Reborn from the Abyss: My Second Chance with the Alpha

At the annual family estate dinner, my eightyearold daughter, Cassidy, projected a blurry, suggestive video onto the main screen.

The audio cracked through the speakers—heavy panting and skin slapping against skin.

Then, a man's voice groaned a single word. "Celeste." Every silver fork stopped scraping against the porcelain. Dozens of eyes snapped to me.

Whispers hissed across the mahogany table like venom. "There's a limit to being a slut.

Trash from the trailer parks will never fit in here." "No wonder Julian skipped the estate dinner.

Who'd want to look at usedup goods?" My chair legs scraped harshly against the marble floor.

I pushed away from the table and marched into the empty hallway, the blood rushing in my ears. My fingers trembled as I hit Julian's speed dial.

I just needed my husband to defend me. Instead, his voice crackled through the receiver, dripping with exhaustion and impatience. "Cassidy is just a kid.

Why are you picking a fight with an eightyearold?" I opened my mouth, but he talked right over me. "If you didn't dress so provocatively, why would they immediately assume it was you just from hearing a name?" "Julian, I—" "I'm catching a flight.

I'm hanging up." Click. The line went dead. Before I could even lower the phone, the screen lit up. A new message from Vanessa, my widowed sisterinlaw. It was a video file.

I tapped it. There was Julian. The man who was supposedly rushing through an airport terminal.

He was squatting by a bathroom sink, his expensive dress shirt sleeves rolled up, carefully scrubbing a pair of women's lace underwear.

A text bubble popped up right beneath it. [I just mentioned my cramps were bad and I couldn't touch cold water.

Without a single word, he washed my bloodstained panties for me.] My nails dug into my palms until the skin nearly broke.

The air rushed out of my lungs, leaving a freezing, hollow void in my chest. I didn't scream.

I just stared at the screen, my thumbs tapping out a rapid reply. [You two are pretty fucking shameless.] Vanessa's video and text vanished from the screen. Message unsent.

I stood in the cold, empty hallway. I didn't shed a single tear. I just exited her chat and scrolled down my contact list.

Past the inlaws, past the fake friends, all the way to the very bottom, stopping at a blackedout avatar. Jasper. I typed out a single line and hit send. [I agree to marry you.

Are you still willing?] Chapter 1 I didn't go home. I checked into a hotel instead. I had lived in that house for nine years.

Now, just the thought of it made bile rise in my throat. My phone buzzed against the bathtub caddy. I snatched it up. Messages from my daughter. [You got lucky this time.

Next time, I'll find a video that looks exactly like you.] Then, she sent a photo, showing off the pile of gifts she received tonight. [Look. Even if you exposed me, so what?

All those aunts and uncles are still tripping over themselves to suck up to me.] [If you didn't sleep your way to the top, why would every guy want to screw you?

You aborted so many of Dad's babies.] [I'm not accepting a woman who's been passed around by that many men as my mom. It's disgusting.] [Can you just go die?

I want Vanessa to be my mom.] An eightyearold kid. Spitting out words more venomous than any adult could stomach. A heavy block of cement crushed my chest. I couldn't breathe.

I slammed the phone facedown on the tray. I let myself slide under the water, hoping the freezing temperature would numb the agony.

The daughter I raised with my own hands had played a pornographic video in public just to frame me. She told me to go die. I guess I really was a complete failure of a mother.

In the suffocating silence, the past clawed its way back into my brain. [Wearing two flimsy strings out in public? You're just begging for male attention.

Stop playing innocent.] [Her mom was a streetwalker working the dirty corners. Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the trash can.] My face plastered on flyers everywhere.

Angry parents protesting at the gates. The school firing me overnight.

Hail and freezing rain had battered my skin back then, but it didn't sting half as much as their filthy rumors. Maybe this was for the best. I could just drown right here.

Let the water wash away all the dirt they threw on my name. A deafening crash shattered the haze. Glass exploded across the tile floor.

Two massive hands gripped my arms and yanked me out of the water. My spine slammed against the hard floor. A sledgehammer of pain caved in my chest.

I gagged up a mouthful of bathwater. The blurry figure towering over me came into focus. Thick blue veins bulged against Julian's neck.

His jaw was clenched so tight the muscle twitched. "What the hell are you doing, Celeste? You've pulled this pathetic pity stunt so many times.

When are you actually going to die?" "If you really want to kill yourself, do it somewhere far away. Stop being an eyesore." I clutched my chest, trying to shift my weight.

