Chapter 1
In my previous life, I never married because I devoted my entire life to taking care of my brother, Rodney.
This time around, we both came back to life together.
The first thing he did after returning to the past was to send me away and bring home the fake daughter, Gabrielle.
Rodney abandoned me, still an infant in swaddling clothes, on the street.
He said, "Don't blame me for being heartless. It's your fault that Gabrielle died."
*****
On the day I was born, it was a continuously rainy day in the South.
Rodney, the Aguirre family's eldest son, took three days off from school.
He rushed home in his school uniform, barely pausing for breath.
Nobody knew a thing.
That kid—back ramrod straight, eyes calm and determined.
Inside, he carried memories from two very different lives.
Rodney had just traveled back in time, returning filled with the regrets of his previous life.
He didn't bother to look at me, his biological sister.
Instead, Rodney secretly bribed the nurse, making sure Gabrielle—the child who had been wrongly switched in his previous life—was handed to our parents.
Rodney carried me out of the hospital.
He stuffed me straight into a rough, flimsy cardboard box.
We rode the bus all the way out to the outskirts of the city.
Meanwhile, Gabrielle, in her swaddling clothes, was crying even louder than me.
With the Aguirre family name wrapped around her, she'd soon become the so-called precious Gabrielle everyone would treat like royalty.
In his previous life, Rodney's greatest regret was wasting decades, missing his chance with Gabrielle, who had become an aviation doctor for him.
As for me, his real sister, I didn't come home until I was eighteen.
I never got married and willingly taught myself rehabilitation medicine for him.
When Rodney was paralyzed, it was I who helped him stand again, dragging him out of that wheelchair.
Yet, the one who occupied his thoughts was always Gabrielle, the one I had chosen not to save back then.
The Aguirre family of Virella, a loyal and heroic lineage in his previous life, had received national honors and been featured in three consecutive military news reports.
This time around, Rodney wasn't about to let things play out the same way, no matter the cost.
I lay quietly in my swaddling clothes, blinking open my eyes.
This time, I had also returned.
In my previous life, the hospital swapped me with Gabrielle.
She became the young lady of the Aguirre family.
And I got sent off to an ordinary working-class family.
At the age of three, a car accident left me completely alone.
They shipped me off to an orphanage after that.
From then on, I lived over ten years in constant fear and uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Gabrielle was living it up at the Aguirre estate, spoiled, pampered, and drowning in fancy clothes and good food.
She became Gabrielle Aguirre, the official beloved daughter of the family.
To everyone in the Aguirre family, she was their little princess, and to Rodney, she was the one and only sister he'd ever acknowledge.
Gabrielle had tutors, danced, played the piano, and breezed through school like it was nothing.
She could study abroad, basking in everyone's affection.
As for me, I was not brought back to the Aguirre family until I was eighteen.
That year, I walked through the gates of the Aguirre estate, wearing worn-out shoes and a simple dress from the orphanage, carrying a battered suitcase.
I spotted Rodney standing in the courtyard.
He was tall and straight, dressed in his military uniform, backlit by the sun.
But when he saw me, he frowned. "You're Jenna? Why do you seem so petty?"
Rodney was an elite pilot, groomed by the government as part of the national program.
Gabrielle became an excellent aviation doctor.
In every photo, they stood shoulder to shoulder, both flashing dazzling smiles.
That year, when I went to visit Rodney on base, everything changed.
The plane crashed. Rodney and Gabrielle were both trapped, pinned under the aircraft's wing, awaiting rescue.
The doctor, panicked, looked right at me. "I'm sorry, we can only save one first."
I hesitated for just a moment, then answered, "Save Rodney."
Everyone blamed me for Gabrielle's death.
But I never regretted my choice.
I started learning everything I could about rehab, sticking with Rodney day and night, never leaving his side.
It took me ten years to help Rodney get out of his wheelchair and stand tall again.
I never got married. My whole life, I took care of Rodney, all the way to the very end.
When Rodney was at death's door, his pale hand took hold of my fingertips.
His voice came out so weak, but every syllable hit me like a blow—deep and sharp.
He told me, "Jenna, I wish you had saved Gabrielle instead."
I stood there, stunned.
It felt like the world was crashing down on me.
So, even at the very end, he never had a single word of gratitude for me in his heart.