who talks to people like that?” Marcus saw everyone turning against me. His eyes flashed, and he quietly opened the door wider, allowing the argument to spill outside and drawing curious onlookers to the hallway. I noticed what he was doing but did not stop him. Did he really think I would lower my head and apologize because of Claire? I gave a cold snort. “What a nest of ungrateful parasites. You use the doctors I arranged and spend my money on your treatment, yet you haven’t even thanked me once. Instead, you’re criticizing me for having no manners. You’re an old woman who has no respect for others, and you still have the nerve to lecture me!” The moment I finished speaking, the atmosphere inside and outside the room froze. One of the other patients immediately asked, “Didn’t you say your daughter found you a famous doctor from overseas and paid the medical bills with money she saved? How did it become this woman’s arrangement?” Before Claire’s mother could answer, I said directly, “What do you mean, your daughter arranged it? If I hadn’t arranged everything, you wouldn’t even have this room. If your medical bills hadn’t been paid, the hospital would have thrown you out by now.” The people outside began whispering among themselves. Claire’s mother’s face turned bright red with rage, especially as the surrounding discussion made her feel increasingly humiliated. “Thrown out? You’re the one who insisted on paying my medical bills and finding a doctor for me! If you hadn’t done that, my daughter wouldn’t even have looked at you!” As soon as she said that, everyone began looking at me with contempt. Marcus laughed openly from the side, silently mocking me for bringing humiliation upon myself. I looked at Claire’s mother’s smug face and said mockingly, “I insisted? If your daughter hadn’t knelt down and begged me, I wouldn’t even have looked at you once!” “Adrian!” The moment the words left my mouth, someone shouted from behind me. I turned around and saw Claire rushing over, breathing heavily. Unfortunately, she had arrived too late to stop me from saying it. I looked at her coldly through the crowd. Everyone around us was staring at her as well. My words had been like a blade tearing apart her last shred of dignity and exposing her completely in front of everyone. The only person still speaking was her mother, who became even more aggressive when she saw Claire. “Sweetheart! Look at this man. Listen to what he’s saying! How dare he…” When I saw that her mother was about to say something even more outrageous, I was just about to reveal that Claire had become my kept woman. But Claire stepped forward and dropped to her knees with a loud thud. “Mom, please stop talking.” Everyone was stunned by her action. She then turned to me and said, “Mr. Cole, I know you’ve helped me a lot, but…” She did not finish the sentence. Yet any woman kneeling on the floor with a look of unbearable humiliation would appear pitiful to anyone watching. As expected, the people around us began to look sympathetic. Claire, you really knew how to manipulate people by making yourself look miserable. I felt as if I had just heard the funniest joke in the world and said disdainfully, “Claire, don’t tell me you think you’re pitiful. In this world, hardly anyone can simply kneel and beg once before someone pulls out several hundred thousand dollars to save their mother’s life and arranges a job with a six-figure salary.” “I put down my work and came all the way here because I wanted to see how your mother was doing, not because I wanted to come here and be insulted. Besides, your mother doesn’t look sick at all.” “Claire, you’re pitiful? What about all the people in this hospital who can’t afford treatment? Aren’t they pitiful?” After saying that, I did not bother looking at her reaction and walked straight out of the hospital room. Claire, if you wanted everyone to think you were pitiful, then I would let them see exactly how pitiful you really were. Claire’s mother had no idea how much she had actually benefited from me. She continued cursing me, saying that even after her daughter had knelt down, I still refused to let the matter go. She had no idea that the other people in the hospital were now looking at her strangely. In the past, whenever she complained about me to the other patients, they would humor her with a few words, especially because they knew she had connections at the hospital. But after this spectacle, everyone could only think about why someone like her deserved to have anyone pay for her treatment. Naturally, they began to dislike her in every possible way. As I walked away, I called my assistant. “Arrange it. Transfer Claire’s mother back to a regular room.” Claire, your mother, your good days are only just beginning.