Regret Came Too Late

It was supposed to be my wedding day, but my fiancé, Cade, stood in front of the limousine, blocking my way.
“I’m not here for you today.”
I froze, completely lost, as his groomsmen erupted in laughter behind him.
“Game over, boys,” Cade announced, a triumphant smirk on his face. “I won.”
“Damn, Cade, you actually did it. You tamed the ice queen.”
“Pay up,” Cade said to his friends. “Bet money and wedding gifts. I want every cent.”
Then, my sister, Lily, appeared. She was wearing a wedding gown identical to mine. Cade took her hand and helped her into the limousine.
The car sped away. I tried to run after it, but my family swarmed around me, forming a human cage.
My brother, a top-tier actor, blocked my path. “Cade is in love with Lily. He’s marrying her. This is their wedding day, so you will behave.”
My mother, a famous actress, clasped my hand. “Audrey, darling, your sister suffers from severe depression. She’s suicidal. Cade is the only one who can keep her stable. Just… let her have this.”
My father, a billionaire tycoon, just snorted. “You’ve already had eighteen years of the life that should have been hers. Letting her have one man is the least you can do. It’s a bargain, really.”
Then, they had their security drag me back to the house and lock me inside to prevent me from causing a scene at the hotel.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. In fact, I could barely contain the smile spreading across my face.

1
As the bodyguards shoved me into the mansion, a calm, digital voice echoed in my mind.
Host, do you confirm you wish to exit this world via death?
“Confirm.”
Please select your method of death.
“I want to leap from a building. I want to die right in front of Cade and the Blackwood family. I want to scar them for life.”
Generating method of death… Method confirmed. Upon successful death, Host will be rewarded with one hundred million dollars. This selection cannot be changed.
“Confirm.”
This was my twenty-first year in this world, and the third year since Lily, the real heiress, had been found.
I’m a transmigrator. In this life, I was the “fake” daughter of a billionaire, swapped at birth with my “sister,” Lily. I was an orphan in my previous life, so when I first arrived here, I thought I’d won the lottery. I had a loving mother and father, and a brother who protected me from everything.
But that all shattered on my eighteenth birthday, the day my father brought Lily home.
Now, every door and window in the mansion was locked. They’d posted guards to watch me.
“Miss Audrey,” the housekeeper, Mrs. Gable, sneered, brandishing a baseball bat. “You’d best stay put. For your own good.” Her expression was menacing, like a wolf guarding a hen house.
I took two steps toward the door, and a searing pain exploded in my leg as she swung the bat. I collapsed, crying out.
“Miss Lily gave me specific instructions,” she said, looming over me. “If you misbehave, I am to break your legs.”
Suddenly, she screamed at the top of her lungs. “She’s trying to escape! She’s going to ruin the wedding! Stop her!”
Several burly security guards immediately advanced on me, clubs in hand.

