Chapter 1
Eleanor Sandberg thought she was having a wet dream. She’d been living like a widow for the past three years—there was no way anyone would be doing that with her.
It felt so real, though. In fact, she felt so embarrassed that she woke up.
Eleanor lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling dazedly, her lips parted slightly as she panted. Why would she suddenly feel like that?
She’d finally declared victory last night after years of battling her cheating, morally bankrupt husband and her greedy uncle and his family. She’d become Sandberg Group’s youngest chairwoman cum CEO.
Could it be that her tightly wound nerves had finally snapped after that, sending her mind spiraling into reckless abandon?
She was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and the heat in her body had yet to completely dissipate.
Suddenly, a man’s husky voice rang out above her. “Are you ready?”
Eleanor jolted at that and widened her eyes in horror as she met a pair of unreadable eyes in the dim room. She felt like her soul had left her body as lightning struck her—this wasn’t a dream!
This was actually happening! Someone was making love to her, and they weren’t giving her the chance to react!
Eleanor wanted to scream. She helplessly reached out to grab the man’s arm, but he took it as a sign of acceptance and welcome.
Her world rocked and swayed, and her soul seemed to ascend to heaven. She had no idea where this man had come from.
She lived in Minharton, which was a neighborhood in Jorstone City with the best security measures available. Outsiders couldn’t get in, and she had household staff living with her. How had this guy—hold up!
Eleanor belatedly realized that the room she was in was unfamiliar to her. The man lifted her from the bed, giving her the chance to see the heart-shaped balloon arch and a banner congratulating her on her marriage.
Was this… a marital room?
She was stunned. Then, something occurred to her, and she touched her hair. It was long and silky-smooth, and the tips were damp from her sweat. A few tendrils clung to her flawless back, curling sexily, forming an alluring sight on the vague silhouette of her body. She was like a painting come to life.
She had long hair. It wasn’t the chic, shoulder-length bob she’d gotten later in life because of how busy she’d been with work. A short hairdo was easier to maintain, after all.
Had she been reborn? Had she been taken back to her wedding day three years in the past?
The man leaned down to kiss Eleanor. She immediately dodged him, afraid that he was her cheating husband, whom she’d dubbed “Mr. STD”.
He faltered, evidently not expecting her to refuse his kiss when she’d responded so “positively” to him earlier.
Eleanor took the chance to take in the man’s appearance with the help of the lights streaming in through the gaps in the curtains, which weren’t fully drawn.
He had a broad forehead and chiseled features—his eyes were deep-set yet slightly grim, and he had a tall nose and thin lips.
Even in the darkness, she could clearly see his strong, sharp jaw. He was so handsome that she was momentarily captivated.
He wasn’t Mr. STD, but Eleanor still recognized him—Sebastian Whitman, her cousin-in-law!
Sebastian watched as her expression went from horror to confusion and then to surprise. Whatever it was, she didn’t look happy. That told him that she wasn’t pleased to have him as her groom.
His gaze darkened, and he briefly oscillated between leaving and throwing caution to the wind. Then, he chose the latter.
He gripped the back of Eleanor’s head rather roughly before giving her a searing kiss. He left no room for her to reject him and continued with this mixed-up matrimonial night.
Eleanor’s head spun from having her breath taken away. She was a complete rookie at this, so she stood no chance against Sebastian’s ministrations.
Then, she vaguely heard some maids’ panicked voices come from the corridor outside.
“There’s been a mistake! The grooms went to the wrong rooms—Mr. Porter went to the tenth floor, where Ms. Brenda is!”
“What? Doesn’t that mean the cousins have been mixed up? W-What are we gonna do? Should we knock on the door to tell Ms. Eleanor?”
“They’ve already consummated the marriage upstairs, and people took photos of them. I don’t think we can change them back…”
While trapped in Sebastian’s fierce and passionate kiss, Eleanor puzzled the whole thing out.
She wasn’t the only one who’d been reborn.
Brenda Sandberg, her cousin, had also been reborn. In her past life, she and Brenda had shared the same wedding day. Unfortunately, Brenda’s groom—Sebastian—had gone missing on the wedding night, turning her into the laughingstock of Jorstone City.
And so, Brenda had later hooked up with Maurice Porter, Eleanor’s scumbag husband. That had turned Eleanor into another of Jorstone City’s laughingstocks.
In fact, Eleanor wasn’t just sure that Brenda had also been reborn—she knew Brenda had orchestrated this whole thing. There was no other explanation for both the grooms going to the wrong rooms and sleeping with the wrong brides simultaneously.
In her past life, Eleanor had refused to suffer in silence. After discovering Maurice and Brenda’s affair, she’d exposed them and announced that Brenda was a homewrecker. The latter had been thoroughly shamed and scorned by the upper crust.
At the time, Brenda had sworn to get revenge. She’d told Eleanor that if they could redo things, the first thing she would do would be to replace Eleanor as Maurice’s wife!
That would explain why Brenda had arranged for the grooms to be switched in this lifetime. She wanted to rewrite the plot from the very beginning.
As for having their photos taken, that was also part of Brenda’s plan—she knew there was a chance Maurice’s parents wouldn’t accept her if everything was hush-hush.
The Porter family would have no choice but to accept her as one of their own now that she had photos as evidence. At the same time, she would solidify her position as Mrs. Porter. That way, no one would be able to call her a homewrecker as they’d done in her past life.
It was a pretty well-rounded plan.
Eleanor couldn’t care less about Maurice, also known as Mr. STD. Brenda could be his wife for all she cared.
The only problem was that Sebastian was supposed to have gone missing per the storyline in her past life. Why was he now here and pistoning into her so earnestly?
Eleanor turned into jelly on the bed as her heart raced. In her past life, her marriage with Maurice had been nothing more than a business deal. He’d slept around with countless women, and she’d been afraid of contracting STDs. So, they’d never slept together.
During the three years after their marriage, she’d thrown herself into getting back everything that was rightfully hers, so she hadn’t been interested in love and sex. Even until the day she’d died, she’d had no idea what it felt like to make love.
She didn’t expect to experience this first thing after being reborn. Also, it seemed Sebastian was pretty good at this. That was a surprising discovery.
Eleanor didn’t know whether this was his first time, but she had to admit she was pretty satisfied with her first time.
Sebastian only got up when his breathing evened out. He covered her eyes with his hand.
She smelled the musky, woodsy fragrance on his palm before she heard something click.
He’d turned on the lights.
With his palm shielding her eyes, she got used to the sudden brightness. She couldn’t help thinking that he was rather considerate.
