Emma Thompson and Lucas Graham had known each other since childhood, their families close for generations. When Lucas’s family went bankrupt, Emma’s parents stepped in to help, covering their debts and supporting them financially. Emma stood by Lucas through college, helping him get into a top university and later paving the way for his career. Their marriage seemed inevitable, a natural progression of their relationship. When Lucas expressed his desire for children, Emma put her thriving career on hold to focus on starting a family. But her world shattered when she stumbled upon a photo of Lucas embracing Lily Chen, her family’s former housekeeper’s daughter, on a luxurious vacation in Dubai. The image of their passionate kiss burned into her mind. Confronting Lucas only led to Emma being locked in the basement. Helpless, she was forced to watch as Lucas and Lily sold off her family’s assets and orchestrated her parents’ deaths. While they lived happily as a family of four, Emma died alone, filled with hatred and regret. But fate had other plans. Emma opened her eyes to find herself back in time, before it all began. Emma and Lucas’s families had agreed they would marry when they were still children. The summer Emma graduated from middle school, Lucas’s family company went bankrupt due to his father’s mismanagement. Unable to bear the massive debt, Lucas’s father took his own life. Emma’s parents, seeing Lucas and his mother in such a pitiful state, paid off their debts and took on all their expenses. In other words, Emma’s family was supporting them entirely. After graduating from university, Lucas started working at Emma’s family company, and they got married. Emma’s parents had good intentions, but they had raised two ungrateful wolves. Lucas and his mother resented Emma’s parents for not paying off their debts before Lucas’s father’s suicide. They conspired with others to cause the deaths of Emma’s parents. Lucas even caused Emma to become infertile, using her guilt to take control of her family’s company. By the time Emma discovered all of this, Lucas and his mistress already had two children. That day, after countless attempts at IVF, Emma finally succeeded in getting pregnant. Overjoyed, she rushed downstairs to share the news with her beloved husband. It was also the day her family’s company declared bankruptcy. Lucas, finally free from having to keep up appearances with Emma, brought his children to meet her. Emma stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs, staring at the happy family of four. The two children looked just like Lucas; she couldn’t deny the truth even if she wanted to. “Lucas, who are they?” Emma asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “My wife and sons,” Lucas replied coldly. Lily Chen, heavily pregnant, walked over to Emma’s side, step by step. She was the daughter of Emma’s former housekeeper. “Well, well, little rich girl. Not so rich anymore, are you?” Lily sneered. “Your family’s fortune is mine now, and your man loves me.” She snatched the medical report from Emma’s hand. “Oh my! You’re pregnant?! After all those birth control pills, how did that happen?!” Birth control pills? Emma had never taken any. Suddenly, she remembered the vitamins Lucas had always prepared for her, constantly reminding her to take them. Emma turned to confront Lucas, but Lily shoved her down the stairs. Instinctively, Emma tried to protect her stomach, but it was futile. As pain ripped through her abdomen, Emma struggled to ask Lucas to take her to the hospital. She saw Lucas covering his sons’ eyes, looking at her as if she were trash. “Please… help me…” Emma begged. No one moved to assist her. As she felt blood pooling between her legs, her body growing colder by the second, Emma heard Lucas’s voice. “Finally dead. If only she had been in the car with those two old fools, we wouldn’t have had to deal with all this trouble.” “Emma?” “How dare you daydream during Mrs. Zhang’s class?” Emma found herself sitting in her high school classroom, as if waking from a long dream. She was back in her senior year of high school. “Lily Chen.” Hearing that name again, Emma’s hand clenched tightly around her pen. Lily stood up confidently, her high ponytail swinging as she answered the teacher’s question. Emma turned her head slightly, catching a glimpse of Lucas through Lily’s arms. And the look of adoration in his eyes. So Lucas had fallen for Lily even back then. Lucas and Lily had consistently held the top two spots in their grade. In her previous life, they had ended up at the same university. Emma had thought Lucas fell for Lily during college, but it seemed to have started much earlier. Actually, at the beginning of high school, Emma had been the top student. She used to outperform the second-place student by dozens of points. But Lucas would always tell her that constantly outscoring him made him anxious. He said that with her family’s wealth, whether she went to university or not wouldn’t make much difference. He claimed that his feelings for her wouldn’t change regardless of her grades, and encouraged her to enjoy life instead of studying so hard. Gradually, influenced by him, Emma only managed to get into an average university for her college entrance exam. Meanwhile, Lucas and Lily were admitted to the country’s top university. After they married, Emma’s ordinary degree became a reason for Lucas’s mother to look down on her. An average university graduate wasn’t good enough for her son from a top university. Now, Emma couldn’t believe how foolish she had been. Why had she pinned her entire future on a man? Especially one who relied on her family’s support. During the break, Emma buried herself in her textbooks. Although she hadn’t completely neglected her studies in her previous life, she hadn’t been as diligent as she had been in her first year of high school. Given a second chance, she was determined to make up for lost time. Her deskmate nudged her arm. Lucas was approaching. “Emma, this is for you,” he said, holding out a star-shaped bottle. Just like in her previous life, Emma noticed the reluctance hidden in Lucas’s eyes. “Thanks,” she replied flatly. As if he had completed a task he’d rather avoid, Lucas turned and left without another word. Emma carelessly placed the bottle on her desk and returned to her studies. Her deskmate stared at the bottle for a moment before poking Emma again. “Emma, about that star bottle…” “What about it?” “I think I’ve seen one just like it with Lily…” Emma nodded, appearing to focus on her book while listening intently and keeping an eye on Lily from the corner of her vision. She watched as Lily listened to Lucas explain a problem, her face flushed with shy adoration. Emma also overheard Lucas’s friends talking. “What’s up with Emma today? She’s so calm.” “Yeah! Lucas gave her a gift, hand-delivered! Shouldn’t she be crying with joy?” “You don’t think she knows it’s the one Lily didn’t want, do you?” “As if! Lily’s leftovers are too good for her!” Emma remembered how in her previous life, she had reacted exactly as Lucas’s friends expected. She had been overjoyed, crying tears of happiness. It had been one of the few gifts Lucas had ever given her. That day, she had posted about it on all her social media accounts. Back then, her deskmate had said the same thing, but Emma had furiously denied it. Emma turned to her deskmate with a guilty look. Her deskmate, still with baby fat on her cheeks, looked alarmed and crossed her arms. “I’m straight, just so you know!” Way to ruin the moment. Emma went back to her studies. After school, Emma couldn’t wait to get home. She missed her parents terribly. She also wanted to tell them that she wanted to break off the engagement, that Lucas and his mother were ungrateful leeches. Emma rushed into the house, but couldn’t find her parents anywhere. She asked the housekeeper, “Where are Mom and Dad?” “Miss, don’t you remember? Mr. and Mrs. Thompson went abroad. They won’t be back for another two weeks.” Right, Emma had forgotten. She also realized something else. Her father had always valued loyalty and friendship. He and Lucas’s father had been best friends, which was why he had paid off their debts after Lucas’s father died.
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