Chapter 5

I was silent, then shook my head.

Their eyes immediately flickered with frustration and despair.

Hailey even started crying. "I don't want to die! Should we just run away?"

Serria snapped. "How can we run? Alex's power is immense. We'd be caught no matter how far we ran."

Chloe made up her mind. "It's only four hours until dawn. Running away might at least give us a few more days to live, better than dying instantly."

But I changed the subject abruptly, my voice firm. "We can't run."

"We definitely have to marry. And, I'll be the one marrying him."

Chloe looked at me in disbelief. "I hate you, but you died so horribly in the last life, have you forgotten?"

Serria frowned. "If you're still a love-struck idiot now, I'm seriously going to doubt if I was ever too good to you."

The massive diamond ring, worth hundreds of millions, still sat on the table.

If Chloe wore it, she'd be beaten senseless and thrown into the basement, her face infected and festering until she died.

If Hailey wore it, she'd be pushed down the stairs, her body shattered from multiple fractures, dying in agonizing pain.

If Serria wore it, she'd be drowned in the bathtub, her body swollen beyond recognition before being returned to the Winslow family.

And if I wore the ring, my death would be the most excruciating.

To punish me, the insolent mistress, Alex had stabbed me twenty times. None of the wounds were immediately fatal.

Blood slowly drained from my body, my warmth gradually fading.

This sensation of life slowly ebbing away brought me unimaginable terror and despair, like a slow torture.

It was so horrifying that even my three archenemies, upon seeing my corpse, felt pity for me.

The brilliantly polished, rounded facets of the diamond gleamed, yet they were our execution block.

But I walked over. Without hesitation, I put on the ring.

"The danger is real. But this is the only way for us all to survive!"

Hailey looked at me in disbelief. "What did you find out?"

Of course, I did. Telling them the truth would make tomorrow's plan more likely to succeed.

But if my suspicion was right, it was far too bizarre and terrifying. I couldn't drag them all into it.

I shook my head. "Sorry, not yet."

Chloe's expression was grave as she asked. "Tell us, what do you need us to do?"

I lowered my gaze. "I need you to attend the wedding as usual, pretending you know nothing."

Serria fiercely furrowed her brow. "You'll be stabbed to death after the wedding, and you want us to act as if nothing happened?"

The three of them looked at me with deep concern, now completely on my side.

I remembered all the things they used to do to me. They were merely petty squabbles over small sums of money, never threatening my life.

But the man I deeply loved and trusted had brutally tortured me to death on our wedding night.

I took a deep breath, and decided to tell them the truth.

"When I went to see Alex just now, he suddenly grabbed my hand and kissed its back."

"That very detail made me suddenly realize who the woman he loves is!"

"This person is indeed among the four of us. It's someone we would absolutely never guess. She is..."