Chapter 1

"Fine… So a broke guy like Julian Harlow has no savings to speak of. But why should you be the one to pay off his five-million-dollar gambling debts?

"Maribel, you might as well give up your inheritance rights. If you don't inherit the assets, you naturally won't inherit the debts either. The debt collectors won't be able to do anything to you."

Outside the door, the debt collectors were furiously pounding on the door, banging so loudly it made my chest ache.

On this side of the door, my best friend, Evangeline Frost, was earnestly urging me to renounce my inheritance.

In my previous life, I had believed her. I gave up my inheritance rights because I didn't want to be responsible for my husband's debts.

But the debt collector, Leo Hunter, was a lawless thug who didn't care about any of that. He was convinced I had money and was simply refusing to pay. He kidnapped my son, Shawn Harlow, and used the most extreme methods to force me to settle the debt.

Those harrowing moments were still etched in my memory even in this life.

Leo kept finding new ways to apply pressure. Every time he sent me a message, I was pushed closer to the edge of a complete breakdown. Time and time again, I watched as blood-stained objects were delivered to me, and my heart felt like it was being ripped out.

I called every relative I could, but in the end, I only managed to scrape together ten thousand dollars.

I fell to my knees at Leo's feet, begging him to spare Shawn's life, until my throat was raw and my knees were scraped bloody. But he claimed that I was merely putting on an act and insisted I be taught a lesson.

In the end, Shawn still didn't make it. The moment his blood stained my vision red, my entire world collapsed.

It wasn't until the third day after I had been sold to Northreach that I regained consciousness.

Shawn was gone, and I had no way to return home.

I was stripped naked and thrown onto a muddy wooden plank, waiting for the doctor to come harvest my kidney.

Yet on the old TV beside me, the face of my late husband appeared—Julian Harlow, the CEO of a publicly listed corporation with a net worth exceeding multiple billions of dollars.

And the heir to his estate was the illegitimate child Julian and Evangeline had behind my back.

That was when I finally understood why Evangeline had been urging me to renounce my inheritance rights. As long as I gave it up, the billions of dollars in inheritance would all go to her and her son, while my son and I would fall victim to the debt collectors.

I refused to accept it. I did everything in my power to escape so I could get my revenge on Evangeline. But at the end of the day, I was in a slave camp in Northreach, where not even a fly could escape.

I died on the electric fence, my body charred so badly that my features were unrecognizable.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the very day Julian's creditors came to our house, banging on the door.

This time, I wasn't going to let Evangeline get her way. They weren't going to get a single penny of what rightfully belonged to my son and me!