Aeris turned the entire city upside down searching for her, acting like a mad dog.
He chased every rumor, questioned every acquaintance, checked every hospital and every police station—day and night, without rest.
But reality was cruel.
Noticing his father's cold disappointment,
his half-brothers quietly rising within the company, and his friends and supporters—once loyal—drifting away one by one, Aeris finally chose to temporarily put the search on hold.
He buried his heart and threw himself back into the company, working like a machine.
Days blurred into nights; work became the only thing he could control.
Years passed.
With relentless effort, he accumulated power, suppressed his half-brothers, and eventually wrested authority from his father.
Only then—after sitting firmly at the top—did Aeris finally have the ability to search for his beloved again.
He divorced his arranged-marriage wife without hesitation and devoted all his newfound power, connections, and wealth into finding her.
After much effort, he finally found Freya in a small town—living quietly with a five-year-old son, Ethan.
He brought them back.
And normally, that should've been the start of a long-awaited happy ending.
But reality was much crueler than any dream he had clung to.
Freya was a troublemaker—thoughtless, impulsive, and reckless in ways that made his heart ache and burn.
And their daughter, Eve who was born later, was on another level. A perfect copy of those brainless heroines in cliché romance novels.
No matter how many elite teachers he hired, she never learned anything.
Aside from acting spoiled and coquettish, she remained nothing but a pretty, foolish rich girl.
Sometimes, on rare occasions when his tightly controlled mind wavered, Aeris would look at his lost finger, the scar across his left hip from being stabbed while rescuing his troublesome daughter—which cost him a kidney—and the empty room where his eldest son had once lived.
On those lucid days, he felt a deep, suffocating fury and helplessness gnawing at him. But as soon as the emotions hit, something inside him snapped back—as if invisible strings had him in their grip.
He snapped back into his control, unable to even take his own life.
He continued living like a puppet. Every action, every breath, was for his wife and daughter. A tool for them to use.
Sometimes, he wondered if he was trapped in a cliché romance novel—doomed to serve the female lead and strike down her enemies.
Back in the present, Aeris clutched his chest, feeling the helplessness and suffocation of his previous self.
The emotions weren't memories—they were wounds. Raw, aching, and terrifyingly real.
He was frightened.
Frightened of facing that woman again.
Frightened that the invisible leash from his past life might snap back into place.
He didn't know if the present him could resist that overwhelming control. The thought alone made his stomach twist. He would rather die than live as a puppet again.
He had made up his mind: if he could not resist that power, he would end his life—no hesitation.
Today was the first day of college—the day he would meet her.
Cold sweat soaked his palms. He wiped them with a tissue and finally stepped out of the car.
"Brother Axel, please go back. I'll inform you when my class ends."
Axel, a retired soldier and his loyal personal bodyguard, nodded. Even in the previous life, Axel had been unwavering, giving his life for Aeris. Now, he still commanded Aeris's respect and trust.
"Okay, Young Master."
Aeris, 194 cm tall, with chiseled face, and perfectly sculpted body, turned every head as he walked into the campus. Girls blushed; boys whispered with envy or indifference. He didn't care.
But when he stepped into the classroom, his gaze immediately sought her.
His heart pounded—not with excitement, but with fear.