Chapter 01

Rosalind's POV

"Get out of our house! You are nothing but a fraud who stole Sienna's place for eighteen years!"

The shout hit me before I even opened my eyes.

My head was splitting. Cold marble pressed against my cheek, and a crystal chandelier swung above me.

Strange memories flooded in. A girl named Rosalind Harlow. A rich family. A fake birth record. And a novel I once read to kill time in a bunker.

Me? The Fire and Ice Queen of the last era, the woman who survived ten years of the apocalypse... reborn as a powerless fake heiress in some cheap romance novel?

You have to be kidding me.

A girl in a white silk dress knelt beside me. Her face was soft and sweet, but her eyes were laughing.

"Sorry, sister," Sienna whispered. "I didn't mean to steal Trevor from you." She leaned closer. "But my mental power is S-rank. And you? You're just a fertility-zero reject."

Fertility zero. In this world of beastmen and star cities, that was the worst label a woman could carry. No beast mate would ever want her.

A pair of polished boots stopped in front of my face.

Trevor Holt. My fiancé.

He tossed a black card onto the floor. It slid and hit my hand.

"Rosalind, quit clinging," he said. "Take these fifty thousand star coins and get lost."

Another memory pushed through. Trevor under a cherry tree, holding the old Rosalind's hands.

"Even if you're not a Harlow anymore, we grew up together. I'd still be happy to marry you."

Then, later that same night, his voice behind a door, talking to his friend. "Once we're married, half her fortune is mine. I'll never have to worry about money again."

The poor girl had heard every word. And she still begged him to stay.

My lips moved on their own, carrying the last of her feelings. "Trevor... you'd really be this cruel after everything between us?"

"You brought this on yourself." He crouched down, his smile thin. "In this world, only the strong matter. What can a reject like you do?"

Silver light gathered in his eyes. Mental power.

"If I don't teach you a lesson now," he said, "someone else will once you're out of Harlow Manor."

The force slammed into my skull.

Pain exploded. Blood filled my mouth. I coughed red across the marble, and Mrs. Harlow stepped back so it wouldn't touch her shoes.

Trevor stood. "So? Are you calling off the engagement, or do I need to put you on your knees first?"

I lifted my head slowly.

"On my knees?" I spat blood at his boots. "You're not worth it."

His face twisted.

My vision was going dark at the edges. This body was dying. I could feel it, the same way I had felt death a hundred times in the ruins.

But I knew this story. The fake heiress wore a cheap jade pendant her whole life, and she never once found out what it was.

I bit my finger hard and pressed the blood against the pendant at my throat.

Nothing.

"Hey," I muttered. "Quit playing dead. If I die, you're done too."

Warm light burst from the jade.

[Golden Star Fortune System activated.]

[Host near death. Starter pack available: Instant full-level mental power restore.]

"Yes," I breathed. "Activate it now."

Heat poured through my veins like melted gold. The pain vanished. Something huge and ancient woke inside my head, and the air in the hall began to hum.

Trevor stumbled back. "What... Rosalind, what did you just do to me?"

He grabbed his head. His knees hit the floor, right where mine should have been.

I stood up and wiped my mouth.

"Cut the noise." I looked down at him. "Fifty million star coins, Trevor. That's still less than what I spent on you over the years. Transfer it now, and I'll cancel the engagement."

"Fifty... million?"

I pushed a little harder with my mind. He screamed.

"Fine! Fine, I agree! I'm sending it now!"

His wrist device flashed. A second later, mine chimed.

[Received: 50,000,000 star coins.]

[Scumbag dumped. Fortune points +500.]

I blinked. Dumping a scumbag pays out fortune points too?

That should last me a while.

Silence filled the hall. Sienna had gone pale. Mr. Harlow stood frozen by the stairs.

I turned to the woman who had raised this body for eighteen years, the same woman who had just screamed at me to get out. The papers she'd prepared to throw me out were still lying on the side table. I picked them up and flipped them around.

"From this moment on, you and I have nothing to do with each other." I pressed a pen into her shaking hand. "This is the severance agreement."

My eyes didn't leave hers.

"Sign it, Mrs. Harlow."