Chapter 1

It was love.

No, I only mistook it for love.

That day was just like when we first met, a bitterly cold winter with heavy snow pouring from the sky.

In the pure white garden, his breath turned to mist as he whispered,

“Will you become my most beautiful masterpiece?”

In his hand, a large diamond ring glittered brilliantly.

At his radiant smile, I blushed and replied,

“Yes. Even if I were born again and again, I would still become your wife.”

That day, I willingly stepped into a cage.

The life of a countess he gave me was dazzling.

Luxurious gowns and jewels.

Endless praise from every direction.

Before I knew it, I had become a canary singing only for him.

But when new life began to grow in my womb, I realized at last that this was a cage.

It was the child I had so desperately longed for.

And yet, precisely because of that, I could not bear to raise him as his child.

In the end, for the sake of my beloved child’s future, I fled the Devonshire estate.

For the first time in my life, I labored with my own hands. My delicate fingers grew rough, and the face he once admired so dearly began to lose its glow.

And still, I was happy.

For the first time since my marriage, I was able to reflect on myself. I even prepared a modest little home where I could live peacefully with my child.

Awaiting my due date, I dreamed of a tranquil future.

But that dream shattered in an instant.

A cool hand brushed against Rebecca’s cheek.

Struggling awake from a storm of dreams, she felt the touch was all too familiar.

Dreading the possibility, she kept her eyes shut.

“Rebecca.”

When the owner of that hand spoke, Rebecca fell into despair.

She had been found. She had fallen back into his clutches.

“I know you are awake. Enough pretending. Get up.”

Rebecca opened her eyes.

Her eyelids trembled violently, as though unwilling to accept reality.

Eyes the color of breaking waves, icy and brilliant blue.

Golden hair, perfectly arranged without a single strand out of place.

Her husband.

Her master.

The reincarnation of a devil from hell stood before her.

“…Zephrin.”

Her whole body screamed, still weakened from her lingering illness.

Rebecca forced herself upright. Looking around the room, she suddenly realized the cradle was empty.

“My child… Zephrin, where is my baby?”

“Is that all you have to say to your husband after so long? You really are naïve. Did you truly think I would not find you?”

“Zephrin, please… give me back my child.”

“Do not look at me like that. As if I would ever harm my own blood.”

Zephrin’s lips twisted into a cold smile.

He would never harm the baby. To him, the child would be treated like the rarest jewel in the world.

And yet Rebecca almost wished he had killed the baby. At least then, her child could rest in peace by God’s side.

Better to die than to grow up as the child of Zephrin Devonshire.

“You have tormented me enough. Zephrin, please, just let me go. Let me live quietly with my baby, as though we were dead. I will even abandon the Devonshire name.”

Rebecca clutched desperately at his sleeve.

Without a flicker of hesitation, Zephrin struck her hand away.

“That will not do. You are my greatest masterpiece. Since when does a creation discard its master’s name? And besides, the child you bore is a daughter, is she not? Just as I wished. Golden haired, blue eyed, the perfect reflection of us both. She will grow into the loveliest young woman.”

Greed glittered in Zephrin’s eyes.

Rebecca knew that look well. When he had that gaze, he was at his most dangerous.

He was the kind of man who would claim anything he desired.

But no. She could not allow her child to live as she had.

“Psyche. Psyche.”

Rebecca shoved Zephrin aside and flung open the door, screaming her daughter’s name as she staggered through the house.

The little cottage had only a few rooms, yet in her weakened state it felt as vast as a palace.

Nearly crawling, she searched desperately.

Then footsteps. Someone was coming up the stairs. The sharp clack of fine shoes.

“L Lady Rebecca?”

“Alicia…?”

Alicia stood before her, lavishly adorned, her face pale.

In her arms, she cradled Psyche, sound asleep, gently rocking her.

Alicia glanced between Rebecca and the baby, unable to meet her eyes.

Rebecca froze, staring at her daughter dressed not in clothes she had sewn but in a gaudy gown of foreign fabric.

Fury ignited in her eyes.

With a murderous glare, Rebecca began to advance on Alicia.

Instinctively frightened, Alicia stumbled back.

“So it was you. You betrayed me. Alicia. I trusted you. I gave you everything and begged you for only one thing. Just one. How could you do this?”

“L Lady Rebecca, I had no choice.”

“Silence. Give me back my child. With those filthy hands, how dare you hold her.”

Rebecca reached for her baby. She saw Psyche’s tiny fingers wriggling.

But before she could even smell her child’s sweet breath, Zephrin’s hand seized her by the nape.

