Ashes of the Past Chapter 1

My brother was drugged, and I was forced to unbutton my own shirt.

After I got pregnant, our parents told us we weren't biological siblings and told him to marry me.

My brother nodded, then went out street racing that same day and got into a terrible car accident.

I didn't care that both his legs were paralyzed; I was absolutely determined to be his bride.

I thought he would be moved by my devotion, and that we would grow old together.

On our wedding night, the villa caught fire. When I choked awake from the smoke, my very first thought was to drag him out of the inferno.

Instead, he smashed a heavy vase over my head. Right before I lost consciousness, I heard his freezing, emotionless voice.

"You and our parents destroyed my true love. I've already legally transferred all my assets to Chloe as compensation."

"Since you people ruined my life, you can all burn in hell with me."

...

I was jolted awake by my brother, Arthur Sterling's, agonizing, heavy panting.

I opened my eyes to see my familiar old bedroom. There were no red wedding decorations, and there was no suffocating, rolling black smoke.

I had been reborn. The sheer shock and overwhelming joy made me dizzy.

"Mia, get me a glass of water."

Arthur's low, raspy voice drifted through the wall from the next room, sending a violent shiver down my spine.

I glanced at the watch on my wrist, a cold sweat instantly breaking out across my back.

I had been reborn on the exact night my brother was drugged.

The sticky, horrifying sensation of blood blinding my eyes from my past life, and the agonizing pain of burning alive, seemed to physically hit me all over again.

My immediate instinct was to run. To get as far away from Arthur as possible.

Before I could even put my shoes on, he was already standing in my doorway.

"Mia, I just called Chloe Sinclair. I need you to drive over and pick her up right now."

Even though the drugs were heavily amplifying his lust, I still caught the distinct, unmistakable look of guarded disgust in his eyes when he looked at me.

A terrifying, bold thought suddenly bloomed in my mind.

My brother had also been reborn.

I nodded frantically, grabbed my car keys, and squeezed past him, practically sprinting out the door.

Even as I stepped out the front door of the villa, I could feel the intense discomfort of Arthur's gaze burning into my back.

The address Arthur gave me was an apartment near his company headquarters.

So, Arthur and Chloe had moved in together this early on. When he said I ruined his true love, he actually meant it.

The second Chloe saw my car, she yanked the passenger door open and slid in.

"How is your brother doing right now?!"

Chloe looked incredibly anxious, but I couldn't tell if it was just my imagination or if there was a hidden, eager thrill of getting exactly what she wanted dancing in her eyes.

"You'll see when we get there."

I had zero desire to make small talk with Chloe. Not because I was jealous, but because neither my mother nor I had ever liked her.

Chloe was an impoverished student whose education was sponsored by my family.

Initially, my parents adored Chloe because she was incredibly hardworking, driven, and had phenomenal grades.

She was the top scorer in her entire city's college entrance exams. My parents personally drove her to the capital to start university.

My mother was especially happy. Since Chloe was a year ahead of me and had exceptional grades, she could tutor me during my crucial senior year of high school.

She was incredibly responsible with me. Every week after our tutoring session, she would give my father a highly detailed progress report.

Even after I explicitly told her that my mother was the one managing my academics, she completely ignored me and kept reporting directly to my father.

I always felt her eyes radiated a calculating, manipulative shrewdness, but at the time, I just assumed I was being overly sensitive.

Until one night, she called my dad, sobbing hysterically that a drunk man was harassing her. When my dad rushed to the scene, she threw herself directly into his arms. My dad was so terrified he threw his hands up in the air, his face turning a sickly shade of green.

My mother, who had just parked the car and arrived at the exact same moment, saw the entire thing.

Chloe sobbed pathetically, claiming she viewed my dad as a father figure and was just so terrified that she reacted instinctively.

My parents verbally comforted her, but after that incident, she was never allowed inside our house again, and my dad never personally handled any of her issues.

After graduating college, she wanted to study abroad. She showed up at our house with a basket of fruit, looking incredibly pitiful, and begged my parents for a massive loan.

My mother wasn't stingy. She had her secretary wire Chloe fifty thousand dollars.

Right before Chloe left, she came to say goodbye and ran straight into my brother, who had just returned from completing his master's degree overseas.

The very next day, Chloe returned the fifty thousand dollars to my mother. She claimed she had an epiphany: a person should be grounded and practical. She decided to work first and earn her own money to fund her studies abroad.

My brother, who was just leaving the house at the time, looked at the plainly dressed but incredibly resolute Chloe. His eyes were entirely filled with deep admiration.