In my past life, I was forced to watch my husband Derek Thorne and his entire family of seven swallow poison in a suicide pact. His company’s collapse, brought on by his gross mismanagement, was the final trigger.
The shock was too much. I collapsed, losing consciousness.
When I woke again, Derek and the six others had already been cremated.
Before the grief could fully settle, loan sharks were already breaking down my door, demanding payment. That’s when it hit me: I was the sole survivor, and the debt was mine to bear.
Ten years later, I made the final payment.
I returned to my empty house only to find the Thorne family, all seven of them, alive and well inside.
Derek tossed a single dollar bill at my feet. “Thank you,” he said, the words dripping with mock gratitude for clearing the mountain of debt they’d left behind.
The sight of their smug, deceitful faces broke me. I choked, blood flooding my mouth, and collapsed. My world went black.
My eyes flew open, and I was back. Back to the day Derek’s company fell.
Derek’s face, drenched in tears, appeared before me. Every word he spoke was drenched in tears, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Celeste, I know I’ve failed you. It’s my fault. My nepotism, my terrible business decisions… they led to the company’s bankruptcy, and now we owe a fortune.”
His hand trembled as he pulled out a small blue glass bottle, a crudely drawn skull and crossbones on its label, as if to ensure no one missed it was poison.
“Celeste, I’m so sorry! We… we’ve truly reached a dead end. We can only atone for our sins by taking our own lives!”
He looked at me deeply, a prolonged gaze.
Then, with a dramatic flourish, he raised the bottle and gulped down its contents.
“Celeste, please forgive me.”
Derek coughed up blood, thrashing on the floor in agony, his eyes still fixed on mine…
That agonizingly familiar scene jolted me awake.
I had been reborn. Reborn to the day the nightmare began, ten years ago…
In my past life, my husband had stubbornly insisted on his own way, filling the company with his cronies, and ultimately running it into the ground.
I’d pleaded with him countless times, but our arguments only festered until our relationship turned completely toxic, leaving us as enemies.
Out of sheer frustration, we stopped all contact.
A year later, to my horror, Derek showed up at my door with his father, Mr. Thorne, his mother, Mrs. Thorne, his elder brother, Victor, his second brother, Paul… the entire family of seven.
Derek was sobbing uncontrollably, filled with what seemed like deep regret. He drank the poison right in front of me, begging for my forgiveness even in his dying moments.
Before I could even react, the whole family of seven simultaneously swallowed poison and died. It was an utterly gruesome scene.
Watching my once-beloved husband die such a painful death right before my eyes, seeing all seven of them collapse, I was overcome with sorrow.
I not only forgave Derek for all his mistakes but was consumed by unbearable grief and profound regret.
Overwhelmed, I eventually fainted.
When I finally woke up, I discovered something shocking.
My elder sister-in-law, Scarlett, had already cremated all seven of them with shocking speed.
Before I could even begin to process the immense grief, I was slapped with another terrifying reality – loan shark enforcers were practically breaking down the door.
They stood there, menacing and formidable, blocking the entrance.
It was then that I learned Derek owed a staggering one hundred million dollars.
And I was the only surviving debtor in the entire family.
Even though I fought it every step of the way, legally, I was on the hook for everything. It was either pay up or rot in jail.
With no other choice, I sold off my villa and my company to pay down the debt.
Even my parents’ company and house were liquidated.
After that, I worked day and night, juggling three jobs, scrimping and saving every penny. It took me a full ten years to pay off the very last dollar.
Just as my trembling hands paid off the very last penny, believing it was finally over…
I suddenly realized that the very mansion I’d sold off was now home to a ‘happy’ family.
My husband, under a new name, was embracing a new woman, with two adorable children doting at their feet.
Mr. and Mrs. Thorne were beaming, looking years younger than me, clearly living a life of leisure and comfort.
My heart instantly felt like it was being ripped apart, bleeding raw.
I remembered my parents, who had died prematurely three years earlier, overworked and exhausted from helping me pay off the debts.
I remembered myself – white-haired and haggard in my youth, worn out from a decade of ceaseless labor.
Derek, with his gorgeous, fawning wife clinging to him, drove off in a luxury car.
