Chapter 1

I was reborn at age twenty, on the night of Ethan's birthday party.

In my previous life, to prove I hadn't driven Mia away, I stood in the rain until I collapsed. I begged Ethan for one glance.

Ethan's reply? Cold mockery. "Victoria, you make me sick."

This life, I'm done revolving around Ethan.

Right in front of him, I left the Hayes family without looking back.

He watched helplessly as I stood under the spotlight as the Sinclair family heir.

When he knelt before me at the top-tier charity gala, begging me to show mercy and withdraw the investigation into Hayes Corporation, I stood arm-in-arm with my fiancé and sneered:

"Ethan, now you're not even worthy of being my servant."

Victoria POV

"Miss Victoria Sinclair, you're not on the guest list."

The security guard stopped me, his voice dripping with disdain.

"Ethan gave specific instructions. Tonight's a private party. The main entrance doesn't welcome people who aren't on the list."

I shuddered, the cold jolting me fully awake.

I had been reborn!

Back to when I was twenty, on the night of Ethan's birthday party.

In my previous life, to explain that I hadn't driven Mia abroad, I stood humbly in the pouring rain until I collapsed with a high fever and pneumonia, just begging him to look at me once.

What I got in return was Ethan's cold mockery. "Victoria looks just like a beggar who won't go away."

I looked up toward the floor-to-ceiling windows on the villa's second floor. The rain blurred my vision.

But I knew that inside sat Ethan and his friends, waiting to watch me kneel and beg for mercy.

They were making bets on how long I could last this time.

After all, I used to be Ethan's follower.

At age ten, I was brought to the Hayes family as a sponsored child. Ethan took my hand and announced in front of everyone, "Victoria is the most important person to me. From now on, this is her home."

At twelve, when I was sick and mentioned wanting red velvet cake from downtown, he braved a typhoon and searched half the city for it.

When he brought it back, the cake box was perfectly protected in his arms, not a drop of rain on it, though he was soaked through.

At seventeen, at his birthday party, he made a public wish, saying he hoped that year after year, Victoria would be safe and happy.

Back then, his eyes were only for me.

But all that warmth ended abruptly one night five years ago.

Mia was forcibly sent abroad by Ethan's grandfather because of my testimony.

At the airport, Ethan grabbed my throat, his eyes bloodshot as he roared, "Victoria, you drove away the person I love most. You'll spend the rest of your life paying for it!"

From that day on, the boy who promised to protect me forever disappeared.

In his place was the demon before me now, finding every way to humiliate me.

"Victoria, Ethan says if you stand in the rain for two hours, you can enter through the side door." The security guard notified me impatiently.

The side door was for garbage workers.

In my previous life, I had gratefully waited at the side door.

But now, I was completely clear-headed.

"No need."

I pulled out a special access card from my bag.

To demonstrate their benevolence, the Hayes family had issued identity cards to sponsored girls. In my previous life, I treasured it like gold.

The guard froze. "What do you mean?"

I walked over to the storm drain by the roadside and loosened my grip.

The access card dropped into it.

"Standing in the rain and all that. No need. I'm an outsider anyway. It's time I left."

I looked up toward the floor-to-ceiling window. I could imagine their shocked expressions.

My lips curved upward involuntarily.

The Hayes family's threshold was too high. I wasn't worthy, and I no longer cared to be.

I turned and walked into the rain.

In this second life, I didn't need to cross that threshold.

When I returned to the Hayes house, I was dripping wet all over.

In my previous life, I had lived in the servants' quarters next to the main villa.

My room was at the shadowy end of the second floor. When I opened the window, I faced the passage where garbage trucks went by.

I used to think this was character-building, the humble station I had to accept as someone being sponsored.

But I remembered when I was little, Ethan had pointed to the large suite across from the master bedroom and said, "When Victoria grows up, she'll live there. I'll hang all the stars in the window for you."

Later, that room was occupied by Mia when she returned from abroad.

And I spent twenty years having nightmares in that cold room next to the housekeeper's quarters.

I had long since repaid everything I owed for being his assistant all these years.