Chapter 1

“Serena, if you’d been harsher with them, you could’ve stopped them. Why didn’t you cut your wrists or starve yourself to force them to stay?

“You’re selfish! You never cared about your family’s safety. Now, this mess is yours to clean up, and you deserve it!”

Hearing Matthew Quinn, my fiance, yelling at me, I opened my eyes in the darkness.

The day had finally come. My parents and their adopted daughter had faked their deaths, which would ultimately force me to give up my education, and take on their debts.

My lips curled into a smile before I could stop it. When Matthew saw me smiling instead of crying, he froze.

“Have you lost your mind? Your parents just died! How can you smile?”

I ignored him. I reached under my pillow, pulled out the accident insurance policy I had bought for the three of them yesterday, and held it to my chest. Tears streamed down my face as I laughed.

In my past life, Matthew had lashed out at me with the very same words.

He said that as their daughter, I should have seen the danger and risked my life to stop my parents from taking Jane Jameson, their adopted daughter, to the beach.

He told me I was cruel. He said I knew Jane’s grades were worse than mine, yet I still pushed myself to win first place in the national exam. If I had scored lower, Jane would not have thrown a tantrum. My parents would not have insisted on leaving me behind to make her happy.

In his eyes, everything was my fault.

I was only eighteen at the time. I had lived in a bubble. His words had filled me with guilt. I gave up my education and shouldered ten million in debt.

I sold food at dawn, delivered meals during the day, and drove late-night ride-hailing shifts. The sun burned my skin, malnutrition turned my hair brittle, and my hands were filled with calluses from endless labor.

Many nights, I broke down in tears, but I never dared to stop. I feared ruining the Jameson family’s honor. I feared dying and seeing my parents’ disappointed eyes.

I never imagined that all of this madness had been nothing more than a test from my parents and Jane.

I was done with this game of competing with Jane for their favor. If they wanted to fake their deaths, then this time, I would send them to hell for real.