Julian Sterling, the A-list darling of our city’s elite, and my fiancé – at least on paper – was planning a big surprise for me tonight at the charity gala. In my last life, that surprise was him publicly dumping me and then proudly parading my stepsister, Chloe Hayes, as his new love. I cried, I threw tantrums, and in the end, they teamed up to frame me. They slapped me with labels like “fake socialite” and “business fraud,” tearing me down from my peak as a top streamer. I crashed and burned, utterly shattered and ruined. They called me greedy and vain, said I was jealous of my sister. Even my own parents stepped forward, pointing fingers and screaming, “You ungrateful snake! We should have disowned you ages ago!” Then, right there in public, they announced they were cutting all ties with me. Finally, I jumped from the city’s tallest abandoned skyscraper. When I opened my eyes again, I was back. Back to the moments just before the gala began. A chill ran down my wrist, and a surge of information flooded my mind. [Truth Recall System Activated.] [Ability: Recall real action records of any designated target within the last seven days.]
Instinctively, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and silently commanded, “Activate.” My vision blurred for a split second. I saw “myself” being thrown into a viral scandal three days ago, drowned in a torrent of online hate, all orchestrated by Chloe Hayes and Julian Sterling. I watched Julian laugh as he told Chloe, “Cassie is too naive. Millions of followers and she doesn’t know how to monetize them – what a waste. Once I’ve squeezed every last drop of her influence and connections, I’ll kick her to the curb.” I saw my own parents, bowing and scraping as they accepted a million-dollar check from Julian, assuring him, “Don’t worry, Mr. Sterling. We know what to do. That rebellious daughter? We’ve wanted to disown her for ages!” So that was it. Every betrayal, every calculated move, all had a price tag. I trembled with rage, then a smile slowly spread across my face. Good. It saved me from holding onto any more unrealistic fantasies about “blood ties.” I lowered my gaze, meticulously wiping my phone screen with my thumb until it gleamed like new. This was my bread and butter. And my weapon of revenge. Julian Sterling, Chloe Hayes, and my dearest “family.” The “surprise” you gave me in my last life? This time, I’m giving you an “extra special gift,” doubled. Clutching my custom handbag, my ten-centimeter heels clicking rhythmically, I walked back into the glittering, bustling ballroom. Bright lights, clinking glasses, and lively chatter filled the air. The moment I stepped inside, every eye in the room fixated on me. “Cassie Hayes is here! No wonder she’s a top streamer with millions of followers, that aura…” “Why is she alone? Where’s Mr. Sterling?” “Shhh, I heard there’s big news tonight.” Ignoring the whispers, I walked straight to the main table. Julian Sterling stood there, a champagne flute in his hand, surrounded by a cluster of privileged young men from influential families. He saw me, and a flicker of almost imperceptible distaste crossed his eyes, but his face still wore that signature, smooth and charming smile. “Cassie, you’re here.” Beside him, Chloe Hayes, dressed in a white chiffon gown from the same designer as my haute couture dress but with a more “innocent” cut, glanced at me timidly. Then, like a startled fawn, she shrank back behind Julian. Oh, a delicate little “pure” act. I wasn’t in the mood for their drama. I cut straight to the chase: “Julian, didn’t you say we were announcing our wedding date tonight? Why haven’t we started yet?” Instantly, all eyes in the room zeroed in on us. The Sterling family elders, seated at the head table, exchanged a subtle frown. Julian’s father, Mr. Sterling, the chairman of the Sterling Group, furrowed his brows. “Julian, what’s going on? Aren’t you and Cassie supposed to announce your engagement tonight?” Julian put down his glass, gave Chloe a reassuring look, then cleared his throat and picked up a microphone. Here it came. The nightmare of my last life, about to replay. “Distinguished guests, dear friends, thank you for coming tonight.” He paused, then gazed adoringly at Chloe, who stood behind him. “Taking this opportunity, I want to announce something. The woman I, Julian Sterling, truly love, is Chloe Hayes.” “My engagement to Cassie Hayes is officially called off, effective today!” BOOM—the entire room erupted. “Holy sh*t? Engagement called off?” “What the hell? A public breakup? How utterly humiliating for Cassie Hayes!” “Mr. Sterling is in love with his stepsister? Ugh, such drama in high society.” The spotlight *whooshed* off Julian and landed squarely on my face. Countless gazes, laced with pity, schadenfreude, and disdain, stabbed into me like daggers. My parents sprang out of their seats immediately, not to defend me, but to rush to the Sterling family, faces plastered with smiles. “Mr. Sterling, Mrs. Sterling, what…what exactly is going on?” my mother asked frantically. My father, on the other hand, wore a face contorted with rage, but his glare wasn’t for Julian; it was for me. “Cassie Hayes! Have you done something to offend Julian again? Apologize to him right now!” Hah. My wonderful father. Julian raised a hand, signaling for silence. “This isn’t Cassie’s fault, it’s just that we’re not compatible.” His words sounded pretty, but he pulled Chloe to his side, protectively wrapping his arm around her. “Chloe is pure and kind, unlike some people who treat their live streams like a performance and their fans like cash cows, reeking of nothing but money. I cannot marry such a hypocritical woman and tarnish the Sterling family name.” With those words, he immediately labeled me. Hypocritical. Reeking of money. In his arms, Chloe perfectly revealed half her tear-streaked face. “Sister, please don’t blame Julian, it’s all my fault…I shouldn’t have fallen for him, but we