u/GwaiTEN

The Ashford Group went bankrupt, and all the executives ended up in prison.
My father, loyal to old friendships, had pulled strings to save two sons from the Ashford family. But to make it work, he decided they needed to marry into our family instead of the other way around.
I got to choose first, and I picked Damien Ashford—the Ashford family heir, a financial genius who'd been confined to a wheelchair for years due to his illness.
My stepsister, Ashley Brooks, ended up marrying Julian Ashford, the illegitimate son who had severe mental health issues and a violent temper.
After we got married, I spent every penny I had finding doctors to cure Damien's legs. I did everything in my power to help him rebuild the Ashford Group from the ground up.
He made it back to the top again.
But the night before he was supposed to hold our wedding ceremony, he tied me up in an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.
"This is all your fault. You stole Ashley from me. If you'd let her choose me first, Julian never would've killed her. You ruined both of us. You're the one who should die!"
I died in that fire, wearing my wedding dress, watching the flames close in with nothing but despair.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment when my father told us to choose our husbands.
This time, I'd let Ashley choose first.
"Ashley, why don't you go ahead and pick?"
*****
The news was playing footage of all the Ashford Group executives being led into prison.
My father stood in the main hall with two young men, waiting for Ashley and me to choose which one would be her husband and mine.
One was Damien, the Ashford family heir, a financial genius trapped in a wheelchair.
The other was Julian, the illegitimate son rumored to have serious mental health problems.
The chandelier overhead kept swaying, making it hard for me to see clearly.
In my past life, I'd chosen Damien because I thought treating him well would lead to happiness. I spent a fortune hunting down the best doctors to cure his disability and did whatever it took to help him rebuild the Ashford Group.
But on the night before our wedding, he burned me alive in that abandoned house in the middle of nowhere.
The searing pain of the flames still terrified me, and the despair I felt as my body turned to ash wouldn't leave my mind.
I looked over at Damien now. He was exactly the same as he'd been in my previous life, sitting elegantly in his wheelchair, perfectly dressed and composed.
But this time, I noticed something different. His eyes were locked on my stepsister Ashley with an intensity that was impossible to miss.
Ashley's timid voice pulled me back to the present. "Eloise, you should choose first. I'm fine with either one."
Reality finally hit me.
So I really had come back. I'd been reborn to this exact day, the day Ashley manipulated me into choosing a husband.
After the entire Ashford Group got thrown in prison, my dad felt bad for the family and took a huge risk to protect the two Ashford brothers.
But to be safe, he decided they needed to marry into our family instead of the other way around. That way, their business rivals couldn't target them.
Just like my past life, Ashley put on her pitiful act. "Eloise, Damien's so tragic. He used to be so proud but now he has to rely on other people. Didn't you say you really liked him?"
I rolled my eyes internally.
What the hell? I never said anything like that.
The truth was, Ashley thought Damien was useless because he was paralyzed, but she still wanted him because he was hot.
So she put on this whole performance to make it look like I bullied her into settling for the other option.
Setting aside the fact that Damien couldn't walk, he really was talented.
I'd only picked him last time because I felt sorry for him. It broke my heart to see someone that brilliant trapped in a wheelchair.
So I'd gone along with what Ashley said and chosen him without thinking it through.
But after we got married, Damien stayed cold and distant with me.
That went on until the day Julian deliberately crashed his car with Ashley in it. When she ended up in the hospital, Damien practically crawled there just to see her one last time.
That was when I finally understood. Damien wasn't some aloof, emotionally unavailable guy who couldn't express himself.
He just didn't have any feelings for me. He'd been in love with Ashley the whole time.
He even blamed me for her death.
After he'd clawed his way back to the top, he dragged me out to the middle of nowhere and burned me alive.
His words still echoed in my head. "Eloise, didn't you say you loved me? Didn't you say you'd do anything for me? Then go ahead and die.