He rolled down the window, his gaze sweeping over me as if I were a pathetic fool.
He tossed a single dollar bill at my feet.
“This dollar is my thanks for all your hard work, paying off our family’s debts. Hahahahaha…”
Seeing the despicable, triumphant smirk on their faces, I felt a thousand daggers pierce my soul.
“Pfft!” I spewed a mouthful of blood and collapsed into eternal darkness…
SMACK!
A stinging slap across my face.
Before I could even regain my balance, a shrill torrent of abuse assaulted my ears.
“You wretched hag! After everything you and my brother went through as husband and wife, how could you just stand there and watch him die?!”
My younger sister-in-law had slapped me. I snapped my eyes open.
Her malicious face filled my vision.
“You cold-hearted witch!”
Tiffany’s voice was shrill and piercing.
I looked up to see my elder sister-in-law, Scarlett, and Tiffany charging at me like two enraged she-wolves.
Scarlett, heavily pregnant, her eyes spitting fire, pointed a finger at me and snarled,
“It’s all because of you, you cold-blooded woman! You refused to help us with the debt, forcing our whole family to die! You’re an absolute demon!”
Tiffany Thorne, decked out in flashy makeup, also glared at me furiously, her scarlet-painted fingernail practically touching my nose.
“You, you’re so heartless! Even if you and my brother fought, after all you’ve been through as husband and wife, were you really going to watch them all die before you were satisfied?”
Their accusations rained down on me like a storm, giving me no time to react.
I narrowed my eyes, standing silent amidst their barrage of insults, feigning a terrified stupor. Inside, though, a cold, bitter laugh echoed.
It was just like this in my previous life. Everything happened so suddenly, the bodies strewn across the floor had shocked me into a daze, leaving me utterly helpless.
Just as I rushed forward to embrace Derek, my two ‘dear’ sisters-in-law suddenly burst onto the scene.
These two had always resented me, constantly stirring up trouble, always finding fault where there was none. They had played a significant role in poisoning my relationship with Derek, pushing us to the point of not even speaking.
Now, without a second thought, they were dumping all the blame and vitriol squarely on me.
It was Derek’s own stubborn refusal to listen to advice, his own terrible business decisions, that led to the bankruptcy.
But to anyone unaware, it would seem as if I had driven them to their deaths.
What’s more, Derek and I had been separated for over a year. According to our prior agreement, our divorce would have been finalized very soon.
In this second life, the truth finally dawned on me. Derek had planned all of this. He deliberately timed their fake deaths just before our divorce was finalized, so they could escape their debts.
It was all to ensure I’d legally become the sole inheritor of their mountain of debt.
The entire family had conspired, orchestrating this elaborate charade: first, the sudden, tearful ‘suicides’ to shock me into paralysis, then the two sisters-in-law launched their relentless assault, leaving me utterly speechless and unable to defend myself.
Looking back, it was a meticulously planned trap, each step designed to leave me no room to breathe, no time to think, only to react.
Their insults and baseless accusations continued. Scarlett and Tiffany stood on either side of me, completely blocking my view.
“Celeste Sterling, if it weren’t for how much my brother ‘loved’ you, I’d call the police right now and have you arrested!”
“Celeste Sterling, you owe me my brother! You owe me my parents! May you rot in hell!”
…
At that moment, my parents arrived. Seeing the bodies sprawled out, the blood everywhere.
My usually timid mother instantly collapsed onto the floor.
My father staggered, his face ashen.
My heart ached for them. My parents must have been terrified out of their minds.
The Thornes’ scheme was truly wicked. Any decent person witnessing seven bodies sprawled out like this would be utterly traumatized.
In my past life, my family was utterly disoriented, manipulated precisely as the Thornes intended.
They had no idea they were slowly falling into a meticulously crafted trap.
Thinking this, a subtle, almost imperceptible curve touched my lips.
Even fate must have been disgusted by Derek’s depraved actions, granting me this second chance at life.
If that’s the case, I absolutely cannot squander this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I will meticulously erase every single stain of humiliation they inflicted upon me.
My gaze pierced through Scarlett’s hair, seeing Derek lying on the floor in a comical, twisted posture, the red dye splattered from his mouth coated the floor, a gruesome, sickening sight.
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