She didn't even bother changing out of her nightgown before storming over and slapping me across the face.

“Rachel Dickerson! You lied to me! Logan wouldn't even touch me last night!”

“Even……even in a sexy nightgown, he couldn't be bothered to look at me!”

My adoptive parents clapped their hands over their five-year-old son's ears and snapped：

“Joy! Your brother is right here! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”

Joy had to be shaken to her core to come apart like this.

But since his condition still hadn't been exposed, I offered an excuse：

“Yesterday's wedding was exhausting. Logan was probably just tired.”

Joy slammed the table and shot back：

“Don't give me that! You told me yourself—the night of the premarital compatibility test, he was all over you!”

Her eyes raked over me with open disgust.

“Look at you. No figure, no face—you're a nobody. How could Logan want you and not me?”

An idea clicked into place, and I answered quickly：

“I think I know why. Were you too forward with him?”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“After that night, I figured out that Logan likes being in control. He doesn't like it when the woman takes the lead.”

Joy's expression softened immediately. She grabbed my hand and sat down beside me.

“There's my sweet sister. Now tell me everything that happened between you two that night.”

She grilled me for a full hour before she was willing to leave.

On her way out, she told my adoptive parents to keep a close eye on me.

Clearly, until she managed to get Logan into bed, she wasn't going to let me out of her sight.

From that point on, the Allens kept me under house arrest.

One day, passing by my adoptive parents' bedroom, I overheard them discussing plans to marry me off to Earl Matthews.

I stood frozen outside the door, shaking from head to toe.

I'd been given a second chance at life, and they were still determined to hand me over to that monster.

I decided to take a gamble and sent Dana a message.

It sank like a stone. I wasn't even sure the person on the other end was really him.

Two days later, Joy came home with a coy flush on her cheeks.

“Logan and I finally did it. It's just that……”

Relief loosened something in my chest, but the question followed immediately—Logan couldn't perform, so how had he pulled it off?

“He insisted on turning off every single light before he'd get close to me.”

“And the whole experience felt” uncomfortable.

I had a sinking suspicion—Logan must have relied on something other than himself.

“Everyone has their quirks. You should try to be more understanding of Logan.”

Suspicion flickered in her eyes.

“I was going to suggest something different, but then I remembered what you said about him not liking it when the woman takes charge.”

Watching her tiptoe around a man who couldn't even perform, all I felt was the urge to laugh.

Just then, my adoptive parents' phone rang.

After the call, their displeased gazes landed on me.

“Dana Stephens has been making big moves lately. He acquired several jewelry companies and is throwing a celebration banquet. The Allen family is invited.”

“And before CEO Stephens hung up, he specifically insisted that Rachel Dickerson be there.”

My heart leapt. Dana had seen my message, and this was his answer.

A second later, Joy slapped me again.

“You slut! Did you tell Dana Stephens you slept with him? Is that why he's looking out for you?”

“You're bringing shame on this entire family!”

“I'm calling him right now and telling him exactly what kind of woman you are! You didn't just sleep with him—you were messing around with my husband too!”

I pressed my hand to my stinging cheek and kept my voice steady：

“Calm down, Joy. If I'd told Dana about the premarital compatibility test, he'd be humiliated—furious. He'd never invite us anywhere.”

“But if you call him now and lay it all out yourself? You hand him a reason to cut the Allen family off for good.”

Her adoptive parents heard enough and turned to Joy.

“The Stephens family and ours are already on bad terms over the marriage alliance.”

“They're finally extending an olive branch……Joy, just let it go.”

Joy stopped mid-dial, seething.

“That little tramp is not marrying Dana Stephens! She doesn't deserve it!”

Ice spread through my chest. She couldn't stand to see anything good happen to me.

My adoptive parents didn't even lower their voices. They soothed Joy right in front of me.

“She won't. Didn't we agree to marry her off to Earl?”

“Don't worry. It's already in motion.”

Earl's name hit me like a knife to the throat. My voice came out cold.

“What gives you the right to decide who I marry?”

They looked at me as though the answer were obvious.

“We're your parents. You've freeloaded off this family for ten years!”

Joy beamed, watching me choke on it.

“The Matthews family is old money! A maid's bastard like you—marrying Earl would be the luck of three lifetimes!”

When I still refused to bend, my adoptive parents dropped their voices to something colder.

“Rachel. Your mother has been bedridden for ten years. Millions spent. She's bled the Allen family dry.”

“If you won't marry, we can't keep funding her treatment.”

I swallowed every word I wanted to throw back. No point fighting people like this when they hold all the cards.

The day of the banquet, Joy arrived with Logan on her arm.

Not a single heiress in the room spared Logan a second glance. Every pair of eyes drifted, soft and longing, toward Dana.

“A man like CEO Stephens—how is he still single?”

“Don't even start. Miss Allen turned him down for that scrawny little race-car driver. Truly stupid.”

“What was she thinking? CEO Stephens is young, accomplished, and outclasses the racer in every way!”

“Plus the racer looks so pretty it's almost feminine. Honestly, he looks gay……”

Joy was livid, but she couldn't make a scene in front of the whole room.

Logan, unbothered, fell straight into old habits, trading flirtatious looks with a pretty server.

Joy became more convinced than ever that I was behind all of it. She dug a bottle of milk out of her bag and held it out to me.

“Your stomach's always been weak, and you've had so much to drink tonight.”

“Have some milk—it'll help your stomach.”

The second I saw the label on that bottle, I was on my feet before I could think.

In my last life, she'd used the exact same excuse, made me drink it right there in front of everyone. Minutes later the room was spinning, heat crawling under my skin, and someone steered me to a private lounge where Earl was already inside. Joy had rounded up a crowd of elite sons and daughters to watch.

After that day I was ruined. The Matthews family despised me for it, looked the other way every time Earl beat me after the wedding, and muttered behind my back that I'd brought it on myself.

I hadn't expected Joy to move even faster this time around.

She already regretted marrying Logan, it seemed.

I pushed the milk away with a light smile.

“I'm fine, thanks.”

Joy's expression went flat. Then she tipped the bottle and splashed the milk straight onto me.

“Oh no, Rachel, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!”

The liquid had a strange, cloying sweetness to it, soaking through my clothes and into my skin.

Dizziness hit me almost instantly. Every alarm in my head went off at once.

She stood and caught my arm as if steadying me, her lips brushing my ear.

“You think not drinking it would save you? This is the Allen family's newest little knockout drug—absorbs right through the skin, and it hits hard.”

Just like my last life, she steered me toward the private lounge.

Joy returned to the banquet hall looking like she'd won the lottery.

Half an hour later, she let out a carefully rehearsed scream.

“What's wrong, Miss Allen?”

“My……my sister is in the private lounge with young Mr. Matthews……doing that!”

The words landed like a thunderclap in the middle of a quiet room.

People immediately moved toward the lounge. Joy made a show of blocking the way, but her flailing only herded more of them forward.

The whole walk there, she painted me as some kind of deviant.

Even as the lounge door swung open, she was still going.

“I failed her. I should have kept a closer eye on my sister.”

The crowd chimed in：“What do you expect? A housekeeper's brat was never fit for polite company.”

The door opened, and what was inside stopped everyone cold.

Joy's jaw nearly hit the floor. She stammered：

“How……how is it you two?!”