I Died Holding Our Child’s Ashes, Then Woke Beside Him

Arielle's POV

The night I was accepted into both Harvard and Stanford was meant to be a celebration, but instead, it became a nightmare I'd never forget.

Chester McKinsey, the man I'd secretly loved for years, pinned me down that night.

The man who had lived next door, the one I thought I could never have, ended up changing my life forever.

Despite my best efforts to be careful, I ended up pregnant.

In my previous life, I used that child to persuade him to marry me, but it also meant sacrificing my chance to attend Harvard or Stanford.

Even though Chester was the one to start everything and was obsessively clingy to me, on our wedding night, he called me shameless and accused me of drugging him.

"Arielle, don't even dream of touching me ever again!"

From that moment on, he made it his mission to humiliate me.

Without my knowledge or consent, he had our daughter's heart transplanted to save his lover's child.

While he and his precious Lorraine celebrated the success of the surgery, I was left to die tragically, clutching our daughter's ashes on my way to the cemetery.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on that absurd, devastating night.

——

Looking over, I saw Chester lying beside me. My heart nearly stopped. Every ache in my body felt like I'd been run over by a truck, and the room was a mess like everything was exactly like it had been before.

That was when it hit me: I had been reborn.

Before Chester woke up, I quickly dressed, trying to escape as quietly as possible.

I tiptoed toward the window, desperate to leave, to get away.

"What are you doing?!"

The voice came suddenly, and I jumped so hard I nearly lost my balance.

I stumbled and fell.

By the time Chester, shirtless, rushed to the window, I was already limping away, my heart pounding in my chest.

What I didn't know was that even though I didn't walk through the front door, the paparazzi were already outside, capturing every moment.

Especially the sight of my torn dress, the one he had ripped, became the subject of endless gossip.

The headlines this time were a little different.

It wasn't the usual: 'The McKinsey heir and the girl next door have a wild night!'

No, now it read: 'McKinsey heir gets slept with by a bold mystery woman, who pulls up her pants and runs away!'

Seeing Chester at the window, reaching out with frustration all over his face, I couldn't help but be furious.

I had gone out of my way to escape him and avoid being involved in his mess, and yet, there he was, acting like he had been the wronged party.

Shouldn't he be celebrating my absence, not standing there looking like he had just lost the love of his life?

Why make that expression that sparked everyone's wild imagination?

The internet went wild with speculation.

Everyone wondered what kind of woman could sleep with the McKinsey heir and leave him so hung up?

I had no idea what part of that picture made people think Chester couldn't bear to part with me. All I knew was that Chester definitely hated me to the core.

I rubbed my swollen ankle as I hurried to delete the thousands of social media posts I had written about my secret love for him.

In my previous life, I couldn't bring myself to delete them. I had even given them to him as a wedding night surprise, alongside my diary filled with my hidden feelings.

But he had just glanced at them and sneered, "Lusting after a man seven years older than you since you were a kid? Arielle, you really are shameless!"

Back then, I tried to argue, "We're not even related by blood, and so what if you're seven years older? Plenty of people marry someone seventeen years older!"

But he was so disgusted by my words that he slammed the door and stormed out.

That very night, he went to a bar and called over a hundred beautiful women to party.

People mocked me, saying I was just an orphan marrying into the McKinsey family only to end up sleeping alone every night.

To me, though, it was sweet as honey.

Just being able to marry Chester, to carry his child, was something I never even dared to dream of.

As my belly grew rounder each day, I thought that maybe this child would be the bridge that would repair our broken relationship.

I believed, with all my heart, that as long as I never gave up, I could melt his frozen heart.

But from the day of our wedding, Chester brought home a new woman every night.

He looked down on those kinds of women, yet forced me to serve them.

They took his money and knew just how to humiliate me to please Chester.

Crawling on the floor like a dog, licking spilled milk off the ground, dancing in degrading ways with my pregnant belly…

All because everyone knew my weakness was the child inside me.

Arielle's POV

"Arielle, do you know? I have a thousand ways to make the bastard in your womb disappear without a trace. I suggest you behave. If I'm feeling generous, I might even spare a glance at the child once it's born."

Chester's words stung, but I was no stranger to his cruelty.

Right at that moment, I thought about getting rid of the baby, freeing us both. But no matter what I did, punching my stomach, throwing myself from heights, and even deliberately tumbling down a flight of stairs, the child refused to let go.

Even his mistresses tried to hurt me more than once, but none of their efforts succeeded. Each time, I was left battered and bruised, but the baby remained unharmed.

The worst that happened was spotting blood for a few hours.

That's when Grace McKinsey, Chester's grandmother, threw a fit.

