Chapter 4

When I regained consciousness, I found myself not in the hospital.

But in… Anya’s house, where she and I lived in my previous life?

I immediately struggled to get up and leave.

Anya saw I was awake, her face filled with relief.

She quickly pulled me back, her voice earnest. “Julian, please don’t go back, okay? I won’t hurt you like I did in our previous life. Can you please stay?”

Seeing my photos covering the bedroom walls, a chill ran down my spine. “Anya, I refuse.”

After my rebirth, I hadn’t changed my assigned targets, so I should have had no more dealings with Anya.

But she showed up at my door in the second year of my rebirth, offering the Hayes Group as a betrothal gift to marry me.

At that moment, I knew Anya, like me, had also been reborn.

Anya desperately grabbed my arm. “I know you don’t trust me now, and you’ve refused me many times, but it’s okay, I’ll slowly prove myself to you!”

Mid-struggle, her bedroom door suddenly crashed open.

Eleanor was stunned when she saw me. “Julian, why are you here?”

Before I could even process how they found Anya’s house, Vivian angrily yelled at Anya, “Anya! Where did you take Liam?!”

My blood froze instantly. How did *they* know Anya?

That absurd thought, like a lightning bolt, struck my mind again.

Had they all been reborn too?

Just as I wanted to press for answers, Liam burst into the bedroom, covered in blood. “Eleanor! Master tried to kill me! He wants me to pay him back with my life!”

I watched Liam’s hysterical cries, utterly at a loss for words. “I have no idea why he’s here. I…”

Eleanor didn’t listen to my explanation. Her eyes blazed with furious anger.

Anya tried to protect me but was pinned to the ground and brutally beaten by Vivian and Chloe.

Eleanor dragged me home like a sack of potatoes, going straight to the top floor of the villa.

My body scraped against the ground the entire way, the pain making me almost pass out.

Eleanor’s voice was devoid of warmth. “Julian! You will pay the price for what you’ve done!”

She personally tied the rope around my wrists. I cried out, “No! Eleanor! Don’t do this to me!”

“Let go!”

With that command, my back, pressed against the cold marble exterior wall, dropped sharply.

The rope rubbed my wrists raw and bloody.

A biting wind whipped past my ears. The extreme fear made it impossible to keep my balance, and my body swayed even more violently.

Eleanor put her arm around Liam, looking down at me from above. “Do you know you’re wrong now?”

Vivian and Chloe’s cold gazes were like they were looking at a complete stranger.

I screamed, tears pouring uncontrollably.

Humiliated, I bit down on my lower lip. Crimson blood seeped from my bitten mouth, and my heart throbbed with a dull ache.

Why, why were Eleanor and the others doing this to me?

Even if they no longer loved me, no longer cared about me, they shouldn't be so cruel!

After what felt like an eternity, Eleanor finally untied me and dropped me to the ground.

I crawled back to my room, curled up on the floor, and cried silently.

After a long silence, I finally made up my mind.

I dialed Alexandra, the wild card heiress from the city's most powerful circles. “Marry me. The Hayes Group will be yours. And, I want to see the Hayes and Green families completely ruined!”

Just as I hung up, Eleanor kicked open my door, raging. “What did Liam ever do to you? Why do you want to kick him out?”

Vivian and Chloe chimed in from the side. “Do you have any idea how much effort Liam put into this job?!”

“You already have so much, why can’t you stand to see Liam doing well?!”

Their condemning tone was like a harsh slap across my face.

The system’s warning of rapidly dropping life points echoed in my brain, and I violently coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.

The warm blood splattered on Eleanor, Vivian, and Chloe’s faces.

All three of them instantly blanched.

Enduring the searing pain in my chest, I suddenly wanted to know the question that had always puzzled me.

“Did you three also get reborn? But why, after being reborn, do you no longer care about me?”

Their pupils constricted slightly, and their breathing grew heavy.

Eleanor, in particular, avoided my gaze, her voice hoarse. “What rebirth? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”