Chapter 1

When I transmigrated, I was lying half-dressed on top of Ethan Langley.

His eyes were bloodshot. His throat bobbed as he swallowed. The drug was burning through the last of his restraint.

In the original book, after this night, Nora Sumner would be forced to take birth control, tortured, imprisoned, and eventually killed.

But I was not Nora.

I looked down at that devastatingly handsome face, then rolled off the bed, got dressed, and walked away without looking back.

Sorry, but playing the love-hate romance novel heroine was not my job.

*****

The moment my consciousness snapped back, my whole body was burning up.

This wasn't any heat. It was a restless, consuming fire that seemed to crawl out from my very bones, wild and impossible to control.

I opened my eyes to find a man's face looming over me: sharp brows, thin lips, a high-bridged nose. His features looked like they'd been sculpted by the gods.

But at that moment, his brows were drawn tight, his eyes bloodshot, and the veins at his temples were throbbing.

He'd been drugged. The realization struck me like lightning, and in the next instant, memories from the entire book flooded into my mind.

I was Nora, the youngest daughter of the Sumner family in Ashford. After our family fell from grace, I was left living under someone else's roof, barely scraping by.

The man beneath me was Ethan, the sole heir to the Langley Group, the real king of Ashford.

Someone had drugged him and tossed the original Nora into this room with him.

In the original story, Nora ended up in his bed, completely out of it.

The next morning, Ethan woke up. He didn't ask if she was willing. He didn't even spare her a glance.

On the third day, he had his assistant deliver a box of birth control pills and coldly ordered, "Take them and get lost."

Nora took them. Then the woman he truly loved, Iris Blake, found out. She had a mental breakdown and left for overseas.

Ethan unleashed all his hatred on Nora.

He locked her up, tormented her, and abused her until she fell ill and died in that dark, sunless room. That was the end of her story.

I was so pissed off reading that, I could've ground my teeth to dust. But things were different. I wasn't the original Nora.

I was a transmigrator who'd read the whole book and knew every twist and turn. There was no way I was going to sit here and wait for death.

Ethan's hand gripped my waist, with a force that nearly hurt.

His mind was foggy; he slurred, "Iris." Even in this state, he was calling another woman's name.

I gave a bitter laugh, taking a deep breath as I tried to suppress the burning heat churning inside me. Damn, even the original Nora was drugged.

But I still had a shred of sanity left. I started peeling his fingers off my waist, one at a time.

His grip was ridiculously strong. I was practically fighting for my life, using every bit of strength I had to break free.

Finally, I tumbled off the bed, smacking the back of my head against the floor. The pain was so sharp it made everything go dark for a moment, but weirdly, it helped clear my head.

I scrambled to my feet, stumbling toward the bathroom. I needed cold water.

I turned the shower on full blast, letting the icy water pour over me as I huddled in the corner, my teeth chattering.

The burning heat inside me clashed with the freezing water, and I was shaking so hard it felt like I might fall apart.

But there was no way I was going back to that bed. If I did, it'd be the end of me.

I had no idea how much time had passed. Maybe an hour, maybe three. But finally, the drug's effects started to fade.

I stepped out of the bathroom, drenched and shivering, my lips a deep shade of purple from the cold.

Ethan was still on the bed. He was asleep.

The drug was wearing off, but without any relief, his whole body looked like it was on fire. His cheeks were bright red, and his brows were furrowed in pain.

But at least nothing happened between us.

I let out a sigh of relief, my legs giving out as I collapsed onto the floor.

First hurdle, I survived.

There was only one thing left on my to-do list: get out of here before Ethan wakes up. I needed to erase myself from his world, totally, cleanly, like I was never here.

I grabbed my dress, the one the original Nora wore to the Langley Group's party tonight, and slipped it on in a rush.

Then I dug through her bag: phone, wallet, and a bank card. There was no clue how much was left on it, but hopefully enough to get me a cab out of here.

I glanced back at the man lying on the bed one last time. His sleeping face looked so peaceful and vulnerable, a far cry from the ruthless tyrant I knew from the story.

But I wasn't about to get sentimental. I knew the second he opened his eyes, he'd turn right back into that other man.

Goodbye, Ethan. Let's never see each other again in this lifetime.

I pulled open the door and walked out.

The hallway was dead silent, the hotel carpet swallowing every sound of my footsteps from the elevator, lobby, to the front door.

It was three in the morning in Ashford, and the neon lights were still glowing.

I stood at the hotel entrance, the cold wind cutting right through me, my soaked clothes sticking to my skin and making me shiver.

But I laughed, really laughed. From this moment on, Nora's story was mine to write.

*****

First day after transmigrating, I took stock of Nora's assets.

Her bank account had 12,000 dollars in it. That was all she'd managed to squirrel away over the past two years.

After the Sumner family went bankrupt, she'd been crashing at her aunt Margaret's place.

Her aunt's family always said, "We're all family here," but in reality, they used her as free help.

She was stuck doing the laundry, cooking, and playing chauffeur for her cousin every day.

And her cousin, Jade Sumner, would throw in a snide remark: "Wow, the once-proud Sumner heiress, now bringing me my footbath water. Guess fate really loves a good joke."

The original Nora put up with it. But I wasn't about to.

But now wasn't the time to blow things up. My top priority was to move out.

12,000 dollars wasn't enough to rent anything nice in Ashford, but I could grab a single room in Westbrook Flats for 200 dollars a month.

I started searching online that same day, and the next morning, I looked at three places and picked one with a private bathroom. It wasn't big, but it was clean.

The moment I closed the door behind me, I finally felt safe. This was my own place.

No more Ethan was hanging over me, no more Margaret's attitude, and no more Jade making my life hell.

I sat down on that creaky single bed and started plotting my next moves.

The original story timeline went like this: Three days after the party, Ethan tracked down Nora and forced her to sign an NDA.

A week later, Iris heard about it from a friend, had a meltdown, and took off overseas.

Two weeks after that, Ethan kicked off his payback.