Chapter 1

For seven years, I chased Ashton Foster, pouring everything my family had into him, only for him to abandon me at our engagement banquet.

In my past life, my family was destroyed, and I died a tragic death under his cold calculations.

Given a second chance at life, I tore up the engagement agreement in public, severed all business ties between our families, and personally cut every last tie to the Foster family.

Yet Ashton and his first love still refused to let me go, even sending my mother to the hospital with severe injuries.

But this time, everything he owes me, I will take back with interest!

Chloe Vance POV

I chased Ashton Foster for seven whole years.

I staked the Vance family's entire fortune as a gift just to finally earn today’s public engagement banquet.

The ceremony had barely begun.

Offstage, Natalie Scott suddenly clutched her chest and collapsed to the floor.

Without so much as a glance in my direction, Ashton rushed down the stage, scooped Natalie into his arms, and strode toward the exit.

Reaching the doors, he didn't even turn his head. In front of the city's media cameras, he dropped a cold command:

"Suspend the engagement ceremony for now. Natalie is unwell. With so many reporters here, explain things to my parents and the press for me."

The doors shut behind him, leaving me standing alone on the stage.

Camera flashes sliced across my face like a storm of sharp blades.

Below, the guests whispered amongst themselves, low murmurs and amused, mocking gazes spreading across the room:

"Mr. Foster ditched Chloe Vance for his first love again..."

"So what if she chased him for seven years? She still can't compete with a single cough from an outsider."

"Just watch. Chloe Vance will definitely smooth things over for Mr. Foster with red-rimmed eyes, just like always."

Everyone was waiting for me to yield.

Because over the past seven years, I truly had loved him without an ounce of dignity.

Ashton had a weak stomach, so at two in the morning, I would cook warm meals and brave heavy blizzards to deliver them downstairs to his office, my hands freezing red.

When the Foster family's first five-star hotel was built, I pulled all-nighters for three months drawing the blueprints, surrendering full design credit to Foster Group.

When Natalie Scott showed up two years ago, Ashton began routinely skipping our dates.

Every time, he would say, "Natalie has congenital heart disease and can't handle stress. You've always been sensible, so don't make a fuss with her."

I yielded for seven years.

Until this very day in my past life.

Ashton walked out on our engagement in public.

That afternoon, the Vance Hotel's stock plummeted to its daily limit, and partners pulled their investments en masse.

Under the guise of saving the Vance family, Ashton forced my mother to sign a share transfer agreement.

Afterward, he locked me in a windowless room to force me to surrender control.

On her way to save me, Mother died instantly in a car crash.

And I froze to death in that suite, clutching nothing but a single keycard when I died.

Before I took my last breath, Natalie came to see me, sneering, "Ashton was using you from the very beginning. You could never beat me."

Reborn in this life, listening to the murmurs below and staring at the empty corridor past the doors, the last trace of warmth in my heart vanished.

I didn't make excuses for him.

Under the watchful eyes of every reporter in the hall,

I stepped forward and reached for the engagement agreement on the table.

Right before the media, I ripped it in half.

The paper fluttered from my fingertips, scattering weightlessly at my feet.

The entire banquet hall fell dead silent, even the camera shutters pausing for two whole seconds.

I pulled the microphone closer, my voice steady, without a hint of tremor:

"I have two announcements."

"First, effective immediately, my engagement to Mr. Ashton Foster is officially terminated."

"Second, all commercial collaborations between the Vance family and the Foster family are terminated at once. Legal will handle the follow-up procedures directly."

The reporters below gasped in shock.

Someone couldn't help but stand up and ask, "Ms. Vance, you chased Mr. Foster for seven years. Are you really throwing away all those years of devotion just like that?"

I met the lens, my eyes frosty and cold:

"Consider my seven years of devotion wasted."

"From this day on, Ashton Foster and I will never see each other again."

With that, I slipped the ring off my ring finger and tossed it directly into the trash bin.

Amidst the uproar, I stepped down from the stage and strode out of the hall.

Stepping outside the banquet hall, the sunlight was slightly blinding.

I walked briskly through the corridor and pushed open the doors to the top-floor General Manager's office.

Behind the desk, Mother was wearing reading glasses, checking the food inventory accounts.

Seeing me walk in wearing my gown, she looked up in surprise. "Chloe? Didn't the engagement ceremony just start? Why are you up here?"

Looking at Mother sitting before me, her hair not yet completely gray,

a wave of sharp sorrow hit my nose, and tears welled up in my eyes.

In my previous life, it was in this very office that Mother suffered a sudden heart attack upon hearing the stock hit its limit down.

Later, she died a tragic death in that crash, and I didn't even get to see her one last time.

"Mom." I stepped forward, leaning down to tightly embrace her frail shoulders.

Mother froze for a moment, then gently patted my back, asking softly, "What's wrong? Did Ashton make you feel wronged again?"

"No." I buried my face in her neck, drew a deep breath, and forced the tears back.

I straightened up, my tone resolute:

"Mom, I called off the engagement with Ashton Foster. From now on, the two of us will carry the Vance Hotel on our own."

Mother looked at the determination in my eyes.

Though her heart ached for me, she didn't offer a single word of reproach.

She merely reached out to wipe the tears from the corner of my eyes. "Alright, whatever you say. The hotel I built from the ground up never needed to rely on pleasing others to survive anyway."

Leaving Mother's office, I returned to my suite.

I pulled open the nightstand drawer and took out the keycard sleeve stamped with the Foster logo.

That was the inaugural commemorative keycard sleeve Ashton had handed me himself when the first Foster Hotel opened.

In my past life, I held onto it until my dying breath, treating it as his sole promise.

The sharp plastic edge dug into my palm, sending a clear, piercing sting of pain through my skin.

The pain snapped me entirely awake.

I shoved the sleeve back under the pillow, standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows to look at the city lights.

In this life, everything that belongs to the Vance family, I will take back, untouched and in full.