truly love each other, please, just let us be together…” Act. She was a damn good actress. I looked at the two-timing bastards and smiled. I picked up a glass of red wine from the table and slowly walked toward them. Under the horrified gazes of everyone present, I didn’t splash either of them. Instead, I raised the glass, looking out at the entire room, and at the media cameras lurking in the shadows, with a faint smile. “Are you done talking?” “Because if you are, it’s my turn.” I pulled out my phone, unlocked it, and opened my live-streaming app. “Since Mr. Sterling and Ms. Hayes like to air their dirty laundry for the whole internet to see, then as a ‘top streamer’ with millions of followers, it would be terribly unprofessional of me not to live stream, wouldn’t it?” The moment the live stream went online, the viewer count exploded exponentially. “Holy sh*t! Front row! What’s happening? Goddess Cassie live-streaming at the gala?” “Title: Century Breakup Live Stream? So much tea!” “Who are those two-timing bastards opposite her? Julian Sterling and Chloe Hayes? I just came from the trending scandal, is the queen herself getting involved?” Julian’s face finally changed.
“Cassie Hayes, are you insane? Turn off that phone!” Julian’s voice carried a hint of suppressed fury. I wiggled my phone, and the rapidly scrolling comments on the screen made his pupils constrict. “Insane?” I smirked. “I’m perfectly lucid. Mr. CEO, aren’t you the expert on monetizing traffic? With such massive drama, how else will you hit your KPIs without a live stream?” My father’s face turned purple with rage. He pointed at me and roared, “You, you rebellious girl! Turn that off right now! You’re disgracing our family!” “Disgrace?” I smiled even wider. “Dad, when you just accepted that million-dollar check from Julian, why didn’t you think about our family’s ‘honor’ then?” With one sentence, my father’s face went from purple to white. My mother panicked too, rushing forward to snatch my phone. “Cassie, what nonsense are you spewing! What check? Are you out of your mind from shock?” I lightly sidestepped her, dodging her grab. “Easy, Mom. The real show is just beginning.” Chloe, seeing the situation going south, immediately buried herself in Julian’s arms, tears streaming down her face. “Julian…it’s all my fault. Sister must be acting this way because of me…she didn’t mean it, please don’t be angry with her.” Julian lovingly embraced her, then turned to me, his gaze as cold as ice. “Cassie Hayes, you’re clearly ungrateful. All your so-called personas have been stripped bare! Who are you trying to fool with your ‘socialite’ act? You’re nothing but a gold-digger who built a fake image to con fans out of money!” “Let me tell you this right now, a woman like you isn’t fit to tie my shoes!” “Oh?” I calmly and deliberately wiped my phone screen, facing the live camera, a cool and unbothered smile on my face. “Since Mr. Sterling put it that way, then let’s talk about who’s the gold-digger, and who’s truly ‘dirty’.” I activated [Truth Recall]. Target: Chloe Hayes. Instantly, a series of images flashed through my mind. The smile on my lips grew wider. “Chloe Hayes, my dear sister. You told your followers that all your design works are brimming with creativity, a reflection of your pure heart, right?” Chloe froze, not knowing what trick I was pulling, and could only nod tearfully. “Sister, I…I just love design. I never meant to compete with you for anything.” “Don’t be silly,” I interrupted her. “As your older sister, I simply *must* promote you.” I faced the live camera and slowly began to speak. “Three days ago, at 2:15 PM, you met an independent designer named Marcus Green at ‘Whispering Winds’ Café. You paid him fifty thousand dollars to buy out a set of jewelry designs called ‘Starlight Dream,’ then immediately turned around and posted on your Ins, claiming you stayed up three nights designing it as a ‘surprise’ for Julian.” “Am I right?” Chloe’s face went paper-white in an instant. She stared at me in horror, her lips trembling. “You…you’re lying! I don’t even know anyone named Marcus Green!” “Don’t know him?” I laughed. “Well, Marcus Green has a burn scar on his left wrist, from when you accidentally spilled coffee on him. He even smiled and said it was fine, that it was an honor to be scalded by the ‘Miss Hayes.’ He was so loyal to you, you really shouldn’t disown him now.” The live stream comments went wild. “Holy sh*t! Plagiarism? Seriously?” “She’s got all the details! Time, place, person, even a scar! If this is made up, I’ll eat my own shoe standing on my head!” “@WhisperingWindsCafe, we need the surveillance! @DesignerMarcusGreen, get out here and confront her!” Julian’s face also completely darkened. He wasn’t a fool; he knew that for me to be so specific, it couldn’t be a baseless rumor. He looked at Chloe, a hint of scrutiny entering his eyes. Chloe was on the verge of tears, clutching his arm desperately. “Julian, don’t listen to her! She’s jealous of me, she’s trying to frame me!” Just then, my mother, my dearest mother, rushed forward again. This time, she didn’t try to snatch my phone. Instead, with a heartbroken and furious tone, she screamed at everyone, and at my live camera: “Enough! Cassie Hayes! How much longer are you going to cause a scene?!” “We didn’t want you to marry Julian, not because we favor Chloe, but because you…you’re simply not pure!” “At such a young age, you messed around with those questionable influencers and shady businessmen. You’ve contracted an incurable disease! We were afraid you’d harm Julian, that’s why we were forced to resort to this drastic measure!” That blow was even more vicious than the public breakup. More toxic than accusing me of being hypocritical and materialistic. This was meant to utterly obliterate my social standing. The entire room fell into a dead silence. The live stream comments also paused for a second. Then, they exploded with even greater fury.
