The funeral was as grand, cold, and imposing as the man it honored.
Thousands of people gathered at the most exclusive private cemetery in the city. The sky was a blanket of depressing gray, weeping a slow, freezing drizzle over the sea of black umbrellas. Top politicians, billionaire CEOs, and global celebrities stood in absolute silence, mourning the sudden, shocking fall of the business world's greatest king.
Standing entirely alone at the edge of the crowd, drenched in the cold rain without an umbrella, was Nicole.
She looked like a hollow ghost. Her face was frighteningly pale, her eyes red and swollen from crying until she vomited. She wore a simple black dress, trembling violently in the wind.
As the massive, heavy mahogany casket was slowly lowered into the earth, a sharp, stinging SLAP echoed through the quiet graveyard.
Nicole's head snapped to the side. Her cheek burned like fire. Standing in front of her was John's elderly mother, her face twisted in pure, hateful agony. Behind her stood John's loyal bodyguards and executives, all glaring at Nicole with undisguised disgust.
"You murderer!" the old woman screamed, her voice cracking with unbearable grief. "He gave you everything! He worshipped the ground you walked on! And you? You conspired with that worthless trash to rob him, to betray him, and to leave him dying like a dog in the dirt!"
"I'm sorry," Nicole whispered, her voice completely broken. She fell to her knees in the wet mud, not even trying to defend herself. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know... I didn't know he was following me."
"Your sorrow means nothing! You are a curse!" John's mother spat at her, crying hysterically. "You don't deserve to be at his grave. You don't deserve to carry his name. Get out! Get out of my sight!"
The bodyguards stepped forward, roughly grabbing Nicole by the arms and dragging her out of the cemetery. The guests whispered insults as she was thrown into the muddy street. Traitor. Gold-digger. The woman who killed the king.
She accepted every word. Because they were right. She was the villain of this story.
Over the next five years, Nicole's life became a living hell.
Without John's protection, the ruthless business world tore her family's company to shreds within a month. They went entirely bankrupt. Her greedy parents, unable to handle poverty, blamed her for everything and abandoned her.
As for Kelvin and Lisa, they had successfully fled the country with John's millions and the Maybach. They disappeared like ghosts, leaving Nicole to face the terrifying wrath of John's loyal followers alone.
By the year 2031, Nicole was completely unrecognizable. She lived in a tiny, freezing basement apartment, working three exhausting, minimum-wage jobs just to survive. She ate stale bread and drank tap water. She didn't buy new clothes. She didn't smile. She punished herself every single day.
But the poverty was nothing compared to the psychological torture. Every night, she closed her eyes and saw the dark warehouse. She saw his blood. She heard his final, struggling breath, and the three soft words that haunted her every waking second: I love you. She finally realized, much too late, what true love really was. It wasn't Kelvin's sweet, empty promises. It was John. It was the man who would silently take a bullet for her, the man who would give her the world and ask for nothing but her presence in return. She had been blindly in love with a demon, and she had destroyed a god.
It was a bleak, freezing afternoon in February 2031 when the pain finally became too much to bear.
Nicole used the last few dollars she had to buy a small bouquet of cheap, wilting white roses. She walked for two hours in the freezing rain to reach the private cemetery. She snuck past the guards, shivering uncontrollably, until she found his grand, black marble tombstone.
[ JOHN - A Beloved Son, A Formidable Leader ]
There was no mention of a wife. She had been erased from his legacy, exactly as she deserved.
Nicole dropped the white roses onto the cold stone. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed, hugging the freezing marble as if it were his chest.
"John," she sobbed, her tears mixing with the bitter rain. "I miss you. I miss you so much it feels like I'm dying. I was so stupid. I was so blind."
She pressed her forehead against the hard, wet stone, her breathing becoming shallow and erratic. The cold was seeping deep into her bones, but she didn't care.
"If God could just give me one more chance..." she whispered, her vision beginning to darken. The edges of the world blurred into black. "If I could just go back... I swear... I would give you my entire soul. I would never let you down. I would make you the happiest man in the world..."
Her voice faded. Her heart, exhausted from five years of relentless grief, slowed down. She closed her eyes, letting the darkness completely swallow her, praying she would finally see him in the afterlife.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
A strange, rhythmic sound echoed in the darkness. It was the sound of an old, expensive grandfather clock.
Suddenly, a sharp, agonizing breath tore through Nicole's lungs.
She gasped loudly, her eyes snapping open. She expected to see the gray sky of the cemetery or the blinding lights of a hospital.
Instead, she saw a bright, luxurious, warmly lit room. The air smelled of expensive roses and sweet perfume, not mud and rain.
She was sitting on a plush velvet stool. In front of her was a massive, ornate vanity mirror surrounded by bright vanity lights.
Nicole blinked, completely disoriented. Her heart was hammering against her ribs. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, and a shockwave of pure, unadulterated terror and confusion hit her.
She wasn't wearing her thin, dirty, ragged clothes from 2031.
She was wearing a breathtaking, heavy, diamond-studded white dress. It was tight around her waist and flowed down like a waterfall of snow. Her hair was perfectly styled, and elegant makeup covered her face, hiding the dark circles she had worn for five years.
It was a wedding dress. Her wedding dress.
"No... no, this is impossible," she whispered, her hands flying to her face. Her skin was soft and young. The scars from her years of hard labor were completely gone.
She spun around wildly, her heavy dress swishing around her legs. Her eyes darted across the luxurious bridal dressing room. On the pristine white wall, a large, digital calendar clock glowed brightly with red numbers.
She stared at the date, her breath catching in her throat.
[ 25 / 02 / 2026 ]
Her legs trembled so violently she had to grip the edge of the vanity table to stay standing. The room spun.
She hadn't died in the cemetery. The heavens had heard her final, agonizing prayer. She had crossed through the boundaries of time and space. She had traveled exactly five years into the past.
It was February 25th, 2026. Her wedding day. The very day she had originally decided to ruin her life and his.
A sudden, overwhelming rush of adrenaline, joy, and absolute, fierce determination exploded inside her chest. The tears that fell from her eyes now were not tears of pain, but tears of a magnificent rebirth.
She looked back at herself in the mirror. The foolish, naive, easily manipulated girl from her past life was dead. The woman looking back at her now was a survivor who had crawled out of hell.
"John," Nicole whispered to the mirror, a powerful, unwavering light igniting in her eyes. She wiped her tears away carefully, not ruining her makeup. "You saved me in my last life. This time... it's my turn. I will never let anyone hurt you again. And Kelvin... you will pay for every single drop of blood you spilled."
She turned toward the dressing room door, ready to walk down the aisle and embrace the man she was destined to love.