Chapter 1

The first thing I did after coming back from the future was grab a broom. Then I drove the future Top Imperial Scholar straight out of my house.

In my last life, I lived next to a small oven and two houses with broken tiles. I sold cakes for seven years.

I raised him from a poor student who was almost starving to death into the Top Imperial Scholar.

And in the end, just because he didn't want to keep his promise to marry my daughter, he married her off to a sixty-year-old County Governor.

*****

"Sally, I'll stay two more days. Once the snow lets up, I'll leave on my own." Bernard Cross stood in the kitchen doorway.

He wore my late husband's old coat. His face looked pale, his lips dry. He still carried that same soft, harmless air.

If I hadn't died once already, I might have believed it again.

But the moment I saw him, all I could see was my daughter, Celia Titterington. In my last life, she had hung from a roof beam in her wedding dress.

Her toes hadn't touched the ground. There had been a dark bruise around her neck.

Right before she died, she had cried and asked me, "Mom, why did you save him?"

My vision went black. I grabbed the broom behind the door and swung it straight at Bernard's face. "Get out."

Bernard stood there, stunned.

So did Celia. She had been crouched by the stove, feeding the fire. She shot to her feet. "Mom—"

I didn't stop. I kept hitting him, one blow after another. "I told you to get out. Can't you hear me?

"That hot milk I gave you last night was already more than enough. Why are you still here?"

Bernard stumbled back, trying to dodge. Bits of straw stuck to his hair and face. The calm look finally cracked. A trace of anger showed.

"Sally, what is wrong with you? I have no money. I'm injured. You're driving me out in this weather. Do you want me dead?" he shouted.

"Then die somewhere else," I shot back. "Just don't do it in front of my house."

I cursed as I chased him toward the yard gate.

Celia rushed over and grabbed my arm. "Mom! He's a scholar. How can you treat him like this—"

I spun around. "Shut up!"

My voice came out so sharp that it startled even me.

Celia went still. Her eyes reddened right away.

She had just turned sixteen. She looked a lot like me, only prettier. She always acted tough, but her heart was soft. She couldn't stand seeing people suffer.

In my last life, she had been the one who dragged Bernard home. He had collapsed in the snow at the edge of the village. She begged me to give him a bowl of hot milk.

And that one bowl of milk had turned the two of us, and our little cake stall, into nothing more than stepping stones for him.

The anger in my chest burned hotter. My grip tightened.

Bernard was weak to begin with. I forced him all the way out the gate.

He stood outside in the wind and snow. There was already a bruise forming on his forehead. His face looked awful.

He stared at me, his voice low. "Sally, I'll remember this. You humiliated me today."

I laughed. "Okay. If you really have a future, come find me then.

"But if you dare step inside my house again today, I'll break your legs."

With that, I slammed the gate shut with a loud bang.

The wooden gate rattled, and the broom in my hand shook.

It wasn't from fear, but from hate. It ran so deep that it made my bones feel cold.

In my last life, I thought saving him was a good deed. But what I got in return was ruin.

I paid for his studies. I sold the donkey my husband left behind. I gave up our fields. I saved the best food for him so he could grow strong.

Celia washed his clothes, took care of him, and waited for him for six years.

In the end, he became the Top Imperial Scholar.

Everyone said I was blessed. They said my good days were just beginning.

But on the day he rode through town in celebration, sitting tall on his horse, he didn't even spare us a glance.

Later, he went back to the Cross family in Ballyway City. He got engaged to a general's daughter.

He said a merchant's daughter was too lowly. He said Celia was not worthy of the Cross family. He said this as if it meant nothing.

Since the old County Governor's first wife had just died, Bernard handed Celia over to him as a second wife.

I refused. So Bernard borrowed the County Governor's power. He ruined Celia first, then forced her into the marriage.

Celia died.

I went to Ballyway City to file a complaint. Before I could even submit it, his men broke my legs and threw me out into the snow.

Even as I died, I didn't understand what we had done to deserve that ending.

Now that I had a second chance, I finally understood.

It was never about what we did.

It was about who he was. He was cold to the bone.

The yard fell quiet.

I turned and saw Celia standing there, eyes red, voice shaking. "Mom, have you lost your mind?"