Chapter 1

My mom and our housekeeper, Karen Cohen, were giving birth at the same time. Suddenly, a barrage of live comments flashed before my eyes.

[Here it comes. The housekeeper's about to swap the two babies.]

[Sure, the female lead is the housekeeper's daughter, but she's beautiful and kind—she really deserves the world.]

[The supporting girl is a total troublemaker. She ditched school and couldn't even get into vocational high, ended up killing her own sister, and even set fire to the female lead's adoptive parents. I swear I'd reach in and choke her myself if I could.]

As a barrage of comments flashed before my eyes, I quietly switched the two babies back without breaking a sweat, because I had time-traveled.

"It's a girl! Congratulations!"

A voice snapped me awake, and I shivered as I took in the stark white surroundings.

"Melissa, come here and meet your little sister," My dad, Kennard Moore, said, holding a tiny baby in his arms as he walked over to me.

I felt a bit dazed.

'Didn't I die?' I wondered.

I'd died all by myself in that hospital bed, sick and in pain, no one around.

"Patient in Bed 9 is crashing! Where's the family?" a nurse shouted.

My dad quickly passed the baby off to the nurse and bolted toward the chaos.

Suddenly, it all hit me—I really was back, alive and kicking.

I had been brought back to years ago when my sister was born.

In my previous life, our housekeeper's daughter acted all innocent and sweet, but deep down she was as sly as they come.

She hid my early-stage stomach cancer report, making sure my illness dragged on until it was way too late to save me.

After I died, my little sister avenged my death.

Now that I was back for round two, it was up to me to look after my little sister.

While Dad went to check on Mom, the nurse—bribed by Karen—quietly switched the babies.

When no one was watching, I calmly swapped them back myself.

[Crap, the antagonist just realized what's going on.]

[Looks like the antagonist's going to lose her sweet little sister and end up with a born troublemaker instead.]

[My girl is about to lose her heiress status.]

Everyone in the comments was freaking out, but I wasn't mad at all.

'Who knows, maybe these comments will drop some important info,' I mused.

Mom had lost a lot of blood during childbirth, and after they managed to save her, she couldn't have any more kids.

Dad named my sister Hazel—the name that truly belonged to her.

For the next few days, I was so worried Karen might notice something off about the babies and pull another dirty trick that I barely left Hazel's side.

Mom was really happy about it, saying I was finally growing up.

I just kept quiet, not really agreeing or disagreeing.

Lucky for us, Karen didn't suspect a thing. Noticing how protective I was of Hazel, she flashed a smile at my mom and said, "Melissa and Hazel really are true sisters—you can tell how close they are."

She deliberately stressed the words "true sisters," and there was a definite flash of triumph in her eyes.

[The housekeeper still thinks the switch worked. Don't tell me my girl's about to be the one getting mistreated now.]

[Damn, I totally forgot about that until you mentioned it.]

[Oh no, my girl's gonna suffer. Someone needs to warn the housekeeper!]

With all the gloom and doom flying through the live chat, I just shot Karen a crooked smile and echoed, "Yeah, we are."

'Thinking back, those commenters weren't wrong at all—Karen was horrible to Hazel in my previous life. Honestly, it was pretty much abuse,' I thought.

Afraid we'd catch on to her baby swap, Karen quit right after she recovered from childbirth and hauled my sister back to the countryside.

She never breastfed Hazel, just gave her some rice porridge, and that was it. By four or five, Hazel was already washing dishes, and a little older—she had to handle all the laundry for the family.

On top of that, Karen was always yelling at her, hitting her, calling her names, making sure Hazel never caught a break.

Once Hazel finished nine years of school, Karen wouldn't let her go further. Just for 30 thousand dollars in bride money, she was all set to sell Hazel off to some old loner.

I only found out about all this after Hazel and I finally reconnected and uncovered the truth in my previous life.

I didn't even need to look hard. Just bring it up in Karen's hometown, and everyone just shook their heads and cursed that she didn't deserve to be called a human being.

Just thinking about it made my teeth nearly crack from how angry I was.

But when my hand brushed Hazel's cheek, I got even more gentle—all I wanted was to shield her from every hurt.