Chapter 1
On our golden wedding anniversary, my husband personally poured me a glass of wine.
As I drank it, he smiled with tears in his eyes.
"Charlotte, you really are heartless. For real," he said.
I looked at him, completely lost.
Back when we were young, I helped him through school; in our middle years, I supported his business; and now, in our old age, I was raising our grandchildren for our kids. How was I heartless?
When I stayed silent, he broke down, his shoulders shaking, his face streaked with tears.
"You knew my heart was always with Grace, but now she's gone, and you hid her death from me, trying to pretend everything was fine and keep me in the dark for the rest of my life!
"Charlotte, back then, it was Grace who wanted to help me, but you stepped in ahead of her and took all the credit. You used that debt to bind me to you. Now she's gone, and none of us deserves to live!"
My stomach churned violently, and I vomited up several mouthfuls of black blood. Only then did I realize the wine was poisoned.
With my life slipping away, I left this world utterly confused.
From beginning to end, I was the only one who ever supported him.
Who exactly was Grace, the one I supposedly took the credit from?
*****
Seeing the school's red flag waving in the breeze and the campus I knew so well, it hit me. I'd been reborn.
I was back in the 1980s, and with my father cheering me on, I was about to choose the very first person I'd support.
In front of me stood a row of students, all a bit scrawny, their faces awkward and inexperienced.
The principal was rambling, praising how outstanding they were and how poor their families had become.
But I wasn't really paying attention to them. Instead, I looked around the room.
I just didn't get it.
This whole sponsorship thing was my dad's idea. After he left his government job and made it big in business, he personally reached out to the school.
This wasn't some official charity drive. From start to finish, I was the only one supporting him.
Who exactly was Grace Nolan, the one Henry kept saying I stole the credit from?
After searching around and coming up empty, I turned back, looking lost, and glanced at Henry standing in the center of the crowd.
Noticing my gaze, the principal quickly started explaining how tough Henry's life was and how determined he was to succeed, then smiled at me, clearly waiting for me to pull out my wallet.
But before I could even say no, Henry spat right in front of everyone.
"I'd rather starve to death than take handouts from anyone!" Henry spat.
The principal's smile froze, and he smacked Henry right across the face.
"You dumb kid! Don't you know how to talk to someone who's here to help you?" the principal barked.
That slap finally snapped Henry back to reality. He wasn't the big-shot businessman who made it big by riding his wife's father.
Right now, he was just a broke student—parents gone, grandma seriously ill, couldn't afford tuition, and spent every day hanging around the cafeteria for free soup.
Henry held his cheek where he'd been slapped, glaring daggers at me.
"So I was right! You two have been scheming together all along!" he accused.
My dad was furious, ready to put Henry in his place on the spot.
I grabbed my dad's hand, and suddenly, decades of memories flooded my mind.
Back then, I picked Henry out of the crowd; he just had this air about him, and I decided to sponsor him.
Henry blushed, kept his head down, and promised he'd repay me one day. Thanks to my dad's financial support, he could throw himself into his studies without any distractions.
With the best tutors money could buy, he got into the top university, and with our family's help, he was able to launch his own business.
Even when the economy was turbulent, Henry always had our family's money behind him, so he always stayed afloat.
He was always attentive to me, if I so much as sneezed, he'd personally feed me my medicine, as if he was scared I'd so much as catch a cold.
Turns out, it was all just because he was afraid his cash cow would die young and cut off his path to wealth.
After all these years, my life ended up as nothing but a cruel joke.
I honestly had no idea who Grace even was, or that Henry was hopelessly in love with her. And now, just because she was gone, he wanted me to pay the price for her death.
Now that I was back on the day I chose who to sponsor, I glanced around the playground once more.
Besides me and Dad, the only ones here were the poor kids hoping for a sponsor.
Grace, who the hell were you, anyway?
Could it be that Henry's just gone crazy and imagined Grace out of thin air?