“Going somewhere?”

“Let me go, you monster. Let go of me.”

Zephrin dragged her back and hurled her into the room.

“It is clear you have lost your sanity, my dear.”

He shook his hands violently, as though brushing away filth, his face twisted in disgust.

Rebecca tried to rise and attack him, but agony shot through her. Her ankle, likely broken when he threw her down, kept her from standing.

Zephrin’s gaze swept her pitiful figure from head to toe.

“What a shame. You were once radiant, yet time spares no one. Fortunately, Octavio has already found me a replacement. And now that I have a daughter as well, the kingdom will soon be complete.”

He checked his watch casually, lips curling into a smirk.

“But I must go now. It would be inconvenient to arrive late to the Duke’s funeral.”

“Where do you think you are going? Fall into hell, Zephrin Devonshire.”

Rebecca bit down on his ankle with all her might.

Zephrin loathed even the smallest scratch on his body.

A flurry of vicious kicks followed. Yet Rebecca clung on until at last blood burst forth from his skin.

Crimson stained his trousers.

Rebecca had always imagined his veins ran with cold blue ice.

But laughably, he too was just a man, with warm red blood like hers.

She spat out a lump of flesh she had torn from him.

Zephrin roared.

“I meant to spare your life for the sake of our years together, but Rebecca, you have brought this on yourself. This is all your fault.”

He kicked her one last time and stormed toward the door.

Rebecca crawled after him, relentless.

But the door slammed shut in her face.

She pounded on it with all her might.

“Open it. Open the door, Zephrin. Zephrin.”

Silence. Then his voice, low and cold:

“Rebecca, you were my finest doll. But now it is time to dispose of you. I have taken all I wanted from you.”

Her vision began to fade. Somewhere, her child’s cries rang out.

Smoke seeped through the cracks of the door. Someone shouted fire.

The heat crept toward her, flames devouring everything.

The pain of burning was nothing compared to the torment of her heart.

Death was near.

Rebecca summoned her final strength, praying to the approaching reaper:

“If only I could return. If only I could go back, just once.”

Her eyes fluttered shut.

And then, a radiant white light burst from her heart, wrapping around her.

“Milady. Please wake up.”

At the cheerful voice, Rebecca’s eyelids twitched.

It felt as though she had awakened from a dream, long, vivid, and utterly nightmarish.

Someone opened the window. A refreshing sea breeze blew in, tinged with the faint salt of the ocean.

Rebecca blinked up at a blue ceiling, dazed. Her body felt strangely light.

“The weather is annoyingly clear today. A bit of rain would have been better.”

Alice set a washbasin on the table as she spoke.

Rebecca stared at the freckles on her maid’s nose, then suddenly bolted upright.

“Alice?”

“Oh heavens, you startled me. What is wrong, milady? Did you have a bad dream?”

“Why are you here? No, how can you… you are—”

“Eh? Of course I am here, I am your maid. Now please get up, there is much to do today.”

Alice wrung out a clean cloth and gently wiped Rebecca’s face.

Rebecca stared at her in horror, as though seeing a ghost.

But you died.

Alice had been the maid Rebecca trusted most. Unlike the others, she had stayed by her side for years, until she was murdered by Zephrin.

Am I dead? Then is this heaven? Or is it hell?

While Rebecca sat in stunned silence, Alice sighed and tugged her hand.

“I know you are troubled, milady, but it will be all right if you just endure today. After all, who would ever want to attend her husband’s wedding? The count is too cruel.”

“Wedding? Zephrin… he is marrying again?”

“My, you are truly strange today. Of course, today is the wedding. The count and that wretched Alicia.”

Rebecca’s eyes flew wide.

In an instant, memories flooded her mind like lanterns passing in the dark.

She rushed to the wide open window.

Far below the steep cliff, the sea sparkled blue.

In the picturesque garden overlooking the ocean, preparations for a wedding were in full swing.

She listened blankly to the cries of gulls while watching the servants bustle about.

“That decoration would look better over there. Ah, not that color, the count dislikes it. Discard it.”

“Yes, Sir Robert.”

The man giving orders suddenly looked up, as though sensing her gaze.

Rebecca’s eyes widened. Robert?

She repeated the name silently, then gasped.

Robert.

He too had been among the many servants Zephrin killed.

Though disguised as an accident, Rebecca had known the truth. Zephrin murdered Robert, accusing him of harboring feelings for her.

“Dear God…”

Her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the floor beneath the window.

She had returned.

On the day of her husband’s wedding.