My Wedding Night, Her Vengeance

My wedding night was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

Instead, my fiancée, Chloe Vance, brought a dead man to our bed – Liam, her adored junior developer.

"Kneel," she commanded, her voice chillingly devoid of the warmth I had once foolishly sought.

I knelt on a bed of broken circuits and shattered motherboards, agonizingly sharp against my skin.

She forced me to apologize ten thousand times to a corpse, accusing me of stealing Liam's success and driving him to his death.

But it was all a lie; I had simply won the AI competition, a prize that was meant to be hers and Liam's.

She injected me with a toxic performance-enhancer, amplifying every sensation into agony.

Then, she unleashed a torrent of anonymous hackers, forcing me to watch as they systematically cyber-assaulted and dismantled my entire digital life.

She recorded it all, crafting a narrative of me as a cheating scumbag, a monster who had destroyed an innocent man.

The world believed her, and the public shame, coupled with vicious online attacks, tragically killed my parents.

Chloe moved swiftly, seizing my family's tech empire, the company my father had built from nothing.

I died in that room, a broken man, humiliated to death.

But then, I woke up.

I was back at the beginning, a year before the competition's end, the AI prototype humming softly on my desk.

This time, I wouldn't be a sacrifice for their twisted love.

I would not win; I would let Liam have the victory, and Chloe.

All I wanted was to live.

I remember the end of my first life with perfect clarity. The memories are not faded, they are sharp, and they burn.

On what was supposed to be my wedding night, my bride, Chloe Vance, did not come to our bed alone. She brought a body with her. It was Liam, her favorite junior developer, the one she had always adored. His corpse was cold on the white sheets between us.

"Kneel," she commanded.

Her voice was flat, without any of the warmth I had once foolishly hoped to hear.

I knelt on a bed of broken circuits and shattered motherboards she had spread on the floor. The sharp edges dug into my knees, but the pain was nothing compared to the cold horror of the scene.

"Apologize to him," she said. "Ten thousand times."

So I did. I knelt and apologized to a dead man while my wife watched.

"If you hadn' t tampered with Liam' s AI, he would have been the first to develop the most advanced one!" she screamed at me, her face twisted with a grief that was not for me, but for the man lying on our bed. "You stole his place! You stole him from me!"

I had won the competition.

Her father, the tech mogul Richard Vance, had set the terms himself. He had hand-picked thirteen of the brightest young minds, myself included, to be his apprentices. Each of us was given a prototype AI core. The challenge was simple: whoever could evolve the AI to its most advanced state would not only become his lead developer but would also be engaged to his only daughter, Chloe.

We were all designated fiancés, rivals in tech and in love.

I had loved Chloe since we were children. I won the competition for her.

My victory, however, led to Liam' s suicide. He couldn't stand the failure. That was the story Chloe believed. That was the story she used to justify my destruction.

"You separated Liam and me forever, making me lose my beloved," she whispered, her voice a venomous hiss as she leaned close to me on that horrible night. "Now go to hell and apologize to him!"

Her guards held me down. She injected me with a drug, a performance-enhancer made from toxic code. It didn't make me stronger, it just made me hyper-aware, amplifying every sensation until it was agony.

Every half hour, she sent a random hacker into the room. They were anonymous figures behind screens, their identities hidden, but their actions were brutally intimate. They used their skills to violate my digital presence, my finances, my very identity, while I was tied down, forced to watch my life be dismantled. They cyber-assaulted me, humiliating me piece by piece until there was nothing left.

Chloe recorded everything.

She uploaded the videos, crafting a narrative that I was a cheating scumbag, a monster who had driven an innocent man to his death. The world believed her.

My parents couldn't bear the public shame and the vicious online attacks. They died from the shock, their hearts giving out under the strain. With them gone, Chloe moved in swiftly, seizing my family' s tech empire, the company my father had built from nothing. She took everything.

I died in that room, a broken man, humiliated to death.

But then, I woke up.

I was back at the beginning, a year before the competition's end. The AI prototype was on my desk, humming softly. The memories of my previous life were not a dream, they were a warning. A roadmap of a hell I had to avoid.

This time, I would not be a sacrifice for their twisted love. This time, I would not win.

So I did the one thing that could change everything. I found Liam' s prototype AI, a device nearly identical to my own. And in the dead of night, when no one was watching, I secretly swapped it with mine. My advanced, meticulously crafted AI, a product of my genuine talent, was now in his hands. He would get the credit for my work.

Let him have the victory. Let him have Chloe.

All I wanted was to live.

This deep bond they shared would no longer be my death sentence.

The day the competition results were announced, the main hall of Vance Technologies was buzzing with tension. Richard Vance stood on the stage, the final report in his hand. Chloe stood beside him, her expression a careful mask of neutrality, but her eyes kept flicking towards one person in the crowd.

Not me.

"The winner," Richard announced, his voice echoing in the silent room, "is Liam."

A wave of murmurs rippled through the other eleven apprentices. I saw their faces, a mix of shock, disappointment, and envy.

"Liam? I thought for sure it would be Ethan," one of them whispered to another, just loud enough for me to hear. "Ethan has always been the best."

"Please," the other scoffed. "Chloe has been wrapped around Liam' s little finger for years. She probably convinced her old man to rig the results."

"She' s always hated Ethan, even though they grew up together. He' s like a piece of old furniture to her."

Their words were careless, but they were true.

Liam stepped forward, a look of humble disbelief on his face that was so well-rehearsed it was almost convincing. He walked onto the stage, his eyes shining with fake tears.

Chloe' s mask broke. A brilliant, genuine smile spread across her face. She rushed to Liam' s side, taking his hand and holding it up for everyone to see.

"He did it! I knew he could do it!" she exclaimed, her voice full of pride and affection.

Liam looked from her to her father. "Mr. Vance," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "Does this mean... the engagement...?"

Chloe answered for her father, her grip on Liam' s hand tightening. "Of course, it does. We' ll be married, just as planned."

I stood in the crowd, a ghost at the feast. I felt nothing. No, that' s a lie. I felt a profound sense of relief, a quiet calm spreading through me. The future I had dreaded was no longer mine. It was theirs.

I remembered all the years I had spent chasing after Chloe. I was the designated "childhood fiancé," a title that meant nothing to her but had defined my entire life. I had learned coding to impress her, joined her father' s company to be near her, and poured all my talent into this competition to win her. In their eyes, I was just the persistent, annoying boy next door who wouldn' t take a hint.

Richard Vance' s eyes found mine in the crowd. He looked confused, his brow furrowed. He started to walk towards me, pushing past the reporters who were now swarming Chloe and Liam.

"Ethan," he said, his voice low and serious. "I don' t understand. I reviewed the final data logs. The winning AI showed a level of sophistication, a coding signature... it was yours. I' d recognize your work anywhere."

I just shook my head.

"I was wrong, Uncle Richard," I said, using the familiar title he' d allowed me since I was a boy.

He wasn' t just my mentor. He was my father' s best friend. He had promised my parents he would look after me after they were gone. In my last life, he had been too late. This time, his confusion was a sign that my plan was working.

"You' re the most talented developer I' ve ever seen, more than your father, even," he insisted. "This result makes no sense."

"Perhaps Liam is just better than we thought," I replied, my voice even. "It' s his win. Let him have it."

I needed Richard to believe I had failed. If he dug too deep, if he proved the AI was mine, I would be right back where I started-engaged to Chloe, a target for her obsession, and on a collision course with death.