1 On the day of our tenth wedding anniversary, the young woman my husband had been sponsoring through college knelt before me. Tears streamed down her face as she clutched a newborn baby to her chest, begging me to adopt him. In my past life, I looked at the poor child, remembered my husband’s lack of an heir, and agreed to take the boy in. I poured my heart and soul into that child. I raised him as my own flesh and blood, grooming him until he was ready to take over the CEO position of my family’s empire. The very day after he assumed control of the company, he locked me in a windowless basement. I watched helplessly as they drained my stock portfolios, liquidated my trust funds, and moved into my cliffside estates. I watched Isabella flaunt her love with my husband, Sebastian, right in front of my face. I watched them attend elite galas wearing the jewels my grandfather left me. And me? I was chained to a concrete pillar. I was fed rotting scraps that a stray dog would refuse. I became their personal entertainment, a punching bag for their twisted amusement. In the end, driven to absolute despair, I threw myself headfirst against the concrete pillar. Blood poured over my eyes, yet Isabella merely stood there, smiling down at me with pure disgust. … “Genevieve, what was the point of being so brilliant?” she sneered. “You spent your whole life building a kingdom, just to hand me the keys.” “Be a little smarter in your next life. Stop being such a pathetic stepping stone. Honestly, watching you be this stupid almost makes me feel bad.” My husband, the man I had loved for a decade, stood beside her like a god looking down at an insect. His eyes were devoid of any warmth. “Genevieve, if you didn’t have a massive fortune, do you really think I would have let my son call you mother for twenty years? Do you think I would have let Isabella suffer being separated from her baby? You owed us. And debts are paid with blood.” I blinked. The cold, damp basement was gone. Sebastian was sitting at the edge of our king-sized bed, gently massaging my calves with a loving smile. “Genevieve, we’ve been married for ten years now. If we don’t have a child soon, all the wealth we’ve built will have nowhere to go. Why don’t we adopt?” I swallowed the phantom pain of my skull cracking against concrete. Slowly, a faint, icy smile touched my lips. “Alright. Pinnacle Holdings does need an heir.” In this life, I would no longer travel the world seeking elite fertility specialists. I would no longer secretly brew herbal remedies to cure his defects. I wanted to see exactly how this man, who was clinically and permanently sterile, managed to produce a biological son. Sebastian froze. He clearly hadn’t expected me to agree so easily. “You mean it? You are actually willing to raise someone else’s child?” I looked at him, my eyes sharp with mockery. “I said the company needs an heir. That doesn’t mean I’m going to take in some random bastard off the street. I am not handing my family’s legacy over to someone with inferior genetics.” Sebastian’s face darkened. He shot up from the bed, glaring at me. But after a long moment, he softened his tone and started his rehearsed pitch. “Genevieve, I’m thinking about our future. When we get old, we need someone to rely on. We need someone to care for us. Do you really want outsiders tearing apart the empire we built?” “Just think about it. A kid would bring so much life into this house. You can’t just focus on making money all the time…” I fought the urge to rip his eyes out. I stared at him, letting out a dry, bitter laugh. “Is that so? At least if outsiders tear my company apart, I’ll know who killed me. If I adopt a little wolf pup, I might just end up dead in a basement without a clue how it happened.” He still thought he could play me exactly like he did in my past life. He wanted me to slave away for his empire. He was out of his mind. In this life, his little bastard would never see the light of day. These pieces of trash belonged in hell. Sebastian stood entirely still, looking at me in shock. “Genevieve, what are you talking about? If we raise a child as our own, why would he ever turn on us?” “Because genetics matter,” I said coldly. “If the biological parents are ruthless, shameless parasites, what kind of genes do you think the kid inherits? Pinnacle Holdings is my life’s work. It holds all the assets of the Sinclair estate. I am not handing it over to a stranger.” I suppressed the boiling rage in my chest and stared him down. Impatience and panic flickered across his face. “You can’t be this selfish! You know how much my mother and Uncle Richard have been pressuring me!” “And the board of directors! Every single one of those old vultures is staring at the CEO chair! Do you have any idea how much pressure I’m under because we don’t have an heir?!” “If you can’t handle the pressure of the boardroom, resign from the CEO position.” Sebastian’s face turned red with anger. “I put up with you because I love you! Can’t you think about me for once?!” I had no desire to waste another breath on this animal. I stood up, walked into the master bathroom, and slammed the door shut. I slid down the cold marble door, clutching my chest, gasping for air. I was back. I was really back. There was no rotting food. There were no heavy iron chains. My arms were smooth and