49 Stabs For Love, He Married My Killer Bestie Novel – In the purest, most devoted year of my life, I took forty-nine knife wounds for Sebastian Thorne while protecting him from his enemies. I survived, but I spent three years in a coma. When I finally woke up, I discovered that he had fallen in love with my best friend, Lexi Carter. My own mother had even taken Lexi in as her goddaughter. Heartbroken and lost, I vented my pain online through a private anonymous account. The post unexpectedly went viral.
Lexi was quickly doxxed and dragged through vicious online harassment. Unable to endure the humiliation, she took her own life. Sebastian honored his promise and married me, but he hated me with every fiber of his being. He blamed me for waking up and ruining his life. In his eyes, I was the reason the woman he loved most was dead. My mother blamed me too. According to her, I had destroyed the happy life she and Lexi shared like mother and daughter. Day after day, Sebastian and I fought until whatever feelings remained between us were completely worn away. Then one day an earthquake struck. While trying to save me, Sebastian was crushed by a collapsing beam that snapped his neck.
With the last strength left in his body, he shoved me away. “Run, Audrey!” But even as he pushed me to safety, he held Lexi’s urn tightly against his chest. “Audrey,” he rasped, voice fading, “I’ve paid back the life you saved. In the next life… please let Lexi and me be together.” After Sebastian died, my mother publicly cut ties with me. “If you hadn’t torn Sebastian and Lexi apart, they could have lived happily! I don’t have a selfish, vicious daughter like you!” I spent the rest of my life drowning in endless accusations and insults.
Alone. Miserable. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I woke up from the coma. … My mother rushed to the hospital the moment she received the news. The instant she saw me awake, her eyes turned red with emotion. “Audrey! Thank God. You’re finally awake!” I slowly turned my head. Across the room, Lexi stood frozen. That was when I noticed the Serpenti Viper bracelet around her neck.
My chest tightened. That bracelet had once been a birthday gift I bought for Sebastian. It was the first thing I ever purchased with the bonus from my very first major business project. Back then, he had held it carefully and said it meant the world to him. He promised he would treasure it forever. And now he had casually given it to her. A bitter taste rose in my throat. I forced out a stiff, hollow smile. In my previous life, the accident happened the very next day after Sebastian and I got engaged. During the first year, he stayed by my bedside constantly.
He wiped my body, massaged my stiff limbs, and talked to me every day as if I could hear him. Late at night, when no one else was around, the composed and intimidating Mr. Thorne would bury his face beside my bed and cry like a child. “Audrey… we were about to get married. Why would you do something so stupid? Why would you take the knife for me?” In the second year, his visits slowly became less frequent. Whenever he did come, Lexi was always with him. Eventually the nurses handled my care while the two of them spent most of their time talking quietly by the window.
Sometimes Sebastian would say a few words to me, then exchange a glance with Lexi. The air between them carried a subtle intimacy. One day a doctor asked him what I was to him. Sebastian glanced at Lexi and hesitated before answering. “She’s… a friend.” By the third year, he rarely visited at all. Only my mother came occasionally, sitting for a few minutes before leaving. Meanwhile, the television in my hospital room broadcast glamorous headlines. Sebastian had thrown a lavish birthday celebration for Lexi, spending a fortune to set off fireworks across an entire mountain ridge that lasted all night.
High society was buzzing about their perfect love story. No one remembered the fiancée who had taken a knife for him. I only learned about all of this after waking up. The caregiver who had been assigned to me told me everything. In my previous life, I couldn’t accept their betrayal. I fought bitterly with Sebastian and forced Lexi out of the hospital room. But his heart had already followed her. Broken and desperate, I vented my pain online using an anonymous account. Someone uncovered my identity. Within hours, every major news outlet exploded with the same headline. [President of Thorne Zenith Group involved in scandal. Girlfriend steals comatose best friend’s fiancé.] Lexi couldn’t withstand the public backlash. That very night, she slit her wrists.
To protect the reputation of Thorne Zenith Group, Sebastian reluctantly married me. But in private he treated me worse than a stranger. I was on the verge of a breakdown and confronted him about his cruelty. He laughed coldly, shoved me onto the bed, and tore open my clothes with brutal force. “She’s dead. Are you happy now? You wanted marriage. I gave it to you. You want sex? Fine, you can have that too!” “Audrey Rhodes, you used the fact that you saved my life to force me into this. So don’t talk to me about love. You don’t deserve it.” … The next day I went to my mother in tears. She stared at the marks covering my body with a blank expression. Then she turned away and gently wiped the dust from Lexi’s memorial portrait. “You’re Sebastian’s wife now.
A wife fulfills her duties. Everything you have came at the cost of Lexi’s life. What exactly are you complaining about?” She paused and added coldly, “Don’t come back to my house again. Your presence would only dirty Lexi’s memory.” In my previous life, my mother went even further. She invited reporters and publicly announced she was cutting ties with me. Overnight, I became the object of ridicule. Everyone said I used a life-saving favor to trap a man into marriage. They said I destroyed a beautiful love story. Even my own mother found me disgusting. In the end, I died alone on Christmas Eve.
My body wasn’t discovered until days later, when the smell drifting from my apartment alerted the neighbors. Every time I remembered that lonely death, my chest felt like it was being crushed. The man I loved. The best friend I trusted. The mother who once adored me. All of them ended up hating me. But this time, fate had given me another chance. And I would never repeat the same mistake. Since they all loved Lexi so much, I would give them what they wanted. I picked up my phone and opened an account that had been silent for years. Then I sent a message. [Mr. Beaumont, I’m ready to honor the marriage arrangement you proposed years ago.]