“Trish, that streamer is a friend of mine from school. I was just supporting her career, and it was only a hundred thousand dollars! Plus, it wasn’t even your money, it was Mom’s. Are you seriously so mad that you’re going to cut off my card and send me to some strict school where they’ll even take my phone? Are you still my sister?” “Yeah, Trish, it’s just a hundred thousand. Mom isn’t upset, so why are you? Besides, I couldn’t bear to see Ryan go through hardship. If he went to that school, I’d only get to see him once a month. For my sake, please, drop this idea…” I opened my eyes, feeling disoriented as I looked at the two familiar faces in front of me. Anger and sadness nearly overwhelmed me as I fought the urge to strangle them right then and there. Because just a moment ago, in my mind, these two—along with my sister and her husband—had conspired to burn me alive in this very house. After my gruesome death, I had watched helplessly as they took all of the billions my biological parents left me and moved abroad to live carefree lives. That’s right, I wasn’t their biological daughter. I was the one they found on the side of the road. After they picked me up, my adoptive parents, who had struggled for years to have children, suddenly had a son, Ryan Harris, and a daughter, Lily Harris. They didn’t treat me terribly, because in a small Midwestern farm town, all they had to do was give me food to eat. They drilled into my head that as the older sister, I had the responsibility to take care of my younger siblings. At five, I was already changing diapers and feeding them formula. By the time I graduated middle school, I gave up further education and started working at an assembly plant. Each month, I earned nearly ten thousand dollars in overtime, but I only kept about a thousand for myself. The rest went home to support my brother and sister’s education. When I turned twenty, a representative from my biological parents found me. It was then I learned the truth: I wasn’t their biological daughter. My real parents were two professors at Georgetown University. Years ago, they were hunted down for protecting their research. They left me in a safe place temporarily, but by the time they came back, I had already been taken in by my adoptive family. My adoptive parents had returned to rural South Carolina. There weren’t many security cameras around back then, and by the time my biological parents found me, years had passed. My mother had grown sick with guilt and depression and ended her life, while my father, devastated, continued searching for me for over a decade until he passed away last year… Life can be cruel. I was only found by my biological parents’ representative a year after they had both died. I had gone from a factory worker to the heir of a billion-dollar fortune practically overnight! But with my biological parents gone, and being a twenty-year-old girl desperate for familial affection and weighed down by a strong sense of responsibility for my siblings, I made the foolish decision to bring my entire adoptive family to Washington D.C. with me. I thought, they raised me, so I should make sure they live well now that I had the means to. I moved my adoptive parents into a mansion on the outskirts of D.C., spared no expense, and enrolled my reckless brother in a high-end boarding school. He had gone off the rails after we came into money, partying, drinking, drag racing, even stealing my parents’ phone to send donations to his favorite streamers. A semester at this school cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I wanted him to be successful, so I even sent him to an elite overseas university. When he returned, I gave him millions to start his own business… As for me, I regretted not being able to attend college. I was talented, but I never had the chance to learn new skills or wear all the pretty clothes I longed for. So, I hired the best tutors for my sister and bought her all the fashionable clothes and designer handbags she wanted, turning her into a little princess. But my sister wasn’t grateful. She complained that I put too much pressure on her, that she never wanted to learn those things. She spent my money at school pretending to be a wealthy heiress, dated a rich kid, and ended up pregnant. She refused to have an abortion. Because of her stubbornness, I had to drag her to the rich kid’s family and force them to marry her. My biological parents had a good relationship with Keith Morgan, CEO of the Morgan Corporation. It was through Keith that I was found in the first place. The rich kid’s family didn’t like my sister, but they couldn’t say no because of Keith Morgan. So, despite their disdain, they let her marry into the family. Even though my sister was finally married to a wealthy man, her husband would beat her, but she refused to leave, and I had to clean up the mess every time. My adoptive father was a gambler and a drunk. When he got drunk, he would beat my