He Chose His First Love, Now He Begs For My Mercy

My ex-husband, Julian, and I used to be renowned medical philanthropists in our past life. Yet on his deathbed, he held a massive press conference. He claimed that I was a venomous monster who manipulated his heart and drove his first love, Vivian, to suicide. Right after spewing those lies, he swallowed a fatal dose of pills on live camera, using his own death to brand me as an evil villain forever. That was when I realized he had never once gotten over Vivian. Given a second chance at life, we both woke up back in our college days. Without hesitation, Julian flung my hand away and ran toward his darling Vivian. I watched them disappear, turned around, and walked away. From that moment on, our lives were two parallel lines that would never intersect again. Ten years later, we crossed paths at an elite medical charity gala in Seattle. He was now a rising tech entrepreneur, with Vivian clinging adoringly to his arm. Seeing me in what looked like an unfitting setting, he couldn't resist sneering. "Stop obsessing over me, Chloe. Even if you waited another ten years, I would never love you." I completely ignored him, reaching under a table to pull out my seven-year-old son, who was stuffing his face with powdered donuts. Julian's eyes turned bloodshot in an instant, and he grabbed my wrist tightly. "Are you doing this just to spite me? You swore you'd only ever love me in this life!" I never imagined I would see Julian again in this lifetime. At the medical charity gala in Seattle, he stood amidst the crowd with Vivian on his arm, flashing polished, effortless smiles. There wasn't a trace of the awkward boy he once was. The people surrounding them showered him with flattering compliments. "Mr. Vance, your future is limitless! Landing such a massive multinational medical contract at your age is astonishing!" "And this must be your lovely wife beside you? You two look absolutely stunning together." Vivian cast an affectionate glance at Julian and said sweetly, "We're actually getting married by the end of the year. If everyone is free, we'd love to have you at our wedding." A wave of congratulations broke out. Then someone casually chimed in, "I heard you two have been together for ten years. How come you're only tying the knot now?" Honestly, I was a little curious about that, too. In our past life, Julian loved Vivian enough to die for her. The minute we were both reborn, he dumped me on the spot. I honestly thought they would've walked down the aisle right after graduation. I didn't expect them to still be unmarried after all these years. At the question, Julian's face stiffened for a fraction of a second before he smoothly masked it with a polite chuckle. "A man needs a stable career before building a home. I want to give Vivian the finest life possible." He gazed at Vivian with tender affection dripping from his eyes. Back when we were together in our past life, I asked him countless times when we would finally get married. It wasn't until his family cornered him with unbearable pressure that he reluctantly agreed to make me his wife. Turns out, love and indifference are as clear as day and night. Just as I turned to leave, my peripheral vision caught a small, familiar silhouette. My instincts kicked in, and I hurried after it. Crash! Champagne splattered all over the floor. The waiter holding the tray glared at me, his face twisted in annoyance. "Where on earth did you crawl out from? Don't you have eyes?!" His voice was loud enough to turn every head in the immediate area. The moment he caught sight of my face, Julian froze in shock. "Chloe? What are you doing here?" I lowered my head and apologized to the waiter, explaining, "I'm looking for someone." A guest asked curiously, "You know her, Mr. Vance?" Julian's grip on his glass tightened, and his expression darkened. "Yeah. Just an ex." Someone nearby couldn't help blabbing, "You've been with Vivian for ten years—I assumed you guys were together the whole time!" The smile on Vivian's face faded slightly. She grabbed Julian's hand and brushed it off with a delicate shrug. "We were young and had a brief falling out. Everyone takes a wrong turn when they're young, don't they?" Julian said nothing. His gaze swept over me before landing on the waiter. "Put the mess on my tab. Let her go." He stood there, perfectly calm. Aside from that initial glance, he didn't care to spare me another second of his attention. Clearly, he wanted to prove to Vivian that he had drawn a hard line against his "wrong turn." The waiter immediately nudged me toward the exit. "Mr. Vance is being generous by cleaning up your mess. There won't be a second time." He took in my wrinkled oversized tracksuit with utter disgust. "This is no place for someone like you. Get out, now." I pulled out of his grip and explained calmly, "I told you, I'm looking for someone. Once I find him, I'll leave on my own." The waiter rolled his eyes with a sneer. "I've seen plenty of gold-diggers like you trying to crash high-society parties. You think you belong in a place like this? Leave right now, or I'm calling security!" "Wait." Julian's voice cut in from behind him. He looked at me with a heavy, patronizing sigh. "She came here looking for me. Let me handle her." Vivian stepped right up beside him, hooking her arm around his neck in a possessive display. "Chloe, Julian and I are about to get married. Anyone with an ounce of self-respect wouldn't show up chasing their ex like this." Julian's jaw tightened, and he couldn't help but lecture me. "Stop obsessing over me, Chloe. Even if you waited ten years, I still wouldn't fall for you." "Being with you back then was a mistake. Now that we've both been