Robert Schmidt's company is on the verge of bankruptcy. He decides to get a divorce from me in order to not drag me down.

I refuse to divorce him. Since then, I work during daytime and take on part-time jobs at night just so I can help Robert tide over the financial crisis. Heck, I even work eight jobs per day.

But when I head over to Robert's company to seek him out with the money that I've painstakingly gathered, I accidentally overhear his conversation with his assistant, Ellie Gordon.

"Robert, when are you going to divorce that hag? I can't wait any longer!"

"I didn't know she'd be this hard to shake off! I already lied to her about my bankruptcy, and yet she still refused to divorce me!"

Only then do I find out that Robert isn't bankrupt at all. He's just pretending to be bankrupt so that he can divorce me and give Ellie a proper title by his side.

I end up dying from an aneurysm that gets triggered from my overwhelming fury.

After my death, Robert has the gall to use the money I've worked so hard in earning on buying Ellie jewelry and a house. Later on, they have a whirlwind marriage and live happily ever after.

As for me, I don't even get laid to rest in a proper graveyard. My corpse is left rotting somewhere unknown.

When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Robert pretends to be bankrupt.

This time, I sign the divorce agreement without hesitation. On top of that, I also apply for a patent before reporting Robert's company for infringing my copyright on the products.

Since he likes pretending to be bankrupt that much, I might as well make his wish come true!

"Melanie, the company's been struggling lately. At this rate, we might go bankrupt."

In the office, my husband, Robert Schmidt, handed me the financial statements. His face was a picture of misery.

"Let's get a divorce, Melanie. As the legal representative, I should take the fall. I can't let you go down with the ship."

With that, he pulled a pre-prepared divorce agreement from his drawer and slid it across the desk.

He sounded incredibly sincere and looked entirely heartbroken. I should have felt touched.

Instead, I clenched my fists, a cold dread washing over me.

What Robert didn't know was that I had been reborn.

In my last life, when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, he offered a divorce to avoid dragging me down.

I refused. Desperate to help him weather the storm, I worked during the day and took side jobs at night, juggling eight jobs a day.

To save every penny, I survived on stale bread and water. I fainted from low blood sugar so often that I became a regular at the hospital.

But when I finally scraped together enough money and went to surprise Robert at the office, I overheard him talking to his assistant, Ellie Gordon.

That was how I learned the company was never in trouble—he had faked it just to divorce me and give Ellie a proper status.

Shattered and exhausted, I died of heartbreak.

After I was gone, Robert used my hard-earned money to buy Ellie jewelry and a mansion. They had a whirlwind wedding and lived happily ever after.

Meanwhile, I didn't even get a proper burial.

Perhaps out of pity, the universe granted me a second chance.

Now, looking at Robert's staged devotion, I just felt sick.

Seeing me frozen, he assumed I didn't agree and dialed up the affection. "Melanie, I know it hurts to part ways, but I'm doing this for your own good. Don't worry. It's just on paper. The moment the company stabilizes, we'll remarry right away—"

"Okay," I cut in softly before he could finish. "I agree to the divorce."

Before Robert could react, I pulled the papers toward me and signed my name without a second thought.

Honestly, he didn't even need to ask. I was already planning to divorce him. I didn't want to make the same mistake twice.

Robert stared at me, blindsided by how quickly his usually doting wife had agreed. "Melanie, you—"

He was about to say something when Ellie cried out in pain from outside the door.

He immediately bolted from his chair and rushed out to check on her.

Apparently, Ellie had gotten a paper cut while sorting some files.

It was nothing more than a tiny scratch, yet Robert looked devastated over it. "Ellie, are you okay? I'm taking you to the hospital right now!"

With that, he grabbed Ellie by the hand and hurried out.

Watching his frantic retreat, I found the whole thing utterly pathetic. In all our years together, he had never treated me like that.

Back when I had a 104-degree fever, I had to drag myself to the hospital alone. Yet when Ellie had a paper cut, Robert looked as if his world were crumbling.

The affection radiating between them was practically blinding.

I had been so blind in my last life. It was staring me right in the face, yet I let them play me for a fool until it killed me.

Once they were gone, I stepped out of the office.

Immediately, my coworkers all looked at me like I was some kind of joke as the snide remarks began.

"Look at Melanie. Guess Robert chewed her out again."

"Seriously, she needs to stop throwing herself at Mr. Schmidt. Talk about zero self-awareness. How can she even compare to Ms. Gordon?"

"Exactly! Ms. Gordon and Mr. Schmidt are the real couple here. Melanie is just a parasite. Keep clinging like that, and she'll end up with absolutely nothing."

The laughter echoed down the hallway.

This wasn't the first time they had mocked me like this.

Robert and I had been married for seven years, but he refused to take our relationship public, claiming he wanted to avoid workplace gossip.

To keep up appearances, we never commuted together, and he treated me with harsh severity during office hours.

Naturally, the staff assumed I was on his bad side, so they constantly bullied me to score points with him.

