Reborn, I Refused My First Love

“If you won’t marry me, who will you marry? Emma Scott, if you apologize to Isabella right now, I’ll keep my word and make you my wife.”

Isabella’s face turned pale, her head shaking.

“Daniel, I’m not worth such a sacrifice.”

But Daniel looked at me as if I had dishonored him.

“I’ve already agreed to marry you, and you still won’t apologize to Isabella?”

And why, exactly, did he believe the daughter of the Scott family had no choice but him?

With Isabella’s triumphant gaze upon me, I sneered.

“My wedding will take place in three days, as planned. But the groom won’t be you, Daniel—it will be Adrian Hughes.”

The Hughes family, upon receiving news of the alliance, immediately sent several billion-dollar contracts as a betrothal gift.

Yet somehow, rumors spread that it was the Carter family proposing to us.

Worried I’d be upset, my father told me to pick out dowry gifts at an auction house in New York.

But the moment I stepped inside, I ran into Daniel and Isabella.

She trembled and clung to him again.

“Daniel, maybe I should leave. If Miss Scott sees me, she’ll get someone to punish me again.”

Daniel pulled her close protectively, glaring at me with rage.

“Emma Scott, I underestimated you. Spreading lies to the media that my family was proposing to yours was bad enough, but arranging men to defile Isabella? If I hadn’t arrived in time, her whole life would have been ruined!”

His words sparked a wave of mocking whispers.

“I heard Emma Scott was Daniel’s lapdog. Didn’t think she’d be this shameless—willing to do anything to marry into the Carter family.”

“And look—he’s humiliating her in public. If I were her, I wouldn’t show my face again. What a disgrace to the Scott family.”

In my past life, my obsession with Daniel made me a laughingstock. Even after marriage, he never gave me respect.

At banquets, he’d rather bring his female assistant than me.

He never clarified any scandal. I was Mrs. Carter in name only.

All of it was meant to humiliate me.

I only hated myself—for needing to die once before finding the strength to leave him.

Seeing me stunned, Daniel grew impatient.

“Nothing to say? Emma Scott, when did you become so vicious?”

In my past life, Isabella’s accusation—that I had hired men to assault her—came a week later. Now, just because of a media report, she had accelerated her scheme.

I spent that life trying to explain, but Daniel never believed me.

He knew I feared heights. To avenge Isabella, he had men throw me from a helicopter.

That day, the chopper circled all over Seattle. I lay in the hospital for three days and nights—and he never once came to see me.

Even later, when he discovered it was all a misunderstanding, he never apologized.

Because Isabella was already dead.

Now, he grabbed my collar, his eyes cold.

“Emma, what are you to me? Someone who obeys without question? Who gives her all, swallows every grievance, kneels to apologize to a housekeeper’s daughter whenever I demand it?”

His hand tightened around my throat, veins bulging.

“Shut up! Do you really think I wouldn’t hurt you? Afraid Isabella might stand in the way of our marriage? You could’ve found another way. Why send sick men to ruin her life?”

His grip grew stronger.