Chapter 1
Pain.
My whole body felt as though it were being torn apart. I struggled to lift my heavy eyelids, and the only things I saw before me were the two people I had once held dearest — yet who now wore the most terrifying expressions imaginable.
My husband — Trần Khải, the man to whom I had given my entire heart, with whom I had walked through every hardship — stood there holding the shoulder of my half-sister, Lý Như Ngọc. The two of them stood by my bedside, looking at me with hideous, unmasked smiles.
“Rest in peace, Yến Nhi,” Lý Như Ngọc said, her voice cloyingly sweet as always, yet now it sent chills down my spine. “All the family assets, the company, the houses, the deeds… everything has been transferred into our names. Your mother has already ‘passed away’ peacefully too. And you… you’ll be joining her soon enough.”
I tried to scream, to accuse them, to tear off their masks of deceit — but my throat let out nothing more than a dry, broken rasp. The poison they had given me had done its work. The light faded from my eyes, and their grinning faces were the last thing I saw in this life.
If there is a next life… I will never trust you two again!
…
When I woke, I was not in that dark, hopeless place.
Golden sunlight streamed softly through the curtains, falling upon my old desk and my neatly arranged textbooks. The sweet scent of milk flowers drifted in through the window. My room was exactly as it had been when I was still in high school.
Stunned, I stared at the calendar on the wall. The date… the month… the year?
My fingers trembled as I picked up my phone. September 15, 2019.
This was… the year I turned eighteen!
I wasn’t dead. I had returned ten years into the past — before I met Trần Khải, before my family fell apart, before my mother was murdered, before I had foolishly handed everything over to people who had no humanity.
My head throbbed as the memories of two lives intertwined. In my previous life, this was the very day Lý Như Ngọc would come to our house, weeping and begging me to persuade Father to give her a job at his company. And I — naive, trusting Yến Nhi — had agreed without a moment’s hesitation, never suspecting a thing.
That was where everything began to go wrong.
I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms. It hurt — and it was real. This was no dream.
This time, things would be different.
I would no longer be the weak, gullible girl anyone could manipulate. I would protect my mother, protect our family’s legacy, protect everything that was rightfully ours. And those who had killed my mother and stolen everything from me… they would pay. Dearly.
A soft knock came at the door.
“Sis… are you awake yet?”
That voice — sickeningly sweet, utterly false — belonged to Lý Như Ngọc. She was here. Just as before.
My expression hardened. I took a steadying breath and said clearly:
“I’m awake. Come in.”
The door opened, and Lý Như Ngọc stepped inside, wearing that same gentle, pitiful look she had always used. She smiled and reached out to take my hand — exactly as she had done in my past life.
I pulled my hand away before she could touch me. I looked her straight in the eye, my face calm and unyielding:
“What do you want?”
She paused, clearly taken aback — she had never seen me act this way. But she quickly recovered her sweet demeanor.
“There’s something I was hoping you could help me with…”
I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms, smiling coldly:
“If this is about getting you a job at Father’s company — don’t bother. I won’t help you.”
Her smile froze. Her eyes widened in genuine shock.
“Yến Nhi… what are you saying?”
I didn’t flinch. I stared right back at her — this half-sister of mine, who had pretended to care for years just to wait for her chance to take it all.
“You heard me clearly,” I said, emphasizing every word. “Solve your own problems. Don’t use me to get what you want ever again.”
No hesitation. No blind sympathy. From this moment on, I would rewrite my own destiny.
And this was only the beginning
