1 My brother was drugged, and I was forced to unbutton my own shirt. After I got pregnant, our parents told us we weren't biological siblings and told him to marry me. My brother nodded, then went out street racing that same day and got into a terrible car accident. I didn't care that both his legs were paralyzed; I was absolutely determined to be his bride. I thought he would be moved by my devotion, and that we would grow old together. On our wedding night, the villa caught fire. When I choked awake from the smoke, my very first thought was to drag him out of the inferno. Instead, he smashed a heavy vase over my head. Right before I lost consciousness, I heard his freezing, emotionless voice. "You and our parents destroyed my true love. I've already legally transferred all my assets to Chloe as compensation." "Since you people ruined my life, you can all burn in hell with me." ... I was jolted awake by my brother, Arthur Sterling's, agonizing, heavy panting. I opened my eyes to see my familiar old bedroom. There were no red wedding decorations, and there was no suffocating, rolling black smoke. I had been reborn. The sheer shock and overwhelming joy made me dizzy. "Mia, get me a glass of water." Arthur's low, raspy voice drifted through the wall from the next room, sending a violent shiver down my spine. I glanced at the watch on my wrist, a cold sweat instantly breaking out across my back. I had been reborn on the exact night my brother was drugged. The sticky, horrifying sensation of blood blinding my eyes from my past life, and the agonizing pain of burning alive, seemed to physically hit me all over again. My immediate instinct was to run. To get as far away from Arthur as possible. Before I could even put my shoes on, he was already standing in my doorway. "Mia, I just called Chloe Sinclair. I need you to drive over and pick her up right now." Even though the drugs were heavily amplifying his lust, I still caught the distinct, unmistakable look of guarded disgust in his eyes when he looked at me. A terrifying, bold thought suddenly bloomed in my mind. My brother had also been reborn. I nodded frantically, grabbed my car keys, and squeezed past him, practically sprinting out the door. Even as I stepped out the front door of the villa, I could feel the intense discomfort of Arthur's gaze burning into my back. The address Arthur gave me was an apartment near his company headquarters. So, Arthur and Chloe had moved in together this early on. When he said I ruined his true love, he actually meant it. The second Chloe saw my car, she yanked the passenger door open and slid in. "How is your brother doing right now?!" Chloe looked incredibly anxious, but I couldn't tell if it was just my imagination or if there was a hidden, eager thrill of getting exactly what she wanted dancing in her eyes. "You'll see when we get there." I had zero desire to make small talk with Chloe. Not because I was jealous, but because neither my mother nor I had ever liked her. Chloe was an impoverished student whose education was sponsored by my family. Initially, my parents adored Chloe because she was incredibly hardworking, driven, and had phenomenal grades. She was the top scorer in her entire city's college entrance exams. My parents personally drove her to the capital to start university. My mother was especially happy. Since Chloe was a year ahead of me and had exceptional grades, she could tutor me during my crucial senior year of high school. She was incredibly responsible with me. Every week after our tutoring session, she would give my father a highly detailed progress report. Even after I explicitly told her that my mother was the one managing my academics, she completely ignored me and kept reporting directly to my father. I always felt her eyes radiated a calculating, manipulative shrewdness, but at the time, I just assumed I was being overly sensitive. Until one night, she called my dad, sobbing hysterically that a drunk man was harassing her. When my dad rushed to the scene, she threw herself directly into his arms. My dad was so terrified he threw his hands up in the air, his face turning a sickly shade of green. My mother, who had just parked the car and arrived at the exact same moment, saw the entire thing. Chloe sobbed pathetically, claiming she viewed my dad as a father figure and was just so terrified that she reacted instinctively. My parents verbally comforted her, but after that incident, she was never allowed inside our house again, and my dad never personally handled any of her issues. After graduating college, she wanted to study abroad. She showed up at our house with a basket of fruit, looking incredibly pitiful, and begged my parents for a massive loan. My mother wasn't stingy. She had her secretary wire Chloe fifty thousand dollars. Right before Chloe left, she came to say goodbye and ran straight into my brother, who had just returned from completing his master's degree overseas. The very next day, Chloe returned the fifty thousand dollars to my mother. She claimed she had an epiphany: a person should be grounded and practical. She decided to work first and earn her own money to fund her studies abroad. My brother, who was just leaving the house at the time, looked at the plainly dressed but incredibly resolute Chloe. His eyes were entirely filled with deep admiration. 