Chapter 1

These past few years, Pierce has performed plastic surgery on me many times.

Every single time, I went willingly.

I believed he was trying to help me escape my ex-fiancé's pursuit through these procedures.

He loved me.

Until I saw a photo of the woman he loved most during her lifetime.

Because I looked just like her.

Once again stood up at City Hall.

This was the fifth time Pierce had run from our wedding.

I had a sinking feeling that marrying Pierce in this lifetime would be impossible.

That evening, I found him at the club owned by his friend Steven.

"I'm seriously done with you. How many times have you run now?"

"Isn't Lester going to want to kill you?"

Steven snatched the drink from Pierce's hand.

The door stood slightly ajar. I didn't have the courage to push it open.

Pierce had drunk himself into a stupor.

But the words that came out of his mouth felt like a sharp blade.

Stabbing straight into my heart.

"I really can't deceive myself anymore. She's not Juliet."

"Even though she looks more and more like her. That expression, those eyes."

"I don't love her. I'm very clear about this—I love Juliet."

I didn't know Juliet personally, but I knew of her.

She was Pierce's white moonlight—his first love.

She had died in a car accident several years ago.

Three years together, and I thought I could warm his heart.

But today, his absence again made me wake up from the dream.

Perhaps I had never truly entered Pierce's heart.

And I had never really understood this man.

In the dimly lit private room, Pierce's suppressed voice came through again.

Carrying pain and a torn, sobbing quality.

"All these years, I've sculpted her to look more and more like Juliet, but I really can't deceive myself. They're fundamentally two different people."

Steven seemed to sigh, saying Pierce was becoming more and more obsessed.

"She's still not similar enough. Juliet's waist was so slender you could encircle it with one hand, but Lester's waist isn't delicate enough yet."

Steven said, "You're not going to coax her into another surgery, are you? Don't you care if she lives or dies?"

Pierce laughed coldly. "Believe it or not, with just one word from me, she'd give me her life. What's removing a few ribs compared to that?"

"Stop with the surgeries. Someone's going to die."

Steven tried to persuade him. "And aren't you afraid that one day when she learns the truth, she'll leave you?"

Pierce's tone was contemptuous. "Would she dare? Everything she has now is because of me. Without me, could she even survive?"

My heart plummeted, my mind went blank, and my entire body trembled.

So all these years, I'd been living in Pierce's lies.

He had once told me that by changing my appearance, I could escape the misfortune that person had brought me.

Pierce was a highly skilled plastic surgeon.

Over these years, he had performed many surgeries on me, both major and minor.

Watching myself become increasingly unfamiliar in the mirror, I had once felt as though I'd been reborn.

But now, I finally understood.

These three years, he had simply been sculpting me into the work of art he desired.

I was nothing more than a substitute.

Pierce had a woman he deeply loved named Juliet.

She had died in a car accident during the year he loved her most.

Pierce had nearly lost his own life because of it.

He said he'd tried everything, but in the end could only watch helplessly as his beloved died in his arms.

He had been depressed for a long time after that.

Dragging my exhausted body, I returned to our "home."

Over three years, every corner of this place bore traces of my life here.

But today, I truly wanted to leave.

If I couldn't get closer to him, then I should distance myself.

My mind was in chaos. For the first time, I felt utterly lost about life.

When I met Pierce, I thought I could live well for the rest of my life.

But why had things turned out this way?

I loved him so much, believed he was my redemption.

He was the one who helped me escape that nightmare of a past.

Yes, during the time when Pierce was depressed after Juliet's death, we met.

I encountered Pierce at the most desperate moment of my life.

Meeting him was like a drowning person grasping a lifeline.

That day, I was being frantically chased and attacked by my ex-fiancé, who seemed to be having a violent episode.

In my panic, I stumbled into an unfamiliar garden where I ran into Pierce.

He saved me and brought me back to his home.

The warm lights in his house and a bowl of hot noodles completely soothed my terror.

So I told him about my ordeal.

I had once had a sweet romance too.

With an excellent fiancé from a privileged background.

But at some point, my fiancé changed.

He became easily irritated and angry.

Then he started hitting me.