When the news of my husband’s sudden death arrived, I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I just calmly reclaimed his shares in my company and filed the paperwork for his death certificate. I could do this so coldly because I had lived this life before. In my past life, my father—terrified that gold diggers and corporate sharks would circle his billionaire heiress daughter—handpicked three boys from a local orphanage, sponsored their elite educations, and raised them to be loyal, protective companions for me. I eventually chose the most brilliant of the three, Liam Sterling, to be my husband. But just three days after our extravagant wedding, he died in a tragic hiking accident. Heartbroken and devastated, I allowed his two "brothers," Carter and Mason, to convince me never to remarry. I stayed a faithful widow my entire life. But when I turned eighty, I took a nostalgic trip back to the place we had promised to visit together: a sprawling lavender farm in Provence, France. And there, sitting outside a rustic villa, was Liam Sterling. A man who had supposedly been dead for sixty years. He was surrounded by children and grandchildren, looking incredibly happy. And the woman sitting next to him, his wife, was my former private driver, Audrey. Realizing I had been conned and manipulated my entire life, the shock triggered a massive stroke. I died right there in the lavender fields. But when I opened my eyes again, I was back on the exact day I received the news of his death. Let's see how a dead man without a legal identity manages to live out his happily ever after this time. "Chloe, Liam spent his entire short life devoted to you. He only went up that mountain in the pouring rain to scout a location for your anniversary present." "Now that he's gone, you absolutely cannot remarry. It would break his heart." "Oh, and regarding Liam's company shares... you should transfer them to the two of us. We'll stay by your side and protect the legacy Liam left behind." Hearing those horribly familiar voices, I sat bolt upright in bed. I had actually been reborn. Back to the exact day Liam faked his death to elope with his mistress! "Where is Audrey?" Hearing my sharp question, Carter and Mason both froze. "Liam just passed away, and you're acting completely indifferent! Why are you asking about a driver?!" "Do we mean that little to you?!" Looking at their feigned, defensive outrage, I didn't get angry. I actually laughed. "Since Liam is dead, I am immediately clawing back the shares I transferred to him." I turned to my assistant standing by the door. "Grab your coat. We're going to the county clerk's office. We are officially invalidating his identity and ordering a death certificate!" My assistant immediately spun on her heel to follow me, leaving Carter and Mason standing paralyzed in the bedroom. "Chloe! He just died! How can you be so ruthless as to seize his assets?! Shouldn't those be divided among us, his brothers?!" Seeing their bloodshot, panicked eyes, I didn't even break my stride. In my past life, when I heard the news of Liam's death, I fainted from crying and swore to remain his widow forever. As for his shares, under their subtle, manipulative pressure, I transferred them equally to Carter and Mason. When I saw Liam and Audrey living their perfect life in Provence all those years later, I immediately knew something was wrong. I had my forensic accountants audit the company books. It turned out those two "brothers" had been using the dividends from the shares I gave them to funnel $500,000 a month to Liam, funding his luxurious, secret life abroad with his mistress! In my last life, I funded another woman's fairytale. This time, the news of his death was exactly what I needed! My car had barely pulled up to the county clerk's office when I got a text from my legal team. The 30% of corporate shares held under Liam Sterling's name had been successfully clawed back and frozen under my primary holding company. I nodded in satisfaction and handed the thick folder of documents to the clerk behind the glass. "These are all the identification documents for my late husband, Liam Sterling. Please process his legal deregistration." The clerk looked at Liam's driver's license photo, her eyes full of pity. "So young. Ivy League graduate, and married into the Vance family. What an absolute tragedy." She efficiently typed the information into the federal database, pulled out her heavy "DECEASED" stamp, and raised it over the paperwork. Right at that critical second, Carter and Mason burst through the double doors of the office, gasping for air. "DON'T STAMP THAT!" Seeing the sweat pouring down their faces, a wave of bitter irony washed over me. I chose Liam to be my husband, yes. But regarding Carter and Mason, I had never, ever treated them unfairly. Aside from the corporate shares, they received the exact same luxury cars, penthouses, and black