In this life, he could date whoever he wanted. I was done. I would focus on my research. Whatever existed between us was long gone.

But just as I returned home after a farewell drink with my girlfriends, I found my doorway swarmed with over a dozen people.

Michael stood right in front of my computer, coolly commanding his subordinates, “Delete everything.”

I watched in horror as my application form vanished into a blank screen. My heart seized, and I lunged forward like a madwoman.

“Michael! The deadline’s almost here! What are you doing?!”

But the bodyguards had been ready. They pinned me down at the doorway with ease.

Michael held up the small notebook where I’d written my password. His smile was icy, cruel.

My voice trembled, “Michael, I didn’t apply to Roosevelt. There are still three minutes left; please put it back. I won’t fight Emily for her place, I swear.”

“What a performance.”

He pinched my chin.

“You think I don’t know you threatened Emily to make her withdraw her Roosevelt application just to squeeze yourself in?”

“You came back just to change it again, didn’t you?”

I stared at him, wide-eyed. “What threat? I’ve never even met her!”

Michael ignored me. He pulled out his phone and dialed.

“Baby, I’ve erased her application. You can go ahead and apply to Roosevelt now.”

“Michael!”

Tears streamed down my face as I pleaded, “My application’s blank now! If you won’t let me go to Roosevelt, at least restore my original choice, the Illinois Institute of Technology! It wouldn’t affect your relationship!”

“Abigail.”

He forced my face up to meet his eyes, gaze unrelenting.

“When you’ve made a mistake, you pay for it. This life, the last one, you owe Emily.”

The alarm blared.

I screamed in despair. “No!!”

The deadline had passed.

And then came a soft voice from the door.

“Brother Michael?”

Emily rushed in, straight into his arms. “You really did all this for me… I’m so touched…”

The cold sharpness in Michael’s eyes instantly softened into something tender.

“Standing up for you… that’s what a partner should do.”

“This year, we’ll go to Roosevelt together. Once we graduate, I’ll marry you.”

Emily’s body tensed.

Michael sensed something was wrong. His brows furrowed as he looked at her.

“What’s wrong? Couldn’t submit the application?”

Emily bit her lip hard. “Actually… my score… wasn’t high enough for Roosevelt…”

Michael’s frown deepened.

“698 should be enough to try. Why not?”

Emily’s face turned even paler.

“Not 698… it’s… 268…”

“What did you say?”

Michael stared at her in disbelief.

“Didn’t you say your score was high, and you only gave up applying because Abigail threatened you?”

My eyes, still red, slowly lifted as I looked straight at him.

So, because of someone who never even stood a chance at Roosevelt, my entire future was destroyed?

“Brother Michael, I… I…”

Emily’s eyes turned red, and she dropped to her knees. Pointing at me, she cried out, “It wasn’t just the application! She threatened me before the exam, too! She said if I scored over 300, she’d have the hospital pull my grandpa’s oxygen tube!”

“You liar!”

I swung my hand across her cheek with a sharp slap.

“You only managed those scores because Michael fed you the answers! 268, that’s your real level! You couldn’t get in, so now you’re dragging me down with you?!”

Emily curled up on the floor, sobbing in fear.

Michael stormed over, grabbed me by the wrist, and slapped me hard across the face.

“Bitch!”

The bodyguards pinned me down at once as Michael slapped me across the face again and again, each strike searing hot against my skin.

“You already tore us apart once. Why the hell are you trying to come between us again in this life?! Abigail, you hurt her, and I’ll make you pay a thousand times over!”

The taste of blood filled my mouth.

I seized a brief opening and bit down on his hand, hard, until I tasted his blood, too.

“You’re insane!”

Michael frowned, yanking his hand back.

My hair fell over my eyes as I said coldly, “Who said I was trying to separate you two? If you love her so much, why not go to vocational school with her?”

Michael froze.

Emily instinctively turned to look at him, too.

But he said nothing.

I let out a cold laugh.

“See? I never stood in your way. Not once. Even in the last life, if you’d really had the guts, nothing could’ve pulled you apart. But no, you couldn’t let go of Roosevelt. You couldn’t give up your family's stock value. And you couldn’t bring yourself to blame your precious little lover. So you blamed someone else instead.”

I stared at him and sneered.

“Michael, you’re not a victim. You’re just a coward, a clown in his own tragedy.”

“Enough!”

Michael’s voice trembled as he grabbed Emily’s hand and turned to leave.

“You really are insane.”

The bodyguards trailed behind him, disappearing out the door.

I collapsed to the floor like discarded cloth, left behind without a trace of dignity.

A sudden notification lit up my computer screen.

It was a message from a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

[Student Davis, we were deeply impressed by the project files you submitted. We’ve decided to make an exception and admit you as a research member of our university. We look forward to your contributions to the nation’s scientific development.]

Attached is an official offer letter.

Tears streamed silently down my face.

In truth, the misplaced affection from my past life had never been my real regret.

What haunted me most was that I had been so close to breaking a critical technological barrier for my country, only to die on the delivery table because of Michael.

Michael was never my regret.

It was the dream that had been torn from my hands, the unfinished work, the halted research.

But this time, armed with everything I remembered from before, I had made the breakthrough.

At last, in this life, I could chase my dream again of serving my country through science.

In the days that followed, I threw myself into remote collaboration with the research team.

Once the technology was deployed, it would push the nation’s scientific advancement to an entirely new level.

