Right before I died, my adopted daughter finally showed her true colors. She wasn't an orphan. She was the biological daughter of my housekeeper and my driver. She pinched my oxygen tube shut, staring down at me with pure disgust. "What's a lonely old woman like you, with no kids, need all this money for?" "Just hurry up and die already! The money comes to us, and we can finally live the good life!" With all those memories intact, I was reborn. This time, you can tear each other apart. 1. In the private hospital room, my adopted daughter, Ava, glared impatiently at me before complaining to my housekeeper. "Mom, didn't you tell Dad to arrange for that truck driver to hit her? How is she still alive?" Brenda, my housekeeper, didn't look too pleased either as she peeled an apple for Ava. "Who knows how she's so damn tough? Yesterday the doctor said her chances were slim." "Your Dad's asking the doctor now what we need to watch out for. Then we just do the opposite." As they were talking, a man pushed the door open – it was Mike, my driver. Seeing Mike walk in, Ava and Brenda both stood up. One called him "Dad," the other "Honey." Lying in the hospital bed, tubes sticking out of me everywhere, I struggled to open my eyes, staring in disbelief at the scene unfolding. What… what was happening? That car crash… wasn't an accident? And… why was the orphan girl I adopted calling my driver and housekeeper Mom and Dad? Why were my driver and housekeeper, who always claimed to be single, actually married? My sluggish brain couldn’t process it all before Mike walked over to my bedside, looking at the monitors. "Doctor says she's stable for now, but still critical. We gotta be careful." "When watching her, pay close attention to keeping her calm, breathing steady, heart rate normal." He’d barely finished speaking when Ava stepped closer, grabbing my oxygen tube and glaring at me. "Old woman, I was never grateful to you. Taking me in, spending money on me – you owed me that!" Brenda sidled up next to her, putting an arm around Ava intimately, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "Oh, kids say the darnedest things, don't mind her. But really, the three of us, we all have you to thank." "If it wasn't for you, our own flesh and blood wouldn't have grown up so pretty and classy." The three of us, our own flesh and blood… So, everything they were saying now was true. This was all their plan? All this time I thought Ava was an orphan, adopting her… I was just raising their kid for them! But… even if they were a family, why did they want me dead? "Why… why… why hurt me?" Fighting against the searing pain ripping through my body from the crash, I croaked out the words, my voice hoarse. Hearing me, Ava looked at me with utter disgust. "What's a lonely old woman like you, with no kids, need all this money for?" "Just hurry up and die already! The money comes to us, and we can finally live the good life!" They’d leeched off me after I took her in, and it still wasn't enough! What they wanted was to kill me, to grab my entire fortune! Ungrateful snakes! Backstabbers! My heart hammered against my ribs like it wanted to break free, fury boiling up inside me. Ignoring the pain wracking my body, I tried to fight back, to scream for help. But Ava saw what I was trying to do. Before I could make a sound, she squeezed harder. The oxygen tube was completely blocked. A crushing feeling of suffocation washed over me. I struggled, trying to rip the mask off, but Brenda pinned my arms down. "What are you fighting for? You've had your fancy life for decades. It's our family's turn now." "You've got no one, nothing to tie you down. Just die already, stop struggling!" My arms were held fast. The struggling tore at my wounds. The air in my lungs thinned, disappearing bit by bit. Endless pain and despair enveloped me. My vision started to blacken around the edges. I knew I was dying, but I forced my eyes open as wide as I could. I had to memorize these three faces. Even as a ghost, I wouldn't let them get away with this! 2 My consciousness sank into endless darkness. I don't know how long passed before, suddenly, everything jolted. A man's loud, angry voice filled my ears. "Whose kid is this? Squatting in the middle of the road like that? I almost hit her!" Opening my eyes, I found myself sitting in the back seat of the car. Mike was in the driver's seat. He had his head stuck out the window, yelling at a young-looking girl in front of the car. This scene… it felt so familiar… I'd