2 A month later, Chloe officially joined our family's corporation and became my brother's personal secretary. I warned my brother that Chloe had ulterior motives and was intentionally targeting him. "Mia, not everyone's brain is completely consumed by childish romance like yours." Yet, within a year, he moved Chloe directly into his private apartment. I drove like a maniac the entire way. Chloe gripped the "oh shit" handle with a death grip. "Mia, I know you're upset, but please consider our physical safety!" When Chloe rushed into the villa, I didn't follow her. Instead, I just sat in the car, zoning out completely. I knew exactly what was about to happen between my brother and Chloe better than anyone. I wasn't jealous. My horrific, agonizing death in my past life—and the fact that my parents were dragged down to a miserable end because of me—made me realize with absolute clarity that my love for my brother was nothing but lethal poison to him. And the comment Chloe made in the car just now completely validated that brutal truth. "Mia, he's your brother. Your twisted, disgusting obsession with him is what drove him to flee the country to study in the first place. Now that he has me, you need to give up." So Arthur had known for a very long time that I was in love with him. He went abroad to study entirely to escape me. If I had known that sooner, in my past life, when I handed him that glass of water and saw him suffering so agonizingly, I never would have unbuttoned my own shirt. Before getting out of the car, Chloe threw one last sentence at me. "You're a grown woman now. It's time you found someone appropriate to date and marry." She was probably terrified I would keep obsessing over Arthur. Don't worry. I have absolutely zero lingering fantasies about Arthur Sterling. I sat in the car for the entire night. It wasn't until dawn broke that I finally opened the front door and went upstairs. Arthur, wearing a bathrobe, was walking out of his bedroom. "Where the hell were you last night?" His neck was covered in undeniable, dark hickeys, and his voice was thick, raspy, and languid. "I went to hang out with Lily." Lily was my best friend; Arthur had met her before. The fact that he still possessed the mental bandwidth to casually ask about my whereabouts made me feel a surge of relief. Maybe he had finally let go of his resentment, and we could cleanly revert back to a normal sibling dynamic. "I know you look down on Chloe's background and think she's poor, but let me make this incredibly clear: she is the woman I am absolutely going to marry. Show her some respect from now on." When did I ever look down on her background? I couldn't stop a genuinely confused frown from crossing my face. "Wipe that arrogant, superior look off your face. She literally sacrificed herself to clean up the catastrophic mess you caused." I was even more confused now. "What are you talking about?" Arthur's patience evaporated. "Are you honestly going to stand there and deny you spiked my drink last night?! Do you have any idea how pure and innocent Chloe is?! She wanted to wait until our wedding night to give herself to me, and you ruined everything!" "I didn't do it!" I yelled back defensively. Yes, I had been in love with Arthur for years, but I would never, ever resort to such cheap, disgusting, underhanded tactics. "Chloe and I went out for dinner, came straight home, and the only thing I drank was the glass of milk you left on my nightstand! If it wasn't you, who the hell was it?!" In my past life, I always wondered why my brother never investigated who drugged him. I always assumed he fell for a trap at some business dinner and was too ashamed to bring it up. It turned out he believed I was the one who drugged him. No wonder he hated me so intensely. Hated me so much that he dragged the very parents who gave us their blessing down to hell with him. Hated me so much that he refused to even let the six-month-old child growing inside me take a single breath in this world. My heart tasted like bitter ash, and my eyes burned. "Believe whatever you want, but I am telling you, it absolutely was not me." Right at that moment, Arthur's bedroom door cracked open. Chloe, wearing one of Arthur's oversized dress shirts, peeked out like a terrified, fragile little rabbit. "Arthur, is Mia mad at me?" Arthur shot me a look loaded with intense warning. "Mia would never be mad at you. She's going to offer us her full blessing." "You're absolutely right, brother. Sister-in-law." I forced a bright smile onto my face. "You saved him. I'll advocate for you both and convince Mom and Dad to agree to the wedding." A flash of barely concealed triumph crossed Chloe's face, while Arthur looked at me with intense, analytical suspicion. What was there to be suspicious about? He was literally willing to die for her. Even if I knew she was a manipulative snake, I absolutely refused to let my parents risk even a single hair on their heads. "Please don't put Uncle and Auntie in a difficult position. I know I'm not worthy of Arthur. I just want to stay by his side." Ah, so Arthur has a fetish for manipulative 'green tea' victims. No wonder he never loved me. 3 Arthur wrapped his arms around her, looking incredibly heartbroken for her. When he wasn't