Chapter 1

I turned out to be the wealthy family's real daughter, and I took everything my best friend, Maggie Zimmerman, ever had.

Her parents loved me more. Her brother called her a fake who'd stolen my life.

Her fiancé left her at once and started chasing me.

Maggie ran away and met a new boyfriend, Roland Webster. With him, she burned down our whole family. Seething with rage, she pushed me into the deep sea.

"You ruined everything for me!" Maggie yelled.

When I died, a voice spoke inside my head. It called itself a system and said I was the villainess, and Maggie was the true heroine of the story.

"I'll give you another chance. Win Roland over and kill Maggie. That's how you fix your ending," said the system.

I said yes.

Once I was sent back, I immediately set Roland up with Maggie.

The system screamed I was insane.

It didn't get it.

If Maggie was the heroine, why would I ever suffer?

*****

"You're insane. Have you forgotten how cruelly she pushed you into the sea to feed the fish?

"Did she give you a chance to live?

"Did she listen to you? She'll once again think that you destroyed her perfect life!"

The system shouted in my head.

I had been sent back to the moment I first came home.

My parents kept telling Maggie, "You're high school classmates and eight-year best friends. We don't have to worry about you guys getting along. From now on, let Jessie have the nicer things, okay? You've had a good life with us all these years."

When she heard those words, Maggie didn't get upset. Her eyes lit up instead.

As soon as my parents left, she pulled me into her room.

"Jessica, hurry! Pick whatever you like. You used to feel bad about taking my expensive stuff, but now we're really family! Oh my gosh, I never dreamed this would happen."

Seeing Maggie's face again felt like a dream.

She was as innocent as she had been in my previous life. She thought we had gone from best friends to family forever.

I had thought the same thing once.

But not long after, my parents started emotionally manipulating her every day. First, they made her do all the housework. Then they only let her have my hand-me-downs. They even took away her freedom to go out and stopped letting her appear at family events.

When they were asked, my parents said, "Well, we didn't know she wasn't our real daughter until now. She's too old to send away, so we'll keep her as a maid for Jessica and let her stick around."

Walls had ears. Maggie grew quieter and quieter.

By the time I realized what was happening, she refused to talk to me. She even avoided being in the same room. It was too late.

Betrayed by the family she'd grown up with her whole life, mocked by the brother who once doted on her for stealing someone else's place, and abandoned by her fiancé, she hated me with every fiber of her being.

It wasn't until she kidnapped me and took me onto a cargo ship that she showed her calm, vicious true face.

She snapped, "Jessica, you must be so proud. I thought you were my friend, but you took everything from me. How dare you? Go to hell!"

I tried to explain and say I never wanted any of this. But my mouth was taped shut.

I could only watch as she pushed me into the deep sea. The water was ice cold, biting into my skin.

Thinking about it made me shiver violently.

"Jessica, what's wrong? Are you cold?" Maggie poked me. Her eyes were still innocent and kind.

Right. I had a second chance. I came back to fix everything.

I immediately pushed a photo in front of her. "Maggie, look. Is this guy hot?"

It was Roland, the hero. He had a reckless look, a dangerous man who took bounties to kill.

I got the photo from the system.

It hadn't expected me to use it like this. It let out a sharp, static shriek. "What are you doing? I gave you that photo so you could go after him! He's at a café staking out his target right now. Why aren't you going?"

Right. He was at the café.

I winked at Maggie. "If you like him, I'll introduce you."

In my previous life, Maggie ran away on a heavy, snowy day. She came down with a high fever and had no money for medical care. She met Roland when she was on the brink of death.

Roland offered her a faint glimmer of hope in her darkest hour, stirring her cold, lifeless heart back to life.

Roland treated her fever, and Maggie gave up her life as a wealthy girl to run from the law with him.

Thinking back, I had spent the whole night looking for her in that snow, too.

That was how it went with the main characters. They had plot armor. A villainess like me never got that kind of scene.