flawless, free from the festering wounds and infected scars. My hair wasn’t gray. I wasn’t a walking corpse. After a long time, I steadied my breathing and pulled myself up. I took out my phone and dialed a private number. “Detective Cross. I need you to lock onto a target. I want every single detail of her life on my desk.” “Understood, Ms. Sinclair. We will have eyes on her 24/7. Not a single detail will slip through.” The next morning, Sebastian kissed my cheek as gently as he always did, acting as if the argument never happened. He smiled, blowing on my hot coffee to cool it down, chatting casually about the upcoming merger of our family assets. It was as if yesterday was just a minor hiccup, one he had graciously forgiven because he respected my boundaries. I didn’t bother arguing with him about the child. I had an empire to secure, client accounts to reclaim, and his absolute destruction to plan. He was going to be thrown out of Pinnacle Holdings. Seeing me working late every night, Sebastian would wrap his arms around my shoulders, playing the doting husband. “Take it easy, sweetheart. I can handle the heavy lifting at the office. Just focus on your health. Don’t push yourself.” I would just smile coldly, secretly saving the photos and videos Detective Cross sent me into an encrypted cloud drive. They were quite the tragic lovers. Sneaking off to different cities just to sleep together. Meeting up in cheap motels twice a month. Sebastian having to invent elaborate lies about business trips just to see her. In the videos, they were inseparable. Isabella clung to him like a leech. It was hilarious to think I used to drown in his sweet words, truly believing I had married the perfect man. Soon, it was the night of our tenth anniversary. Half of the elite families in Newport were gathered at our cliffside estate. Champagne flowed. Designer gowns swept across the marble floors. I wore a custom haute couture gown, linking my arm through Sebastian’s as we mingled. The compliments rolled in endlessly. “You two are the ultimate power couple. A match made in heaven.” “With your families united, nobody on the East Coast can touch you. Make sure you leave some of the market for the rest of us, Genevieve!” I smiled gracefully, watching Sebastian force a polite laugh while his eyes kept darting toward the grand double doors of the ballroom. One second. Two seconds. Three. The moment his phone buzzed in his pocket, the heavy mahogany doors burst open. A frail, slender figure rushed into the grand hall, clutching a bundle of blankets. Isabella dropped to her knees right in front of me. “Genevieve, I didn’t know where else to go!” “The baby’s father abandoned me. I’m just a broke college student. I have no family. I can’t keep this little boy alive!” She gently stroked the baby’s cheek, looking up at me with red, swollen eyes. “You and Sebastian have been paying my tuition for years. You are my saviors. I have nothing to give you in return. But if you are willing to adopt this child, I will spend the rest of my life praying for your happiness.” She leaned forward and actually pressed her forehead to the marble floor, sobbing loudly. In my past life, seeing her look so pathetic, combined with Sebastian’s aggressive persuasion, I melted. I agreed to take the child right then and there. Now, the entire ballroom went dead silent. The socialites began whispering. Everyone knew I was barren. A free child seemed like a perfect solution. I took three steps back, widening my eyes in pure, dramatic horror. Then, I stepped forward and slapped Isabella across the face with everything I had. “Isabella! Are you out of your mind?! You got pregnant in your junior year?!” “I treated you like a little sister! I paid for your education so you could make something of yourself! And you come here with a bastard child?! You disgust me!” I forced tears into my eyes, my voice trembling with perfectly acted heartbreak. I pointed a shaking finger at her. “You swore to me you were studying! You swore you wanted to make me proud! Is this how you study? On your back in some frat house?!” Isabella’s face drained of all color. She froze, entirely caught off guard. For the five years I funded her education, I had never raised my voice at her. I protected her pride, comforted her, and encouraged her. My kindness and soft heart had nurtured a venomous snake. And since she was a snake, I was going to crush her head. I turned to Sebastian, looking utterly devastated and furious. “Look at this! We spent a fortune trying to give her a future, and she throws it away to birth an illegitimate child! How could we ever adopt a baby with genetics like this?!” The wealthy guests around us immediately turned their noses up in disgust. “Absolutely shameless. She barely has pennies to her name, and she’s out getting knocked up. Now she wants Genevieve to foot the bill for her mistakes? Disgusting.” “Crashing their tenth anniversary to dump a baby on them? Is she trying to ruin the party on purpose? What a piece of trash.” “She knows Genevieve has a soft heart, so she’s trying to extort her.” Isabella’s face burned scarlet. She looked up at Sebastian, tears pooling in her eyes. Sebastian’s face twitched. He pulled his hand back, trying desperately to run damage control. “Genevieve, the baby is innocent. What’s done is done. Isabella