The Natheniel mansion is buzzing with preparations for the wedding in 13 days.
All 50 maids, servants, and gardeners are given new dresses and five-figure bonuses. Ophelia finds everything unfamiliar yet oddly heartwarming.
It is almost as if she isn't getting into a contracted marriage, but a real one.
Maids smile at her warmly, chefs make her favourite dishes and hover around to see if she likes the food or not, and Marcus teaches her about household matters—not knowing Ophelia is smarter than that, nor did she try to show off her intelligence so fast.
The greenhouse is blooming with beautiful flowers even in the middle of a bitter winter where half of the day is cloudy and snowy. Facing unconditional warmth and tenderness for the first time in her life, Ophelia pinches herself to see if it's even real.
And suddenly, the thought of revenge becomes a forgotten tale by the time she wears Kayros's ring and signs the wedding documents in the luxurious wedding held in Geneva.
She once again starts desiring love, care, and tenderness instead of revenge. And Kayros… he gives it all.
The next day after her wedding, she wakes up feeling warm breath on her bare chest. Her body aches in the best possible way, carrying the symbol of her last night.
Kayros turns out to be exactly the same kind of passionate man he was described as in the novel. His bare, muscular body somehow feels like home.
Her delicate fingers trace his long lashes. He stirs slightly, lips softening into a smile as he looks up.
Ophelia's heart skips a beat, cheeks flushing crimson shyly.
"Good morning, wife." Kayros's husky morning voice makes her stomach crunch, and even with her best effort, she can't help but smile.
"Good morning." Her voice comes out small and shy, making Kayros giggle and nuzzle into her neck. "Are you shy after last night, hmm?"
His palm spreads across her back, pulling her closer. Ophelia gasps before breaking into a chuckle.
"You surely talk a lot for someone who folded me in so many positions last night."
Kayros kisses her neck softly, goosebumps rising at the sensation of his lips on the hickeys. "I made love to my wife. What's so wrong about it?"
Ophelia's eyes soften. Everything feels like a dream—one she knows she doesn't want to ruin by seeking revenge.
Kayros smells like rain and wood, fresh and warm in a way she never knew she would need.
"You don't need to greet the elders of my family, sweetie."
Ophelia frowns, pulling away slightly. She looks into his eyes in confusion. Greeting elders after a wedding is a big deal in Mafia families. Ophelia has been preparing for all kinds of scrutiny she might face.
Kayros's soft, tender gaze makes her want to earn their approval even more.
"Kayros, I am your wife now. You will face problems if I don't live up—"
He silences her by kissing her lips. Ophelia kisses back almost instinctively.
"You are my wife, and that's exactly why nobody gets to walk over you." His voice is gentle but firm. Ophelia's eyes almost blur; nobody ever took a stand for her. No one ever protected her. With Kayros, she finally feels at peace.
"You are weird," she mutters.
"I am your weird." He winks.
Ophelia is happy. Truly, really, really happy.
Life as Kayros's wife heals her in ways that make her heart flutter each time Kayros is around her.
Everyone in the mansion adores her, loves her. Marcus looks like he has just gotten two decades younger. Czar breaks off his engagement with Ivy, yet he seems happier and brighter, always teasing Kayros about being a wife's slave—which Kayros wears with pride.
Days become weeks. Weeks turn into months. Ophelia and Kayros's love blossoms like spring.
Warm, steady, safe, kind. All her misery and past-life bitterness long forgotten with each passing day. Kayros erases the traces of two lifetimes with one kiss each day, with holding her every possible moment, with laughing and joking with her.
The once cold and ritualistic Natheniel mansion is now full of laughter—with Kayros chasing Ophelia after she steals his strawberry, with Czar groaning about workload, with Marcus whispering how a new member will make its way into the family.
The contract long forgotten in Ophelia's luggage, untouched for almost two years, in the middle of which she and Kayros welcome their first son, Elias—born with Kayros's blue eyes and Ophelia's black curls.
Elias's giggles light up Ophelia's life even more. The small deep dimple on his chubby cheeks reminds her of Kayros's smile, which taught her love and life.
Kayros often stares at Elias with his heart in his eyes. There was a time when Kayros thought he would never be able to be a better father than his own father.
But when Elias stares at him with innocence, stretching his small chubby hands toward Kayros happily, Kayros feels his heart overflow.
Elias's first word, "Mama," was taught to him by Kayros secretly, and when Ophelia ends up crying while holding Elias, Kayros feels fulfilled.
Ophelia forgets the history. Her two lifetimes, the betrayal, bloodbath, and mostly the novel.
Letting herself live like a wife and mother, Ophelia finds herself loving Kayros more and more. Kayros never once lets her down—not as a husband nor as a father.
He spoils her, gives her his everything, makes her the center of his world happily.
Elias's turbulent footsteps echo through the walls and gardens of the Natheniel mansion. Ophelia's soft scolding makes Kayros pout along with Elias, making her give up and just hug them.
But… happiness…
That's just a mirage of Ophelia's life.
Because exactly on the 25th of December, three years later, at a Christmas party in Berlin, Kayros is attacked—and the one who saves him from death…
Is Jessica.
The real female lead of the novel.
The protagonist destined to be with the man Ophelia has finally come to love and have a child with.
She feels a thousand stabs in her heart when the woman with silver hair and a slender figure hugged by a red gown holds Kayros and helps him out of the burning hotel ballroom.
Elias runs to Kayros crying, "DADDY!!!"
Kayros bends despite his stab wound, and Jessica softly scolds him, making him laugh as he nods.
Ophelia's stomach drops. The exact scene from the novel… the elites all talking about how Kayros and Jessica look like the perfect picture couple, and Elias seems like their son.
And a whisper in her mind says, breaking her healed heart one more time:
—This is the fate of a Villainess who thinks she deserves to be the main character.—