A sharp, grinding agony shot through my ribs. He had broken one when he dragged me out.

Swallowing the metallic taste of blood, I braced my back against the cold porcelain of the tub. "Okay." Julian's breath hitched. He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The harsh lines around his mouth slightly softened. "I already scolded Cassidy. It was just a stupid prank. Why are you holding a grudge against an eightyearold kid?

If you didn't hang around such trashy crowds, they wouldn't have instantly assumed the woman in the video was you just by hearing your name." A cold blade slid between my ribs.

I always knew he only married me to bury that assault scandal. But I was stupid enough to hope. Stupid enough to think that after nine years, maybe he loved me just a little bit.

He leaned down, reaching out to scoop me up. I flinched, curling into a tight ball.

His hands froze midair. "What is your problem now?" I tilted my head up. "Julian, aren't you worried Vanessa will be upset if you're here with me?" The temperature in his dark eyes instantly dropped.

His fingers dug deeply into my bare shoulder. A heavy towel was carelessly thrown over my dripping body.

He scooped me into his arms and carried me out of the hotel room in a few long strides. Chapter 2 Camera flashes exploded like strobe lights in the dark.

Julian's voice dropped. "You brought this on yourself." Paparazzi slammed their shutter buttons, their sneers cutting through the flashing bulbs. "Damn, sneaking out to see a lover and getting caught in bed by her own husband?

This is frontpage gold!" "She was a mess before they even got married. Sleeping around on him now isn't exactly breaking news." The filthy words drilled into my ears.

Julian didn't even blink. He was dead set on stripping away every last shred of my dignity. He shoved me into the back seat of his car.

Vanessa's sickeningly sweet voice immediately floated from the front. "It's freezing, Julian. Can I borrow your jacket?" Julian glanced over his shoulder at me.

Finding nothing but a blank expression on my face, he gently draped his suit jacket over her shoulders. "Better? Your cheeks are all red from the cold." Her makeup was flawless.

There wasn't a single trace of illness or chill on her features. But with one sentence, the tight lines of Julian's face melted into pure distress. Just like eight years ago.

The moment he got the call that her water had broken, the panic in his eyes was blinding. I tried to calm him down.

I told him Vanessa had a toptier medical team on standby, that she would be fine. But his eyes went bloodshot.

It was the first time he lost control, a vein throbbing at his temple. "You're not the one giving birth, so of course you don't give a damn." He forgot that I was barely two months away from my own due date.

He forcefully shoved my arm away. The momentum sent me tumbling backward down the hardwood stairs. He didn't even spare me a backward glance.

Right before the darkness swallowed me, I could still hear his frantic, breathless muttering. "She's so terrified of pain.

What if she's crying?" That was the exact moment the truth crystallized in my mind.

Even though Vanessa was his late brother's fiancée, even though she was carrying his dead brother's posthumous child, Julian would never, ever let her go. The car jerked forward.

The jagged edge of my broken rib scraped against my chest cavity. A sharp hiss of cold air tore through my teeth. "Julian…" The name barely left my lips.

His eyes were glued to the rearview mirror, tracking Vanessa's every breath. He didn't spare a single second for the bleeding woman in the back seat.

Time bled out until the tires finally crunched to a halt in front of our estate. He ripped off his overcoat and tossed it onto my lap. "Put it on.

What kind of example are you setting for the kid, walking around like that?" Cassidy skipped out the front door, launching herself directly into Vanessa's open arms. "Vanessa!

You're back! I missed you so much." "Can you just stay forever? You should just be my mom, okay?" My fingernails dug into my palms.

She had said those exact words a hundred times before. And every single time, it was a rusty scalpel slicing open my chest.

Julian offered a stiff, awkward smile and gently tugged Cassidy back by the wrist. "Don't talk nonsense." That was the extent of his reprimand. Neither of them outright denied it.

They simply basked in the comfortable, ambiguous tension between them. The bodyguard pulled open my door.

Cassidy's gaze dropped to my shivering frame, clad in nothing but a damp towel and Julian's oversized coat. Her lip curled. "Weren't you playing the victim this morning?

Now you're coming home practically naked. Where did you go fishing for men this time?

Or are you trying to hook the bodyguard?" The bodyguard stiffened, immediately taking a massive step backward into the shadows. The muscles in Julian's jaw locked.

His voice turned into ice. "Cassidy.

Is this how your teachers taught you to speak?" Getting scolded by her father only fueled the fire in the eightyearold's eyes. "Where's the lie?

