Chapter 1
When Ruby Lynch regained her consciousness, the only thing she felt was immense pain spreading all throughout her body.
She fought to open her eyes amidst the pain and saw that she was lying in a puddle of blood. She also noticed the spiral staircase right next to her head.
While slipping in and out of consciousness, she vaguely heard some voices from upstairs.
“Cecelia, my family is the one forcing me to marry Ruby! I swear that I have absolutely no feelings for her! I’ll never even like her! I promise!”
“Cecelia, you’re my little sister, and I’ve promised you that I would never forgive anyone who ever made you sad. I know that you hate Ruby, so I just shoved her off the stairs and taught her a lesson on your behalf.
“Also, you know that Henry doesn’t even care about her. He’s still here, comforting you, isn’t he? So please don’t cry anymore, alright?”
Those familiar voices belonged to Ian Dalton and Henry Spencer. Ruby had a shock, regaining consciousness all at once.
Only then did she realize she had somehow gotten a second chance at life. She was now back at a point in her life before she’d married Henry.
Memories of the past that she’d forgotten rushed into her mind like a tsunami wave.
In her last life, Ruby had lived a life of poverty, living alone with her grandmother, Emma Lynch. When she was 16 years old, Emma had saved an old lady from a car wreck, but in the process, she’d also lost her life.
With no one else to rely on, Ruby had been brought home by the old lady, Patty Ferguson, to live with her. Patty told her that she wanted to repay her for saving her life and betrothed her grandson to Ruby.
And that was how Ruby ended up being Henry’s fiancée.
However, Henry was very reluctant to marry her. He already had someone he liked, and that was Cecelia Dalton, his best friend Ian’s younger sister.
They had grown up together and harbored feelings for one another. As such, Henry was extremely apprehensive and resentful about the betrothal to Ruby.
Even after being forced to marry Ruby, he continued ignoring her and all the things she did for the family, scorning her every chance he got.
Ian had also been cruel to Ruby because he thought that she had stolen away Cecelia’s happiness, while Cecelia hated Ruby more than anything and tried everything under the sky to frame Ruby for all sorts of things she never did.
And each time, both Ian and Henry would take Cecelia’s side unconditionally.
Even when Cecelia fibbed that Ruby had purposely run into her with her car, they both had Ruby thrown straight into jail without any further proof. They believed everything Cecelia told them and used their connections to make sure Ruby stayed in the slammer for good.
For the next three years Ruby spent in jail, she had been tortured close to death multiple times. Her arms and legs were broken, and there was not a single spot on her body where her skin or flesh was in one piece.
Before Ruby was ultimately tortured to death, Cecelia had visited her one last time to show off.
That was when Ruby learned about a shocking secret from Cecelia—Cecelia had only been tormenting Ruby like that because she was never the Daltons’ biological daughter. Instead, Ruby was the actual long-lost daughter they had been searching everywhere for years!
This was a mystery that had shrouded Ruby for 25 years. Finally, everything was revealed. However, before Ruby ever had the chance to say a thing, she died in prison in a terrible state.
Fate seemed to have given her a second chance now. And this time, Ruby wasn’t going to repeat her mistakes anymore.
Ruby forced herself to her feet and saw Cecelia leading the two men toward her.
Ian’s face was cold and grim, and he spoke mockingly. “Ruby Lynch, don’t think that you can do whatever you want to Cecelia just because you did someone in our family a favor. You have no right to steal anything from her!”
Henry also cast Ruby a side glance and said stoically, “Feelings can never be forced. I will never, ever fall in love with a woman like you!”
Then, Henry and Ian turned their backs on Ruby and started comforting Cecelia, promising to buy her the latest bags and purses on the way out.
Ruby stared at their retreating figures and chuckled pitifully as she dragged along her leg that was still bleeding heavily.
Henry’s mother, Rose Robinson, happened to walk by and caught sight of her. She rolled her eyes in disgust and said, “This again! You really deserve what you get. You’re nothing but a poor, filthy bumpkin who does not deserve my Henry. I really don’t understand what’s going on in that old lady’s crazy old mind!
