Chapter 1
When the college entrance exam results came out, the heiress of a powerful California family received an offer from Stanford University. Smiling brightly, she announced to the whole class, “Whoever gets into Stanford with me, I’ll marry them!”
One afternoon, she leaned on my desk, resting her chin in her hand as she looked at me with a teasing smile.
“They say you’ve got a crush on me. So, are you coming?”
My cheeks burned. That same night, I went home and changed my college application. I put Stanford down. In the end, I barely made it in, making me the last student accepted.
Over the next four years, I used everything I learned to help her family double their stock value. She kept her promise, too. After graduation, she married me, and we were even expecting twins.
But right after giving birth, she showed up with red eyes, clutching the death notice of a transfer student. She then tied me and the babies up and dragged us to the edge of a cliff. “If you hadn’t changed your application back then, he would’ve gotten into Stanford,” she cried. “He wouldn’t have slipped through the cracks and ended up working himself to death in some sweatshop. You stole his future, and now you think you deserve to raise heirs with me? How am I supposed to face him after this?”
Then she made me watch as our babies were beaten to death, their bodies covered in blood. And as I screamed in agony, she cut the rope tying me, and I fell.
As such, our children and I died at the bottom of that valley.
But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I changed my college preference.
That night, my parents wouldn’t stop watching me. When they saw I had just washed up and gone to bed without a word, they blocked my door.
“You’re not going to change your college choice?” my mom asked.
I froze. Wait a minute, were they reborn too?
My nose stung. I remembered how, in my past life, after seeing my mangled corpse, both of them collapsed crying. Harsh as they were sometimes, they were still my parents.
So I shook my head. “Massachusetts Institute of Technology is good enough. I’m not changing it.”
“You’re what?!” My mother’s voice cracked like a whip.
They barged into my room, opened my laptop, and pulled up the college application site. “What’s your password? Tell us. We’ll change it to Stanford for you!” my mom demanded.
But I refused, “Dad! Mom! I said I’m not changing it!”
Suddenly, my dad slapped me hard across the face, his eyes filled with fury. “You
ungrateful brat! You almost secured a place in the Olson family last life, and now you’re
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ungrateful brat! You almost secured a place in the Olson family last life, and now you’re just giving up your chance?”
My heart dropped after hearing their reason.
So that was what they cared about.
Not me… just my value.
“No need to change anything,” I said coldly, holding out my phone and showing them a photo from Ellen Olson’s social media. “She’s already made her choice.”
In the picture, Ellen held hands with Toby Wheeler, the transfer student. Matching rings glinted on their fingers. The caption read: [You’re the only home I’ll ever need.]
“Useless child!”
Another slap stung the other side of my face.
My mother pointed at me, eyes filled with tears. “You spent years chasing her and couldn’t win her heart. Now she’s his with just a glance. What was the point of raising you? Our whole family was counting on this marriage to climb higher, and you couldn’t even pull your weight!”
“You’re right! I’m useless!” I snapped, yelling back for the first time. “But don’t worry. Once I get into college, I’ll start earning money and pay you back every cent you spent raising me, with interest. Go have another kid. Maybe your next one can actually marry into the richest family in the country.”
With that, I shoved them out and slammed the door shut.
They banged and shouted from the other side, but I pressed my hands to my ears and
refused to listen.
Not this time. In this life, I won’t let these ridiculous power games ruin my future.
I’m going to live for myself.
In the following days, I had no contact with Ellen.
I could tell from her posts that she must’ve been reborn, too.
But I felt no urge to reconnect.
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