Chapter 1
Cordelia's POV
Ever since the day I was born, my parents blamed me for every stroke of bad luck that befell our family, calling me a cursed child.
In my past life, when I became pregnant, a child’s whisper began ringing inside my head, and time after time, I chose to trust it.
The first time, I listened to its warning and blocked my parents’ phone numbers. That decision led to them dying in a horrific car crash while trying to reach me.
The second time, seduced by its words, I rushed to a hotel to catch my husband cheating, only to crash a crucial meeting and ruin his multi-million-dollar deal, leaving an unbridgeable fracture in our marriage.
The third time, that gentle voice persuaded me to sign the divorce papers, walk away penniless, and foolishly wait for my husband to come back to me.
In the end, I landed in prison, gave birth in a cold cell, and met a miserable death.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of my pregnancy checkup.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Mercer. You’re six weeks pregnant." Dr. Evans handed the thin ultrasound report to me.
Before I could even respond, a sharp, childish voice dripping with bone-chilling malice burst from the depths of my mind:
【Mommy! This is bad! If Grandpa and Grandma find out you’re pregnant, they’ll give me to Uncle Julian and Aunt Camille! Julian and Camille haven't had kids in eight years of marriage, and they say you’re young enough to have another... Mommy, I don't want anyone else to be my mommy!】
The voice felt like a poisoned needle plunging straight into my nerves.
I gripped the ultrasound paper so tightly my knuckles turned white, a freezing chill sweeping over my body.
In my previous life, Silas Mercer and I had been married for three years before finally conceiving this child. When I first heard that voice in the consultation room, I was naive and fragile. Panicking completely, I believed every word. I turned off my phone, blocked all my family members, and collapsed in tears in the hospital corridor.
What I didn't know then was that my parents, Gideon and Briar, were frantic with worry because they couldn’t reach me. Dozens of unanswered calls made them fear I was facing a medical crisis alone. They drove out to find me, only to suffer a catastrophic car accident on the way. Neither survived.
Devastated by the loss of my parents, I nearly had a breakdown. It was Silas who stayed by my side day and night, setting aside all his work to help me endure the darkest days of my life. I thought he was my salvation, filled with gratitude and determined to move forward.
Then the voice inside my womb struck again:
【Mommy, Daddy is at the Biltmore Hotel secretly meeting his secretary, Sarah! His tenderness toward you is nothing but guilt for cheating! He secretly resents you for being a jinx who killed your own parents!】
Blinded by rage and paranoia, I rushed to the hotel. But when I burst open the door, the man inside wasn't Silas—it was his most important business partner, Hollis Ashford. A second later, a swarm of reporters flooded the room, cameras flashing furiously as they caught Hollis’s extramarital affair red-handed.
The scandal ruined Hollis’s reputation, drove his wife to file for divorce, and sent his company’s stock into a tailspin. Blaming Silas for the leak, Hollis severed their multi-million-dollar partnership overnight and vowed to destroy the Mercer Group.
The look in Silas’s eyes changed from deep affection to utter despair and disgust. He slapped a divorce agreement down in front of me.
As I wept and begged for a second chance, that soft voice coaxed me once more:
【Mommy, Daddy is just protecting us. Hollis hates you and will definitely retaliate. If Daddy divorces you, it saves the company and keeps Hollis from finding us. Once the storm passes, he will definitely take us home.】
I believed it. I walked away empty-handed—giving up the house, the shares, and even refusing the alimony Silas offered. I moved into a cramped, cheap apartment, surviving by selling off my jewelry while waiting daily for his call to reconcile.
Instead, I waited until Silas married a woman who possessed a face identical to mine.
Driven mad, I stormed the wedding venue to confront him, only to be tackled to the ground by arriving police officers.
"Cordelia Hawthorne, you are under arrest for murder."
I was completely bewildered, ignorant of who had been killed or why all the evidence pointed to me. No one listened to my pleas, and Silas never showed his face.
I rotted in a cold prison cell until I went into labor. Bleeding out on the delivery table, I watched a nurse carry my newborn away. I reached out weakly, rasping, "Give me back my daughter..."
I expected to hear a baby's soft cry, but all that filled my ears was a cold, sinister laugh.
Until my final breath, I couldn't understand why the child I had risked everything to protect had dragged me step by step into a hell of no return.
Now, I had been reborn back to the moment of my ultrasound. In this life, I would never repeat the same mistake.
I looked up at Dr. Evans, my voice clear and resolute:
"I want an abortion. As soon as humanly possible."