She called over a hundred doctors, terrified that something would happen to the baby. But in the end, the doctors all congratulated me, saying the child was incredibly strong.

At that moment, I suddenly felt at peace.

I let go of all the resentment I'd been holding onto. Even if Chester didn't love our child, I could still give the baby all the love I had.

I told myself, 'Fine, I'll just treat this as borrowing his seed.'

But who could've known that, after everything our daughter endured inside me, she would survive it all, only to die at Chester's hands?

Haunted by memories of my past life, I purged my social media and burned my diary, destroying every record of my love for him.

To protect my unborn child from further suffering, I chose not to involve her again in this situation.

Just as I was about to head out to buy some medicine, the doorbell rang.

This time, the McKinsey family arrived even faster than they had in my past life.

Besides, what must be faced can never be avoided.

But it wasn't Grace at the door like I had expected.

Instead, it was Chester's younger sister, Penelope.

Without a word, she raised her hand and slapped me across the face.

"Arielle, you ungrateful bitch! My brother pitied you and took you in, and this is how you repay him?"

I swallowed the blood in my mouth and looked at her, confusion clouding my mind.

"Penelope, are you sure you're not misunderstanding something?"

Before anything had happened between Chester and me, he had treated me well. So well, in fact, that Penelope had grown jealous of the attention he gave me, and from there, her hostility only grew.

Now, Penelope had the look of someone who had just seen a ghost, her eyes full of suspicion.

And I understood why. Ever since I realized my feelings for Chester, I had stopped calling him Mr. McKinsey and naturally stopped calling Penelope by any term of familial endearment, too.

Right then, Penelope snapped me back to reality.

Without saying a word, she threw a paparazzi photo in my face. It was the dreaded night with Chester, captured from the side, showing me collapsed on the ground.

"Unbelievable! Acting so ignorant won't save you, Arielle!"

Penelope jabbed her finger at the photo and even said, "Others might not recognize you in this picture, but I sure as hell won't mistake you! I'm warning you, Arielle. Get rid of those horrible thoughts of yours. Our family isn't a place you can latch onto. Even if you try to win my favor, I still won't let you marry into our family!"

Penelope was right. I couldn't rely on the McKinseys for support.

My father once saved Chester's life. But after my father died, Chester, who was seven years older, took me in and acted as my legal guardian. He looked after me for five years, even better than he looked after his own sister.

It was that difference in how he treated me that made me fall for him.

But because of our status gap, I always hid those feelings deep down.

If Chester hadn't been the one to push me down that night, I would have kept trying my best to be his obedient little ward.

I picked up the photo and looked at it before calmly denying everything.

"Penelope, the paparazzi are always full of crap. Are you really going to let them mess with your head like this?"

In my past life, I had left through the front door with Chester. The obscure marks on my body had been photographed clearly.

Chester, who was always so distant from women, had been caught breaking his vow of abstinence. That gave Grace, who was desperate for him to marry, the perfect excuse to pressure him into marrying me.

Unfortunately, Chester refused, no matter what.

It wasn't until I found out I was pregnant before starting university that Grace, desperate for a grandchild, finally pressured Chester into marrying me.

Arielle's POV

Looking back, I realize how foolish I was to be willing to give up my dreams of attending Harvard or Stanford, all for the chance to marry the man I loved and have what I thought would be the perfect result of that love.

Now, the gossip photo that was making the rounds online only showed a blurry side profile of me.

The only thing that stood out was my torn evening gown.

But as long as I didn't admit that Chester had been the one to rip it, who could really do anything to me?

Seeing how calm I was, Penelope started to hesitate.

"You really didn't do anything with my brother?"

I kept my cool, shaking my head. "Do you want something to have happened?"

Penelope's face twisted with anger. "Don't be disgusting! Then explain why you and my brother were in the same hotel? Why does he have all those red marks on his body? And why was your dress torn?"

Penelope might have had some brains, but not much.

I glanced at Chester, who was approaching in the distance, and shrugged nonchalantly.

"It was my birthday last night. Isn't it normal to drink too much and stay at a hotel? I got a little too excited about getting into Stanford and Harvard, went a little crazy, and cut up my own dress—totally normal, right?"

I paused, then added with a smirk, "As for why your brother was at that hotel too, you should ask him. How would I know what he's up to?"

"Plus, it's summer. Mosquitoes are everywhere. Getting a few bites isn't a big deal. Penelope, why do you always jump to the worst conclusions? Maybe you should lay off those trashy romance novels."

I shot a glance at Chester and smirked. "Don't you agree, hm?"