is young, she made a stupid mistake.” He gently pushed my shoulders, guiding me closer to the infant. His voice trembled with fake emotion. “Just look at him. He’s so alert. Look at those big eyes.” “We’ve been wanting a child for so long. The moment we start talking about adoption, Isabella brings us a baby. It’s fate, Genevieve. Let’s take him. Consider it an act of charity.” I looked down at the infant wrapped in the expensive blanket. A wave of pure nausea washed over me. In my past life, this boy grabbed me by the hair and shoved my face into a bowl of rotting dog food. To please his biological mother, he whipped me until my back was shredded. He didn’t care that I loved him. He didn’t care that I raised him for twenty years. I let out a sharp laugh and slapped Sebastian’s hands off my waist. “Alert? Every baby looks around. The ones that don’t are dead.” “I am not adopting him, Sebastian. I will not raise the spawn of a cheap, easy woman.” With those two sentences, Isabella turned to stone. The tears literally stopped falling from her eyes. Sebastian’s gentle, patient smile completely shattered. He never expected this. I had always been soft. I always gave him what he wanted. They had rehearsed this play flawlessly, yet I was burning the script. After a brief moment of shock, Isabella let out a wail, shifting her performance into overdrive. “Genevieve! I wasn’t sleeping around! I was forced! I was assaulted! I was too terrified to tell you!” She hugged the baby tighter, sobbing violently. “I wanted to get rid of it! But the doctors told me my uterine lining was too thin. If I had an abortion, I would bleed to death! I had no choice!” She cried beautifully, playing the fragile victim to absolute perfection. Her tears were cheaper than tap water. In my past life, this was the exact lie that broke my heart. Right on cue, my mother-in-law, Eleanor, broke through the crowd. She snatched the baby from Isabella, cooing and rocking him. “Oh, my poor sweet boy! Look at him!” She turned to me, her face twisting into an ugly scowl. “Genevieve, why are you being so vicious?! Your own stomach is useless! Who else can you blame? Isabella is offering you a son on a silver platter, and you’re acting like a tyrant!” “What’s wrong with adopting him? It’s good karma! Maybe if you do a good deed, God will finally bless you with your own child! Don’t ruin your own blessings!” Sebastian’s uncle, Richard, stepped out of the crowd, his face stern. “A person needs a charitable heart, Genevieve. Your family line is dying out. You need to look in the mirror.” “How much money does a baby really cost? Just take him in. Why push the girl to the edge? She’s always been a polite girl. Maybe she really was forced.” The crowd’s attention shifted back to Isabella, who was shivering in a cheap cotton dress, looking utterly defeated. Taking Eleanor’s lead, Sebastian’s relatives swarmed me, launching their rehearsed guilt trip. “Exactly. The poor girl is desperate. Save a life, Genevieve.” “I’m just being honest with you, Genevieve. If you’re too cruel, you won’t hold onto your wealth. A baby brings joy to a quiet house.” The entire family ganged up on me, weaponizing morality to force my hand. No one asked what I actually wanted. Sebastian stood silently in the crowd, watching me buckle under the immense pressure. He was so confident I would break. He was absolutely certain I would cave and accept the child. Eleanor patted the baby’s back, glaring at me, waiting for my surrender. When I didn’t speak, she raised her voice for the whole room to hear. “I am making the decision! Sebastian will adopt this boy! I don’t care who objects!” She looked at me sideways, challenging me to fight back. The guests immediately began congratulating Eleanor, praising the baby’s cute face. Sebastian rushed over to help Isabella off the floor. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, flashing with absolute victory. I calmly picked up a glass of sparkling water, listening to the exact same dialogue I had heard a lifetime ago. I took a slow sip, burying the murderous rage burning in my chest. In this life, if they wanted to hand me their bastard son, they were going to pay in blood. I stepped forward slowly. I reached out, gently running a finger over the baby’s soft cheek, and gave them the brightest, warmest smile I could muster. “You’re right, Eleanor. Uncle Richard is right. If everyone believes this is an act of charity…” “Then I will adopt him.” The ballroom went dead quiet. Isabella’s head snapped up. The wild, greedy joy in her eyes was impossible to hide. Sebastian’s tense shoulders dropped. He clenched his fists, trying to mask his overwhelming excitement. Eleanor beamed with triumph, acting like a conquering general. “You finally used your brain, Genevieve! Since you can’t have one, raising someone else’s is the exact same thing!” I nodded slowly, my voice perfectly calm. “But since the Sinclair and Vanguard families are adopting an heir, we cannot do this in secret.” “I want to choose an auspicious date. We will host a massive naming ceremony. We will invite the press, the politicians, and every business partner on the East Coast. On that day, I will officially name him the sole heir to Pinnacle Holdings.” The room erupted in applause. The guests praised my generosity. The atmosphere was electric. Eleanor