"AAAAAAAH!" Lisa screamed as she woke up, covered in sweat. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her heart pounding in her chest. "What am I doing here? I know I'm dead… I was stabbed—stabbed by my own sister," she muttered to herself, gripping the sheets.

"Have I been reborn?"

Before she could make sense of anything, a voice echoed from outside the door.

"Lisa, are you okay? I heard you scream from the sitting room."

Lisa froze. That voice—she knew it all too well. Her stepmother.

For years, this woman had pretended to care, wearing a mask of concern while secretly plotting to take everything her mother had left behind. Lisa had once been blind to her deception, thinking she was just strict, just distant—but no. The truth was far uglier. This woman never loved her. She only loved the wealth that Lisa stood to inherit.

Lisa's hands clenched into fists. She forced herself to respond, trying to keep her voice steady. "I… I just had a nightmare."

The door creaked open, and there she stood—her stepmother, draped in an elegant silk robe, her face twisted into a mask of fake sympathy. "Oh, dear. You must have had a terrible dream. You poor thing." Her voice dripped with false kindness, but Lisa knew better now.

She studied the woman carefully, trying to suppress the shiver crawling up her spine. This isn't just a dream. I've been reborn.

She was back—years before her death. Before her stepmother, sister and finance's betrayal. Before they took everything from her.

This time, she wouldn't be their fool.

This time, she would make them pay.

"I have to fake it till I make it Lisa thought "Aunty am good, just a nightmare am good"

Then, another voice came rushing from the door.

"Sis, are you alright?" Chun Ava asked as she entered my room. Behind her stood my childhood best friend and fiancé, Zhang Gary.