With his hands in his pockets, Chester stood looking dark and unreadable, his expression sharp, as if he were trying to determine whether I was serious or just playing with Penelope.

"Chester, is what she said true? Because those don't look like mosquito bites to me…"

Penelope jabbed her finger at the red marks on Chester's neck, trying to use them as proof that I'd laid a hand on him.

But Chester didn't flinch.

He simply pointed to the fresh handprint still visible on my cheek and asked, "You hit her?"

Penelope's face faltered. She could tell, even if she didn't want to admit it, that Chester had always favored me.

"I didn't want her to lose her sense of boundaries! She's the reason you're the center of all this gossip and ridicule right now! If she really slept with you and then ran off, what would become of our family? I was just giving her a little warning!"

Chester's face darkened, his voice cold as ice. "Penelope, where did all that noble upbringing of yours go? You're grounded for three days. No going out."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Since I'd already decided to distance myself from the McKinsey family, there was no need to pander to Penelope anymore.

Knowing Chester would probably back me up on denying everything, I let out a bitter laugh.

"Penelope, do you really think your brother is someone I could just boss around? I didn't even have the means to do anything. And if something did happen, who knows who was really taking advantage of whom…"

To my surprise, Chester touched the bite mark on his neck and suddenly said, "You didn't?"

His cryptic tone made my eyebrows twitch.

I wasn't the one who drugged him, and I certainly wasn't the one who made the first move.

I was doing everything I could to distance myself from him, so why was he choosing to play along like this?

"Mr. McKinsey, you must be joking. Even if I had a hundred times more guts, I still wouldn't dare lay a finger on you."

Thinking back on everything that had happened in my past life—about our daughter, about him—I just wanted to get as far away from Chester as I could.

Penelope's eyes kept shifting between us, her suspicion growing.

"There's something weird going on with you two."

Chester and I both answered in unison, "Nothing is going on."

A flicker of surprise passed through Chester's eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly.

I limped away without another word, determined to leave this mess behind me.

But before I could get far, Chester grabbed my arm.

"We're going to the hospital," he stated, his tone leaving no room for refusal.

The sudden touch of his hand felt like a burn. I immediately pulled my arm back.

"Don't touch me!"

In front of a stunned Penelope, Chester grabbed me by the waist. I fought to get free, but he was too strong. I smacked him across the face, my anger rising.

But instead of getting angry, Chester actually laughed.

Arielle's POV

Chester's mocking laugh after what happened between us felt just like it had in my past life, cold, dismissive, and dripping with contempt.

It stung in a way I couldn't quite shake off.

No matter how I struggled, Chester carried me to the car like I weighed nothing. My heart raced, not because of his proximity, but because I could feel everything spinning out of my control.

Chester knew exactly who had shared that night with him. He knew it was me.

But what I couldn't understand was, if he hated me so much, why wouldn't he just let me go?

Could it be that he had been reborn, too?

But that didn't make sense. If Chester truly had been reborn, there was no way he would have touched me in the first place.

No, there had to be something else going on here.

I treated him like a venomous snake, avoiding him at all costs.

As I slid into the back seat of the car, Chester watched coldly as I moved from the passenger seat to the back, his entire body radiating an icy hostility I couldn't read.

After a long moment of silence, he rolled up the window and slammed his foot on the gas. We sped off, leaving Penelope behind, stomping her feet in frustration.

"Chester, Penelope can't see us anymore. You can let me out now," I stated.

But Chester shot me a vicious glare, then pushed the accelerator harder, heading straight for the hospital.

That single sharp and cold gaze instantly silenced me.

I thought to myself, 'He's taking me to the hospital. He's trying to make sure I'm not pregnant with his child, right?'

I was fine with that.

But instead of going to the gynecologist's office, Chester carried me straight to the orthopedic department.

"She sprained her ankle. Check for any bone injury," he said, completely unfazed.

I blinked, surprised. 'Shouldn't we be dealing with the pregnancy first?

Wasn't that the priority here?'

The doctor examined my ankle, made his assessment, and referred me to an orthopedic specialist before finally sending us to the gynecology department.

Meanwhile, Chester's face remained as hard as stone, his mood clearly not improving.

"I want medication," he told the doctor in a clipped tone, his words curt and cold.

The doctor, clearly confused, asked, "What kind of medication?"

Chester quickly replied, "She might have gotten pregnant from last night. We need to get her abortion pills."

I felt a sudden sinking feeling in my stomach at the thought. The fertilized egg likely hadn't had a chance to implant yet, but Chester was already eager to eliminate it.

That's how much he despised me and our unborn child.

My poor daughter. Even in my past life, she never got an ounce of love from him. Not even a hug.

