He Begged in This Life, but I Wasn’t Hers Anymore

I let out a cold snort and looked at the crowd gathering around us. "Anyone feeling generous enough to lend William a jacket? He's out here in public, forcing a girl like me to strip down. Honestly, it's embarrassing."

The crowd naturally burst into laughter, each chiming in with comments about William's shamelessness. William scowled for a while before forcing a grin. He had always been the golden boy, a teacher and a college student who had never been made fun of in his life. "I just fell into the water and nearly died, yet my fiancée stood by and did nothing to help. I will never marry such a woman. So, please, everyone, bear witness, I am breaking off my engagement with Josephine Caldwell. From now on, we will go our separate ways in marriage and have nothing to do with each other!"

When the crowd heard this, they began whispering to one another because they felt a little weird. "William fell in the water just now, Josephine. Why didn't you jump in? Aren't you a good swimmer?"

"Yeah, I even saw you starting to take off your jacket like you were about to go in!"

"If my fiancée let me drown, I'd be heartbroken too."

***

I didn't want to start my new life with a bad reputation, so I wasn't flustered at all. Instead, I turned to look at William. "William, what nonsense are you spouting? You wanted me to go into the water to save you? But you clearly know how to swim and you're so good at it. What would be the point of me going in?"

His expression turned a little awkward at that, but he still pushed through with gritted teeth. "Doesn't matter. You saw me fall in and did nothing. I can't marry a woman like that. I have to cancel this engagement."

At first, everyone thought William's talk of breaking off the engagement was just a casual remark. After all, he could swim himself and was perfectly fine now. There was no need to make such a big deal out of it and break off the engagement. So, when he said that, even those who had initially sided with William felt it was inappropriate.

"William, you managed to get ashore yourself; how can you say Josephine didn't try to save you?"

"Could it be that you've wanted to break off the engagement for a long time and are deliberately making a fuss about this?"

"Besides, Josephine is a girl; she can't go into the water on such a cold day. She'll get sick."

When I heard the comment about getting sick, my nose couldn't help but feel a little sore. In my last life, I did jump into that freezing water to save William. My health never fully recovered after that. My body, once strong, turned weak. Every time I got my period, the pain was unbearable and it even severely impacted my fertility.

I had given so much, yet William always felt that my falling into the water was a setup, that I had deliberately waited for the right moment to save him and that I had used this to force him to marry me. Thinking of all the past events, I immediately nodded. "Fine, the engagement is off. Everyone, please be a witness. It is William who is unwilling to fulfill the marriage agreement and marry me today. It is not that my feelings have changed."

Having said that, I left the riverside without any hesitation. I jogged all the way back home. My mother must have heard about what happened at the riverbank because she was already standing at the door, leaning on her cane with a worried expression.

Seeing her like this, I felt a pang of sadness and couldn't help but call out "Mom" with a choked sob. My mother was blind, so her ears were particularly sharp. She immediately heard that I was crying.

"Josephine, don't cry. Please take me to the Schneiders. I will talk to William properly and make sure the engagement continues."

"No! I don't want to marry William anymore. He doesn't like me at all and I won't be happy marrying him." I helped my mother into the living room and sat her down on a chair.

My mother sighed. "But if you don't marry William, you'll have to go to the countryside! Huff, in the end, it's me who's holding you back."

In my last life, I did marry William and we were miserable. Mom constantly worried about us. Even on her deathbed, she said, "It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had to marry William."