cards that Liam did. But from the very beginning, the three of them had conspired to con me. They scammed me for sixty years! While they were secretly wiring money to Liam so he could live lavishly with Audrey... I was constantly investing in their startup ventures, hoping they would build successful lives of their own. While they were easing their "grief" by secretly FaceTiming Liam... I, a billionaire CEO, was spending my evenings cooking their favorite meals to comfort them for the loss of their "brother." While they used "overseas business trips" as an excuse to fly to France and reunite with him... I was secretly acquiring companies they liked as surprise birthday presents. I treated them like my own flesh and blood. They treated me like a bottomless ATM. Now, it was time to show them reality. Without the halo of the Vance family wealth, they were nothing but the charity cases my father pulled out of a group home! "Carter. Mason. When you speak to me, you will use proper respect." Carter's jaw dropped, his eyes blazing with furious entitlement. "We treat you like our closest family, and you're using that tone to command us?!" Mason furrowed his brow, playing the disappointed peacemaker. "Chloe, what is wrong with you today? Did the news of Liam's death trigger a psychotic break?" A cold sneer tugged at the corner of my mouth. I dropped the gentle, accommodating persona I usually wore for them and fully embodied the aura of a billionaire heiress. "Since when do I have to explain my actions to you?" Seeing my icy glare, they both looked stunned. Their fingernails dug into their palms, but years of ingrained reliance on my money forced them to lower their heads. "Yes, Ms. Vance. We just heard the news of Liam's passing, and in our panic, we..." I had zero interest in hearing their pathetic excuses. I raised my hand, cutting them off. "Stamp it." To make his fake death look convincing, Liam had somehow managed to bribe a doctor for an official coroner's report. The clerk verified the coroner's signature and, following my explicit instructions, slammed the heavy stamp down onto the paperwork. "Ms. Vance, I'm so sorry for your loss. Here is your husband's official death certificate." I gave a curt "Mhm" and casually tossed the document into my designer purse. Just as I took two steps toward the exit, Carter's phone started vibrating violently in his pocket. He shot me a terrified, paranoid look and scurried into a quiet corner to answer it. Even though he tried to whisper, I still caught fragments of the frantic conversation. [How the hell was I supposed to know Chloe would be so ruthless?!] [Your passport has been federally flagged as deceased? You're stuck at TSA and can't board the flight?!] [Don't panic! We'll figure something out. Just make sure Audrey is safe, don't let her stress out.] When Carter and Mason walked back toward me, their faces were ashen. They clenched their fists, looking ready to argue. Before they could even open their mouths, I beat them to it. "Call the PR department. Tell them to issue a press release. Chloe Vance is a widow, and I am officially accepting applications for a new husband!" Both of their eyes instantly turned blood-red. "Chloe! Liam just died, and you're already trying to remarry?! Are you trying to insult his memory?!" "You just got lucky being born into money! Your actual personality is worse than a gutter rat!" "Besides the three of us who were raised to tolerate you, do you honestly think any man in elite society would actually want to marry you?!" I suppressed the boiling disgust in my chest and stared coldly at the two men throwing a temper tantrum. "What I say goes. Do it immediately!" Carter and Mason exchanged a look, their eyes dripping with blatant contempt. "If you think pulling a stunt like this is going to make us jealous enough to beg to marry you, you are deeply mistaken." "In our hearts, you aren't even worth a single fingernail on Audrey's hand!" "Fine, we'll post your pathetic press release. But Chloe, the day will come when you're crying on your knees begging us to come back!" When my father heard the news of the press release, he immediately called me back to the family estate. Carter and Mason tried to follow my car, but I ordered my security detail to block the gates. "Vance family business has absolutely nothing to do with you." The two of them, eating dirt at the gates, furiously spun their cars around and drove off. When my dad saw me, he let out a long, heavy sigh. "Chloe, you were so deeply in love with Liam. Have you truly thought this through? Are you really ready to move on?" Seeing me nod with absolute certainty, he pulled a thick manila envelope from his desk drawer. "If you're absolutely sure, I actually have the perfect candidate in mind." I didn't even look at the profile. I accepted immediately. "If he meets your standards, Dad, he must be incredible. I'll take him." Seeing my