Chapter 1

Before I died in the VIP ward, my husband, Jude Harrington, the billionaire president of Zephyr Group, finally showed up.

He held my hand, his bloodshot eyes filled with deep affection. "Vera, would you marry me again if you had a second chance?"

I looked at him, trying to smile, but a sharp, tearing pain erupted in my lungs, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Of course, I would. I'd be happy to come back to him, to claim every single thing he owed me, every debt he owed our three-year-old child, with interest, one by one. I'd make him feel the agony of a thousand arrows piercing his heart.

*****

When I opened my eyes again, the scent of disinfectant still hung in the air, but what I heard was the familiar yell of the dorm supervisor. "Vera, how long are you going to stay in bed?

"The finance department's roll call is savage. Are you trying to flunk out?"

I suddenly sat up, scanning my surroundings.

There were clean sheets and walls covered in celebrity posters. Across from me, my roommate, Zoe Kincaid, peeked out from the lower bunk, a pimple patch stuck to her cheek.

This wasn't a hospital. This was my college dorm. On the wall, someone had circled a date in red pen, September 1st, 2016.

I'd time-travelled back ten years into the past. I was back at the starting line, before any of the tragedy had begun.

In my previous life, it was this very year that I made a name for myself at the National College Finance Challenge, using the alias King.

But that victory caught the attention of the special judge for the competition, Jude Harrington, who was only twenty-five at the time.

He unmasked me, revealing that King was actually a woman. After that, his bold and unstoppable pursuit took over my entire college life.

He was the golden boy, handsome, loaded, and absolutely ruthless. I was a girl from a regular family. How could I ever stand a chance against someone like him?

I fell for him, and after graduation, I ended up marrying him.

From then on, the legendary King disappeared, and all that was left was the dutiful Mrs. Harrington.

I rolled up my sleeves in the kitchen, navigated the circles of socialites and high society ladies for him, and kept everything on the home front running like clockwork, so he could wage war in the business world without a single worry.

I even delivered the baby of the woman he truly loved, Chloe Quinn, when she was frightened into premature labor.

Everyone called me the best wife.

But nobody knew that the day after Chloe and her baby were flown out by the helicopter Jude sent, I was trapped in the mountaintop villa during the chaos of a corporate upheaval.

I could only watch in horror as my three-year-old son suddenly came down with a high fever and acute laryngitis, and suffocated to death right in front of me.

I held his little body, getting colder and colder in my arms, and kept calling Jude again and again, but he never answered.

Later, I found out that at that exact moment, he was by Chloe's bedside, humming lullabies to their preemie, who was shaken up.

For seven years, I tried to warm the heart he said he had for me, but in the end, it was a stone.

I hated him. I hated his coldness, and I hated my stupidity and weakness back then.

"Vera, what are you daydreaming about?" Zoe's face suddenly filled my vision as she pinched my cheek. "Get up already, or that old witch is seriously going to flip out on us."

I snapped back, staring at her vibrant face, and felt my eyes grow hot. In my previous life, Zoe had stood up for me and ended up on Jude's blacklist.

He made her life hell, and she was forced to leave, fading away in a foreign land, broken and alone.

This time, not only was I out for revenge, but I was also going to protect everyone I cared about.

"No worries, I'm up," I said with a grin, tossing off the covers so quickly that Zoe was left gaping.

I got dressed and washed up in three minutes flat.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I was twenty, still a trace of innocence on my face, but my eyes were already cold and weathered.

This time, there was no more Vera dreaming about love. There was only a vengeful spirit that crawled out of hell, coming for Jude's life.

I unlocked my phone, and there Jude was on the front page of the financial news, looking all confident and in control. The headline read: [Zephyr Group Announces Tender Offer for Industry Veteran Sonova Tech.]

I remembered Sonova Tech all too well. This was one of Jude's most brilliant moves in his business empire. With this acquisition, he snatched up Sonova Tech's core technology, and Zephyr Group's stock price tripled in six months.

But nobody knew that behind this seemingly glorious takeover lurked a massive trap. Sonova Tech's core tech had a fatal flaw that no one had discovered yet.

In my previous life, that flaw didn't come to light until two years later, triggering a massive product recall and a crisis of trust that nearly broke Zephyr Group's cash flow.

It was I who pulled three all-nighters, scouring every financial report and technical document, found a scapegoat, and leveraged every connection from my family to barely help him survive the crisis.

Because of this, he started to rely on me a bit more.

But this time, I let a cold smirk curl on my lips. Jude's luck ran out now.

I opened a hidden email account and quickly drafted an anonymous message.

The email was brief with a single line and a technical parameter. "Sonova Tech's Nucleus Chip, P-3T interface has a high-risk overheating issue. Critical threshold: 125 degrees."

The recipient was the CEO of Fulminate Innovations, Sonova Tech's sworn enemy.

After sending it, I erased all traces, as if nothing had ever happened.

*****

In the cafeteria, I was absentmindedly sipping my soup while Zoe chattered away next to me. "Vera, did you see the forum? This year's finance challenge has Jude from Zephyr Group as the special judge.

"Oh my god, that's a real-life billionaire CEO. He's so handsome and filthy rich. If I could get close to him..."

The spoon in my hand made a loud, grating sound against the bottom of the bowl.