2
I scrambled backward in terror. “What are you doing? I’m not running! You can’t just attack me!”
“Oh, we know what you’re thinking, Miss Audrey,” one of them growled. “Even if you’re not running now, you will be later.”
“It’s easier to just break your legs now,” Mrs. Gable added with a vicious smile. “That way, we know you won’t be crashing Miss Lily’s big day.”
“My parents will hear about this!” I yelled, my voice shaking.
“And what will they do?” she laughed. “I’ll just tell them you were trying to escape and fell from the second-story window. They won’t lift a finger.”
“Do it!”
They swarmed me, their clubs rising and falling. I heard the sickening crack of my own bones. My white wedding dress blossomed with crimson, a horrifying sight. But they didn't stop. It was as if their goal wasn’t just to stop me, but to kill me.
“If I die here today, the Blackwoods will destroy you!” I gasped.
“You still think you’re their precious daughter?” Mrs. Gable spat. “You’re just some stray they took in by mistake! They wanted to throw you out the second they found Miss Lily. It was your brother who begged them to keep you. Said they could just treat you like a stray dog!”
“Trying to steal Miss Lily’s fiancé? You don’t deserve to live!”
A horrifying realization dawned on me, and I started to laugh, a broken, hysterical sound. “So this isn’t about the wedding. You’re trying to murder me.”
“An accidental fall during an escape attempt… entirely plausible, don’t you think, Miss Audrey?”
Panic seized me. I could die, but not like this. This wasn't the death I had chosen. What if the system didn’t count it? What if I couldn’t go home?
Fueled by a surge of adrenaline, I lunged forward, tackling the guard in front of me. I crashed into a small altar where my mother had lit a candle for Lily’s well-being. The candle tipped over, its flame instantly catching on the heavy drapery.
The room went up in flames.
“You little bitch! You set the house on fire!”
In the chaos, I dragged my shattered body out of the mansion. The estate was covered in security cameras; they wouldn't dare follow me past the gates.
I stumbled onto the main road, a gruesome sight in my blood-soaked wedding dress, dragging my broken leg. I tried to hail a cab, but car after car swerved around me, the drivers horrified.
Finally, a young woman pulled over, her eyes wide with concern. “Oh my god, do you need help?”
I begged her to take me to the hotel.
The hotel was owned by my father; the staff all knew me. The security guards and front desk clerks stared in shock but didn't dare stop me.
When I reached the entrance to the grand ballroom, my family was there, greeting guests with brilliant, happy smiles.
The moment they saw me, those smiles froze and shattered.

3
This was the wedding of the year, crawling with reporters. The second they saw me, a frenzy of camera flashes blinded me.
My brother stalked toward me. “What are you doing here?” he hissed. “Useless guards, can’t even watch one girl! Look at you! Did you do this to yourself just to ruin this for us? Is this how desperate you are for a headline?”
My mother rushed over, her face a mask of worry. “Audrey, what happened? Is that… is that blood on your dress?”
“Yes, it’s blood. My blood. Lily’s people beat me half to death. I barely escaped.”
My father slapped me, hard. The taste of copper filled my mouth. “You shameless brat! You just can’t stand to see your sister happy, can you?”
My mother grabbed my arm. “Audrey, you said Lily’s people did this?”
My brother pulled her away. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s paint. She’s always been a drama queen, pulling stunts for the cameras!” He seized my wrist and started to drag me away.
I stumbled and fell. As I hit the marble floor, my broken leg was exposed to everyone. A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
The bone of my shin had pierced the skin, a jagged white shard against the bloodied flesh. I had dragged myself here on that leg.
A normal person would have passed out from the pain.
But the system, in its mercy, had activated a pain-dampening protocol. I felt nothing.
My mother covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. “Audrey… oh god, you’re so badly hurt!”
For a second, I saw a flicker of pity in my father’s eyes. “How did you let this happen to yourself?”
Even my brother, who had been spitting venom just moments before, was speechless.
Cade pushed through the crowd and saw me lying there.
“Audrey?”
I lifted my blood-streaked face to look at him. “Perfect timing. I have a few questions for you.”
Lily arrived, a vision of angelic purity in her white gown, her face stained with tears. “Audrey, this is the most important day of my life. Must you destroy it?” she sobbed, her body trembling. “Why do you hate me so much? You’ve already stolen everything that was mine! All I wanted was Cade! Can’t you just let us be happy?”
My brother reached for me. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“Brother!” Lily’s voice was a desperate wail. “The ceremony is about to start! You’re leaving?” She looked at me, her eyes full of poison. “This is just one of her tricks. Do you really believe I would do this to my own sister?”
My brother dropped my hand as if it were on fire.
“Audrey, you are sick,” he spat. “To frame your own sister, you would mutilate yourself like this. Go to the hospital on your own. And don’t worry, the Blackwood family has no use for a cripple. We’ll pay for the best doctors to fix your leg.”
I knew then that nothing I could say would matter. I gritted my teeth and pulled myself to my feet.
“I just have a few things to say. Then I’ll go.”
My eyes found Cade. “Our entire relationship… it was just a bet with your friends, wasn’t it? You never had any real feelings for me. Yes or no?”

First, search for and download the MotoNovel app from Google. Then, open the app and use the code "264751" to read the entire book.