The way people around me looked at me changed instantly. It was as if I were a carrier of disease, and everyone recoiled, creating distance. My mother’s move, pulling the rug out from under me, was truly brilliant. She thought this would force me to turn off the live stream and back down. Too bad. I curved my lips into a smile, pulled a portable charger from my handbag, and calmly and deliberately connected it to my phone. “Mom, are you talking about *these* men?” I tapped open my phone gallery, displaying the high-definition footage I had just captured using the system’s recall function. I held my phone screen up to the live camera, swiping through the pictures one by one. Even though they were just screenshots from a mental recall, the clarity blew any paparazzi shot out of the water. “Chloe Hayes, I’ll ask you one more time. Do you recognize these men?” The photos showed Chloe intimately embracing different men. There were investors in tailored suits, muscular gym trainers, and even a lead singer of an underground band with bright green hair. The locations varied from luxury hotel suites to the backseats of cars, to dimly lit bar booths. The poses…were varied and too explicit to watch. These were all photos that had only been leaked by paparazzi in my previous life, *after* I died. At the time, Chloe had already been championed by Julian as the epitome of pure innocence. When these photos came out, the entire internet was stunned. Julian, to protect her reputation, spent a fortune buying back all the photos, then blamed the scandal on a rival actress. Didn’t expect this, Julian. Your paid-for black history? Here it is, free and in high-definition replay, courtesy of me. “No! This isn’t me!” Chloe went wild, rushing forward to snatch my phone. “These photos are fake! They’re doctored! Cassie Hayes, you’re so malicious, you used your own face to Photoshop onto mine just to ruin me!” Hah, blame-shifting. I calmly pulled my phone back, then took a small USB drive from my bag. “Inside this, I have the original video footage I ‘accidentally’ recorded during the recall… oh, sorry, during my ‘accidental’ filming.” “Since you claim they’re photoshopped, why don’t we connect it to the ballroom’s big screen right now? We can invite the media and technical experts present to verify it together, and see who’s really lying?” Of course, I had no original video footage. The USB drive was empty. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was Chloe’s guilty conscience. Her face instantly turned paper-white. She clutched Julian’s arm desperately, trembling all over. “Julian…she’s doing this on purpose, she just wants to humiliate me…Even if they’re fake, I don’t want those dirty things to be seen by everyone…” Julian protectively pulled her into his embrace, then looked at me, his gaze chillingly cold. “Cassie Hayes, do you really think I’ll be afraid of you if you use such despicable tactics to ruin Chloe’s reputation? Give it up!” “My mother said it! You’re the one with the messy private life! Don’t make a scene here!” I sneered. “Alright, since you all insist it’s me, then let’s go to the hospital for a check-up right now. Do you dare?” Chloe’s breath hitched. Her nails dug so hard into Julian’s arm, they almost broke his skin. “I…” She stammered, unable to form words. Julian made the decision for her. “We’ll go! I’ll make sure you lose so completely that you can’t say a word!” He called over their family doctor, a professional-looking middle-aged woman. I shrugged nonchalantly, following the female doctor into a private room. Ten minutes later, the doctor emerged, shaking her head at Julian. “Mr. Sterling, Ms. Hayes is perfectly healthy, no issues whatsoever.” I looked at Chloe, calmly composed. “Sister, your turn.” Chloe’s face flushed crimson. Her eyes darted away, and she slowly backed away, step by step. Just as everyone was waiting to see her embarrassed, she suddenly clutched her lower abdomen and dropped a bombshell. “I can’t be examined! Because…because I’m already pregnant with Julian’s baby!” The words hung in the air, and the entire room froze. I feigned a gasp, covering my mouth, but the amusement in my eyes was practically overflowing.
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