Chapter 3

The day of the ninth body swap finally arrived. It was midnight on the 15th.

The familiar sensation of falling hit me again.

I opened my eyes in a huge apartment downtown, lying on soft silk sheets. The room smelled faintly of expensive perfume.

I sat up and looked down at Ingrid's well-maintained body. Then, I went into the walk-in closet, picked out a black designer suit, and put on the three-million-dollar diamond necklace.

I looked at myself in the mirror. The woman staring back looked cold and intimidating.

From now on, this was my life.

Ingrid was probably waking up in my undernourished body, with the old cuts still on my wrists, in the guest room where sunlight never reached.

At 9:00 am sharp, I arrived at Lawson Corporation.

"Hi, Ms. Lawson."

"Good morning, Ms. Lawson."

Everyone greeted me respectfully as I walked past. I just gave them a slight nod, my face emotionless, and headed straight to my desk.

I called the CFO into my office through the intercom. "Cancel all the supplementary black cards under Don's name and freeze the account covering Lawson Manor's major daily expenses. No one gets to approve a single cent without my signature."

The CFO froze for a moment. He didn't understand why I was suddenly doing this, since I had always doted on Don. Still, he nodded. "Noted, Ms. Lawson."

I leaned back in my chair and quietly looked out of the window.

This was just the beginning.

"Ingrid, you'd learn that without your heiress status to hide behind, you were worth nothing to the Lawson family," I said inwardly.

At 3:00 pm, I was in a meeting about an overseas acquisition when my phone started buzzing.

It was a call from the housekeeper. Her panicked screams came through the phone. "Ms. Lawson, you need to get to Wellspring Hospital right away! Mr. Damon pushed Mr. Don down the stairs! Mr. Don has lost a lot of blood. He's in the ER now!"

My eyes flickered slightly.

It looked like Don couldn't wait any longer.

I hung up and told the executives, "Let's put this on hold. I have some personal business to take care of."

When I arrived outside the emergency room, the hallway was in chaos. Roy and Barbara stood outside, their eyes bloodshot as they paced back and forth.

Ingrid sat on the tiled floor, looking miserable. Her clothes were a mess, a handprint stood out on her face, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

She scrambled toward me and grabbed my pant leg. "Help me explain! I didn't push him. Don fell down the stairs on his own! He deliberately grabbed me at the top of the stairs, then threw himself down! Mom and Dad won't believe me. You have to explain it to them!"

Ingrid looked up at me, her eyes filled with shock and anger. She had probably never suffered such humiliation in her life.

Roy strode over, yanked her away, and slapped her hard across the face again. It sent her crashing into the wall.

"You bastard!" he cursed as he pointed at her nose. "Don has always treated you so well, and you actually hurt him like this? The surveillance cameras just happened to be broken. You think that means you can talk your way out of this?

"If anything happens to Don, I'll kill you!"

Her ears ringing, Ingrid clutched her swollen cheek and stared at the man who had always treated her kindly. She shook her head desperately and rasped, "I'm not making excuses! He really did fall on his own! I'm…"