"Don't bother begging. I've wanted to kill you for so long. Even looking at you makes me sick.
"Ashley lost everything, and then you took me away from her too. If you'd just let her choose me first, Julian never would've killed her. You ruined both our lives. You're the one who should die!"
The fire caught my wedding dress instantly.
The flames spread so fast they swallowed me whole. My burned clothes melted into my skin and I begged Damien to save me, but it didn't matter.
His heart was too cold.
I remembered every second of that agony. So now that I had another chance, I wasn't going to make the same mistakes.
This time, I didn't play along with Ashley's script.
I waved my hand dismissively. "Where'd you even hear that rumor about me liking Damien? I just respect his business skills. There's nothing romantic about it.
"Besides, Damien's been staring at you since he walked in. It's pretty obvious he likes you better."
"Besides," I added, "you're my little sister. I should let you go first."
When I said that, Damien's gaze snapped away from Ashley and landed on me instead. He was frowning now, and his eyes had gone dark and cold.
I knew that look. It was the exact same expression he'd worn right before he killed me.
That was when it clicked. Damien had been reborn too.
Ashley clearly hadn't expected me to say that. She walked over to Dad with this wounded look on her face and started playing her usual games.
"Dad, is Eloise mad at me or something? I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that Eloise is going to inherit the family business eventually, right? And Damien was supposed to inherit the Ashford Group before everything fell apart. I just thought they were a better match because of their status."
God, she made me sick.
Last time around, Damien had heard her say stuff like this and decided I was the one preventing Ashley from choosing him. He'd thought I was trying to suppress her or whatever.
That was why he'd hated me so much.
I rolled my eyes and put on my most innocent voice. "It's fine, Ashley. The Ashford Group is bankrupt now anyway. Damien might've been a shining star before, but all that luster is pretty much gone."
I paused, then went in for the kill. "Besides, you're always going on about how much you admire business geniuses. Didn't you say that's exactly the kind of man you want to marry?
"Well, Damien fits your standards perfectly. Sure, his legs don't work, but his brain and his face are both top-tier."
"Eloise!" Ashley glared at me, clearly pissed off. But then she caught herself and immediately softened her voice.
"Eloise, Damien's already disabled. You're so much more capable than I am. You could help him get better. Don't you feel bad thinking about him spending the rest of his life in that wheelchair?"
She was acting like she was giving me heartfelt advice, but really she just wanted everyone to think she genuinely wanted to choose Damien but couldn't help him herself. Classic Ashley. She wanted to have her cake and eat it too.
Thinking back to my last life made my blood boil. I'd spent a fortune hunting down specialists all over the country. I'd thrown half of the Brooks family's resources at fixing Damien's legs.
I even stole a specialist appointment slot from one of our business partner's families just to get Damien seen faster.
That move destroyed my reputation. Companies started dropping their contracts with the Brooks family left and right, and our cash flow completely collapsed.
Looking back now, I'd been a complete idiot.
Damien must've been thinking the same thing after hearing Ashley's response, because he was staring at me with this wounded, desperate look.
Was he seriously trying to guilt-trip me right now?
I let out a short laugh. My voice came out flat and unbothered. "I'm not running a charity here. If Ashley wants to feel sorry for you and help you out, that's her choice. Don't try to guilt me into it."
Damien clearly hadn't expected me to say that. His face went red and he yelled at me, "Eloise, you—"
I ignored him completely and turned to Ashley instead. "Ashley, just pick someone already."
"Eloise, please just listen to me," Ashley said in that pleading voice of hers. "You and Damien are perfect for each other."
I stuck my finger in my ear like I was cleaning it out, making it clear I wasn't interested. "Ashley, you and Damien are the ones who match. Not me."
Ashley realized I wasn't backing down, so she finally started moving toward the two brothers. She looked like she was having trouble deciding, but I could tell she was leaning toward Julian the whole time.
Right when she was about to put her hand on Julian's shoulder, Damien grabbed her wrist. He looked completely shocked.