looking, Chloe shot me a look of absolute, smug victory. "Mia, my clothes got... torn by your brother. Could I borrow an outfit from you?" Chloe asked with manufactured shyness. "Didn't I buy you a dress last month? I haven't seen you wear it once. Since you clearly don't like it, just give it to Chloe." That was the dress he bought me for my birthday. Did I not like it? He knew perfectly well I treasured it too much to actually wear it. He was actually taking back the gift he gave me. My heart gave an involuntary, painful squeeze, but it settled almost immediately. Chloe put on my dress and did a beautiful, dramatic twirl. Completely ignoring my presence, she threw her arms around Arthur, acting incredibly coquettish as she asked him if she looked pretty. But none of this triggered me anymore. This time around, my only goal was for my parents and me to stay alive and well. My parents were on a two-week vacation. The very first day they returned, Arthur aggressively and impatiently announced his intention to marry Chloe. When I walked through the front door, the floor was covered in the shattered remains of my father's teacup. My mother's face was dark as she rubbed my father's back to calm him down. Arthur sat directly across from them, his face completely devoid of emotion. "Mom! Dad!" I ran over and threw myself into their arms, fighting with everything I had to hold back my tears. Their expressions instantly softened into absolute warmth and tenderness. "Why are you still acting like such a little kid? You're all grown up and still throwing yourself at us like this." My dad affectionately ruffled my hair, and my mom pulled me down onto the sofa next to her. "Your brother wants to marry Secretary Sinclair. What do you think, Mia?" My dad had always favored me, and Arthur immediately shot me a look that was utterly devoid of warmth. "I think it's wonderful. Chloe and Arthur are a perfect match." My mom's brow furrowed deeply. "Do you honestly believe that?" "Mom, Arthur is 26 years old. He has the right to choose his own happiness. All we need to do is support him." What was the point of not supporting him? We couldn't stop him anyway. Seeing that my parents still refused to relent... "It doesn't matter if you like Chloe or not. Arthur likes her. After he gets married, we can just live separately. I'm going to stay with you and Dad forever." My words visibly softened their expressions. I quickly shot Arthur a pointed look. This was our unspoken, childhood routine. Whenever Arthur wanted to do something my parents disapproved of, it was my job to butter them up and put them in a good mood before he asked. "Mom, Dad, after Chloe and I get married, we will be incredibly filial to you. I am begging you, please agree to this marriage." Seeing Arthur drop solemnly to his knees, I piled on the persuasion as hard as I could. Realizing there was no room for negotiation, my parents finally nodded and agreed. Arthur got exactly what he wanted—he was going to marry Chloe. The tragedy of my past life definitely wouldn't repeat itself this time. I slowly uncurled my tightly clenched fists. After my parents went to their room to rest, I went back to my own bedroom. I had just opened my diary, preparing to write, when the door suddenly swung open from the outside. I looked up. It was Arthur. He glanced at my notebook, his face instantly turning a dark, furious shade of green. I had barely stood up when his hand shot out and clamped violently around my neck. "Mia, are you writing down all your filthy, disgusting fantasies about me again?!" His hand was massive, and as his grip tightened, I felt like I was suffocating. "What the hell are you talking about?!" I struggled to force out a few syllables. Arthur snatched my diary off the desk. "When you were a teenager, didn't you use a diary exactly like this to document your sick, incestuous obsession with me?!" So he really had read my diary. What right did he have to violate my privacy like that?! A mixture of absolute fury and profound injustice exploded in my chest. I used all my strength to violently pry his fingers off my throat. I snatched the diary back and slammed it hard against his chest. "What exactly is your problem?! I gave you and her my full blessing, isn't that enough?!" "Yes, I used to have feelings for you, and that was my mistake! But I absolutely do not like you anymore! What more do you fucking want from me?!" I rarely ever lost my temper with him. He looked completely stunned. "You love reading my diary so much? Then look at it! I did write about a man in here, but it absolutely isn't you!" With that, I shoved past him and sprinted out of the house. Sitting in the coffee shop with Lily, she was vibrating with absolute excitement. "Did you really agree to date my brother?! Are you actually going to be my sister-in-law?!" In her overwhelming joy, her voice spiked, drawing stares from the other tables. I quickly reached over and clamped my hand over her mouth. "I... randomly ran into him a couple of days ago, and we just really hit it off." My face felt incredibly hot. Lily excitedly rubbed her hands together. 