Chapter 1

I was reborn on the day my baby was murdered, and the first thing I did was send my son away from the Hale estate. When I returned to the party, a black stroller was floating in the pool. Everyone thought the dead child was mine. They told me I could have another baby while they protected the ten-year-old girl who had pushed the stroller in. Then my father arrived with my living son in his arms, and the child dragged from the trash compactor turned out to be the killer’s own baby brother.

---

The moment I sent my son away, I returned to the party. I instantly met Cora Hale’s defiant glare.

She was wearing that same angelic white dress. She slipped away from the edge of the pool.

I looked at the water. My heart dropped.

A black stroller was floating in the pool. Inside, a baby wrapped in a blanket lay perfectly still.

"BIANCA!" I screamed. My voice shattered the laughter of the guests.

Adrian Hale and his mother, Eleanor Hale, rushed outside. The Eleanor let out a shriek and collapsed to her knees.

Adrian Hale stumbled over, shaking. He stared at the pool. "Elise Hart, baby... he's not breathing."

I couldn’t even bring myself to look. I sprinted up to the second floor. Cora Hale had locked herself in her bedroom.

I kicked the door hard. "Cora Hale, open this damn door! Who did you push in?!"

She didn't answer. But I could hear her giggling with her little friend inside.

"Cora Hale, are we in trouble? My dad is gonna kill me!"

"No. It wasn't on purpose anyway. Besides, the family doesn't punish kids."

Those fearless words stabbed my ears like ice picks. I started shaking uncontrollably.

I slammed my foot into the door with everything I had. "Get out here! Do you realize you just killed someone?!"

Adrian Hale ran up behind me. He grabbed my arms. His eyes were red. "Elise Hart, calm down! patriarch't scare the girls."

I glared at him with pure hatred. It was exactly like my last life.

He thought our son was dead, and he was only worried about scaring his niece.

Eleanor Hale came upstairs, wiping her tears. "Oh, honey. Cora Hale went too far this time, but Elise Hart, don't be so harsh."

She stepped closer. "I know you're grieving little Theo. But these things happen. You're still young. You can have more kids."

The world tilted beneath my feet.

They thought it was Theo. My son.

And this was their reaction? That same, familiar, sickening coldness.

But my guards had just taken my son away.

Who the hell was the tiny body floating in the pool?

Adrian Hale hugged me tightly. "Elise Hart, I swear I'll get justice for Theo. But Cora Hale is just a kid, she doesn't know any better..."

I shoved him off before he could finish.

"What do you mean? If she doesn't know any better, why didn't she drown herself?"

I marched to the hall closet. I grabbed a heavy iron fire poker and smashed it into Cora Hale’s door like a madwoman.

Eleanor Hale gasped and backed away. The door violently shuddered. The whole mansion seemed to shake.

"Cora Hale, get your ass out here right now! Or I'm taking this door down!"

Why should she get away with murder? Even if the dead baby wasn't mine today, I was going to get justice for him!

Hearing the violent blows, Cora Hale yelled from inside. "Stop it! If you don't stop, I'll jump off the balcony!"

I was panting hard. I dropped the poker, ripped a decorative hunting knife off the wall, and hacked at the wood. The blade lodged deep into the door, stuck fast.

"Then jump! Because if I get in there, I'm going to kill you anyway!"

I destroyed the lock. The door finally swung open.

Cora Hale stood there, looking annoyed.

"What?" she tilted her head, looking at me with those cold, dead black eyes. "Why are you making so much noise?"

"Who did you push into the pool, Cora Hale?"

She glanced toward the baby downstairs, then back at my face. A small smirk played on her lips.

"Your son, obviously. The little brat who stole way too much of Uncle Adrian's attention."

Smack.

I slapped her. Hard.

The crack echoed in the room. Her head snapped to the side.

Tears instantly welled in Cora Hale's eyes. She clutched her cheek in shock. "How dare you hit me? Not even my dad hits me! You're not even real family, you bitch—"

I slapped her again. "The fact that your dad doesn't hit you is exactly why you turned into a little monster!"

I grabbed her by the collar. I roared through gritted teeth, "I'm asking you one last time. Who did you push in?!"

Cora Hale finally dropped the act. She held her face and whined, "Your Theo. My mom said babies naturally know how to swim. I just wanted to see if it was true."

"But he stopped moving after like ten seconds. I didn't think he'd actually die."

"Just wanted to see?" I whispered. My blood was boiling.

I grabbed a fistful of her perfectly styled blonde curls. "Then let's see how well you swim today!"

"Ahhh!" Cora Hale shrieked.

I dragged her out the door by her hair, showing zero mercy. My target was the pool downstairs.

