Chapter 1

For twenty-eight long years, I held onto the hope that my husband Richard Grant would come back.

In my previous life, Richard had drained my parents' fortune on his pipe dreams and then abandoned me when our son, Jason, was barely a month old.

I was left to hold everything together for 28 long years, all by myself.

Finally, after all that time, he came back.

But he only returned to fund a life-saving treatment for his precious first love. He murdered me with the whole family's help, for the insurance payout.

Then I woke up again on the very day his parents and Jason tricked me into signing the policy that would seal my fate.

*****

"Kate, we bought you some insurance. Just take a look and sign if it's okay," Donna, Richard's mother, said, sliding a few papers across the dinner table.

"There have been so many accidents at construction sites lately, and you work on one too. Jason and I are really worried about you, so we got you this insurance just in case," she added.

As the words "Personal Accident Insurance" came into focus in front of me, it finally hit me: I'd been back in time.

In my previous life, Richard, the man I trusted most, drained every cent we had and blew through the massive inheritance my parents left me, chasing one doomed business idea after another.

We ended up with all five of us stuffed into a tiny, shabby rental apartment my parents had managed to get when they first started out. And, to top it off, Richard insisted his name go right there on the deed.

Right after our son Jason was born, Richard kept saying he couldn't stand living like this. He swore we'd have a better life, for Jason and me.

He started borrowing money left and right, promising he'd make it big if he went out on his own. But just like that, he disappeared for a whole 28 years. No messages, no calls, nothing, like he'd vanished into thin air.

And there I was, left all alone to shoulder everything, raising baby Jason, taking care of his aging parents, breaking my back working a bunch of exhausting jobs. Just so I could chip away at the mountain of debt he'd left behind.

I waited and waited, day after day, year after year, until finally, he came home.

But the day I saw Richard again was the day I died.

It was only after my death that I learned the ugly truth. All those years he was away, chasing one failed business after another, he had reunited with his first love. They didn't just rekindle their romance; they built an entire life together.

But then, his precious first love got seriously ill, and he needed a huge amount of money for her treatment.

So, to save her, he actually teamed up with his parents and Jason to plot my murder and cash in on the insurance payout.

In the end, they drowned me in some lonely lake on the outskirts, and I died pathetically.

Only after my death did the ugly truth hit me: Richard never loved me, not for a single moment. In fact, he despised me.

Because of my existence, he was forced to give up his perfect first love and never got the chance to make her his wife.

The only reason he married me in the first place was because his husband saw the fortune my parents left me and pressured him into it. I was just their ticket to a quick payday.

But who could've guessed that Richard, arrogant yet useless, managed to squander both his family's money and the inheritance my parents worked so hard to leave me.

But what truly broke me was realizing how I had poured my heart and soul into that family. I gave up my career, my dreams, everything, only to be betrayed in the most calculated way.

The whole lot of them had been covering for Richard for years, funneling every penny of the living expenses I sent back—money I earned breaking my back on construction sites and scrubbing dishes in restaurants—straight into his pocket.

He was using my sweat and blood to fund his cozy little life with another woman.

And in the end, even the son I'd raised from birth, my darling Jason, sided with Richard over me.

He told me it was my fault—that I was too fat, too pathetic to keep a husband, and that I had made him a laughingstock for growing up without a father around.

As I thought back on everything I'd been through in my previous life, tears welled up in my eyes.

Honestly, I hate my old self more than I hate those bastards. How could I have been so blind? How could I have believed every lie and thrown away my youth for a family that never saw me as anything more than a wallet?

So I thank God for this second chance. This time, it's not just about revenge. This time, I was finally going to live for myself.