"You're right. Annoying people deserve to be beaten up," I said.

"Damn right—Ah, what are you doing! You actually dared hit me?"

Gordon didn't get to finish speaking before I kicked him in the abdomen.

Letting out a scoff, I began raining punches on him, each blow filled with as much force as I could muster.

His screams were like music to my ears.

Marissa assumed that if I were to marry Gordon in this life, then I would suffer the same abusive fate she had in her past life.

However, little did she know, from the moment I realized our parents didn't love me, I had already begun making preparations.

After learning that they intended to marry me off to an abusive man like Gordon, I started taking self-defence lessons. I spent two hours every day practicing, all to prepare myself for today—to ensure I wasn't the one on the floor screaming in pain.

"Ah! S-Stop hitting me! Please, have mercy! Someone save me!"

Gordon was completely overwhelmed and unable to fight back.

I loomed over him with a cold expression. "And here I wondered just how formidable you were. Turns out, you're nothing but a coward who only knows how to bully women weaker than you."

"Yelena, please stop hitting me! I know I was wrong! I won't dare to bully you again!" he yelled desperately.

I threw another punch, and just as his entire body trembled in fear, I stopped.

"If you ever dare piss me off again, I'll beat you until you learn your lesson. You hear me?"

"Yes, I hear you!" He nodded frantically, his eyes wide with fear.

Taking in how bruised and swollen his face was, I finally turned to leave, satisfied.

…

That night, Marissa purposely called to taunt me, her voice filled with excitement and arrogance.

"Hey, Yelena, have you been beaten up so badly that all you can do now is hide in a corner and cry? You know, I'm marrying Mr. Lorne very soon, and once that happens, you and I will be in completely different worlds. You'll forever be that worthless bitch who can't measure up to even a hair on my head."

I couldn't stop a puff of laughter from escaping before I ended the call.

In truth, our parents didn't like me when I was young, but they didn't actually hate me that much either. It was Marissa who kept sowing the seeds of discord and driving a wedge between us.

She would deliberately break something valuable, then lie to our parents that I had done it. Besides that, she would spread false rumors about me, which resulted in all our relatives and neighbors thinking that I was a problem child. When I received better grades than she did at school, she accused me of plagiarizing, turning me into the target of bullying.

To top it all off, she would often put on this regretful expression while saying to our parents, "Mom, you have no idea how much I prayed it was a younger brother you were pregnant with. Who would've thought it would turn out to be a girl?

"Do you think Yelena is some sort of jinx or curse? Why else would you be unable to get pregnant again after having her?"

Eventually, Dad and Mom began to treat me like I was their enemy. To them, I was their past sins coming back to haunt them, and I was the reason the Lipton name would end with me.

No matter how much I protested, it was pointless. I struggled, I pleaded with them, I lost control. I was their daughter, and I craved their parental love. Even just a smidgen would have been enough.

Yet, many instances over the years slowly made it clear to me—there really were parents who didn't love their child.

Once I accepted that I wasn't loved, I no longer obsessed over the matter, even becoming numb to everything. Strangely enough, the times I was hurt decreased after that as well.

In any case, Marissa thought that her fate would be changed now that she had snagged Xander for herself, that she would be able to grind me beneath her heel.

I bet she never would've expected that he was the gift I had carefully prepared for her in our past lives.

…

I moved out of Gordon's house, and he was too scared to say a thing about it.

As for Marissa, she constantly flaunted Xander's wealth on her social media. Occasionally, she would upload short text posts to gush about how loving they were and how well Xander treated her.

However, whenever anyone asked why Xander never appeared in any of the photos, she would claim that he didn't like it.

I would laugh at her reply, as I doubted that it was the truth.

One day, Mom called me out of the blue, which surprised me. She said that Xander was coming over to the Lipton residence to discuss marriage, so she wanted me there with Gordon.

When Gordon and I arrived at the Lipton residence, Xander was lounging on the couch. His eyes immediately snapped to me when I entered, an inscrutable look in them.