The daughter I cherished like a treasure turned out to be a fraud. My real daughter, however, was thrown into a homeless camp by my husband. While that little snake, Chloe, paraded around in designer clothes, dripping in jewels, my daughter was dressed in rags, barely scraping by. Chloe was sent abroad for an Ivy League education, while my daughter remained illiterate. When my daughter finally escaped the wolves and returned home to seek her family, Lucas sent her away without telling me, shoving her out of our lives. Heartbroken, my daughter walked through the storm, only to be struck by a drunk truck driver. When I discovered the truth, I wanted to seek justice for her. But before I could, Chloe pushed me into the freezing waters of the Hudson River. In my last moments, I saw Lucas holding hands with Megan Stone, with Chloe clinging tightly to them. “Thank you for raising my daughter so well,” Lucas said with a smirk. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment Grace was born. This time, I would protect my precious daughter at all costs!
I struggled desperately in the ice-cold water of the Hudson. Until the moment I drowned, no one came to save me. I felt my soul leave my body. I was so unwilling to die, so full of hatred! Lucas, the man I loved deeply, had been cheating on me for years. The daughter I cherished like my own was actually Lucas and Megan Stone’s illegitimate child. Megan’s wild laughter echoed in my ears even in death. Before my eyes, I saw nothing but blood—just like the scene when my real daughter, Grace, died, her blood pooling around her lifeless body. If I could do it all over again, I would take revenge—for myself, and for Grace! Suddenly, I heard the cry of a newborn baby… I forced my heavy eyelids open. The blinding white ceiling, the smell of disinfectant. Was I in the hospital? I wasn’t supposed to be alive; I had drowned in the river, hadn’t I? I glanced around. The old-fashioned decor—it looked familiar. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen and couldn’t help but cry out. “Sweetheart, you’re awake! You scared me to death!” Mom? I focused my vision. It was my mother, but much younger than I remembered her. Wait… had I been reborn? Ignoring the pain, I bolted upright in bed. “Mom, where is my daughter?” In my past life, Lucas swapped my baby while I was weak and unconscious from childbirth. Not this time. Not again. My mother gently wiped the sweat from my forehead as I grabbed her arm, pleading. “Mom, where is my baby?” Unaware of my panic, she tried to soothe me. “Sweetie, don’t worry. The nurse took her for a checkup. She’ll be back soon.” “You should lie down and rest. You just had a baby; don’t overexert yourself.” I stared straight into my mother’s eyes. “Where’s Lucas?” She smiled. “Oh, you know him, he’s obsessed with Grace. The nurse only took her for a routine check, but he insisted on going with them.” What? My heart felt like it was in a vice, and I couldn’t breathe. No! I won’t let him get away with it this time. Ignoring the pain, I jumped out of bed, barefoot, and ran toward the door. My mother tried to stop me, but I sidestepped her and rushed to the door, only to collide with someone coming in. It was Lucas! He cradled the baby protectively, glaring at me with irritation. Seeing how he held Chloe so tenderly, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Even after being given a second chance, he had still won. Rage shot through me like wildfire. If my anger could take physical form, Lucas would have been reduced to ashes on the spot. “Melissa, the floor’s cold. Get back in bed,” Lucas said, faking concern. He thought he had fooled me, but I could still see the malice and impatience in his eyes. My mother caught up, pulling me back into bed. Once I was settled, Lucas laid Chloe beside me. “She’s hungry,” he said. On cue, Chloe started crying. I stared coldly at her. This was the child who had stolen Grace’s life, stolen all my love and resources, only to repay me by pushing me into the river. There wasn’t a creature in the world more vile than Chloe, this snake in the grass. Slowly, I reached out, my hand hovering over her neck. I wanted to strangle her right then and there. Lucas was lost in his own thoughts, smiling, unaware of what I was about to do. But my mother, who had been watching me closely, gasped. “Melissa, that’s not how you hold a baby. You need to support her neck.” “She’s crying because she’s hungry,” Lucas chimed in, smiling as he picked Chloe up, trying to place her in my arms. I turned away, lying down on the bed. “She can have formula. I’m tired. I need to rest.”
I closed my eyes, and all I could see was the blood covering the ground from the moment my daughter died. I won’t let any of these monsters get away with this. I’m playing the long game now. Lucas Anderson, the man my father handpicked, was nothing more than a glorified errand boy at my dad’s company. Maybe it was my family’s wealth that gave him the perfect cover—everyone thought he was the ideal husband. Everyone, including me, believed I had found the best man on earth. It wasn’t until the end that I learned the truth. Lucas called it “suffering in silence for a better future.” But that future was never with me—it was always with Megan Stone. Megan had even timed her pregnancy to align with mine, delivering early by C-section to swap our babies. Chloe, the little snake, was born small and frail, premature. I had spent my last life nursing her back to health, pouring every bit of my energy into her. She grew strong enough to push me into the freezing Hudson River. Lucas had been my father’s top choice, a man he believed could help carry the burden of the family business. He had chosen Lucas from among the scholarship recipients he had sponsored, thinking Lucas had the potential to succeed. Dad said Lucas was handsome, disciplined, and hardworking—a man with promise. Mom, however, insisted I should marry someone from an equally wealthy family. But I was blinded by Lucas’s charm, convinced he was the one for me. I even talked my mom into supporting our marriage. Looking back now, I was completely blind and foolish. I never saw the rotten core underneath Lucas’s polished exterior. As for when Lucas and Megan started their affair, I have no idea. But Megan’s due date was after mine, so he had to have been cheating on me while I was pregnant. Once I got pregnant, my focus shifted entirely to Grace. I slowly handed over control of the family business to Lucas, thinking he could handle it. This time around, Lucas won’t get a single cent from the Evans fortune. Once I recovered physically, I moved into the luxury Park Avenue Postpartum Retreat I had reserved. Back when we got married, we didn’t dig deep enough into Lucas’s past. We didn’t realize he had been pining after Megan all along. I contacted Uncle George, the head of security at Evans Family Enterprises, to dig into Lucas’s life thoroughly. The fact that he had managed to evade a professional background check told me he had planned this for years. Lucas claimed to have no family—his parents were dead, and he didn’t keep in touch with relatives. My parents and I had pitied him, bending over backward to make him feel like part of our family. I had even suppressed my privileged upbringing, afraid of hurting his fragile ego. Looking back now, I realize I was nothing but a fool. A man who could abandon his own daughter to a homeless camp deserves nothing less than to lose everything and end up alone. Business was busy, and most of the time it was just me and that little snake, Chloe. Watching her, this ungrateful, feral child, made me clench my fists just to stop myself from choking her. Meanwhile, my true daughter, Grace, was out there suffering, while this monster lay in the most luxurious postpartum retreat money could buy. Maybe it was the icy glare in my eyes, but Chloe started to cry. And then—two loud sounds. She had soiled herself. In my past life, I had pushed through my disgust, changing her diapers and cleaning her up time and time again. But not this time. This time, I didn’t care if she got a rash that covered her entire face. I had already refused to breastfeed her, and even though Lucas tried to hide it, I could see the resentment in his eyes. He was already planning his revenge, no doubt. Too bad for him—this time, I’m the one keeping score. Without a penny to his name, Lucas, the dependent son-in-law, couldn’t survive without me. No matter how angry he was, he had no choice but to swallow it. My parents, always so thoughtful, had sent high-end, imported baby formula. But I rejected it outright. I insisted on the cheaper kind. Even the staff at the retreat gave me strange looks. They wondered how someone as wealthy as me could be so stingy with a newborn. Some of them whispered that I must really favor boys over girls to act this way.
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