"Let me go! You lunatic!" Cora Hale thrashed wildly, clawing at the hallway walls. "I'll drown! Uncle Adrian, save me!"

Her friend Mira Ross screamed and scrambled into the closet, terrified.

"Elise Hart, that's enough!" Adrian Hale lunged forward. He dug his fingers hard into my shoulders from behind.

"Let go of me!" I screamed, sinking my nails deep into the back of his hands.

Adrian Hale yanked me backward with brutal force.

The back of my head slammed into the marble molding of the hallway.

The sharp edge split my scalp open. A wave of intense dizziness and darkness washed over me. Warm blood trickled down the side of my face.

I slumped to the floor, holding my head. My vision blurred.

My husband didn't even spare me a glance.

He shielded his sobbing niece in his arms, glaring at me with pure disgust.

"Are you insane? She's ten years old!" Adrian Hale snapped, standing over me. "It was an accident! She knows she messed up! You didn't watch your own kid, so don't take it out on a child!"

Looking at his hypocritical face, I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.

Right. This was who he was.

A cold-blooded coward. He would throw away his own flesh and blood for the sake of the family.

I had learned this the hard way in my last life. They were the real family. My three-month-old son and I meant absolutely nothing.

With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone. I dialed my father's number.

I needed my men. I was going to destroy every single one of these murderers.

"What are you doing?" Adrian Hale's eyes darkened.

"I'm making your entire family pay for murder!"

Smack.

Adrian Hale kicked the phone out of my hand. It smashed against the wall, the screen shattering into pieces.

"This is Hale family business!" He grabbed me by the collar and hissed. "You don't bring outside heat into this! Theo is dead, we can make another one. But Cora Hale is the future heir of this family! I won't let you ruin her!"

My heart turned to ash. The absurdity of it all was suffocating.

On his scale, this ten-year-old sociopath weighed far more than our newborn son.

I swatted his hands away. Using the wall for support, I stumbled to my feet and dragged my bleeding body downstairs.

Just as I reached the landing, a heavy woman dripping in expensive jewels rushed up. She violently shoved my shoulder.

My sister-in-law, Vivian Hale.

She pulled Cora Hale into a tight hug, cooing and shrieking over her precious baby.

Then, she whipped her head around and glared at me.

"You lunatic! How dare you lay a hand on my daughter!"

I was trembling with rage. "Why don't you ask your daughter what she just did?"

"So what?" Vivian Hale sneered dismissively, a vicious glint in her eyes. "Your son is dead. Get over it. You can't blame her for that!"

I hated them all so much. But right now, my mind was only on the dead baby.

Who was he? And why was he in our estate?

"Vivian Hale, you're a mother. If it was your child who died today, would you still say that?"

Vivian Hale's eyes narrowed. She pointed a fat finger at me. "You shameless whore! Your son dies so you curse mine? Honestly, your brat deserved it! Good riddance!"

I grabbed my shattered phone off the floor and headed straight downstairs.

The Eleanor hurried after me. Hearing Vivian Hale's words, she didn't stop her. Instead, she grabbed Vivian Hale's sleeve.

"Quick! Stop her! She tried to call her father! We can't let her run her mouth and ruin the family's reputation!"

Vivian Hale's face paled. Her glare turned venomous. "You called for backup? You want to humiliate the Hales in front of the Five Families?"

Adrian Hale, pale with rage, snatched the cracked phone from my hand.

He pressed the power button. The screen lit up. The color drained from his face.

Through the cracked glass, an SOS text was clearly visible. It had already been delivered to the personal guards my father had assigned to me.

"You actually called your people!"

Adrian Hale closed the distance between us and raised his hand without a second thought.

A heavy slap landed hard across my face.

"You vicious woman!" Adrian Hale gritted his teeth, his eyes full of hate. "You'd humiliate this entire Family just to get even!"

I held my burning cheek and slowly turned my head. I looked at the ugly faces of the three generations standing before me.

I let out a dark, hopeless laugh.

Without a single word, I wiped the blood from my lip and kept walking downstairs.

The guests out front were still drinking and laughing. Nobody had noticed the tragedy in the backyard pool.

I had to know who the dead baby was.

I already had a sickening suspicion, but I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

I burst out of the main hall and stumbled toward the backyard pool.

Adrian Hale chased after me, his grip like a vise on my shoulder. "Elise Hart! Enough! I already checked on Theo. He's gone. We'll dispose of him quietly. This ends here. It was an accident. Turn the page!"

I violently tore out of his grip and rushed to the edge.

The water was perfectly still. Empty.

The black stroller and the baby inside were gone!

My blood ran cold. I grabbed the lapels of his custom suit. "Where is the baby?! Where is he?!"

