Chapter 2

"Dan, we're so lucky! Now that Helen has been killed by that crazy old hag, no one will ever find out that we plotted to poison her!"

Sarah's mother-in-law was tiny and frail. She kept saying she'd kill me to avenge her precious grandson, but I never took her threats seriously.

But that day, I was suddenly struck by a sharp pain in my stomach, and my whole body went limp, leaving me so weak that she easily pushed me from the building.

It turned out that Daniel and Jessica had teamed up to poison me, leaving me utterly helpless.

At my funeral, Jessica acted extremely grief-stricken, even fainting several times from crying.

Estella had always valued me. Seeing Jessica so grief-stricken, Estella made an exception and gave her a position out of consideration for me. Estella also helped Jessica a lot in her work, becoming her career benefactor.

Jessica then took over everything that was mine effortlessly.

This time, I was handing Sarah's dirty blame straight to Jessica.

Let the two of them tear each other apart. I would just watch.

With that in mind, I shot Jessica a quick message: [Chill out. I've got everything sorted. You start work the day after tomorrow.]

The next day, as soon as Sarah walked into the office, she shot me a cold glare.

But before she could start, Jessica waltzed into the office. "Good morning, everyone!"

Last night, Jessica came to my house, saying she didn't want new colleagues to look down on her and begged me to lend her some designer outfits to fit in.

So I lent her a full set of logo-branded outfits, and also gave her many unopened luxury cosmetics.

So in everyone's eyes now, she was wearing all designer clothes and had perfect makeup, making everyone else look plain in comparison.

I stepped in and made the introduction. "This is our new colleague, Jessica Harper. I hope you all get along well with her."

I had arranged for Jessica's desk to be next to Sarah's. Jessica placed her designer bag—worth thousands of dollars—in front of Sarah, and then began handing out the cosmetics I had gifted her as a gift to each colleague.

Sarah was so captivated by the designer bag that she forgot all about antagonizing me. Her eyes were fixed on the flashy logo.

Jessica handed her a lipstick. "I hope we can work together well in the future."

The brand was Sarah's favorite before she got married, but after her scoundrel of a useless husband and greedy mother-in-law came into her life, she had not used it for a long time.

I had deliberately given Jessica this brand of lipstick to sting Sarah's heart.

As expected, Sarah snapped. "The case looks different from the authentic ones I've bought. Are you sure this isn't a fake, Jessica?"

Jessica gave an innocent smile. "This is the new packaging for this year. You probably haven't bought anything from this brand in a long time, have you, Sarah? It's only natural that you wouldn't recognize it."

Sarah's face went pale with rage. Only then did I intervene, playing the peacemaker. "Alright, everyone, let's get back to work."

After Jessica sat down, she first pulled out a mirror to touch up her makeup, then took out a set of press-on nails to fuss with.

She didn't notice the cold, menacing look Sarah was giving her.

Perfect. I had successfully redirected the hatred away from myself.

When I arrived home that night, Daniel asked in a flat tone, "I hear you've finally gotten Jessica a job? You're an old hand in the workplace, but she's different. She's naive and has no experience. You should have helped her sooner. Why did you wait so long?"

His words were so inane that they made my hands tremble with rage.

In the past, I never bothered with his unpleasant words, always assuming he was simply dense and had no emotional intelligence.

Yet in my previous life, he was the one who took the deadly poison from the research institute and put it in my coffee with his own hands.

My body wasn't even cold yet, and he impatiently brought Jessica home, exposing their depravity for all to see.

My mother, brokenhearted, was admitted to the ICU, where the medical bills mounted daily. Yet he refused to use a single penny of my considerable inheritance to save her, watching impassively as she passed away.

The thought of it all set my heart ablaze with hatred.

Selfish, cold-blooded, greedy, and lecherous—this was his true nature.

In my last life, to allow him to focus on his work, I even had the study professionally soundproofed.

Instead, he would lock the door every day and trade flirty messages with Jessica, plotting how to harm me.

In this life, I installed a full surveillance system in the study. Sure enough, I saw the truth that had been hidden from me in my past life.

In the surveillance footage, Jessica was on a video call with Daniel, cooing affectionately. "It was my first day at work, and all my colleagues said I was beautiful, which made Helen unhappy. She had her subordinate, Sarah, bully me nonstop. Dan, you have to help me, please!"

Daniel's voice was full of doting affection. "Alright, baby. How do you want to get back at them?"

Jessica's eyes sparkled with scheming. "Remember how you used a nerve anesthetic to knock her out so we could go on dates? There's an important meeting the day after tomorrow. Can you get me some more of that drug? I'll make her a fool in front of everyone. It'd be best if she got fired."

A storm of shock and rage erupted inside me.

I had indeed been frequently drowsy, dizzy, and weak lately, and had assumed it was just exhaustion.

It turned out they were the ones who had done this to me.

My ears were ringing with anger as my trembling hands grabbed the phone, ready to call the police.

But I quickly calmed down. Their crime was still minor, and even if they were caught, they would not receive much punishment.

Thinking of my tragic death in my previous life and the look of despair in my mother's eyes before she died, my blood ran cold.

I sucked in a couple of deep breaths. I absolutely would not let them off so easily.

I would watch them descend, step by step, into an abyss from which they could never return.