If she didn't love throwing herself at men so much, she wouldn't have killed off all my little brothers and sisters." Acid burned the back of my throat.

Every breath felt like inhaling broken glass. In the eight years since I gave birth to Cassidy, I had been pregnant seven times. And I had lost seven babies.

Chapter 3 The first time I lost a child, Julian had been taken by a rival family. I went in blind to save him.

They pinned me to the concrete, forcing bowls of veterinary laborinducing drugs down my throat until I gagged. Rain mingled with the blood pouring from me that day.

No one could tell if the pooling liquid beneath my body was more storm or slaughter.

The second time, threeyearold Cassidy was playing hideandseek with Vanessa and tumbled into the lotus pond. I didn't even think.

I threw myself into the freezing, deadofwinter water to drag her out. The entire estate panicked, rushing the kid to the ER.

They didn't notice me until hours later—slumped against the frosted stones, hemorrhaging into the snow.

I tiptoed through the next few pregnancies, but the early trauma had wrecked my body. The babies never stayed. The final time was a year ago. I watched my stomach swell day by day.

A stupid, desperate hope clawed its way up my throat. But his empire came with too many enemies. A black bag slammed over my head before they dragged me into an alleyway.

By the time Julian found me, I was covered in shredded rags. The blood baked into the asphalt beneath me had already dried to a dark crust.

I was the victim, yet blurry, suggestive photos flooded the internet within hours. They slapped a scarlet letter on my chest. I became the ultimate joke of the city's elite circle.

I shoved the hospital reports into Julian's chest. I made him read the medical proof—the miscarriage was caused by blunt force trauma. Those animals never actually assaulted me.

But the rot had already set in. No matter how many times I laid out the facts, his eyes always held that same cold judgment. He thought I was tainted.

An invisible anvil crashed down onto my chest. Metallic bile burned up my throat. I pitched forward, vomiting a mouthful of hot, dark blood onto the floorboards. Julian flinched.

The muscles in his jaw locked. He shoved Cassidy aside, diving into the car to haul me up against his chest. "Celeste.

Celeste!" The sharp scent of antiseptic pulled me under sterile white lights. The hospital room was dead silent, an IV needle taped to the back of my hand.

A doctor flipped shut my chart as I blinked my eyes open. She leaned over the bed rails. "You need to watch your stress levels when you're pregnant.

You got incredibly lucky this time. Next time, you won't." White noise flooded my ears. "I'm… pregnant?" "You didn't know?

You're six weeks along." I nodded a slow, mechanical thanks. Just as her hand hit the doorknob, I stopped her. "Please don't tell my husband.

He isn't expecting this child." She paused, caught off guard, before offering a tight, sympathetic smile and a nod. I pulled out my phone.

My thumb scrolled past the VIPs until it hit a familiar dark blue avatar. I typed out a single line. [Come get me. I want to see the flowers at the mountain base again.

I miss the kids.] Julian walked in just as the sun dipped below the skyline. He set an insulated thermos on the nightstand. "The chef made soup for Cassidy this morning.

I brought you some. Drink it before it gets cold." It was the softest tone he'd used with me in years. But the invisible tether tying me to him had already snapped.

I didn't even look at the thermos. "I don't want it. Actually, I just don't want to look at you right now." The muscles in his neck tightened.

He dumped the entire container of soup straight into the trash can. The door slammed shut behind him. He didn't show up again for the rest of my hospital stay.

I pushed open the front door to pure chaos. Maids were hauling boxes into the master suite. My clothes lay in a crumpled heap on the hardwood.

Shattered glass blanketed the floor near the nightstand. Our framed wedding portrait rested lopsided against the wall. My half of the photo had been slashed out with a blade.

Julian's pristine, untouched half sat right in the middle of the mattress. I bent over to grab a pearl hairpin wedged in the bed frame. A blur of motion slammed into my side.

I grabbed the edge of the mattress to keep from tumbling into the broken glass. Cassidy stood over me.

She snatched up Julian's half of the photo, clutching it to her chest like I was a thief in the night. "Aunt Vanessa already promised to be my mom.

As soon as she marries Dad, I'm hanging their picture right here. Don't even think about putting your dirty hands on my dad." She actually thought I was reaching for his picture.

A dry, humorless laugh slipped past my lips. I straightened up, brushing the dust off my jeans. "You've got it completely backward, kid. He isn't the only one disgusted here.

I think he's just as filthy." I stepped over the shattered glass toward the door. "I know you despise me. Don't worry.

