The Abandoned Empress Decided to Become a Villainess

My husband had an affair with my closest friend. I loved Emperor Cedric with all my heart and devoted my entire life to becoming the Empress, only to be falsely accused of countless crimes and face a miserable death. I thought that was the end of everything—until I realized I had returned to the time before our marriage. ‘The one who betrayed me… the traitor who stabbed me in the back.’ After coming back from the brink of death, everything looked different. I no longer felt the need to please the palace or the compulsion to win Cedric’s love. Determined not to live as foolishly as before, I was ready to leave the empire. But then, my childhood friend, Duke Calix of the esteemed and wealthy Vartica family, confessed his feelings and tried to stop me. “Do you really have to go? I don’t want to let you go.” And to make matters worse, Cedric, who had coldly ignored and oppressed me, started to become obsessed with me?