I felt a bitter smile tug at my lips as I looked at the doctor.

"Just give me emergency contraception, Doc," I said, my voice flat.

Chester, looking a little embarrassed by the misunderstanding, went to fill the prescription himself. He even poured me a cup of warm water, his hands gentle but somehow strangely personal.

Once I swallowed the pill, he finally sighed in relief.

"Drop any delusions you might have," Chester said, voice cold again. "Since you drugged me last night, I'll let it go this time."

Having lived through this once already, I couldn't help myself. I had to ask.

"What if I told you I didn't drug you? Would you believe me?"

Chester's expression turned even colder. "Shut up. This matter ends here. If you ever pull something like this again, be ready to face the consequences."

"Fine," I replied simply, knowing that nothing I said would change his mind.

My obedient response seemed to catch him off guard. He had clearly expected more of a fight, but I wasn't interested in playing games with him anymore.

...

On the way back, Chester slipped back into his usual authoritative tone, giving orders as if it were second nature.

"In 12 hours, come to my room and take the pill again. In one month, we'll check if you're pregnant. Until your ankle heals completely, you're not allowed to leave the house. I don't want any more scandals, especially ones involving you."

A quick look in the rearview mirror told me everything I needed to know.

Chester's disgust for me was written all over his face.

"Fine," I said again, my voice neutral.

After everything I had endured in my past life, I no longer had any illusions about him.

Chester, however, seemed satisfied with my newfound obedience. He finally looked at me, the tension in his posture easing just slightly.

Halfway through the drive, his phone rang. He put it on speaker without hesitation.

A sugarysweet voice came through immediately. "Chester, I'm back! Meet me at the usual place!"

It was Lorraine Hartman, his first love, the woman he could never seem to let go of.

The moment Chester heard her voice, his expression melted like ice. The change in him was instant as his whole demeanor softened like a switch being flicked.

They chatted for over ten minutes, exchanging sweet words that made my stomach churn.

Finally, he ended the call, his reluctance almost palpable.

I sighed, trying not to let it get to me.

"Will you let me out of the car?" I asked again.

But Chester ignored me completely, insisting on taking me along to buy roses and a gift.

"You're going on a date. I won't get in the way," I said in a matteroffact tone.

When we reached the mall, I flagged down a cab without a second thought and left.

Arielle's POV

But Chester prevented me from leaving, blocking the cab's door.

"Aren't you curious who that woman was? Weren't you always the one following me around?" His voice was dripping with annoyance, as if my indifference was some kind of challenge.

Unfortunately for Chester, having endured so much of his favoritism in my past life, I had long since grown numb to his behavior. The difference between his actions and words hardly affected me anymore. I had no interest in playing along with whatever twisted game he was trying to start.

"Why should I be curious? I've got no interest in being a third wheel. Enjoy your date, Mr. McKinsey."

Chester's expression darkened, his gaze unreadable.

He slammed the taxi door shut, dismissed the driver, and dragged me straight into a jewelry store at the mall.

"Bring out your best piece," he ordered, his tone as cold as ever.

The saleslady, assuming we were a couple, smiled brightly and excitedly fetched a pink diamond. She showered us with compliments, clearly thrilled at what she thought was a romantic moment.

"You two are such a perfect match. You're both talented and beautiful!"

Just as she was about to slide the ring onto my finger, Chester snatched it away with a swift, almost violent motion.

His face was as cold as ice. "She? Worthy of this?"

An uncomfortable silence fell over the store. It was clear now that Chester wasn't keeping me around because he cared. He just wanted to humiliate me.

But I didn't care.

I tilted my chin and broke the silence, my voice steady. "Miss, I'm afraid you've misunderstood. He's my guardian, and we're picking out a gift for his girlfriend."

The mood in the store relaxed a bit, but Chester's chill only seemed to grow thicker, surrounding him like a dark cloud.

Without asking for my opinion, he dragged me off again, this time to the airport.

When we saw Lorraine, I greeted her as naturally as I could.

"Lorraine!"

She beamed, her smile lighting up the room.

Chester, on the other hand, stared at me in disbelief. "What did you just call her?"

I didn't answer, pretending not to notice the storm brewing in his eyes.

Instead, I shoved Lorraine into his arms with a quick, purposeful motion.

"I'll leave you two to it, Chester."

Without a second glance, I walked quickly out of the airport, eager to escape the suffocating tension and distance myself from the mess.

By the time I got home, a video of Chester and Lorraine kissing passionately at the airport had gone viral, making its rounds across social media.

Someone online questioned if the woman's side profile matched the one from earlier paparazzi shots.