The feeling is entirely mutual now." Chapter 4 When Julian got home that night, Cassidy immediately ran to tattle on me. But for once, he didn't take her side.

He actually scolded her, telling her not to speak to her mother that way. Mother. That word felt like it belonged to another lifetime.

The last time I heard it, Cassidy was just learning how to string syllables together. I had barely closed my eyes when the mattress dipped behind me.

Julian's arm slid around my waist, pulling my back flush against his chest.

I could feel the erratic rhythm of his breathing against the nape of my neck. "Are you asleep?" His voice was a low murmur. "Let's have another baby.

I promise… this one will make it." The mere mention of a child sent a shudder down my spine. The phantom scent of blood and sterile hospital sheets clawed at my throat.

I shifted outward, instinctively putting an inch of dead air between us. Then another. I kept inching away until there was no mattress left.

I hit the hardwood floor with a heavy thud. Julian ripped the duvet back.

He loomed over the edge of the bed, the muscles in his jaw ticking. "Am I really that repulsive to you?" I pressed my lips together, tasting copper, and looked straight up into his eyes. "Julian, I want a divorce." His outstretched hand froze midair.

His leather loafer slammed into the oak footboard. "Don't even fucking think about it, Celeste." He snatched his phone off the nightstand and stormed out, his posture rigid like I was the one who had just spit in his face.

It made zero sense. He was practically measuring the drapes for his wedding with Vanessa. A divorce was the perfect exit strategy for both of us.

I dragged myself up, using the wall for support, and limped down the hall toward his study.

His voice leaked through the crack in the door—hoarse, thick, and completely unspooled. "Did I really mess this up?

Every other woman in our circle just needs a blank check and a little attention to fall back in line. Why the hell is Celeste so different?" "Yeah, fine!

I didn't want another kid stealing Cassidy's spotlight back then. That's why I had the maid slip those pills into her meals." "That's why she lost them.

But I'm being serious this time. I actually want to make it work with her." The hallway spun into a dizzying tunnel. All the oxygen vanished from the air.

I slammed both hands over my mouth. I bit down on my own knuckles until I tasted blood, forcing the visceral, agonizing sound back down my throat. Eight years. Seven dead babies.

Every single one of them—erased by the man sleeping next to me. If he just wanted me to abort, he could have forced me into a clinic. He didn't have to orchestrate my torment.

He didn't have to turn my own body into a slaughterhouse just to play the victim. I have no memory of crawling back to bed.

By the time the morning sun hit my face, Julian's car was already gone. Downstairs in the dining room, Cassidy acted like her brain had been rewired overnight.

She slid a porcelain bowl of fish stew across the mahogany table toward me. "Dad said you cracked a rib.

The calcium in this helps." I ignored the bowl, reaching out and grabbing a carton of milk instead. That was all it took to shatter her little charade. Her face twisted.

She snatched the glass right out of my hand and hurled it at the floorboards. The glass exploded. A jagged shard ricocheted up, slicing a deep line right across her collarbone.

Bright red blood instantly blossomed over the pristine white fabric of her designer dress. Right on cue, the front door swung open.

Julian's mother and Vanessa rushed in from the main estate. The second they saw the blood, panic erupted.

The two women lunged forward, hands scrambling to press napkins against Cassidy's neck. But the kid shoved them both away. She kept her eyes locked dead on mine.

She was gambling, betting all her chips on the maternal instinct I'd shown her for years. "I'm bleeding. Are you blind?" Oh, I saw it perfectly fine.

But the game was over, and my chips were cashed out. I turned my back and headed straight for the grand staircase.

Cassidy let out a sharp cry, lunging to grab my shirt, but my motherinlaw snatched her wrist, pulling her back. "Let it go, Cassidy. You didn't come from her womb.

Why would she ever care about you?" "Let Grandma tell you the truth. Aunt Vanessa is your real mother.

Celeste was just a cheap, temporary babysitter." My foot hovered over the bottom step. My spine turned to ice. I slowly pivoted around.

Vanessa already had Cassidy wrapped securely in her arms, burying the girl's face in her shoulder.

I stared at the older woman, the world tilting off its axis. "What did you just say?" My motherinlaw brushed a speck of dust off her sleeve, not even bothering to look guilty. "There's no point in hiding it anymore.

When you went into premature labor back then, your baby was stillborn. Dead on arrival." She finally met my eyes, her expression utterly vacant. "Vanessa was a single mother.

It would have ruined her chances in the marriage market.