adoptive mother. If I hadn’t stepped in to pay off his debts and get him into rehab, he would’ve been killed by debt collectors. I thought I had done everything for this family, treated them like my real family, even though we weren’t related by blood. And yet, they conspired to burn me alive to take my fortune! Trish Harris, you should’ve died long ago! You inherited all that wealth, and as our daughter, you should’ve given it all to us. You never really treated us like your real parents! All we did was ask for a little more money, and you couldn’t even give us a few million dollars when you’re worth billions! Some sister you are! No wonder we’re not related by blood. My husband asked you for two million to invest, and you refused, so now I have to suffer his abuse. You never treated me like your real sister! In my final moments, I looked at my adoptive parents, hoping for some sympathy, but they turned away, cold and indifferent, watching as the flames consumed me. Pulled out of my memories, I stared at the two familiar faces in front of me, my hands trembling with overwhelming hatred. Heaven has eyes, and I’ve been given a second chance. This time, I won’t make the same mistakes as before! Though I wasn’t reborn to the moment when I was first found by my biological parents and had the chance to leave my adoptive family behind, this moment is still good enough. At this point in time, my adoptive family is already used to living a wealthy lifestyle because of me. They’ve gotten comfortable not working, knowing they can rely on me, their “cheap” daughter and sister, to give them tens of thousands of dollars in allowance at the drop of a hat… It’s hard to go back once you’ve lived in luxury. I’m curious to see how they’ll maintain this lifestyle once I’m gone! Suppressing my anger, I nodded. “You’re right. It was your money he used, so I have no right to be upset.” My adoptive mother looked a bit surprised. After all, her money came from me, so I had every right to be angry. But seeing that I had softened my stance, she breathed a sigh of relief. Ryan, too, was ecstatic. “So, you’re not sending me to boarding school?” “No, I’m not.” My adoptive mother, noticing my expression, gave Ryan a subtle nod, and he hurriedly left the room. She then tried to comfort me. “Trish, it’s not that I’m siding with your brother, but he’s still young. He needs to be guided carefully. If we send him to boarding school now, it might make him even more rebellious. I know you mean well, but we need to take it slow.” I lowered my eyes. “He’s already spent a hundred thousand this month. I won’t be giving him any more allowance.” “That’s fine. He should learn that money doesn’t come easily…” Before she could say more, I cut her off. “I’m tired.” Upstairs, I reflected on my past life. Back then, I had insisted on sending Ryan to boarding school. To calm him down, my adoptive parents took him on a trip to Miami. I had even transferred money to my adoptive mother with a message: Ryan must be upset. Why don’t you and Dad take him and Lily on a trip to Miami?
When my adoptive mother received the money, she excitedly agreed to the vacation. “See, Ryan? You can relax. Your sister is still family. She’s just worried about you, but she won’t abandon us. Look, she just sent another $200,000 for us to take a trip!” Ryan let out a sigh of relief, sneering. “Trish Harris, don’t think this means I ’ll forgive you!” Lily, on the other hand, was less pleased. “What about me, sis?” “Didn’t I just send you money the other day? Or are you spending it all on Bradley again, buying him gifts?” My words hit a nerve. Lily knew full well that I disapproved of her spending money to chase after Bradley. Suddenly, she didn’t dare ask for more. But when she heard that we were going to Miami, usually the first to pack her bags for a trip, she unexpectedly declined this time. “Mom, Dad, I can’t go. Trish got me an internship at Morgan Corporation. It’s a big opportunity. I need to stay.” Morgan Corporation was one of the top companies in the country, and landing an internship there was highly competitive. In my past life, I had gone to great lengths to get Lily that opportunity. I had even reached out to Keith Morgan, a man I hadn’t spoken to since he helped find me, and used my biological parents’ connections to secure it for her. With my lack of education, I had hoped my sister could build a solid foundation and one day work for a top company like Morgan Corporation. But instead, she had secretly turned down the internship to run off abroad with Bradley Adams and ended up pregnant. When she returned, she boasted that she had planned the whole thing, claiming that getting pregnant was her way of ensuring she would marry into Bradley’s wealthy family. Lily had been so short-sighted, and though I had been heartbroken, I still fought for her. I dragged her to Bradley’s family and forced them to marry her, even though he hadn’t taken her seriously at