Chester's official account posted a simple reply:

[It's her.]

Just those two words, and the entire McKinsey family was thrown into a frenzy.

...

That evening, Lorraine was warmly invited to the McKinsey family home to discuss marriage.

I had planned to stay quietly in my room, away from all the chaos, but Lorraine came upstairs herself to check on me.

Once the door closed behind her, her sweet smile vanished in an instant, replaced by a cold, calculating look as she glanced at my lower abdomen.

"Arielle, I know it was you who spent the night with Chester. Since you're being so sensible, take this pill. I don't want any 'accidents' between me and Chester."

She handed me a pill, and I figured this was probably Chester's idea. Maybe it was his way of slapping me in the face, telling me to give up on him once and for all.

So I said nothing and swallowed the pills without resistance.

Lorraine left shortly after, feeling satisfied. She went downstairs to inform the others that I wasn't feeling well and needed to rest.

Meanwhile, Grace tried to come upstairs to check on me a few times, but Lorraine and Penelope blocked her every time.

Not long after taking the pill, a dull pain started spreading in my abdomen.

I didn't want to worry Grace, so I forced myself to sleep through the discomfort.

In that semiconscious state, I sensed someone entering my room. A bitter taste filled my mouth, and I suddenly woke up.

It was Chester.

Still halfconscious, I reflexively whined, "Chester, my stomach really hurts… I think I need to go to the hospital…"

He brushed the damp hair from my forehead gently, but his voice was as cold as ever.

"Didn't I tell you to come to my room to take the medicine? Why didn't you? Are you trying to keep that bastard child?"

It was only then that I realized what he had just given me: three more emergency contraceptive pills. The doctor had clearly warned me that no more than two should be taken.

Including the ones Lorraine had given me, I had now taken four.

Arielle's POV

"Chester, didn't you have Lorraine bring me the pills already? I've taken them..."

I tried to sit up, desperate to make myself feel better, maybe even make myself throw up.

But Chester wasn't having any of it. He shoved me back onto the bed with surprising force.

"Arielle!" His voice was sharp, almost accusing. "I'm getting married soon. As long as you behave and don't make a scene, I'll let you be the bridesmaid."

So that was the most 'kindness' he could offer me—being the bridesmaid at his wedding? That was all?

It didn't even matter that I had just gone through hell to try to erase everything between us.

I didn't want it. I didn't want any part of it.

Before I could even react, a sharp, searing pain suddenly gripped my abdomen.

It was the most intense experience I had ever had, even more painful than childbirth in a past life. It felt as though something was tearing from within me, as if my body was rejecting itself.

Then, before I could make sense of what was happening, a gush of warm blood flooded between my legs. Panic surged through me, and I instinctively grabbed Chester's hand, clutching it as if my life depended on it.

"I don't want to be the bridesmaid," I whispered, my voice shaky. "Please take me to the hospital…"

He observed the blood on the sheets, his face showing no emotion. For a brief moment, a hint of compassion shone through his features, but then his expression reverted to its typical cold, detached mask.

"Arielle, the doctor said bleeding is a normal reaction to the pill," he said, his tone eerily calm. "Just sleep it off. Come morning, everything will be like it was before."

He believed that taking the morningafter pill was equivalent to having an abortion, thinking that heavy bleeding indicated the problem was resolved. The more I bled, the more he convinced himself that the unwanted child inside me had vanished.

I saw how visibly relieved he was, how his shoulders eased.

Without so much as a glance in my direction, he pried my fingers open one by one, took my phone from the bedside table, locked the door behind him, and walked out without a single backward glance.

One door between us, and it felt like I had been transported back to my past life—once again abandoned in the bridal chamber, left to die alone, with no one to hear me.

"Chester," I whispered hoarsely to the empty room, my voice barely a breath. "We will never go back to the way things were…"

The bleeding wouldn't stop. The pain wouldn't stop. And in the distance, I could hear the sounds of celebration for Chester's upcoming wedding echoing through the house, so far away from me.

Desperate to survive, I rummaged through the drawer and found an old mobile—one I had hidden away for moments like this.

My fingers jittered as I dialed a number, with just one word slipping out in a shaky breath:

"Help me…"

And then, everything went dark.

...

Chester's POV

The following morning, I was in a cheerful mood, so I asked the housemaid to clean Arielle's room as usual.

She went to unlock the door, just as I had asked. But when she stepped inside, the door was wide open, and she was hit immediately by the sharp, heavy smell of blood.

I had no idea what was happening at first, and when I heard her scream, "Something's wrong, Mr. McKinsey! Miss Arielle... she's gone!"