Chapter 1

In my past life, I found out by accident that my half-sister Serena wasn't actually Dad's biological daughter. Not long after, she pushed me into the deep sea.

When I opened my eyes again, I'd been reborn into the womb of Evelyn Sterling, the mistress my father kept on the side.

At the Vance family's anniversary gala, his wife Margaret caused a huge scene, slapping the very pregnant Evelyn across the face. To save the family's reputation, Elias just stood there and let Evelyn take the hit.

Nobody knew that this seemingly fragile, pregnant woman was actually a financial shark who'd been lying low for eighteen years. And nobody knew that the baby in her belly was a vengeful reincarnated soul, back to settle a blood debt.

I heard the whole farce from inside Evelyn's womb. So I kicked. And that's how I made my grand entrance.

Freezing seawater poured into my mouth and nose like crazy, my lungs burning like they were about to explode.

"Maya, just die already! The Vance family's billions, and Dad's love—it's all mine now!"

At the edge of the yacht's deck, Serena's face—usually so pitiful and sweet—twisted into something demonic under the pale moonlight. She peeled my fingers off the railing one by one, her eyes gleaming with pure murderous intent.

I was only eighteen, the legitimate daughter of the Vance family.

She was just the extra baggage my stepmother Margaret had dragged into the family.

Half an hour earlier, I'd gotten my hands on a confidential DNA test result. It said, in black and white, that Serena was not my father Elias's biological daughter at all.

That bitch Margaret had fooled the entire Vance family with another man's kid for eighteen years!

I'd planned to expose the two of them, but I never expected Serena to already be one step ahead—she came at me to kill, right out here in international waters.

"Just let go, Maya." She laughed sweetly, stomping hard on the back of my hand.

Pain shot through me as bones cracked, and I finally lost my grip. I fell straight down into the bottomless, roaring darkness.

Full of rage and unfinished business, I closed my eyes.

If I get another life, I swear I'll make these two poisonous women pay in blood. I'll make that spineless, biased coward of a father pay too.

...

I don't know how much time passed.

When my consciousness gathered again, there was no freezing water. Instead, I was wrapped in something warm and soft.

In my ears, a muffled but clear argument was happening.

"Elias! You owe me an explanation today! What do you think I am? What do you think Serena is?"

A sharp, shrill woman's voice, dripping with entitled fury.

I jolted.

That voice... it was Margaret!

I wasn't dead?

"Margaret, calm down! It's the Vance Group's anniversary celebration today, the whole floor is packed with media and business elites. If you make a scene here, how is that going to look?"

A man's voice, deliberately lowered, edged with panic.

Elias! My selfish, hypocritical biological father!

I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. I waved my arm and touched nothing but soft, fleshy walls.

I realized with a shock—I'd been reborn!

And not just reborn—I was inside a woman's womb! I'd become an unborn fetus!

"You want me to calm down? You let that homewrecker show up at my gala flaunting her pregnant belly, and you want me to calm down?!"

Margaret's voice spiked, her heels striking the floor hard.

"Elias, I didn't mean to... my stomach just hurt so much, I wanted to find you..."

A soft, trembling, tearful voice spoke up.

The voice was unfamiliar, but I instantly understood who she was.

This was the mistress Elias kept hidden away—my mother in this lifetime!

"Shut up! Evelyn, didn't I tell you to stay at the suburban house? Who told you to come downtown?!" Elias didn't comfort her at all—instead he snarled viciously, "Do you have any idea how much my stock will drop if a reporter gets a photo of you?!"

Smack!

A sharp slap rang out.

"Bitch! You think you can seduce my husband and get away with it? I'll kill that bastard kid in your belly right now!" Margaret cursed viciously.

I felt the space wrapped around me shake violently, and my mother's body convulsed in agony.

Margaret had hit my mom!

And that coward Elias didn't even dare make a peep!

"Margaret, a couple of hits to vent is fine, just don't kill her, there are reporters downstairs..." Elias's voice was full of placating indifference.

For the sake of his reputation, for the sake of his stock price, he was willing to stand there and watch his own woman and unborn child get beaten half to death!

In my last life, it was the same—for Serena's sake, he ignored all the wrongs done to me. And now, in this life, it was happening again—for his own benefit, he'd sacrifice anything.

A wave of fury burned through my chest.

I felt out my own body. Even though I wasn't full term yet, I already had full strength.

I gathered all my power into my legs and kicked, hard, against the soft wall of the womb.