Right then, two of Adrian Hale's soldiers on security duty jogged over. "Boss, is there a problem?"

Adrian Hale was fast.

He clamped a massive hand over my mouth and dragged me against his chest. The veins on the back of his hand bulged.

He flashed them an exasperated smile. "Nothing. Just a marital spat. She's had too much to drink."

His mother and Vivian Hale hurried over to cover for him. "Yes, postpartum depression. She's unstable. Go keep an eye on the front gates."

The soldiers gave me a suspicious look but nodded and walked away.

The second they were out of earshot, Adrian Hale let me go.

"Elise Hart, do you think I don't care that our son is dead?"

"But if you make a scene and everyone finds out, how is Cora Hale supposed to survive in our circle? How does our Family save face?!"

I wiped the cold tears from my cheeks. "Does any of that matter more than a human life?"

I looked around frantically, trying to find the child.

But there was nothing. I scoured every inch of the backyard, but the tiny body was nowhere to be seen.

Until my eyes landed on the humming industrial trash compactor outside the estate's main kitchen.

Vivian Hale followed my gaze and her face dropped.

She rushed to block my path, spreading her arms. "What are you doing? It's filthy over there!"

I shoved her hard out of my way and sprinted to the compactor.

The metal hatch was half-open, reeking of garbage.

Among the rotting vegetables and leftover food, I clearly saw the corner of that familiar baby blanket.

My blood turned to ice.

"Are you even human?!" I pointed at the machine and let out an agonizing scream. "That's a baby!"

Vivian Hale caught her balance and adjusted her diamond necklace.

She didn't look ashamed. Instead, she lifted her chin with arrogant pride.

"It's just a worthless life!" she sneered proudly. "I'm fixing a problem for the family! If the guests see a dead body, our reputation is ruined. Crushing it in that machine is the cleanest way to handle it!"

"You absolute viper!" I glared at her, my teeth grinding together.

Cora Hale hid behind Vivian Hale, poking her head out to make a face at me. "Stop screaming! You just want to use your dead baby to get sympathy and steal the family's money! "

My heart bled. I whipped my head to Adrian Hale, staring him down. "Get the baby out! Now!"

Adrian Hale glanced at the stinking compactor with utter disgust. He took a step back, afraid of dirtying his expensive leather shoes.

"Enough, Elise Hart," he said casually. "Dead is dead. Tomorrow I'll order that yacht you liked. Consider it compensation. Are we good?"

A yacht.

A human life was only worth a yacht to him.

The sheer toxicity of this family drained all my strength.

I only had one thought left in my mind. I needed to know who this baby was.

"Just get the baby out. We'll... we'll give him a proper burial."

Adrian Hale took a deep breath, resigning himself to operate the machine.

But Vivian Hale stepped in front of him, eyeing me with deep suspicion. "Adrian Hale, your wife is playing you. The second you pull that body out, she's going to run to her father with the evidence!"

Cora Hale tugged at his jacket. "Uncle Adrian, I don't want to get in trouble... I have a school dance tomorrow."

Adrian Hale dropped the operating tool. "The kid is dead, Elise Hart. Stop making a fuss over him."

I closed my eyes, laughing bitterly.

"Fine. You better not regret this."

With that, I stumbled toward the estate's exit.

"Going somewhere?" Vivian Hale grabbed my wrist. "You're not leaving until that compactor finishes the job! We can't have you barking out on the streets!"

By then, the baby's body would be crushed to a pulp. There would be no evidence left to prove he was deliberately drowned.

"Tie her up!" the Eleanor coldly ordered the maids.

Rough hemp rope was tightly bound around my wrists.

They pushed and shoved me, dragging me forcefully toward the underground wine cellar.

I fought back desperately, throwing a pleading look at Adrian Hale.

But he just looked away in annoyance. "A few days locked up will help you cool off."

The wine cellar was dark and freezing. I was tied securely to a heavy chair.

While the adults were outside plotting, Cora Hale slipped into the cellar.

Slap!

She struck me hard across the face.

"That's for hitting me!" She stuck her tongue out, her face twisted in pure malice.

Then, she raised her expensive little leather shoe and kicked me viciously in the stomach.

Right where my C-section scar hadn't fully healed.

A tearing, blinding agony ripped through me. I doubled over in pain. A cold sweat broke out all over my body.

Adrian Hale walked into the doorway just in time to see it.

He didn't stop her. He just shrugged it off. "How much power can a kid have anyway? You scared her earlier, let her vent."

Enabled by Adrian Hale, Cora Hale grew even bolder.

She pointed a finger in my face and screeched, "Your bastard son deserved to die! He deserves to be ground into trash!"