given a clean slate to correct our past, I suggest you let go and move on." Vivian scanned me up and down, mockingly curling her lips. "Honestly, I don't blame you for coming after him. He's a prominent tech CEO now; people are always lining up to kiss his feet." Perhaps my wrinkled clothes bolstered her superiority, because she smirked even harder. "You graduated from an Ivy League school, didn't you? How on earth did you end up such a miserable wreck? If I were you, I'd be too embarrassed to step outside!" Julian frowned. He pulled out his phone, his tone edged with impatience. "If you feel I wronged you when we split, I can wire you a breakup settlement right now." "Is half a million dollars enough?" His thumbs tapped the screen twice, and then he froze. "You blocked me on SnapChat?"I was genuinely baffled. Why was he making such a big deal out of this? Isn't deleting and blocking an ex the most normal thing in the world? Besides, I had a very possessive husband at home. If he ever found out I kept my ex's contact info, he'd sulk for days. "Didn't you say you never wanted to see or hear from me again after the breakup?" Julian's face turned icy. He parted his lips to argue, but no words came out. I added in a flat tone, "Keep your money. I don't need it." Rejected again and again, Julian's expression turned sour. He sneered, "What's with the tough act? If you weren't looking so utterly pathetic right now, I wouldn't waste my breath talking to you." Vivian stroked his arm in soothing mock-gentleness. "Oh, come on, babe. She did go to a top university after all. Seeing her fallen so low, we should just treat this as charity." "Vivian, you're always too kind," Julian scoffed, his tone dripping with disdain. "Why bother with a woman like this? Look at the state of her. Get lost, Chloe." He sounded so arrogant, conveniently forgetting that ten years ago, he was a thousand times more pathetic than I was. In our past life, Julian's family disapproved of Vivian because she was a manipulative social climber fueled by jealousy. The very first time I met Julian in college, he had just dragged Vivian out of a shady nightclub, while his parents threatened to cut him off if he didn't break things off with her. During the darkest period of his life, I was the one who stood by him and pulled him back onto his feet. He was passionate about biotech and pharmaceutical development, so I spent my entire startup savings to purchase tens of thousands of dollars worth of lab equipment for him. Freezing winters and boiling summers, I carried heavy testing kits and equipment behind him, doing whatever it took just to see him smile again. Who would've thought that Julian was the one who confessed his feelings to me first? I knew his past with Vivian. I had seen him zoning out while staring at old photos of them on his phone. So when he asked me out, I asked him very seriously: Did he truly let her go? He held me tight back then, his voice unwavering. "I never truly loved her. I only treated her as a close friend. The one I love is you, Chloe. Please be with me." We dated for seven whole years. Even his fraternity brothers were stunned. "He used to be head over heels for Vivian. We honestly didn't think you two would last this long." What none of them knew was that behind closed doors, Julian avoided my questions about marriage countless times. "Chloe, I'm just not the marrying type. Can't we just stay like this forever?" It wasn't until his parents gave him an ultimatum that he finally caved and agreed to wed. Yet on our honeymoon, the news broke: Vivian had swallowed pills and committed suicide. Julian didn't rush to the hospital. Instead, he called a live press conference. In front of the blinding cameras, his eyes burned red and his voice shook with hatred. "Chloe tricked me. She drove my first love, Vivian, to her grave. She is an evil, calculating monster." "Vivian left a note saying Chloe constantly humiliated and threatened her, telling her she was trash who didn't deserve me." "Today, I'm using my life to expose Chloe's true colors to the world." With that, he downed a handful of pills on live television. As he collapsed, I saw a triumphant smile curling on his lips. The suicide letter he left behind was filled with passionate declarations of love for Vivian. Not a single word was addressed to me. At the very end, he wrote with trembling ink: Vivian, my heart only ever belonged to you. Wait for me. I'm coming to find you. My love for him burned down to cold, dead ashes at that exact second. So, when we woke up reborn and Julian demanded a breakup, I didn't fight it. Because I knew there was no stopping a fool determined to ruin himself. I watched them get back together, deleted every trace of his contact info, and believed our paths would never cross again. Yet here we were. I made a move to leave, but Vivian wasn't about to let me off that easily. She wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone. "You think you can just talk back to us dressed like a hobo? What an absolute joke!" "Tell you what, I can hook you up with a gig here as a busser. If you learn how to serve people with a smile, you could easily clear five figures a year." Someone eager to brown-nose her chimed in with a laugh, "This is a luxury downtown Seattle hotel! Working here is a privilege someone like you couldn't dream of. You'd better thank Miss Vivian!" Trapped in the small crowd, I sighed helplessly. "Thanks, but I already have a job." "I work in pharmaceutical research." The moment the words "pharmaceutical research" left my lips, Julian's gaze snapped back to me. His eyes flickered with complicated emotions, and his lips parted. Looking away, he said coldly, "How much can lab research