"Ashley..."
Ashley quickly pulled her hand away. "Damien, I'm really sorry, but you know only Eloise has enough money to help you recover."
Damien's eyes went bloodshot and he practically shouted at her. "You still can't pick him! Julian's going to get you killed!"
I watched the two of them argue and couldn't help remembering my past life. Damien had looked exactly like this, standing over Ashley's dead body with those same red-rimmed eyes and that same devastated expression.
The whole scene was dragging on way too long, and my dad was clearly losing his patience.
Ashley tried to pull away again, but she accidentally yanked too hard and sent Damien tumbling out of his wheelchair onto the floor.
"Damien, just let me go," she said.
My dad slammed his hand on the table and his frown deepened. "Damien, I know your family did me a favor once, but that doesn't mean you get to keep both my daughters."
The room went completely silent. Everyone just kind of froze.
I walked over to Julian and patted him on the shoulder. "Your brother's obviously into Ashley, and I'm not gonna stand in their way. So I guess that means you're stuck with me."
"Don't worry," I told Julian. "I've got plenty of money, and I'll take good care of you."
I reached out and patted his head gently.
Julian nodded and caught my hand in his, holding it tight. "Okay. From now on, I'm yours."
I just stood there, completely thrown. This wasn't what everyone said about him. He was supposed to be some violent psycho, wasn't he?
Damien stared at our joined hands, and then his eyes snapped to Ashley. "Eloise, how can you pick him? You should choose me. You need to help me restore the Ashford Group.
"Julian's just a bastard son. If you really choose him, I'll have him killed. It won't take me five minutes to find someone."
That piece of shit. In my last life, he took everything I gave him and then murdered me, and now he had the nerve to threaten my husband. Absolute garbage.
Ashley wasn't happy either. She pointed at me accusingly. "Eloise, I saw Julian first! You're supposed to take the cripple!"
But Dad had clearly made up his mind. He didn't care what anyone else thought, and he wasn't going to discuss it further.
Ashley never dared to go against Dad, so she had no choice but to shut up.
After the decision was final, we each went and got our marriage certificates.
I brought Julian back to my room. He'd been under control for who knew how long, and it showed. He looked exhausted and his clothes were a mess.
I told him to take a shower first.
When he came out of the bathroom, he wasn't wearing a shirt. I could see several scars on his body.
"What happened?" I asked. "How'd you get these?"
Julian didn't answer. He wouldn't even look at me.
I reached up and brushed his hair back from his face so I could see his eyes.
Huh. He was actually pretty good-looking. He had some resemblance to Damien, but his features were sharper and more defined.
Ashley must've been blind. Last time around, she kept saying Julian looked creepy and depressing.
He was obviously handsome.
Since Julian still wasn't talking about the injuries, I didn't push it.
I grabbed some ointment and started gently applying it to his wounds. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But from now on, I've got your back."
Julian's eyes were hard to read, but he kept staring at me the whole time.
After I finished treating his wounds, he suddenly took my hand and kissed it. Then he looked at me with this complicated expression.
"It's really good to see you again," he said quietly.
I didn't understand what he meant at first. My face went hot without me meaning it to.
I didn't think too hard about what his words actually meant.
I scratched my head, stumbling over my words a little. "Yeah. It's... it's good to meet you too.
"Are you hungry? I'll go downstairs and find you something to eat."
I opened the door to leave, but Julian followed right behind me.
"You can just wait here. You don't need to come with me," I said.
Julian had just gotten out of the shower. His hair was still wet, and his eyes looked damp too as he stared at me.
It made me kind of shy.
"Why... why are you staring at me like that?" I stammered.
There was only one small nightlight on in the hallway, so everything around us was pretty dark.
But Julian's eyes were bright. "You picked me, so now I'm with you for life."
I backed up a little, feeling flustered, but Julian just stepped closer.
"Are you not letting me follow you because you regret choosing me?"