4 "Confess right now! My brother asked you out six months ago and you rejected him! How did you guys hook up again?!" Lily's older brother, Julian Thorne, had indeed confessed his feelings for me six months ago. At the time, my entire universe revolved around Arthur, so I rejected him. After being reborn and desperately trying to fix my mistakes, Chloe and Arthur started aggressively flaunting their relationship in my house every single day. Chloe took every available opportunity to aggressively mark her territory and assert her dominance over him. Even though I backed down completely and repeatedly swore I had absolutely zero interest in Arthur, it didn't matter. I had no choice. I had to avoid them. Feeling incredibly depressed, I went to a bar to drink. After downing a few too many and feeling incredibly dizzy, a random guy cornered me outside the restrooms and tried to get handsy. I was terrified, tears springing to my eyes, when Julian suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He threw a single, brutal punch that dropped the guy to the floor, completely unconscious. When Julian pulled a literal handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe my tears, I couldn't stop myself from bursting into laughter. "Julian Thorne, are you an ancient relic? Who even carries a handkerchief anymore?" He helplessly shook the expensive piece of plaid fabric. "Do you have any idea how much this tiny square of fabric costs?" "I don't care how much it costs, it's definitely not as convenient as a tissue." He nodded in reluctant agreement and tossed the outrageously expensive handkerchief straight into the trash can. "Whatever Mia says, goes." Lily always complained that her brother wasn't as aloof and aristocratic as my brother. She said he acted like a cynical, irresponsible playboy. But that "irresponsible playboy" had become a terrifying, ruthless titan in the city's business world. Since taking over the Thorne family corporation three years ago, he had nearly doubled its market value. A tiny handkerchief instantly bridged the gap between us. Whenever I was in a bad mood, I would text him, and he always managed to say something incredibly bizarre and weird that hit my exact sense of humor perfectly. Since being reborn, the only times I actually felt completely relaxed were when I was texting Julian. "I thought elite CEOs were supposed to be swamped with work. How do you have the time to text me all day long?" Julian replied almost instantly. "Because it's you on the other end, and I absolutely refuse to make you wait a single second. I've basically had my phone glued to my hand 24/7 for the past few weeks." Is this what it feels like to be loved? Arthur never, ever made me feel this way. This time, I wanted to experience what it actually felt like to be loved. I agreed to give it a shot with Julian. I've kept a diary since I was a little girl. Lately, the man filling its pages was him. I had no idea if Arthur had actually read it, but the next time I went home, the diary was sitting perfectly aligned on my desk. Arthur hadn't been home for days, so I took the opportunity to finally tell my parents about me and the Thorne family heir. I held their hands and made them promise that they would always live with me. My parents smiled and nodded, treating me like a child. I didn't care; they nodded, which meant they were officially bound to stay by my side. That evening, Arthur brought Chloe home for dinner. Dressed head-to-toe in luxury brands, she actually managed to project a decent aura of high society elegance. At the dinner table, my parents weren't exactly thrilled, but thankfully, they didn't make a scene. After dinner, we all sat together in the living room. "Arthur, Chloe. We absolutely do not oppose your marriage, but there are a few fundamental things we need to establish upfront." Arthur had been occasionally glancing at me all evening, his eyes carrying an unreadable, deeply uncomfortable weight. Chloe sat perfectly straight, her eyes practically shining as she stared at my father. "Arthur is getting married, and Mia has a serious boyfriend now too. To avoid any future conflicts, I am telling you both right now: regardless of who is getting married or moving out, our family's assets will be split exactly 50/50 between the two of you." Before Arthur could even open his mouth, Chloe blurted out: "That's completely unreasonable! Mia is a daughter; she's going to marry into another family! Giving her half is literally just handing your wealth over to outsiders!" My mother hadn't looked Chloe in the eye the entire night. "You haven't even married into this family yet, and you're already trying to dictate our finances? Don't you think you're getting a little ahead of yourself?" I looked at Arthur. He looked back at me, the corners of his mouth suddenly curling up into a smirk. "Mia, is your new boyfriend only with you because he's after our family's money?" He pulled Chloe into his side. "I agree. Splitting it 50/50 is completely unreasonable." Chloe leaned heavily into Arthur's chest. "Mia is just an adopted daughter. Honestly, I wouldn't mind supporting her financially for the rest of her life. She can just find a random guy to marry and they can both keep living here." My parents' faces turned terrifyingly dark. Looking closely, I could see my father's shoulders trembling slightly. "Who the hell told you Mia was adopted?! You are the one who was adopted!"
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