Chapter 3

At last, peace and quiet descended. Summer bustled around, quickly arranging my baby's birth certificate and household registration.

As the mother, I was able to handle all the paperwork myself. The name and other details were entirely up to me. Even the ID bracelet on the baby's wrist simply read "Son of Zoe Chen."

I thought of the poor woman whose body I now inhabited - the original Zoe who had suffered so much. In her memory, I named the baby Chen An, meaning "peace." I knew that was likely her greatest wish for her child.

Summer handed me the freshly printed documents. "There you go - just like you always wanted. A baby with no pesky husband attached! Even if we never make it back to our world, I promise I'll make sure that scumbag never treats you like his punching bag again."

Seeing I had gone quiet, she worried I might be upset. She produced another file with a flourish.

"Check this out - I've officially stripped Quinn and Megan of all inheritance rights. The entire Quinn empire belongs to you and the baby now. And that divorce settlement you squeezed out of that jerk? Just consider it pocket money."

"Even if we're stuck here forever, the three of us will live like queens," she declared confidently.

Hearing her words, I finally broke down sobbing.

Back in our world, I was an orphan with a congenital heart condition. My parents had abandoned me as a baby. Summer was the only one who befriended me in school, never treating me differently.

Now here we were in this strange book world, and once again it was Summer coming to my rescue.

Through my tears, I told her about the dream I'd had - how the original Zoe's spirit had spoken to me.

I sniffled, wiping my nose. "It's all my fault, Summer. I left some nasty comment on this stupid novel and shared it with you. That's how we both ended up transported into the story."

"It wasn't until I took over Zoe's body that I realized how much she suffered. Quinn is even more of a monster than I imagined."

"But Zoe's ghost told me that if I can make Quinn truly regret his actions, we'll inherit all her wealth in this world. And we might even be able to go back home."

Summer's eyes lit up at this news. "Really? That's amazing! I've been throwing money around like crazy, but it still doesn't feel real. Like I'm spending someone else's cash, you know?"

"And I really miss my parents," she admitted, her own eyes growing misty.

I squeezed her hand tightly. "Don't worry, I've read this whole book. After Zoe dies in the original story, Quinn finally realizes how good she was to him. He starts obsessively seeking out women who look like her to be his mistresses. It ruins his relationship with Megan too."

"Eventually he and Megan end up fighting over the inheritance. Oh, and get this - the real reason Quinn got together with Megan is because they had an affair while his brother was still alive. Quinn always thought Felix was his son."

My mind raced as I formulated a plan. "So I think the fastest way to trigger the plot is for me to fake my death with the baby. Then you can reveal the paternity test results to Quinn and watch him implode."

"Once Quinn truly regrets losing 'the woman who loved him most in the world,' we should be able to go home. God, I miss your mom's lotus root and pork rib soup so much."

Summer's eyes sparkled with excitement at my scheme. Just then, her phone pinged with a new message.

It was a wedding invitation from Quinn. The ink on our divorce papers was barely dry, but he and Megan were already rushing to the altar.

A sharp pain lanced through my chest again. The original Zoe's lingering emotions, no doubt.

Quinn had refused to hold a wedding when he married Zoe, claiming he disliked flashy events. In reality, he had been sulking because the woman he truly loved - Megan - had just married his older brother.

As a result, though Quinn and Zoe were married for five years, the outside world never knew of Zoe's existence as the Quinn family's daughter-in-law.

I stared at the photo of Quinn beaming as he embraced a white-gowned Megan, my mind made up.

After a long moment, I looked up at Summer with steely determination. "Their wedding is in a week. That's when I'll stage my 'suicide' by jumping into the sea with the baby."

"Can you get my travel documents in order? We'll flee the country after I fake my death."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to record all of that scumbag's reactions for you," Summer promised with a wicked grin.

She nodded solemnly. Over the next few days, she worked tirelessly to prepare for my staged demise.