Chapter 1

It seemed that my mother was absolutely right.

Gordon Frost, a wealthy heir, had fallen for my charms. He ravished me again and again.

In the midst of our passion, he gifted me his unique cufflinks.

“Darling, you’re one of a kind. Bring these when you come and find me, and I will give you the best of everything in the world.”

I was not too excited about all that. At that moment, all I cared about was one thing.

Had the curse of my previous timeline been broken because I had managed to lose my virginity just before my twentieth birthday?

I rushed home and put on my skincare products.

The thing that was nearly making me break down was how the age spots around my mother’s eyes once again appeared on my face.

I thought back to the previous timeline, before I had come back in time. The more I used this skincare product, the darker my skin got. It got more blemished, and my face became more lined with wrinkles. Just recalling it sent a wave of hopelessness through me.

Even though I had gotten another chance, things had not changed despite the fact that I had gone against my mother.

When she saw me come home, my mother, Harriet Pendleton leaned against the door frame and asked coldly, “Where’d you go off to last night?”

Looking at her face, which had become just the slightest bit fairer, I clenched my teeth and put my skincare product on her face.

I wanted to see if the spots on my face would disappear.

I refused to believe that nothing had changed.

What disappointed me was that her face only became fairer, and the spots on mine became more distinct.

Harriet shrieked and shoved me away. “What did you put on my face, you wretch? I don’t just use any skincare product!”

She rushed to the mirror. In the reflection, I saw her pleased, smiling face.

I had left quickly and had not told Gordon that I was leaving. Thus, he had posted on his social media account, which had more than ten million followers.

[Looking for someone. You left this at my place last night. Contact me when you see this.]

The attached photo showed a woven bracelet and my work badge with my name. There was also a photo of me working at the bar, blurry and only catching the side of my face.

My father rushed over excitedly with his phone. “Emery, is this you? I know I’ve seen you wearing that bracelet.”

Sounding more excited than if he had won the lottery, he asked, “Did you sleep with him?”

“What?”

Harriet’s expression changed drastically. She grabbed me by the hair and shoved my face into the floor. That was not enough to defuse her anger, so she slapped me a couple of times.

“Didn’t I tell you to not touch a man before your twentieth birthday? You loose woman. Couldn’t you have waited just another night? How could you be so cheap? I’ll kill you!”

My dad, Warren Chase, did not side with Harriet for the first time in his life. Thus, he quickly pulled Harriet away. “Don’t hit her face. Don’t you know who Gordon Frost is? Maybe we can get a good deal out of marrying this useless wretch off.”

Seeing how scheming they both were, I could not help but remember what had happened in the previous timeline.

Harriet had always told me not to touch a man before my twentieth birthday, and I had listened to her.

But the moment my birthday came and went, I realized that something was horribly wrong.

Whenever I used my skincare products, spots and blemishes would show up on my face.

My smooth and fair skin became rough with wrinkles and lines.

Meanwhile, Harriet’s became brighter and flawless. Her face practically glowed.

I liked learning dance moves from videos of girl groups.

But the more I danced, the fatter I became. In the end, I ballooned up so much that every movement made me go out of breath.

Meanwhile, my mother became more slender. Her movements became more energetic and youthful. She seemed to have transformed.

Warren had always said that my best feature was my face.

Seeing that I had become ugly and fat, he kept calling me useless. He wanted to marry me off to some old bald guy as his second wife.

I had cried and begged for Harriet to save me, but she never even looked at me. She only happily looked into the mirror and said, “Well, they promised to give us a wedding gift of fifty thousand dollars. It’s an honor that you’re marrying into that family. Your dad’s only doing this for your own good.”

In despair, I had bought a bus ticket and ran away from home that very night. But the further I got, the quicker I aged.

By the time I reached the next city, my hair had turned white, and my body had shrunken in on itself. Every step I took made my joints scream in agony.

I could not find a job, and I had no one to rely on. In the end, my heart gave out, and I died by a heap of trash.

Since I had gone back in time, I was determined to use this opportunity. I would not let this life end like it had in the previous timeline.