When I opened my eyes once more, Flora was holding me tightly. I had secretly loved her for a decade. Her warm lips kissed my neck, telling me not to leave.

This time, I pushed her away and told the butler to send her to her first love's home. Her first love was Sean Graham.

In my last life, Flora drank so much that she was drunk during the celebration organized for me to celebrate me for getting an overseas college's offer letter.

After the celebration, I didn't refuse her when she wanted me to stay, and that wild night came to pass.

The next morning, when Sean saw me coming out of Flora's bedroom, he pretended to be amiable and said he would make our wish come true despite the darkness in his eyes.

Then, he disappeared for about one month. In the end, we found a blood-stained necktie in the mountains and the skeletal remains that had been feasted on by wild animals.

Flora didn't sleep for an entire night as she held Sean's necktie in her hand.

After that, it was like the discovery hadn't affected her at all, as she still passionately planned for my birthday trip.

But that very night during the trip, I was abducted.

I begged the kidnappers to beg Flora to pay the ransom, but I heard her personally give the orders.

"Don't let him die too easily. He's just some scum of the earth. Do whatever you want with him. When you're done, dump him in the Northern Barrens and clean things up. He owes Sean this much!"

Flora, I'm done playing by your rules this time around.

"Vincent, don't leave me... You're all I have left!" When I opened my eyes again, I saw Flora Turner throw her arms around my neck, trying to kiss me as she stood on her tiptoes.

In my last life, I had been hopelessly in love with her and had simply let everything spiral out of control. This time, I grabbed the glass of water on the bedside table and splashed it straight into Flora's face.

She froze for a moment. Her eyes seemed clear for a moment, but then, they were soon once again consumed by desire and alcohol. I pressed the call bell and walked out the door without hesitation. "I'll make the right choice this time," I mumbled to myself.

The butler, Mr. Thompson, appeared before me almost at once. He glanced at the half-open door and asked carefully, "Master Vincent, should I..."

"Send her to Sean Graham's place," I said.

The butler was stunned for a moment. He was about to speak, but when he met my cold eyes, he swallowed his words and hurried off to do as he was told.

Ten minutes later, Sean sent me a text, his tone full of provocation and accusation. [Vincent, what did you do to Flora?]

I typed out a calm reply. [It's your birthday today, Mr. Graham. I'm simply helping you make your wish come true and sending a gift your way.]

When the screen went dark, I could see the reflection of my face, and a bitter smile tugged at my lips.

Flora and I were siblings in name only, and we shared neither mother nor father. My mother, Miranda Shaw, was a well-known businesswoman. She had been widowed for many years before she fell in love with Flora's father, Jack Turner.

That was how Flora Turner became my stepsister.

In my previous life, I had fallen deeply in love with Flora. That love and desire for years had turned into a wild night, and I was glad to be what she needed.

The next day, her lover, Sean, walked in on us.

He forced himself to swallow the humiliation and said he would recognize us. Later, he ran away from home and disappeared for a whole month. The police eventually found a bloodstained tie at the edge of a cliff and a pile of bones at the bottom.

Flora did not show any crack in her composure. She even turned around and comforted me. Not only that, she threw herself into planning my birthday, saying she wanted to give me a memory I would never forget.

On the day of the trip, I was kidnapped. I heard her cold laugh as she gave the kidnappers their orders. "Don't let him die too easily. He's just some scum of the earth. Do whatever you want with him. When you're done, dump him in the Northern Barrens and clean things up. He owes Sean this much!"

I sobbed and begged her. "You were the one who came to me first, Flora! How could you just let me die now?!"

Flora smiled cruelly. "You're the one who made the first move. Ever since Sean left me, I wished you would die every single day! You still don't know about this, do you? When your loving mother heard you were trafficked across to the Northern Barrens, a vein in her brain popped, and it started bleeding! She's still in the ICU right now! No one in this world is coming to save you!"

My heart went cold.

I went through every humiliation one could imagine in the Northern Barrens. They broke all ten of my fingers and shattered the bones in my legs.

In the end, I died because of all their torture.

Everything was thanks to Flora.

I died with my eyes wide open, filled with nothing but hate!

Now that I had regressed and was given another lease in life, I would never make the same mistake again!

-

The next morning, my mother was seated at the table reading financial reports as she spoke to me in a soft, gentle voice. My stepfather, Jack, was directing the servants as they set out breakfast.

Suddenly, Flora burst into the house with Sean in tow. She shot me an unreadable look, then lifted Sean's hand high and announced in a serious tone, "Mom, Dad, I'm going to marry Sean."

Her clothes were a mess.

Meanwhile, Sean held his head high, a hint of smugness and pride on his face, with his neck covered in love bites. Anyone could tell what the two of them had been doing all night.

Jack was overjoyed, but my mother stayed calm. Instead, she simply told Mr. Thompson to add one more place at the table. Not long after, she excused herself, saying there was an urgent matter at the company, and left early.

At the table, Jack treated Sean as if he were family already, as he kept asking Sean questions.

All of a sudden, Flora looked over at me, displeased. "Vincent, where's your voice? You won't even say hello to Sean? Aren't you happy with him?"

My expression was unchanged. "You've got it all wrong, Flora. I'm perfectly happy with your pick for my future brother-in-law."

When Flora heard the words "brother-in-law", her eyebrow twitched.

She was about to say something else when Sean tugged her sleeve. "Vincent and I had some misunderstanding before this, so it's normal for him to be a little cold toward me. We'll get along eventually."