“If only you’d just take the money and leave, none of us would need to deal with all this. We could have saved so much trouble. But you, you just had to insist on sticking to us like glue and refuse to leave Henry!”
Ruby’s eyes wavered slightly as she listened to Rose’s humiliating words. She clenched her fists subconsciously, but just as she was about to speak, she got interrupted.
“Alright, you should know why I’m here now. I’d been topping up the figure since the last time—from five million dollars to nine million dollars—and I’m rounding off the figure again this time. I’ll give you ten million dollars to leave Henry!”
Although Rose was talking business, she was already prepared to be turned down once again by Ruby this time.
Surprisingly, Ruby agreed this time. She nodded and said, “Ten million dollars. Deal.”
Rose was shocked when she heard this. “A-Are you serious? Are you going to leave with the money?”
“Yes.”
Rose was simply overjoyed. She instantly dragged Ruby along to sign an agreement.
After witnessing Ruby signing the agreement, Rose finally let out a huge sigh of relief. Of course, she didn’t forget to continue making sarcastic remarks about Ruby.
“So you finally grew a brain this time. You’re nothing but a filthy bumpkin, and you’re going to leave a permanent dark spot on Henry’s life that he’ll never be able to get rid of. Only someone as graceful, beautiful, and elegant as Cecelia, who knows how to behave herself, deserves to be our daughter-in-law!”
Ruby was calm despite Rose’s stinging words. She asked back in a calm voice, “I thought I heard that Cecelia is not their biological daughter. She’s just adopted.”
Rose’s eyes were filled with contempt at once. “How did you find out about that? Whether or not Cecelia is adopted is still none of your business!
“The Daltons’ daughter had been missing for so many years, and there had been absolutely no news of her. That was why they took in Cecelia, as a form of comfort. It’s not like their real daughter is coming back anytime soon, so Cecelia is as good as their biological daughter now!”
Rose said it so confidently as if what she said was the absolute truth.
Ruby didn’t say another word. She just lowered her eyes and fell into thought.
Rose looked at the signed agreement in her hand and thought that Ruby looked more and more like an eyesore to her. “So, when are you finally removing yourself from here?”
“I’ll leave as soon as I’ve done one final thing.”
Rose frowned. She was about to say something, but Ruby beat her to it.
“Don’t worry. I will carry out my obligation and leave since I’ve already taken your money. I’ll make sure I disappear from the face of the earth and never let anyone find me. I’ll never appear before your eyes again for as long as I live.”
It wasn’t until Ruby said that that Rose finally left in satisfaction.
Ruby didn’t waste another second. She went straight to the guest room on the second floor and gathered a few strands of hair that Ian had shed on the ground.
After that, she headed to the lab to request for a DNA test verifying the relationship between herself and Ian.
“The results will be out in two weeks.”
Ruby didn’t react in excitement when she heard the doctor’s words. After all, she already knew the truth since her past life.
At that time, Ian had spoiled Cecelia so much as her old brother that he had done many questionable and despicable things.
He had locked up Ruby at home and forced her to surrender her acceptance letter to Harmon University so that Cecelia could go in her place. He had forced Ruby to jump into the sea to collect seashells from the sea bed for Cecelia.
He had even personally sent her to jail in the end, telling the other inmates to “take good care of her on his behalf”.
And that was when Ruby started getting tortured to death.
The only thing Ruby was looking forward to now was the look on Ian’s face when he finally saw this DNA report and realized that she was his biological sister after all. She wanted to know how he would react to the news.
Since Ian thought that she came from a poor and lowly family and deserved all the terrible things that happened to her, she was then going to show him that he was the one who had allowed it to happen to her.
The same went for Henry.
Since Henry thought that she had gotten in the way of his happiness, then, she was going to leave him, just as he always wished.
This time, she didn’t want Henry or Ian anymore!
