The heavy wooden ladder came crashing down toward me.

I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut and threw my arms up, bracing for the impact. But the pain never came.

I opened my eyes to see Leo, who had lunged forward to catch the ladder.

But just before the ladder fell, a bucket of red paint had tipped over, drenching me from head to toe. I was a complete mess.

Sienna had fallen to the ground. She wasn't high up, so she only twisted her ankle and scraped her palms.

From a short distance away, Julian turned, his face contorting in panic as he sprinted toward us.

"Sienna!"

He didn't even glance at me. He bent down and helped Sienna to her feet.

She leaned weakly against him, her eyes wide and tearful as she looked at me. Her voice was filled with disbelief.

"Cousin… why did you shake the ladder to make me fall?"

The paint was dripping from the ends of my hair. Her baseless accusation left me stunned.

Julian’s brow furrowed, his eyes blazing with fury as he glared at me.

"Aurora Russo! You've gone too far! This was a deliberate attack!"

My heart sank.

So he was capable of defending someone so fiercely, without even asking what happened.

I remember in my past life, just a few days after we were married, I was ambushed on my way home by men from a rival family. They threw a sack over my head and beat me.

Lying in a hospital bed, I cried and begged Julian to find them and get revenge for me.

He just calmly peeled an apple and said impatiently, "You need to lay low for a while. They didn't take anything from you, it was probably just a warning."

"You're fine, aren't you? Stop thinking about revenge. And stay home more, what if my parents need you for something?"

I stared at him in disbelief.

My body was covered in bruises, and my face was so swollen I could barely speak. And in his eyes, I was "fine"?

All I wanted was justice, to defend our family's honor.

But now, he didn't even bother to ask a single question before rushing to Sienna’s defense.

Everyone was staring at me.

I let the red paint drip down my cheek and looked straight at Julian.

"Do you really think I'm the kind of person who would pull a cheap stunt like that?"

Julian tensed up, silent.

A second later, Sienna stumbled in his arms and whimpered, "Julian, my ankle hurts so much…"

Any hesitation in Julian’s eyes vanished, replaced by an annoyed disgust that he had almost been swayed.

He scooped Sienna into his arms and said coldly, "If I could, I'd hope you weren't. As for everything else, you're on your own."

Without another look back, he carried her towards the family's private clinic.

I lowered my head and smiled grimly.

To think I was naive enough to believe that even if we couldn't be husband and wife, we still had the bond of growing up together.

Thank God my love for him had already been worn away to nothing.

I turned to go home.

Leo took a step towards me, then hesitated and stopped.

When I got home, I had to wash my hair several times to get all the paint out.

Sitting on my bed, I let out a long sigh of relief. In two days, I would be completely free of the Moretti family.

But the next morning, Julian was banging on my door, his face livid with rage.

"Aurora Russo! Did you tell your father to marry Sienna off to someone else?!"

I had known him for two lifetimes, and I had never seen him this out of control.

"I didn't."

I couldn't be bothered to argue with him. As I was about to close the door, Sienna rushed forward and fell to her knees at my feet, wailing.

"Aurora! I know you're still angry with me! You can hit me, you can curse me! Yesterday was my own fault, I fell on my own, it had nothing to do with you!"

"Please… I really don't want to marry that forty-year-old dockworker! Please, have mercy on your older cousin!"

She was about to start banging her head on the ground, but I frowned and stepped aside.

"What proof do you have that I was the one who told on you?" I asked, unable to watch her one-woman show any longer.

My ears started ringing.

The world spun, and a sharp, stinging pain exploded on my left cheek.

Julian had slapped me with all his strength.

"Aurora Russo! I never realized how venomous you could be!"

"I have only ever felt sisterly affection for you! Just because I don't want to marry you, you have to ruin Sienna's life?!"

I clutched my cheek and looked up at him, my eyes as cold as ice.

What right did Julian have to call me venomous?

He destroyed my entire life with the excuse that it was "what the family wanted."

And yet, he was the one who benefited.

He spat on me for getting in the way of his true love, while he danced on my grave, living happily ever after with Sienna for decades without a second thought!