all. That action had used up all of the goodwill Keith Morgan and my biological parents had for me. After that, I couldn’t bring myself to reach out to Keith again. But this time… After sending my adoptive parents and Ryan off, I watched as Lily tried her old tricks again. “Sis, Morgan Corporation is pretty far from here. I heard from my mentor that when she interned there, she was working late every night. I was thinking, maybe I could rent a place nearby and stay there until the internship is over.” I smiled and transferred some money to her. “Sure. Good luck with your internship.” Lily, delighted, packed her bags and left. Soon after, the private investigator I had hired informed me that Lily had gone straight to the airport and followed Bradley overseas… I immediately contacted a realtor and put the mansion up for sale at a reduced price. Then, I went to the study and storage room. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked around. The storage room was filled with my biological parents’ belongings. When we had moved here, my adoptive parents had wanted to throw them away, calling them unlucky since they were from dead people. I had fought to keep them, so they were stashed away in the storage room. I opened the cabinet in the study and felt a surge of anger when I saw the paintings inside. In my previous life, I hadn’t known that my biological parents’ legacy included more than just this mansion and the money in the bank. There were also their valuable art collections. Any one of these paintings could fetch hundreds of thousands at auction. But I hadn’t realized that in my previous life. My adoptive father had secretly sold them off to fuel his gambling addiction. Dozens of priceless paintings, along with my parents’ research and manuscripts, had all been sold by my adoptive father. And I, their biological daughter, had been none the wiser! If I hadn’t seen him rushing to grab the last few paintings before my death, I might never have known… Tears blurred my vision as I stared at the photos of my real parents, their loving smiles forever frozen in time. I called a moving company and had all my biological parents’ belongings sent to their old house near Georgetown University. As for me, I stayed. There’s no way I’d leave before seeing how this family falls apart. While they were on vacation, I made several preparations. I installed hidden cameras in every corner of the house. The mansion had already been sold, and since I had offered it for a lower price than the market value, the buyer agreed to let me stay for another month. It wasn’t long before my adoptive parents returned with Ryan. Ryan, acting as if nothing had happened, immediately asked me for more spending money. I didn’t even look at him. “No. You used this month’s allowance on that streamer.” Ryan was furious. “That was Mom’s money! Trish, you’re so stingy, no wonder you don’t have any friends!” My adoptive mother hesitated, but before she could say anything, I cut her off. “Mom, didn’t you say Ryan needed to learn how hard it is to make money?” Seeing that I was serious about teaching Ryan a lesson, she didn’t push back. Instead, she secretly slipped him some cash. She figured that if she ran out of money, she could just ask me for more. But I was one step ahead. “Mom, I’ve already given you the household allowance for the month. You wouldn’t have secretly given it to Ryan, would you?” She immediately looked guilty and denied it. She had given all her money to Ryan, leaving nothing for my adoptive father. He rarely asked me for money directly, so it was usually my adoptive mother who asked on his behalf. But this time, since she didn’t have enough to give him, my adoptive father, drunk and furious, beat her half to death. Screaming, my adoptive mother begged me for help. “Trish! Trish, stop your father! He’s going to kill me!” I remained calm. “Mom, Dad’s just drunk. When he sobers up, he’ll apologize, right? Isn’t that what you always told me?” My adoptive mother looked at me in disbelief. After all, every time this happened before, I had jumped in to stop him, getting beaten black and blue in her place. And every time, I would urge her to leave him. But she always cried and said, “Trish, he’s your father. We’ve got three kids together. How can you tell me to leave him? He only gets like this when he’s drunk. He’ll be sorry and apologize when he sobers up…” Since she was so forgiving, all I could do was respect her decision. So this time, I stood back and watched as my adoptive father nearly beat her to death. He took her hidden stash of money and ran off to gamble again. My adoptive mother was confused by my sudden change in behavior but couldn’t afford to anger me, as she still depended on my money. A month later, Lily, who had been anxiously taking pregnancy tests every day, showed up at my door, tearfully holding a positive result… I couldn’t help but smirk.
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