So, I took Cassidy and put her in your empty crib." Chapter 5 I stumbled backward, my head shaking so hard it made me dizzy. "No. You're lying.

You've always hated me, so you're making this up." My trembling fingers dug into my pocket, pulling out my phone.

The screen blurred as my thumb swiped erratically through the contacts. "I'm calling Julian. This isn't real.

It can't be real." A harsh, grating laugh scraped out of my motherinlaw's throat. "Don't be an idiot. He is the sole heir to this empire.

You think he wouldn't know?" "It was Julian's idea from the start. He and Vanessa grew up together.

Ensuring Vanessa gets her happy ending is wired into his damn DNA." The phone slipped from my sweaty palm, clattering against the floorboards. She was right.

Julian ran his life with an iron fist. No one could swap a baby under his roof without his absolute consent. No wonder he never loved me, yet treated Cassidy like she hung the moon.

I used to comfort myself with that. I used to think, he might be a cold husband, but at least he's a good father. Now the truth clawed at my chest, ripping everything open.

That devotion was never for me. It was for the woman he actually loved. Cassidy was his late brother's child. The royal bloodline. Acid surged up my throat. "Then where is my baby?

Where is he? I need to see him." My motherinlaw rolled her eyes, inspecting her manicured nails. "Who knows?

It was a scandal to begin with." "Julian just tossed the body to the security detail to dispose of. After all these years, who would remember?" Of course.

That pregnancy was a calculated trap. No matter how well he played the part, he couldn't hide the disgust beneath his skin. My knees gave out.

I hit the hardwood hard, the impact jarring my teeth, but I couldn't feel the pain. My lungs seized. I couldn't drag in a single breath.

By the time the dark spots faded from my vision, the hallway was empty. The psychological hemorrhage left me bedridden. The fever and chills wracked my body for nearly a month.

The next time I saw Julian, it was on a luxury yacht chartered for Vanessa's birthday. My plan was mechanical. Cold.

If I cornered him in front of their entire social circle, forced him to protect Vanessa's public image, he might finally sign the divorce papers.

But the second I stepped onto the deck, Vanessa locked eyes with me and plunged backward over the railing into the churning water. The splash echoed.

Julian sprinted past me, ripping off his silk tie before diving straight off the edge. I watched from the deck as they dragged her up. The crowd swarmed them.

He knelt beside her, his hands trembling as he performed CPR. The contrast was a physical slap to the face. When it was her, he treated her like spun glass.

When it was me, he didn't even notice my cracked ribs. Vanessa choked, coughing up seawater. The rigid tension in Julian's shoulders finally evaporated.

She leaned against his chest, lifting a trembling finger to point dead at me. "Celeste… I've been so good to you. Why did you push me?" Julian's head snapped up.

His eyes locked onto mine, dark and lethal. "You pushed her?" "No. I didn't touch her. I swear—" He didn't even blink.

He just raised his hand, signaling the bodyguards. "An eye for an eye, Celeste. You know how this works." Two massive men gripped my arms.

The deck shifted beneath my feet. "Julian, no! I have severe thalasso—" Gravity vanished. The wind whipped past my ears. Smash. Freezing saltwater slammed into my face.

It shoved its way up my nose, flooding my sinuses, choking off my scream. The black, endless ocean swallowed me whole. My lungs seized as the freezing pressure crushed my chest.

My mother died in the ocean. When they pulled her up, there was nothing left but bone. Julian knew about my crippling phobia. He knew. The darkness dragged me down. I floated.

Detached. A silent spectator tethered to the living world. I watched Julian return to the estate that night.

The heavy crease between his brows finally smoothed out as he poured a glass of whiskey. He stopped a bodyguard walking past the study. "Where is she?

Is she still throwing a tantrum?" The bodyguard froze.

His chin dropped to his chest. "Sir… didn't you personally watch us throw Madam into the sea?" The whiskey glass shattered against the hardwood.

Julian grabbed the man by the collar, slamming him into the doorframe. "You idiot!

I told you to pull her out as soon as I brought Vanessa inside!" His hands shook as he ripped his phone from his pocket.

Before he could dial, the screen lit up with an incoming call from his assistant. Julian hit answer.

The assistant's voice bled through the speaker, crisp and echoing in the dead silent room. "Boss, the hospital just called. The bloodwork came back.

Madam is pregnant." Julian stopped breathing. "Also… is Madam with you? The coast guard just pulled a body from the bay.

They're looking for family to identify the remains…" Chapter 6