A Fate Reclaimed

"Dad, Mom, I'm the youngest in the family. I shouldn't only think about my own comfort and abandon you when the company is at its hardest."

That familiar voice yanked me out of the terrifying darkness. I opened my eyes to a scene I knew all too well.

My sister, Mona Ramsey, was clutching our father's sleeve, crying as she spoke.

My parents' faces were filled with hesitation and pain.

I had been reborn.

And Mona had made a different choice than in my last life.

She had been reborn, too!

In my previous life, after Mona and I graduated from college, our family went bankrupt. It was also at this time that our father urgently called us back home. Once we returned, he got straight to the point and gave us two options.

One was to marry Jonah White, the golden heir of the Whites. Back when our family was still thriving, the two families had arranged a marriage. As long as one daughter married their son, the Whites would agree to invest and pull our family out of the fire.

The other option was to stay behind and deal with the wreckage of the company.

Back then, Mona didn't hesitate at all and rushed to say she would marry Jonah.

In truth, the one originally engaged to the Whites had always been me. But my parents couldn't bear to see their most cherished youngest daughter suffer, so they used the excuse of letting us choose freely to pressure me into giving in.

Family bonds meant a lot to me, and they knew that. Under my parents' emotional pressure, I handed the comfortable life to Mona.

But after Mona married Jonah, she turned her back on her own family. When I brought our parents to visit and ask Jonah when the investment would come through, Mona stopped us.

Dressed head to toe in luxury, she looked at me with contempt, her red lips moving slowly.

"Laura, you've always had better grades than me. You, and you're more capable, too. You're more than enough to revive the company on your own. The Whites only look glamorous on the surface, but the truth is, we're tight on cash, too. You wouldn't want to drag me down, right?"

I thought my parents would explode in anger. Instead, they turned to me with troubled faces. Their tone sounded like a plea, but their eyes left no room for refusal.

They said to me, "You see how hard life is for Jonah, too. The Whites already kept their promise and let them get married. Let's not trouble them anymore. After all, Mona still has to live with the Whites. If we keep pushing, they'll look down on her."

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my chest. In this family, it felt like I was the only villain.

Just so Mona wouldn't lose face in the Whites' household, I bit the bullet and carried the company on my own.

I once drank until my stomach bled in the middle of the night just to land a project connected to Mona. While hooked up to an IV in the hospital, I got a call from a client, pulled the needle out, and rushed straight over.

Hard work eventually paid off. The company finally came back to life.

Meanwhile, Mona was abused by Jonah until she became disabled.

At the IPO launch event, Mona charged into the venue carrying gasoline and burned me alive.

Through the flames, I saw her twisted eyes glaring at me with hatred.

"Laura, why do you get to rise and succeed while I'm stuck scraping by in the gutter? If I'm going to hell, you're coming with me!"

The fire devoured every inch of my skin, but I saw it clearly. My parents rushed into the flames to save Mona without hesitation.

My heart crumbled to ash as I shut my eyes.