After the 99th Time, I Chose Myself

Mara Whitmore had loved Gideon Hawthorne for eight years, and time and again she had given up her own interests and her own temperament in order to become the “qualified Mrs. Hawthorne” in his eyes. In her previous life, at a family cocktail party, she learned that her father had an illegitimate daughter, Delaney, yet Gideon still sided with “rules” and propriety, pressuring her to bow her head to Delaney. Mara left in despair and was caught in a car accident. When she opened her eyes again, she had been reborn to before the wedding. This time, Mara no longer fought for her father’s favor, nor for the position of Mrs. Hawthorne. She exposed Lorraine and her daughter in advance, applied for a long-term study program in London, and repeatedly rejected Gideon’s control disguised as concern “for her own good.” But Gideon always dismissed her changes as mere willfulness, while Delaney used her gentle, obedient appearance to keep creating misunderstandings, even deliberately falling from a building to frame Mara, causing Mara to endure public humiliation once again. After Mara finally left her old life behind and rebuilt a home and career of her own across the ocean, Gideon gradually uncovered Delaney’s lies and realized for the first time that the person who had truly driven Mara away had always been himself. But by then, Mara had learned to place freedom and dignity before love, and she had met someone who truly respected her choices. When Gideon chased after her once more, she no longer needed to look back.