Synopsis
Vivienne Beaumont had always believed that love should make your heart race.In her previous life, she spent eight years with her first and only boyfriend. There were no betrayals, no dramatic heartbreaks—just two people who slowly realized they had fallen out of love. After the breakup, she buried herself in work, romance novels, and romantic dramas, secretly wondering if the kind of passionate love she dreamed of only existed in fiction.Then, without warning, she died.When she opened her eyes again, she found herself inside her favorite romance novel.Even better…She had transmigrated into Lady Vivienne Beaumont—the beautiful daughter of a Duke, the wealthiest heiress of her generation……and the villainess.According to the novel, the original Vivienne spent years arrogantly relying on her status as the fiancée of Anthony Ashford, the future Duke and the story’s perfect male lead, only to watch him slowly fall in love with Evelyn Sinclair, the gentle ward raised in the Ashford estate. Blinded by jealousy, the original Vivienne destroyed her own engagement, became the heroine’s greatest rival, and ultimately lost everything.After finishing the novel, Vivienne had only one thought.How did she manage to lose?She was already the fiancée.She was beautiful.She came from one of the oldest ducal houses in the kingdom.She had known Anthony since childhood.And she still failed?Unacceptable.Armed with the memories of the novel and the confidence of a woman given a second chance at life, Vivienne decides to do what the original villainess never did—make Anthony Ashford genuinely fall in love with her.How hard could it be?Smile.Flirt a little.Plan a few romantic encounters.Spend more time together.After all, he is already her fiancé.Unfortunately, reality proves far more complicated than fiction.Anthony Ashford remembers Vivienne only as the possessive little girl who followed him around every summer before disappearing from his life for years. Rumors have convinced him she has grown into an arrogant young lady, and although duty binds him to their engagement, his heart has quietly drifted toward someone else.Evelyn Sinclair has spent six years growing up beneath the roof of Ashford Manor. Gentle, graceful, and quietly resilient, she knows she should never love her guardian family’s heir. Yet every shared morning, every conversation, and every unspoken act of care has slowly woven Anthony into her heart. She has no intention of surrendering him—not when she can see that his feelings are no longer entirely those of duty.As university life begins at the prestigious St. Albion University, where old-money aristocrats, titled heirs, and the kingdom’s brightest elites gather beneath one roof, the future Duke’s fiancée and the novel’s heroine find themselves competing for the same man.Polo tournaments.Lavish charity galas.Secret societies.Anonymous gossip columns.Dormitory scandals.Old family rivalries.Every encounter draws the battle lines deeper.Caught between them is Anthony Ashford, torn between the woman fate chose for him and the woman his heart has quietly chosen.Watching everything unfold from the sidelines is Damian Blackwood, Anthony’s older cousin—a brilliant senior, heir to the Marquess, and the original novel’s forgotten second male lead. Assigned to work with Vivienne through the Ashford Foundation, Damian expects to spend a semester tolerating the same spoiled little menace he remembered from childhood.Instead, he finds himself working beside a young woman who laughs too easily, dreams too romantically, devises ridiculous plans to woo her own fiancé… and somehow makes every ordinary day unexpectedly entertaining.Vivienne never intended to pay much attention to the second male lead.After all…Everyone knows second male leads never win.…Don’t they?
