Chapter 3

The second time I ran into Wendy was at the stairwell landing.

She blocked my path, looking slightly unhinged. A nasty black bruise was blooming under her left eye, as if she had taken a punch.

"Olivia!" she yelled. "You knew! You knew what he was like, but you didn't say a thing! You just wanted to see me humiliated, didn't you?"

I glanced over her, my eyes cataloging the other faint marks on her arms.

Everything Ryan did to me last time was now happening to her, only much, much sooner.

I feigned innocence, giving a small shrug.

"You never asked."

Her jaw clenched as she glared at me.

I knew what she was thinking. In our past life, she had seen Ryan fawning over me, treating me with care and affection. Buying the act, she believed he was a perfect gentleman. She never imagined he would dare to hit her in their own home.

Yeah, that wasn't bullying. She got beat up.

Ryan had a viciously violent streak. The slightest thing could set him off, and the concept of being gentle with a woman was completely alien to him.

Judging by her state, Martin must have played dumb again, just as he did in my past life.

Wendy grabbed my wrist and backed me up against the wall, looking totally on the verge of a breakdown.

"Tell me how you did it, Olivia!" she demanded, her voice cracking. "How did you get him to heel like a dog?

"Tell me!"

Her grip tightened, her nails digging into my skin. It felt like she was trying to snap the bone.

Remaining stern, I met her frantic gaze.

"It's simple," I said. "You just have to be crazier than he is."

I leaned in closer. "One night, I snuck into his room with a knife. I was a hair's breadth from chopping off his hand."

Wendy froze. Her hand dropped from my wrist as she stumbled back a step.

"You're... you're insane," she stammered.

I scoffed.

"Better to be insane than a pathetic coward like you. I had the guts to hold a knife to him. The only person you have the guts to threaten is me."

I let the insult sink in. "But that's just you, isn't it? All bark and no bite, except with family. You're just like your father."

She dared to drag me off a building, but she was too terrified to stand up to Ryan. Why? Because she was scared of being thrown out by the Mitchell family, of losing the lavish lifestyle she so desperately craved.

But I wasn't afraid. And that's why I had won.

Her hands curled into tight fists at her sides.

She shouted, "You just wait, Olivia!

"I kept my place as the precious heiress of the Brooks family after Dad found you. And I can take everything from you again!

"Everything you had in your last life is going to be mine! I will tame Ryan better than you ever did. I will make Karen eat out of the palm of my hand!

"I'll marry Ryan definitely.

"And you'll end up just like I did. Rotting away, forgotten. A total nobody."

With that, she spun on her heel and stormed away. Her shoulders were squared with grim determination.

I knew Wendy. To keep Ryan's attention off me, she would stop at nothing to crush me.

But I had no intention of just going down without a fight.

Friday after school, I walked home under the soft glow of the rising moon.

Some instinct made me look up. There was Jenny, leaning over our small balcony, laughing and chatting with our neighbor.

In my last life, it was this exact time of night. Karen told me to bring a glass of milk to Ryan's room.

He was in the middle of a video game. As I set the glass down, my hand brushed his arm. That was all it took. He flew into a rage, slamming me to the floor and beating me without mercy.

I managed to escape his grip. Bruised and swollen, I went to seek help.

"Dad! Dad, he hit me!" I sobbed, banging on his door.

The door opened a crack. He looked at my battered face, and his own expression was one of pure indifference.

"Ryan wouldn't hit you for no reason," he said flatly. "You must have done something to provoke him.

"Just behave yourself. And don't make trouble for me."

With that, he slammed the door shut.

Behind me, Ryan was leaning against the wall with a cruel smirk. He was the cat, and I was the cornered mouse. He started walking toward me, slow and deliberate.

In front of me was the door Martin had slammed shut, sealing me off from any help.

And right there, in the hallway, Ryan beat me again.

My own father was just on the other side of that door. He never opened it. He never even checked on me.

Later, fueled by some primal surge of adrenaline, I shoved Ryan off of me and stumbled into an empty guest room, locking the door behind me. I could hear his footsteps in the hall, measured, hunting me.

My hands shaking, I pulled out my phone and called Jenny.

"Mom, please, help me!" I shouted with terror. "He's going to kill me!

"I want to live with you! I don't want to be with Dad anymore! Please, Mom, just come and get me.

"Wendy can bully me every day. I don't care. Please, get me out of here!"

Jenny just sneered.

"Weren't you so happy to go play princess at the Mitchell family? What are you calling me for?

"I can't believe I wasted all those years on you. I should have just left you in that orphanage to rot.

"Get lost."

She unloaded all her pent-up resentment for Martin right onto me, and then she hung up.

I stared blankly at the darkened screen of my phone, which reflected a swollen face beaten beyond recognition.

Any last flicker of hope I had died right there.

That night, after hours alone in that dark room, I went down to the kitchen, took a knife, and walked into Ryan's room.

That was the night I almost chopped his hand.

After that, he never dared to touch me again.

When my parents first took me from the orphanage, they never even gave me their last name. They just registered me, all to avoid upsetting Wendy, their precious, unrelated daughter.

After the divorce, Jenny poured all her energy into Wendy, ignoring me completely.

Later, when I started my own company, Martin would constantly ask for money, and I knew he was just giving it to Wendy. I always let it slide.

I had already repaid them for my life in the last one.

This life, I was the one abandoning them.