Robert had watched it all happen with cold indifference. He even told me to look at the bigger picture and stop causing trouble.

In my last life, I swallowed my pride just to make things easier on him.

But I wasn't going to be anyone's doormat this time around.

I let out a chuckle and fired right back. "You guys can barely hit your KPI. Where do you get off judging me? Maybe focus on keeping your jobs before worrying about mine."

Leaving them red-faced and sputtering, I turned on my heel and walked back to my desk.

The moment I sat down, my phone rang. It was Robert, his voice clipped and cold. "Melanie, Ellie hurt her hand and needs to rest. She shouldn't be overexerting herself. You'll be taking over the rest of her workload today."

Then, Ellie's voice piped up in the background, thick with faux reluctance. "Robert, is that really okay? I'd hate to be a burden to Melanie."

Robert scoffed. "What's wrong with it? Coworkers are supposed to help each other out. Besides, you're giving her a learning opportunity. She should be thanking you."

Before I could refuse, he hung up and sent over a proposal Ellie had only written the title for.

This was exactly how it went in my last life. I did all the grunt work and took all the blame when things went sideways, while Ellie walked away with all the credit and the bonuses.

This time around, they weren't making a sucker out of me again.

Still, I wasn't about to let Ellie off that easily.

I accepted the file, did a quick copy-paste job from a random website, and shot the completed proposal right back to Robert.

With that out of the way, I pulled out my phone and messaged a contact. "Hello, I'd like to file a patent application."

The agent responded almost instantly.

In all fairness, the company's rapid growth was entirely due to the patents I held.

After I died, Robert used my patents to climb to the very top.

This time, I was going to lock down those rights first. Once the patents were secured in my name, every single product his company manufactured would be a direct infringement.

Since Robert liked to pretend he was broke, I'd make it a reality.

After sending the message, I was just about to rest when a few coworkers marched over, dumped a stack of unfinished work onto my desk, and spoke as if it were my civic duty.

"Melanie, write up this proposal for me."

"Melanie, go print these files."

Someone else ordered me to go downstairs and grab him a cup of coffee.

Because Robert treated me like garbage, they had all learned to follow his lead.

When I didn't immediately jump to it, one colleague whispered, "Melanie seemed pretty pissed earlier. Do you think she'll actually help us?"

Another scoffed. "What are you worried about? She's all talk. You know what she's like."

In my last life, I had complained plenty of times about them dumping their workloads on me. But every time, Robert told me to be the bigger person, and every time, I brainwashed myself into accepting it.

After all, it was my company too. I didn't want to watch the business I had poured years of sweat into go down the drain.

But over time, they realized I never bit back. Backed by Robert, they handled me however they pleased.

Did they really think I was a pushover?

I let out a cold laugh and swept the files straight into the trash can. "Are you all paralyzed? If your limbs work perfectly fine, do your own damn work. If you can't handle basic tasks, hand in your resignation. And from now on, stop leaving your garbage on my desk."

The office went dead silent. Everyone stared at me like they were seeing a ghost.

As the tension hung heavy in the air, Robert came back with Ellie clinging to his arm.

Before anyone could say a word, he slammed his phone onto my desk and asked coldly, "Melanie Reid, what the hell is this junk? Ellie just got ripped apart by the shareholders because of you!"

I glanced down at the screen. A group chat was open.

Robert had shared Ellie's proposal.

Thanks to my track record of always delivering, he trusted me so much that he sent it out without even reviewing it. He also went on and on praising Ellie in the group chat and took the chance to suggest promoting her.

Instead, the shareholders had absolutely roasted him.

"You want to promote her over a piece of absolute garbage like this? Are you messing with us, Mr. Schmidt?"

Only then did Robert realize something was wrong. He tried to delete the proposal, but the time limit had passed.

Ellie's eyes brimmed with tears. She pointed a finger at me while sobbing. "Melanie, if you didn't want to help, you could have just said so. There was no need to stab me in the back like this.

"Robert, I'll just do it myself next time. I don't care if it ruins my hand. Anything is better than being backstabbed by Melanie."

Robert slammed his hand on the desk. "Melanie, you've gone too far! Apologize to Ellie right now!"

I didn't even bother looking up. "Why should I?"

His temper flared. "You promised to handle Ellie's work, but you deliberately sabotaged her instead. You don't think you owe her an apology?"

I scoffed and shot right back. "First of all, I never promised anything. You forced that file on me. Second, even if I did agree to help her, I never said I'd do a good job. So how exactly did I break my word?"

Robert's and Ellie's faces turned ashen. They wanted to argue, but they couldn't find a single flaw in my logic.

Ellie squeezed out two pathetic tears, whimpering. "Melanie, I had no idea you hated me this much. If there's no room for me here, I'll just resign!"

She made a dramatic show of turning to leave, but Robert caught her by the arm.

The rest of the office rushed to chime in, seizing the opportunity to throw me under the bus for my behavior earlier.