For enterprises like the Hernandez family’s, rooted in old-money traditions and outdated industries, it would be a fatal blow.

The night before I was to report in, I quietly packed my bags.

But just as I was about to step out, more than a dozen people stormed in and dragged me away without warning.

My parents, beaming as if they’d won the lottery, couldn’t stop smiling.

“You really hit the jackpot this time,” they said cheerfully. “The Hernandez family agreed, college or not, the marriage will still go through.”

“For the next four years, you’ll stay at the Hernandez estate and learn how to be a proper Mrs. Hernandez. Once Michael graduates, he’ll return and make you his bride.”

I couldn’t breathe.

The Hernandez family was built on deep-rooted traditions, a world where women bowed morning and night, weren’t allowed to touch electronics, and had to obey strict rules, dutiful wives, submissive daughters-in-law, perfect mothers.

Any disobedience was met with punishment.

In my previous life, I had been spared.

Because they needed my expertise to keep their stock afloat, and because Michael shielded me, they hadn’t dared to enforce those suffocating customs.

But I had seen the fate of other women in that house, obedient dolls shackled by rules.

“I’m not going!”

I screamed and thrashed, only for a sharp slap to land across my face.

Mom’s brows pinched with disgust.

“Do you know how many girls dream of marrying into that family but never get the chance? You’ve already lost your advantage, and they’re still willing to take you. You should be grateful!”

“I…”

Before I could finish, a filthy rag was shoved into my mouth, cutting off my cries. They dragged me into a car like cargo.

When I came to, I was already locked inside the room the Hernandez family had prepared.

Outside the window, the sound of laughter drifted in, a celebration banquet.

They weren’t celebrating me. They were sending off Michael and Emily.

Michael had spent a fortune to buy Emily a spot at a private university near Roosevelt.

There was no academic burden on her shoulders, yet she would still walk away with a polished degree.

And me, the one who had once been promised as his future bride, was now nothing but an outsider.

I had fought, screamed, and begged, all to no avail. In the end, I could only shut my eyes and wait for it to pass.

When I opened them, it was Emily who walked in.

Draped in designer couture, wearing that familiar smirk of triumph, she hadn’t come to comfort me. She came to mock me.

But at that moment, she looked more like a savior than an enemy.

“Emily, let’s cooperate.”

She froze.

“You know as well as I do, by family arrangement, the one Michael is supposed to marry is me. Even if he showers you with love, the child I bear will still become the heir of the Hernandez family.”

Her face instantly paled.

“Let me go. From this moment on, we’ll walk separate paths. Without me, there’s no longer a reason for the family to object. He’ll marry you. And your child will inherit everything.”

She stood in silence, her expression unreadable. Then, with suspicion in her voice, she asked, “You really don’t want him anymore?”

“If I’m lying, may I never bear children?”

To her, that vow was cruel enough to be convincing.

She bit her lip, hesitated, then finally untied me.

“Fine. Come with me.”

She led me down a dim, silent corridor, each step cautious and slow.

“Take those stairs. The door at the bottom leads out. Once you're through, you're free.”

“Thank you,” I said softly, turning to leave.

But just as I stepped away, she suddenly seized my wrist.

“I thought about it again. I don’t believe you.”

My breath caught. “What, what do you mean?”

Her gaze sharpened into ice.

“If you’re dead, then I’ll believe you’re not here to steal him from me.”

Before I could react, she shoved me hard.

I screamed as I tumbled down the stairs, each impact shattering through my body.

The crash echoed like thunder.

From above, I heard Michael’s voice in panic.

“Emily? What are you doing?!”

Emily’s face turned ghostly pale. Then, as if flipping a switch, she screamed in a trembling voice.

“Sister! You said you wanted to go for a walk. Why would you throw yourself down the stairs like this?”

“If I’d known you'd try to frame me, I wouldn’t have brought you food!”

Michael rushed to the landing, eyes widening as he saw me bloodied and broken.

“Abigail?!”

But Emily had already flung herself into his arms, tears streaming down her face, her voice with trembling sorrow.

“Brother, I only brought her something to eat. I had no idea she’d planned this…”

His gaze faltered, shaken.

Then, with a cold edge, he called out again.

“Abigail…”

He tightened his hold around Emily and spat through gritted teeth, “You’re so cruel. How could I ever trust you to raise a proper heir?”

Emily froze.

Tears rolled down her cheeks again as she whispered, “Brother, I know my presence upset Sister. She even said if I didn’t leave you alone, she’d pull my grandfather’s oxygen tube…”

Her voice cracked, eyes brimming with pain.

“Brother Michael, I love you… but I can’t ignore my grandfather’s life.”

With that, she turned as if making a heart-wrenching decision.

“Emily!”

Michael panicked, grabbing her back into his arms, terrified of losing her.

But Emily cried and thrashed in his arms. “Let me go! Please let me go! I’ll step aside for you and Sister, just don’t hurt my family!”

“Guards!”

Michael’s eyes burned red with rage as he gave the order.

“Strip Abigail and hang her up for a beating!”

I spat out blood, staring at him in disbelief. “What… what did you just say?”

But Michael clutched Emily closer and said coldly, “As long as I destroy her womb, she’ll be forced to raise the child inside you. My parents only wanted her to be a wife and a mother anyway. They won’t object.”

“So, will you still leave me now?”

Emily sobbed a few more times, then suddenly collapsed into his arms, weeping.

“Michael! This is criminal! You…!”

My scream was silenced as someone gagged me.