Flora shot me a look when she heard that, her tone pointed. "He'd better! If he's unhappy with you, I'll stop calling him my brother, too."

Jack quickly stopped her and said, "Stop saying such nonsense..."

Finally, my appetite was gone as I put down my fork and knife.

In my previous life, I had been physically abused, and I had been starved to the point of becoming a bag of bones. Now that I finally had a warm meal in front of me, I could not help but eat a little more. If I had known this would happen, I would have gone to the company with my mother earlier.

"I'm full. Enjoy," I said.

I did not bother getting involved with Flora as I stood and walked away.

Half an hour later, I was about to head to my mother's company when the car door suddenly opened again. Flora leaned down and squeezed into the back seat, her eyes dark. "You're getting a little too daring, Vincent. You won't even listen to me anymore."

She held my wrist with a mocking smile on her lips. "You have always followed after me all the time and won't stop talking. Why didn't you say a single word at the table just now? What, are you jealous?"

Her scent and the heat of her skin dragged my mind back to that dark little room in my last life, where I could only cry and struggle under the abuse until I finally went numb.

I shook her off and forced down the upset feeling in my stomach.

After a pause, I calmly said. "You've got it all wrong. You and Sean are perfect for each other."

Flora let out a cold snort.

She lifted my sleeve, exposing the scar on my wrist. "Is that so? Funny. I remember you reading the love letter I wrote to Sean, then stumbling down the stairs in a daze and leaving this scar. I know your secret, Vincent. You're in love with me."

Hearing that, I was a little dazed.

She was right. I had been in love with her.

When Jack married my mother, I was still a boy, and the company had just started. My mother was obsessed with expanding the business, and Jack had been busy with the social events. Flora had practically raised me.

At first, she had had no patience with me. "Crying again? All you do is cry! Are you really a boy?"

But she was the one who remembered everything, like the limited-edition models in my drawers, the new game consoles, and the birthday surprises.

She had said, "No matter what, you're still my little brother. You need to have all the fun and delicious things that the other kids have!"

And then, I had reached my teenage years. I grew sensitive, and my heart started to stir, but Flora still took me with her.

Her friends would tease her and say, "You're taking Vincent with you everywhere and treating him so nicely… Are you raising your future husband?"

Flora would lightly punch them. "Get lost. He's my brother!"

But when a girl in my class gave me a love letter, Flora tore it to shreds right in front of me, then called the girl out and gave her a cold warning. She then declared, "Vincent is mine forever. No one else is allowed to even think about him!"

A teenage boy's feelings took root like a seed, growing quietly into a towering tree.

How could I not fall for her?

Yet in my previous life, that secret love had brought me nothing but suffering.

Only then did I understand that Flora was never a good match for me.

Seeing that I did not argue back, Flora's expression turned even more certain. She let go of me and spoke in a righteous tone, "Give it up, Vincent. I only see you as a brother. If something had truly happened between us yesterday… Well, I would have taken responsibility, but I would never fall in love with you. All I would feel is disgust!"

My chest tightened as I watched Flora walk away. Then, I straightened my outfit and went to my mother's company.

That afternoon, I had plans with a few classmates to go back to my previous school and visit our teacher.

While we were talking, I happened to scroll past a new post from Sean on his social media. "Walking around campus with my love again feels like I'm being given a second chance to clear my regrets for not being with her during senior high."

When I saw the familiar background, my heart skipped a beat, and I left in a hurry.

Flora and I had a secret base on the second floor of the East Building, a private storeroom filled with my memories. When I arrived, the place was a wreck. The model I had used to win a competition was smashed on the floor, and its pieces were scattered on the floor. My collection of game cartridges had been dumped out and tossed everywhere. My diary even had marks from someone trying to force it open. If it wasn't locked, I'd have no more secrets left by now.

Anger rushed through me.

Startled by the look in my eyes, Sean shrank back behind Flora and said in a small voice, "Flora, I told you we shouldn't have come. See? Vincent's mad now. Maybe I should apologize to him..."

"It's fine."

Flora glared at me. "Vincent, half of this storeroom is mine. I only brought Sean here to have a look. Stop glaring at him like that."

I took in a long breath and answered coldly without lifting my head, "Fine."

Flora frowned. "What kind of atti..."

"Flora." I cut her off before saying gently, "I'm not angry. It's your storage room as well. It is normal for you to bring your fiancé to see it. Why would I be mad about it?"

I tossed the broken model pieces, the scattered game cartridges, and the diary into the trash. As Flora looked at me, startled, I said calmly, "I won't get in the way of your date. Goodbye."

I was not sad.

Flora was the one who had bought me those cartridges.

The models were ruined, but I could always buy better ones.

The locked diary was filled with the thoughts of a teenage boy, yet the dazzling girl in those memories was no longer the same. All that love had turned into something absurd.

What was there left to cherish?

In the days that followed, Flora did not come to talk to me. She was busy showing off her love with Sean. All of our friends knew how deeply she loved him.

I ran into them more than once, being affectionate with each other at home, and Flora never said no to Sean.

She even managed to persuade Jack and my mother to set the wedding for two weeks later.

Sean was the love of her life, and she couldn't stand to see her man suffer even the slightest criticism or slight.

Sean even posted another update on his social media smugly. "Love at first sight is superior to years spent together."

But none of it could stir anything inside of me anymore.

I was going overseas.