Chapter 1

In my previous life, I married the old-money aristocrat Charles for the sake of so-called love, only to exhaust my heart and soul enduring his mother's torment and his own spineless cowardice.

I eventually left that marriage with nothing but scars.

Meanwhile, my gentle and kind-hearted sister, Chloe, married the self-made shipping magnate Alexander.

Yet, she was relentlessly tormented by the so-called "comrade's sister" he kept in his mansion, ultimately slitting her wrists in a bathtub in utter despair.

Now, I was back to the exact moment we were about to sign our prenuptial agreements.

The second our eyes met, Chloe and I recognized the shared, unspoken resolve in each other's gaze—we had both been reborn.

......

"I'm not signing it!"

Chloe's uncharacteristically firm voice exploded in my ears, snapping me out of a wave of intense dizziness.

I looked up, meeting my sister's slightly red but decidedly resolute eyes.

She was staring at the prenuptial agreement on the table, her body trembling slightly from suppressed emotion.

I froze for two seconds, the realization hitting me: Chloe and I had both been reborn.

On this exact day in my previous life, blinded by so-called love, I signed the marriage contract with the old-money aristocrat, Charles.

And the result? That impeccably dressed man turned out to be a mama's boy to his absolute core!

In his home, I suffered endless harassment and eye-rolls from his bitter mother, while Charles would only cower on the sidelines, murmuring meekly, "Serena, my mother just wants what's best for us. Just bear with it."

I endured it for three years, eventually walking away battered and with absolutely nothing.

And Chloe, my gentle, kind sister, married Alexander—the self-made billionaire who controlled half the shipping on the West Coast.

We thought she was set for life, but little did we know, to repay a comrade who had once saved his life, Alexander kept that comrade's sister, Victoria, in his Beverly Hills mansion.

That manipulative bitch pulled out all the stops: feigning depression, faking self-harm, and playing the ultimate victim in front of Alexander, while ruthlessly bullying and pressuring Chloe behind his back. She literally drove Chloe into severe depression.

In the end, Chloe ended her young life by slitting her wrists in a bathtub!

Charles was stunned. "Chloe, what nonsense are you spouting? My fiancée is Serena."

"Serena?" A flash of impatience crossed his face as he turned to me. "What kind of tantrum is Chloe throwing now?"

Looking at Charles's entitled, sickeningly smug face, I suddenly laughed.

I shoved the agreement sitting in front of Charles straight over to Chloe. Then, with a long reach, I snatched Alexander's marriage contract and yanked it right in front of me.

"Serena, are you out of your mind?!" Charles shot to his feet. "That's Alexander's agreement! You want to marry him? Do you have any idea what kind of man he is? He's a brute who built his empire on blood and fists!"

"A brute is still better than an unweaned man-child." Without even batting an eye, I fluidly signed "Serena" across Alexander's contract.

Chloe looked at me, a flicker of shock in her eyes quickly melting into deep gratitude and a shared understanding.

Without a moment's hesitation, she signed her name on Charles's agreement.

She had suffered enough from that two-faced bitch in her last life. This time, she would rather deal with the mama's boy and the wicked mother-in-law. With her skills, that mother-son duo was in for a very rude awakening.

I tossed the signed contract to the dumbfounded lawyer and strode confidently out of the firm.

Having had my fill of swallowing my pride and backing down in my past life, my move to Beverly Hills this time came with only one bottom line: peaceful coexistence is great, but if anyone dares to ruin my mood, I wouldn't hesitate to flip the entire damn table.

Two hours later, a black Maybach dropped me off at an ultra-luxurious mansion halfway up the hills of Beverly Hills. The driver respectfully unloaded my suitcases, then lowered his head and stepped aside.

I pushed open the heavy front doors, instantly greeted by an extravagantly luxurious, high-ceilinged living room.

However, before I could even take a good look around, a woman wearing an oversized men's white dress shirt walked down from the second floor.

Holding a cup of coffee, her long hair fell casually over her shoulders, and the hem of the shirt barely covered her thighs. Her face wore a look of careless indifference laced with obvious provocation.

"You must be the new maid? Don't you know Alexander doesn't like strangers touching his things? Put the luggage down and leave through the back door," Victoria said, looking down at me with the unbearable arrogance of the lady of the house.

I narrowed my eyes, giving her a slow once-over. So, this was the bitch who drove Chloe to her death in our last life?

She did play the innocent damsel facade to perfection, but unfortunately, she was entirely rotten to the core.

"A maid?" I scoffed. Too lazy to even waste another breath on her, I just raised my leg and viciously kicked the waist-high antique vase beside me, smashing it to smithereens.

Amidst the ear-piercing sound of shattering porcelain, I dusted off my hands and stared at her coldly. "Listen to me, and listen well. I am Alexander's legal wife, Serena. Now, strip off that men's shirt reeking of your cheap perfume, immediately, and get the hell back to your own room. Otherwise, the next thing to shatter will be your bones."

"You...!"

At that exact moment, the front doors were pushed open again.

A tall, cold-faced man strode in. His sharply tailored black suit exuded the intense, intimidating aura of someone deeply accustomed to absolute power. It was none other than my new husband, Alexander.

"Alexander—"

Victoria's tears came right on cue; her eyes swelled red instantly. The speed at which she flipped her switch was absolutely appalling.

"You're finally back! This... this woman started smashing things the second she walked in, and she yelled at me... It scared me so much my heart is pounding, I feel sick all over..."