excitedly yelled for the estate manager, ordering him to prep the nursery, demanding the best nannies money could buy. The estate dissolved into a joyful frenzy. No one noticed the pitch-black, sinister smile curling on my lips. I set the date for June 8th. The exact date I had signed my company over to Oliver in my previous life. On this day, I would let the world witness their “crowning achievement.” The city was in an uproar. Sebastian had rented twenty-eight helicopters to drop rose petals over the estate. Banners of congratulations covered the luxury hotel we rented. Every rival, every partner, every relative, and every friend was in attendance. Everyone praised Eleanor’s kind heart for taking in the orphan. They praised my good fortune for finally securing an heir. The grand ballroom was deafening with flattery. Eleanor wore a dark red silk gown, carrying her precious grandson through the crowd, showing him off to the billionaires. “Look at him! My eldest grandson. Isn’t he handsome? He looks exactly like Sebastian did as a baby!” The guests eagerly fed her ego. “Absolutely! He has a strong brow and perfect ears. So much like his father. He’s going to lead the Vanguard Group to glory!” “You are so blessed, Eleanor! This boy is going to make your family untouchable!” Sebastian boldly walked Isabella through the crowd, introducing her to the elite, basking in their praise. They thought they had completely broken me. They didn’t even try to hide their affection anymore. Isabella had been professionally styled. Her makeup was flawless. She wore an elegant evening gown, and around her neck sat a hundred-thousand-dollar Cartier diamond necklace. She looked like a young billionaire’s wife. The pathetic, shivering victim from a few days ago was completely gone. The guests praised her luck, telling her she was blessed to have met such saviors. She just lowered her eyes, looking shyly at Sebastian. “Sebastian is a saint. I only kept the child to repay his kindness. Now, his family legacy is secure.” The crowd fawned over her gratitude, conveniently ignoring the fact that she had gotten knocked up by a random man in college. I sat quietly at the head table, sipping my wine, watching the Titanic head straight for the iceberg. Soon, the master of ceremonies took the microphone, his voice echoing through the speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen! Please welcome the matriarch, Ms. Genevieve Sinclair, to the stage to officially welcome the new heir to the dynasty!” Thunderous applause shook the room. I smoothed my elegant dress, walked calmly up the steps, and took the microphone. “Since my husband and I have agreed to take in Isabella’s child, we will treat him as our own flesh and blood. And naturally, the legal paperwork must be flawless.” I raised a thick leather binder containing the adoption papers and the corporate equity transfers. “Upon the finalization of this adoption, I am transferring thirty percent of my voting shares in Pinnacle Holdings directly to this child. He will be the undisputed heir to my empire.” The applause was deafening. Isabella’s eyes were practically glowing with greed. Sebastian’s face flushed deep red with excitement, his hands trembling at his sides. I let out a soft chuckle. I paused, letting the silence build, before shifting my tone. “However, an heir to a multi-billion dollar empire cannot have any legal liabilities. To prevent any future extortion or custody battles, I would like Isabella to come to the stage and sign a total termination of parental rights.” Isabella hesitated for a fraction of a second. But as her eyes locked onto the equity transfer documents, she lifted her chin and walked elegantly onto the stage. There was no trace of fear in her. She knew she had won. A piece of paper meant nothing. Once her son controlled my wealth, he would easily welcome his biological mother back into the fold. She stood in the center of the stage, bowing slightly to the crowd, looking incredibly dignified. “I want to thank Sebastian for his years of support. And Genevieve is so generous. I know she will treat my boy as her own and raise him to be a brilliant leader.” With a swift, practiced motion, she signed her name on the dotted line. I smiled. She just couldn’t resist manipulating the crowd one last time. After her touching speech concluded, I stepped up to the microphone again. My voice was eerily calm. “Since we are legally separating the child from his original family, the biological father must also sign away his rights.” “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the biological father to the stage.” The words hit the room like a bomb. The entire ballroom gasped, turning their heads toward the massive double doors. “Wait, didn’t she say she was assaulted? Why would the rapist be here?!” Isabella’s body turned to stone. The elegant smile on her face shattered into a million pieces. A thin, exhausted-looking young man in a cheap suit was walking slowly down the center aisle. Isabella let out a blood-curdling scream of pure terror. “Noah?! Who the hell let you in here?! Get out!” I stepped closer to her, leaning in until my lips brushed her ear, my voice dripping with venom. “I brought him here, Isabella. He’s the father, isn’t he? We need his signature.”
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