decisive attitude, the exhaustion on my father's face melted into a relieved smile. He told me he would tell Julian Hayes to expedite his return to the States so he could become my right-hand man. Hearing that name, my heart began to pound violently in my chest. The candidate my father had chosen... was Julian! My dad mentioned Julian was currently wrapping up a critical acquisition in London and would be back in exactly one week. I pushed down the overwhelming excitement in my heart and decided to give myself a proper vacation. I stayed at the estate, resting and resetting for the entire week. Carter and Mason didn't try to contact me once. I had no idea what kind of scheme they were brewing, but I was more than happy to enjoy the silence. The day finally arrived when Julian's flight was scheduled to land. I was just stepping out the front door to head to the airport... When I saw my "dead" husband, Liam Sterling, standing perfectly upright at the entrance to my driveway. The bespoke, ten-thousand-dollar suits I used to buy him had been replaced by a cheap, wrinkled t-shirt from a discount store. Stripped of the luxury styling, his supposedly "flawless, aristocratic" aura had completely evaporated. He looked like an incredibly average, unremarkable guy off the street. Standing next to Liam, playing the tragic victim, was my former driver, Audrey. Carter and Mason were hovering around her, constantly whispering words of comfort. What a spectacular performance of resurrection. It was glaringly obvious that since his passport was flagged and he couldn't flee the country, they had to crawl back with their tails between their legs. I took a deep breath, took a few steps forward, and spoke with freezing indifference. "Liam. You're not dead?" Before Liam could even open his mouth, Audrey aggressively stepped in front of him, shielding him like a martyr. "Ms. Vance! Can you please stop being so toxic?! He is your husband! Do you really want him dead that badly?!" I raised an eyebrow, staring at this woman who, in my past life, had lived in absolute luxury on the French Riviera, funded entirely by my bank accounts. "Who the hell do you think you are? Do you really think you have the right to bark at me on my own property?" Realizing she had dropped her submissive act, Audrey quickly lowered her head, playing the bullied servant. Liam immediately stepped forward to protect her. "She is my savior! I demand to know who you are, and why you are speaking to the woman who saved my life with such disrespect!" Seeing the confusion, Carter and Mason quickly jumped in to weave their web of lies. They claimed that while scouting the mountain for my anniversary gift, Liam slipped and fell off a cliff. He miraculously survived, but he hit his head on a rock and suffered severe amnesia. They said Audrey just "happened" to be driving by and heroically rescued him. They dramatically proclaimed that Audrey was no longer just a driver for the Vance family. Since she saved my husband's life, she was now the esteemed savior of the entire Vance empire. After listening to their pathetic, rehearsed script, Audrey shoved her cheap handbag into Liam's hands and tilted her chin up arrogantly at me. "I'm exhausted. I'll have to trouble you, Ms. Vance, to find a luxury guest suite for me, your husband's savior, to rest in." Liam immediately put his arm protectively around Audrey and started walking toward my front doors. I snapped my fingers. The head of security stepped forward and slammed the massive iron gates shut right in their faces. Liam whipped his head around, glaring at me furiously. "They told me you are my wife! If she is my savior, she is your savior too! How can you be so incredibly disrespectful?!" I let out a soft, mocking laugh. They were acting their asses off. If I hadn't been reborn and known the truth, I probably would have actually treated Audrey like an honored VIP guest! "Liam, you are my husband, that's true. But in the Vance family, I am the only one who gives the orders." "Get in the driver's seat and take me to the airport. Right now. That is an order." Liam's eyes looked ready to shoot fire. Audrey strategically tugged gently on his sleeve and subtly shook her head, playing the pacifier. After a few seconds of tense silence, Liam bent his supposedly "proud" spine and personally opened the passenger door. Audrey smoothly slid into the front seat. "I apologize, Ms. Vance. Liam just woke up from a coma, and as his savior, I am deeply concerned about his medical condition." "You are the CEO, I'm sure you won't mind me riding up front to monitor him, right?" Liam didn't even glance in my direction. He leaned in, gently buckled Audrey's seatbelt, and then yanked the driver's side door open. "If you're coming, get in the back." Hearing Liam use that freezing, commanding tone with me, the corners of Audrey's mouth twitched upward into a victorious smirk. I let out a