His Perfect Wife Died The Day He Made Her Kneel Chapter 01

His Perfect Wife Died The Day He Made Her Kneel Chapter 01

Three years into their marriage, Chloe Sterling found herself thrown into the basement for the ninety-ninth time. One side of her face was horribly swollen, and a nasty bruise ringed her eye. She tried to struggle, but the bodyguards brutally pinned her down into a chair.

“Last month, you snuck into a club three times and went street racing once, leaving you bedridden for an entire week. Do you just never learn?”

The disappointment on Julian Vance’s face was suffocating. “When are you finally going to behave yourself and act like a proper Mrs. Vance?”

Chloe rattled the heavy cuffs binding her wrists and offered a faint, mocking smile. “Is this the ‘privilege’ of being Mrs. Vance? I’d have more dignity living as a stray dog on the street.”

His eyes instantly darkened, his chest heaving with fury. “If you hadn’t broken the rules, I wouldn’t have had to lay a hand on you!”

“You are my wife—Julian Vance’s wife! You represent the face of the Vance family, not some some low-class club girl off the streets who can run around doing whatever she pleases!”

“Rules, rules, always your damn rules!” Chloe snarled through gritted teeth, her usually pristine face contorting with rare fury. “I just want to live my own life! I refuse to be a mindless puppet whose only purpose is to uphold the Vance family decorum!”

Julian stared deep into Chloe’s eyes with a cold, piercing gaze for a long moment. “The position of Mrs. Vance can belong to you, but it can just as easily belong to anyone else.”

The moment he turned to leave, Chloe’s defiance shattered, and she pleaded desperately, “Fine! Just don’t abandon me. I’ll try. I’ll do whatever it takes to be the perfect Mrs. Vance.”

From that day on, Chloe quit racing, stopped going to clubs, followed every rule, and meticulously studied high-society etiquette.

Yet, during a grand banquet, she finally lost her composure and slapped a woman who wouldn’t stop mocking her.

But when her father, Robert Sterling, stepped forward and introduced that very woman as his daughter, Chloe froze in sheer horror.

Julian’s expression hardened instantly. The reprimand on the tip of his tongue died away, replaced by a chillingly calm facade.

“She has always been rebellious and lacks proper upbringing,” Julian said smoothly. “It is my failure to discipline her.”

He turned back to Chloe. “Kneel down and apologize to her.”

It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck Chloe out of the blue. Staggering backward, she stared at him, trying to process the fact that he was actually ordering her to humiliate herself.

Three years of marriage, five years of loving him—and with a single sentence, he had reduced all her efforts to absolute nothingness.

She ran out of the venue, completely blind to her surroundings, and stepped right into the path of an oncoming truck. She died on impact.

When she opened her eyes again, she realized she had been reborn.

***

She had returned to the days right before her wedding.

Chloe looked up, staring blankly at her dazed reflection in the mirror. Taking several deep breaths, she silently balled her hands into fists.

In this life, she would live solely for herself.

While her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, Robert Sterling suddenly burst into the room.

She instinctively wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes.

But he had already noticed them, his gaze locking onto her slightly red, swollen eyes.

“Did you two have another fight?”

Chloe turned her head away, giving him the cold shoulder without a word.

Robert frowned, his voice laced with a hint of irritation. “Was it you throwing a tantrum again? I’ve told you a thousand times, you cannot keep acting so spoiled and willful…”

She let out a bitter, mocking laugh, turning a freezing glare back toward him. “Demanding answers without even knowing what happened… Tell me, is he the one carrying the Sterling name, or am I?”

Robert’s brows knitted into a tight knot, his voice dropping into a stern whisper. “How insolent! Do you think I don’t know how exceptional Julian is? Countless women are begging for a chance to marry him! Instead of being grateful, you oppose him at every turn. If he completely gives up on you one day, you’ll be drowning in regret!”

Looking at his expression of utter disappointment, Chloe replied casually, “Is wealth the only metric for excellence in your eyes?”

Robert flew into a towering rage, slamming his hand hard against the vanity table. “What the hell is wrong with you, girl?! Everything I do is for the sake of this family!”

Tired of dancing around him, Chloe cut straight to the chase. “Is it really for this family, or is it to ensure a more comfortable life for your illegitimate daughter hidden away outside?”

Robert’s face paled instantly. His eyes widened in absolute shock, his entire body freezing solid.

“My mother must have been completely blind to marry a treacherous hypocrite like you,” Chloe sneered.

Her smile was ice-cold, her fingernails digging deep into her palms. “Cheating behind my mother’s back and even raising a daughter out of it… that mistress of yours certainly knew how to secure her position.”

The vivid memory of her previous life—where Robert had shielded that woman at the banquet while furiously berating her—made Chloe’s chest tighten with a sharp, stabbing pain.

Robert’s gaze turned complicated before he quickly regained his composure. “Since you already know, I won’t deny it. In the future, she will also be your—”

Chloe didn’t let him finish. Pointing directly at the door, she shrieked at the top of her lungs, “I don’t want to hear it! Get out!”

Slam!

Behind the firmly shut door, her face drained of all emotion as she began to calculate her next moves.

In her past life, Julian had cast her aside because of the illegitimate daughter’s refined, elegant demeanor. He would undoubtedly fall for her again in this timeline.

Since that was the case, she would gladly bring them together and claim her own freedom.

After leaving the house, Chloe’s first stop was to sort out her paperwork to move abroad. Once that was done, she drove straight toward the address of the mistress and her daughter from her memories.