lived through this before! The first time I met Ava, she was pretending to have a stomach ache, crouched right in the middle of the street. Mike had been driving me home from work. If he hadn't slammed on the brakes, he would have hit her. Now, it was happening again! Looking at my own younger face reflected in the car window, feeling the realness of my hands and feet, a jolt went through me. I really was reborn. And I’d come back to the exact moment right before I was supposed to adopt Ava! Snapping back to reality, Mike had already gotten out of the car. He was pulling a timid-looking Ava over to the side of the car. "Boss, this kid just popped up out of nowhere, lying in the road." "Looks like she might not be feeling well. What should we do?" I stared with disgust at the father and daughter in front of me, feeling sick to my stomach. "Is this your first day driving for me? You don't know what to do?" My sudden sharp tone made both of them flinch, too scared to look me in the eye. Mike looked down at Ava, his hand awkwardly hovering, not sure whether to let go or hold on. I turned my head away, trying to control my rapid breathing, the images from my deathbed flashing before my eyes. I'm back! I have a chance! I can get revenge! I'm going to destroy them! But… how could I make them suffer enough to satisfy this burning hatred? As I thought, the flashing images stopped, freezing on one specific scene: the three of them standing together by my hospital bed, looking like a happy, harmonious family. An idea sparked, and I grabbed onto it. Turning back, I looked at the two outside the car. "Just a young girl, it's not safe for her to be out here alone at night. Bring her back with us for now." Mike, who had been looking down, glanced up at me, a flicker of joy crossing his face before disappearing. I saw it all. Joy? I'll wipe that smile right off your face. 3 At the dinner table, Ava recited the exact same lines as she had in my past life while eating. She was fourteen, an orphan, ran away from the orphanage because she was bullied. My eyes swept over Mike, the driver, and Brenda, the housekeeper, who were lingering, clearly not wanting to leave. I spoke slowly. "How pitiful. Losing your parents so young, left all alone in the world." As soon as I said it, Ava stopped eating, looking lost. She instinctively turned to look at Mike and Brenda. But their sharp glances stopped her, and she forced herself to turn back around. Pretending not to notice, I continued. "Losing your parents and becoming an orphan is sad, sure. But it's even worse if they're alive and just didn't want you. Now that's messed up!" "Some parents have no heart. If they don't like girls, they just dump them. Absolutely shameless!" I paused, a slight smile on my lips, and pressed Ava. "Think hard now. Which kind of orphan are you?" Having been stopped once, Ava didn't dare turn her head again. Pressured by my question and not knowing how to answer, she lowered her head, avoiding my gaze. Beside her, Brenda tried to step in and help Ava out. "Ma'am, she's just a kid. Asking her these things… it's not right!" I let out a short, sharp laugh, then slammed my hand on the table and stood up. "I'm talking to her. When did a housekeeper get the right to interrupt me? Get out!" Brenda's face instantly turned pale. She quickly lowered her head, mumbled an apology, and backed out of the room. Without even glancing at Brenda, my eyes landed back on Ava. "You're an orphan, and I don't have any children of my own. Would you like to stay and be my daughter?" This was exactly what her family wanted. With me offering it outright, of course Ava wouldn't refuse. Ava nodded eagerly. Nearby, Mike gave Ava a thumbs-up in approval. A smirk played on my lips as I dredged up the twisted ideas I needed to plant in Ava's head. "Alright, since you're going to be my daughter, the first lesson I'll teach you is about knowing your place! There's a hierarchy." "We have a housekeeper, a driver, a gardener in this house. You remember this: your status is always above theirs!" This old-fashioned, almost feudal idea was a bit much for Ava to grasp immediately. She looked at me, confused. "When we were talking, that housekeeper interrupted, cut me off. That was wrong. She deserved to be scolded!" "Our position, our status, is higher than the help. They can never interrupt or cut in. Got it?" Although still bewildered, under the force of my presence, Ava finally nodded.
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