Chapter 1The Heiress's Game: Reborn to Rewrite My Fate

My best friend hid her identity as a billionaire heiress and told me, "For ordinary people like us, no matter how hard we try, we can never cross the class divide."

She pushed me to smoke, skip class, get into fights, date losers, and even worse...

After graduation, I hit a dead end everywhere I went. I ended up dragging my sick, broken body into a factory for minimum wage, unable to even scrape together enough money for my daughter’s life-saving medicine.

She, on the other hand, seamlessly took over her family's empire, becoming a celebrated, untouchable CEO, marrying her perfect match, and living a flawless life.

At my absolute lowest, I begged her to lend me fifty bucks just to buy a box of painkillers. She laughed so hard she practically doubled over.

"I told you a long time ago, Sarah. Ordinary people like you are bottom-tier trash, generation after generation.

"You’re a nobody. You have to accept your fate."

But... was that really my fate?

Later, the factory exploded. I was buried in a sea of flames, dying with a heart full of agonizing regret and hatred.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the first day of high school.

* * *

Following a deafening blast, a rolling wave of heat crashed over me.

I was huddled in the corner of the factory floor, staring in absolute despair as the wall of fire rapidly closed in.

There was nowhere to run. I was going to burn alive.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but when I opened them again, I felt the cool, crisp breeze of late summer. Outside the window, cicadas were humming.

On the desk in front of me, tucked inside my faded, worn-out pencil case, was a crumpled piece of paper. On it, written in deliberate strokes, were the words: Fate is in my own hands.

I had returned to when I was fifteen years old. The first day of high school.

The timelines overlapped in my mind, and the phantom, agonizing pain of being consumed by fire still lingered. I broke out in a cold sweat.

Suddenly, I heard a timid voice beside me. "Excuse me... are you... are you Sarah Jenkins?"

I looked up and saw the fifteen-year-old Chloe Sterling.

Right now, she was wearing a faded, hand-me-down hoodie, carrying a backpack that was frayed at the edges. She looked at me with a face full of shy admiration.

It was a staggering contrast to the Chloe I saw at the end of my past life—dripping in designer brands, her makeup flawless, looking down at me from her high-rise office like I was an insect.

My memories of her in my past life were too agonizing. Beneath the desk, I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms. I steadied my breathing.

"Yes, I am."

"It really is you! I... I'm so lucky. I can't believe I'm in the same class as the famous valedictorian from Southside Middle School.

"You look exactly like you did in the local paper—smart and pretty. A lot of the guys at my old school had a crush on you."

She sounded just as excited as she did the first time we met in my previous life.

But this time, I caught the fleeting, malicious sneer hidden deep in her crescent-moon eyes.

Of course. In both my past life and this one, in her eyes, I was nothing but a "bottom-tier peasant." I was the prey she had selected long ago to play with and destroy.

And my crossing paths with her wasn't her "luck," as she claimed. It was entirely the handiwork of her powerful, elite mother.

The scene of my final meeting with her in my past life flashed before my eyes again.

Back then, my little girl was critically ill. The doctors shook their heads and said there was nothing more they could do, advising me to just buy some strong painkillers to ease her suffering.

But my abusive husband and my mother-in-law refused to spare even fifty dollars. They said since she wasn't a boy, it was better if she just died.

Desperate, I went to Chloe.

She sat in her luxurious corner office on the top floor of the Financial District, looking down at the destitute, broken version of me, laughing uncontrollably.

"Sarah, I told you a long time ago. Ordinary people like you are bottom-tier trash, generation after generation.

"Your parents are, you are, and naturally, your daughter is too.

"You’re a nobody. You have to accept your fate."

It was only then that I learned the truth from her own mouth.

"Idiot! Did you really think I wanted to be besties with you?

"If my mom wasn't in the middle of a critical corporate promotion, do you think she would have pulled me out of my elite private prep school and sent me to that dump of a public high school?

"I didn't want to go at first either, but my mom said, 'Sweetheart, let's play a game, okay?'

"She told me she's loved this game since she was young. It’s called—'Destroying the Life of an Ordinary Person.'"

She smiled and leaned across her mahogany desk.

"My mom said that an ordinary person who can't handle temptation is incredibly easy to break. They’ll fall step by step, all the way down into a bottomless hell, until it's too late for regrets.

"I thought the game sounded fun, so I immediately picked out my target.

"...It was you. The straight-A, beautiful scholarship kid clawing her way out of the slums."

She stood up, her gaze raking over me from head to toe.

My utter ruin and misery were on full display.

"Looking at you now, I’d say I won!"

That day, I left her corporate tower a hollow shell of a human being.

My mind spun, endlessly replaying my twenty-three years of life, watching myself plummet into the abyss.

I thought of all those brilliant, shining dreams I once had, dreams that were never realized.

I broke down crying on the bustling streets of downtown Boston.

But there is no medicine in this world to cure regret.

Three days later, my sweet, understanding little girl closed her eyes in agony for the last time.

Shortly after, the factory exploded, and I burned to ashes.

...

I bit my lip hard, feeling the tidal wave of pure hatred surging in my chest.

Since I've been given a second chance at life.

This time, I will rewrite the narrative. I will keep my destiny firmly in my own grip.

And I will make those who deceived me, manipulated me, and ruined me pay a devastating price.

...

Right now, Chloe was lowering her head. "Sarah, the truth is, I come from a really poor family just like you. I don't have any friends at this school..."

Her voice trembled slightly. "Maybe... could I be your friend?"

There were a few seconds of dead silence.

I quietly raised my eyes to look at her.

Then, I flashed her a brilliant, welcoming smile.

"Of course you can.

"Welcome to my world... Chloe Sterling."