Chapter 1

"Go find me 50 feral toms in heat, and don't let anyone catch on!" I gripped the hand of my personal maid, Ember Smithe, and gave her my orders.

The cat had just been brought to my chambers. The other maids were fawning over it like it was the most precious thing they had ever seen, crowding around and cooing.

"Ms. Linton is truly so kindhearted. She's practically on her deathbed with her illness, and yet she still thinks of you, my lady. She even asked Mr. Hughes to find you a cat."

"Exactly! If Ms. Linton hadn't suggested it, would Mr. Hughes have even thought of you?"

The cat climbed right onto my pregnant belly, then deliberately pressed down hard with its paws a few times. A cold, vicious glint flashed in the corners of its eyes.

A chill ran through me instantly.

In my past life, Jocelyn Linton had bound herself to the Life-Drain System and possessed this very cat. She had clung to my side day and night, draining my lifespan dry and killing my unborn child.

Everyone around me gushed over how adorable the little cat was, but I flung it away from me as if I had been shocked.

In my previous life, this cat was sent into my chambers, and I poured my heart into caring for it. I ate and slept right beside it. Yet the very next morning, I woke up to find several strands of white hair on my head. By the third day, my skin began to sag. By the fourth, my eyes started to cloud over.

By the 20th day, my body had aged so severely that it could no longer sustain the child inside me. The baby in my womb became a corpse.

The miscarriage alone nearly killed me. Before the month was out, I had withered into an old woman and died in my sickbed.

At the time, I thought I had caught some strange disease. I searched the land for the finest physicians, but none of them could find an answer. It was only later that I learned the truth. It was Jocelyn's Life-Drain System all along.

"My lady, this is Ms. Linton's kind gesture. Why don't you give the little cat a name?"

The maids urged me on. A sly gleam flickered in their eyes. They still took me for the same naive fool from my past life, the clueless wife who did not know what jealousy was.

I simply curved my lips into a smile, leaned back against the chaise, and spoke lazily. "It's just a cat, a worthless little life. Since Jocelyn sent it, it will take her name. From now on, she'll be called Josy the Wretched Cat."

The moment those words left my mouth, the cat I had tossed to the floor puffed up its fur. A vicious hiss rose from its throat, claws out, lunging toward me with pure hatred in its eyes.

"Jocelyn is practically dying, and you give the cat a name like that to humiliate her? Leah Gilbert, you've gone too far!"

A tall figure strode into the room. Edmund Hughes furrowed his brow slightly and pulled Josy protectively behind him.

The maids put on a show of outrage as well.

"My lady, Ms. Linton thought of you even from her sickbed and went out of her way to find this cat to keep you company. And this is the thanks she gets."

"Ms. Linton is nothing but gentle and kind, yet some people are so jealous they can't even tolerate a cat. If I were my lady, I'd worry about the karma."

I looked up at all these people in this household, every one of them someone I had once treated with sincerity.

From the day I married into this family, I had served my husband dutifully and treated the maids well. Even when Jocelyn was brought in as a mistress, I never made things difficult for her, not even once.

Who was the one who never got the thanks she deserved?

Fine. If she wanted to disguise herself as a cat and play this little game with me, then I would play right along. One little beast was not enough. I would make her breed dozens—no, hundreds—of little beasts for my amusement.

I lowered my gaze and rested my fingers lightly on my belly. In this life, no one was going to touch my child.