Chapter 1

At the engagement dinner, my older sister Audrey flipped the table.

She screamed that her fiancé, Carlos Mendes, was just an uneducated roughneck with dirty money.

She tore up their wedding contract in front of everyone and threw herself into the arms of a broke, pretentious poet.

"I want a soulmate!" she yelled. "Not a guy who reeks of coal dust and diesel!"

Carlos clenched his fists. His nails dug so hard into his palms that his knuckles turned white, and his eyes were completely bloodshot.

The whole town was watching the Holloway family make fools of themselves. Our parents looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them whole.

I walked over, grabbed the top-shelf bourbon from the table, and poured two glasses. I handed one to Carlos.

"Trading a brother-in-law for a husband," I said. "Sounds like a thrill."

I downed my drink in one gulp and showed him the empty glass. "Carlos, are you brave enough to take a real gamble with me?"

*****

Carlos didn't take the glass.

He just stood there with his fists clenched tight, his bloodshot eyes locked on Audrey.

The whispers from the crowd buzzed like flies.

Our parents were completely mortified by the public spectacle.

Audrey looked at me with a smug smirk. "Clara, I am passing this blessing onto you. A basic girl like you is the perfect match for a trashy guy with new money."

In my previous life, she said the exact same thing. She told me Ethan Marshall was a misunderstood genius destined for greatness, and I would be lucky to ride his coattails.

What she didn't know was that I was transplant from another life too. I knew the barren scrubland everyone thought was worthless was actually sitting on top of a massive oil reserve.

And that so-called artistic genius, Ethan, was nothing but a hypocritical freeloader.

"Is the oldest Holloway girl crazy?" someone in the crowd muttered. "Carlos isn't a guy you cross."

"What soulmate? She just has the hots for that skinny city boy."

"The Mendes family is really getting dragged through the mud."

Audrey heard the gossip but showed zero shame.

Instead, she lifted her chin, wrapped her arms around the scrawny Ethan, and announced her intentions to the room.

She said, "You small-town nobodies will never understand real ambition! I won't sell my soul for a fat bank account. I want freedom and romance.

"I want a partner who can talk about art, not some hick who only knows how to dig dirt and haul coal!"

She turned back to me, wearing the arrogant sneer of a winner. "Clara, you have always loved money. Well, Carlos is loaded.

"I am letting you have all this filthy wealth. Don't ever say I didn't do you a favor.

I looked at her self-righteous yet calculating face and laughed internally.

She was exactly like this in our previous life. She was a gold digger who insisted on marrying the wealthy Carlos.

But what happened? Carlos ended up doing time to protect a friend.

Audrey drained his bank accounts, ran off with another man, and eventually froze to death in a cheap motel.

Meanwhile, I married Ethan and suffered endlessly. He thought I was uncultured, and his snobby mother hated my country roots.

I was the one working multiple jobs to keep the household afloat.

When Ethan eventually became a prominent politician, everyone envied me. But behind closed doors, I was treated worse than a maid.

It was obvious she had come back to the past as well.

She thought stealing my storyline would make her a rich politician's wife. Too bad she only knew half the story.

*****

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Audrey stepped closer, mistaking my silence for fear. "Clara, be realistic.

"You were never as smart or as talented as me. Marrying a brute like Carlos is exactly your speed."

I took a deep breath and pushed the glass of bourbon closer to Carlos.

I said, "Carlos, are you drinking this or not? If you walk out of the Holloway house today without taking this drink, you can never come back.

"But you will also be leaving your pride on the floor."

Carlos finally turned his head. His gaze landed on my face like a physical blow.

"You trying to make a joke out of me too?" His voice was raspy and heavy with suppressed anger.

I replied, "I am helping you save face. Audrey is blind. She is throwing away a diamond for a piece of glass. But I am not like her. I think you are a real man."

Carlos froze. He clearly never expected the quietest girl in the room to stand up for him while everyone else laughed at his expense.

"Fine." Carlos snatched the glass and downed the burning liquid in one shot.

He slammed the glass hard onto the hardwood floor.

He slammed the glass hard onto the hardwood floor.

Carlos pointed at Audrey, his jaw tight. "Audrey, remember this. You are the one backing out today, not me! From now on, we are strangers. Don't you dare regret this!"