The afternoon sky over the capital abruptly turned a deep, heavy gray, unleashing a torrential downpour that soaked the bustling asphalt streets. Inside a contemporary art cafe styled with warm wooden tones tucked away in a quiet corner of the city, Aileen sat alone near a large glass window overlooking the street outside. Before her, a cup of hot chocolate billowed a thin ribbon of steam, though her attention was not on the drink at all.

Her thoughts were still consumed by the legal documents regarding her late father’s company, which she had just sorted out with the family lawyer a few hours earlier. Her opening move had proceeded smoothly. Yet, beneath the satisfaction of that minor victory, a single visage kept flickering through her mind—the face of Damian Baskara.

Aileen recalled the final gaze at her funeral, remembering how that cold man had knelt and wept over her grave. Every time that image surfaced, her chest grew tight with a profound, overwhelming wave of guilt.

"How foolish I was back then... discarding a man as noble as him for a monster disguised as a husband," Aileen murmured softly, her fingers tightening around the warm cup before her.

Suddenly, the gentle chime of the cafe door rang out, signaling someone had just stepped in from the driving rain. A man draped in a dark gray suit with a long trench coat damp at the shoulders walked inside. He lowered his umbrella, ruffled his slightly wet dark hair, and lifted his face.

Aileen’s heartbeat instantly came to a dead stop.

That figure... Damian.

Damian Baskara stood there in his imposing, upright posture. His sharp, cold gaze swept across the room before locking directly onto the table where Aileen sat alone.

Damian’s footsteps halted dead in the middle of the room. His breath caught sharply. Under the cafe's dim, amber lighting, he stared at the woman sitting by the window—the woman whom, for the past three years, he had only been able to reach in nightmares and at a cold gravesite on a green hillside.

Aileen.

No longer the lifeless Aileen with a body caked in blood at the bottom of a ravine, but an Aileen who lived, breathed, and gazed back at him with tear-filled, melancholic eyes.

Unconsciously, Damian strode forward in hurried steps, as though terrified the vision would vanish if he blinked for too long.

Aileen slowly rose from her chair. As the distance between them narrowed to just a few paces, the emotional defenses she had carefully built since morning crumbled entirely. Tears spilled unbidden from the corners of her eyes, silently tracing paths down her cheeks. She spotted the small graze across Damian's knuckles—the exact same injury he had sustained when he desperately tore open a car door to cradle her lifeless body at the bottom of the ravine that fateful night.

"Damian..." Aileen whispered, her voice trembling violently, barely audible over the roaring rain pounding against the glass.

Damian stopped right in front of Aileen. The man’s breathing came in ragged gasps, his broad chest rising and falling as he fought an immense wave of emotion. He stared intensely at every inch of Aileen's face, searching for lingering trauma from the fatal crash that had stolen her life in their previous timeline.

"You're... crying?" Damian's voice sounded hoarse, fraught with profound longing, heartache, and relief all melting into one.

Aileen shook her head gently, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand as a small sob escaped her lips. "I'm alright, Damian... I'm just... so grateful to see you alive again."

Hearing those words, Damian’s pupils constricted instantly. His heart hammered wildly. That sentence wasn't a casual greeting; it was a secret confession from someone who shared the exact same memories of death in the past. Damian realized he wasn't the only one hurled back in time—Aileen had experienced a rebirth as well.

"So... you remember too?" Damian asked in an intensely quiet whisper, ensuring no one else could overhear.

Aileen looked up, meeting Damian's sharp, tear-glossed eyes. She nodded slowly. "I remember everything, Damian... I remember what it felt like to fall into that ravine, and I remember... how you wept over me."

Hearing that honesty, Damian’s final defenses shattered. Disregarding the stares of a few cafe patrons nearby, Damian stepped forward and pulled Aileen straight into his warm, tight embrace.

Aileen gasped softly, but a second later, she returned the hug, burying her face against Damian's broad chest while clutching tightly at the fabric of his gray suit. Enfolded in that embrace, Aileen experienced a shelter she had never once known during her five years with Rehan. This was the safest place in the entire world.

"Fool..." Damian whispered near Aileen’s ear, his voice trembling as he fought back tears. "Why were you so careless in the past life? Why did you let that bastard destroy you?"

"I was lost, Damian..." Aileen sobbed softly, her tears dampening Damian's shirt. "I was a foolish woman deceived by false kindness..."

"Hey, look at me," Damian slowly pulled back from the hug, his warm hands cupping Aileen's cheeks with utmost tenderness. His thumbs meticulously swept away the residual tears on her cheeks. Damian's gaze was utterly devoted, overflowing with a fiercely protective instinct as he looked at the woman before him, who now appeared far more fragile yet infinitely captivating in his eyes. "In this life, every single tear you shed has been paid back in full. You aren't alone anymore."

Aileen stared into the depths of Damian's eyes, feeling a genuine warmth wash over her to mend the fractures in her heart. "But Rehan and Clara... they planned everything. I won't let them get away with it."

"Let them play around with their lies a little longer," Damian said with a cold, lethal, crooked smile. "Because I am the one who will ensure their ruin comes crashing down right at your feet."

Aileen froze, feeling her heartbeat race faster—not out of fear, but because of the overwhelming warmth offered by the man before her. She nodded slowly, agreeing to the lethal alliance newly forged between them.

The evening grew darker, and the rain outside gradually subsided. Aileen glanced down for a moment, adjusted her coat, and prepared to turn and bid her farewell so their association wouldn't arouse suspicion from Rehan's spies.

However, before Aileen could take a step away, a warm, firm hand suddenly caught her wrist with a gentle yet inescapable grip.

Aileen looked up, finding Damian gazing at her with a blazing look of absolute sincerity and unyielding steel.

Damian's face drew slowly closer, until his whisper sounded crystal clear and utterly spellbinding in Aileen's ear:

"This time... I will never let anyone hurt you, Aileen. No matter what happens."

Aileen's heart pounded erratically. That touch, that look, and the absolute vow spoken by Damian caused every remaining wall around her heart to collapse entirely. She realized that in this second life, she hadn't only returned for vengeance—she had returned to find the true love she had once been too foolish to ignore.