possibly make? You can't eat your hobbies for dinner. Out of courtesy for our past, I can set you up with a decent corporate position." I blinked, instantly realizing he had gotten the wrong idea.My passion for pharmaceutical research had nothing to do with Julian. In fact, the moment I read that suicide note and saw his live broadcast in our past life, my heart was already dead. It was just that when I woke up after being reborn, I realized my past self had already spent my startup money on specialized lab gear. Since I couldn't get a fair price reselling it on eBay, I decided to keep it and use it myself. As it turned out, I fell deeply in love with drug formulation and biotech research. In this life, I wasn't doing it to please a man. I was doing it entirely for myself. Once again, I politely declined Julian with distant courtesy. "My 'hobby' pays my bills just fine. Thank you for the concern." Seeing me refuse his "benevolence," Julian's face darkened with irritation. "I'm giving you a lifeline and you throw it back in my face? Don't come crawling back crying for help later!" I remained silent. I didn't bother telling him the truth. Today, my biotech patents and medical AI diagnostic frameworks were licensed to some of the biggest pharmaceutical conglomerates in the world. My annual royalties weren't a dime less than what his entire company made. Of course, if I said that out loud, he'd probably just accuse me of boasting. After all, standing here in a wrinkled, dusty tracksuit didn't exactly scream "billion-dollar scientist." I had my son to blame for that. He begged me to build sandcastles with him outside, and the second I turned my back, he sneaked down to the banquet floor. I chased after him without even having time to change. Just as I was about to walk away, the waiter suddenly shouted, pointing at my chest. "A designer piece? Where the hell did you dig up a limited-edition top like that? Don't tell me you're a maid here who stole it from a guest's suite!" I frowned. "Has it ever occurred to you that it's mine?" Vivian burst into a mocking laugh. "Yours? Can you even afford the sales tax on that? What wealthy person runs around dressed like a disheveled mess?" She ostentatiously pinched her nose. "It's so dirty! You probably stole it straight out of a laundry basket and put it on!" Julian stared at me, his brow furrowed so tight you could crack a nut between his eyebrows. "Chloe, have you really sunk this low? Are you still going to stubbornly lie?" I was exhausted from their nonsense and turned directly to the waiter. "If you truly believe I stole this, feel free to call the police right now." I knew what he was doing—he was just trying to suck up to Vivian by kicking me while I was down. Sure enough, his bravado instantly deflated, and he muttered under his breath, "If it weren't for the VIP guests staying at the hotel today, and the risk of disturbing them, I would've had you cuffed already." Vivian's eyes lit up, and she eagerly jumped in. "You mean the Hayes heir, right? I heard he's vacationing in Seattle with his family and staying right upstairs!" Julian nodded, naked ambition gleaming in his eyes. "If our current pipeline could secure backing from the Hayes family, our company would skyrocket." The name "Hayes" was like tossing water into boiling oil, instantly sparking frantic whispers across the ballroom. "Isn't that why we all came to this gala tonight? To get a glimpse of Mr. Hayes? His family literally owns this entire property." "I heard he got married and had a son in his early twenties. Wonder which billionaire's daughter managed to land him." While everyone was buzzing with gossip, the banquet manager burst through the double doors, dripping with sweat, followed by a frantic security team. "Excuse me, everyone! Has anyone seen a seven-year-old boy around here? About this tall?" The manager wiped his forehead anxiously, his eyes scanning every corner of the room. Someone sharp-witted quickly connected the dots. "Is that... Mr. Hayes's son? I heard the boy is turning seven this year!" The room erupted with energy. Everyone started searching, desperate to find the kid. After all, returning the lost heir was a one-way ticket to getting on the Hayes family's good side. Julian and Vivian immediately joined the search, leaving me alone. Looking across the chaotic hall, I walked straight over to the dessert table. Sure enough, huddled underneath the white tablecloth was my son, his face completely smeared with white powdered sugar. I crossed my arms and leveled him with a cold glare. "Get out here." Leo gasped, hugging the ornate table leg for dear life. "No!" Just as I reached down to yank him out, Vivian appeared out of nowhere, blocking me like a self-righteous crusader. "Chloe! What do you think you're doing?!" "Even if you're desperate to crawl into the Hayes family's good graces, you don't lay your filthy hands on a little kid!" Julian rushed over, his eyes dripping with disgust and disappointment. "Chloe, I never imagined you would sink so low for money and status." The waiter grabbed the manager's arm, tattling loudly, "Sir, it's this woman! She sneaked into the party and even stole clothes from a guest!" The manager's face turned pale with fury, and he signaled the guards. "Grab this thief and haul her straight to the police station! If she scares Mr. Hayes's son, you're all fired!" A triumphant smirk flashed across Vivian's lips. She bent down, putting on her sweetest, most angelic smile for the little boy under the table. "Come here, sweetie. Come to Auntie Vivian. Auntie will protect you." My son didn't even look at her. Under everyone's stunned gazes, he crawled out and carefully took my hand. "Mommy... I'm sorry."