I Gave Him My Heart, and He Took My Fiancé’s LifeChapter 1
Five years had already slipped by since the day my fiancé, Adrian, died in a tragic accident. He wasn’t only the man I loved for the first time—he was also my personal bodyguard. He had promised, again and again, that nothing would ever harm me. Yet in the end, he was the one who disappeared, leaving me behind with nothing but grief.
Still, his death did not end in complete emptiness. Adrian’s family chose to donate his heart, refusing to let it be buried along with him. The recipient was Dominic Blackwood—the only heir of an influential family, and Adrian’s longtime friend.
It felt cruel and comforting all at once.
Knowing that Adrian’s heart continued to beat inside another man’s chest became the reason I agreed when Dominic asked me to move in with him. There was no engagement, no vows, no white dress waiting at the end of a chapel aisle. Only quiet words meant to soothe two broken people.
“Stay,” he told me back then. “Even without marriage. Stay with me. That way… you’ll still be close to his heart.”
So I said yes.
I convinced myself that if I remained by Dominic’s side, if I rested my head against his chest and listened closely at night, I might still feel traces of Adrian there. Maybe love didn’t truly die—maybe it simply changed forms.
Five years passed like that.
And five years can do many things to a heart.
Dominic never rushed me. He never pressured me. He stayed gentle, attentive, endlessly patient. He made sure I ate. He listened when I cried. He teased me when I smiled too little. Somewhere along the way, without my permission, my heart betrayed its grief.
I fell in love again.
Not because of the heart beating in his chest—but because of Dominic himself.
That was why, on the night of our fifth anniversary, I finally gathered the courage I had been holding back for years. I took out the silver ring he once gave me—a simple promise ring I had never dared to answer—and slid it onto my finger. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
I waited until we were standing on the cruise deck, the ocean stretching endlessly beneath the glow of warm lights.
“Dominic,” I murmured, barely trusting my own voice. “I’m ready.”
He turned to look at me, surprise flickering across his face.