cold scoff and got into the back seat. These two were clearly trying to put me in my place. Establish dominance. But what they didn't know was that my trip to the airport was to pick up my new, incoming husband. Thinking of Julian, I let out a deep, heavy sigh. In my past life, because I was determined to remain a faithful widow to Liam, Julian had stayed single his entire life, quietly and loyally protecting my business interests from the shadows without any official title. Now, in a twist of fate, he was the exact candidate my father had selected for me. A sudden, nervous flutter erupted in my chest. Just as I was lost in thought... The car violently jolted. I heard Liam let out a panicked shout as he wildly cranked the steering wheel. He intentionally swerved the car, forcing the left side—the side I was sitting on—directly into the path of an out-of-control semi-truck! A blinding, explosive pain ripped through my body. The very first words out of Liam's mouth were him frantically asking if Audrey was okay. Audrey was sitting in the passenger seat! The side of the car that was completely untouched! What the hell could possibly be wrong with her?! I tried to reach for my phone to call 911, but the impact had thrown it somewhere into the crushed metal of the floorboards. Fighting through the agonizing pain, I looked down. A jagged piece of the crushed door frame was pinning my thigh. It had sliced deeply into my femoral artery. Bright red blood, along with my life, was rapidly draining away. My vision began to swim with black spots from the catastrophic blood loss. I used both hands to desperately compress the wound, praying the paramedics would arrive in time. However, when the emergency sirens finally wailed and the first responders rushed to the vehicle, Liam leaned out his broken window and screamed frantically: "The person in the back seat is fine! Ignore her! Save the woman in the passenger seat first! Hurry!" My hands, slick with my own blood, froze. Liam's words felt like a serrated hunting knife being slowly driven into my chest. He knew damn well I was bleeding out, yet he didn't even care to maintain his "amnesia" act anymore! In the passenger seat, Audrey was screaming hysterically, claiming she was in agonizing pain, demanding the firefighters use the Jaws of Life to pry her door open first. Liam was sobbing in panic, ignoring his own fractured arm to wrap his body protectively around Audrey. Seeing the bizarre scene, the firefighters simply walked around to the back, used their hydraulic cutters to peel the crushed metal off me, and carefully extracted me from the wreckage. They listened to Liam's frantic screaming with completely deadpan expressions. "You two have the energy to scream and shout. It means your airways are clear and your lives are not in immediate danger." "I understand you want to save your lover, but we are not going to let a critically injured woman bleed to death in the back seat!" It turned out that even complete strangers could instantly recognize the true nature of their relationship. In my past life, how incredibly, pathetically blind must I have been to trust Liam so completely that I never suspected a thing? When I finally regained consciousness, I was lying in a VIP hospital suite. Carter and Mason were standing by my bed, whispering intensely to each other. "The old man doesn't know about this yet. If Mr. Vance finds out Liam got Chloe into a nearly fatal car crash, we are completely fucked." "Don't panic. Liam is currently donating blood to Audrey." "When Chloe wakes up, we'll just convince her to tell her dad that she was the one driving." "That way, not only are we off the hook, but we can extort a massive 'hush money' payout from her to cover Audrey's tuition for her study abroad program in Paris." My entire body was screaming in physical agony, and my heart was breaking all over again. Right at that moment, Liam burst into the hospital room, looking frantic. "Is she still unconscious?! Quick, while she's out, pump her full of anesthesia! The doctors need to graft the skin from her face to repair Audrey's burns!" Carter and Mason looked horrified. "What happened to Audrey?! Why does she need a skin graft?!" "I couldn't get into the trauma bay, but I heard her crying! She said the skin on her chest was ruined and required immediate grafting!" "Since it's for Audrey, we need to move fast." "I've forged Chloe's signature on legal documents before. I'll sign the consent forms. You guys hold her down and force this liquid sedative down her throat." Hearing their psychotic, cannibalistic plotting, my blood ran colder than liquid nitrogen. I violently forced my eyes open and lunged for the emergency nurse call button. Liam reacted faster than I did. He blurred across the room, pinning my hand to the mattress, his face twisted into a demonic, terrifying snarl. "Chloe! Audrey cares about her physical beauty more than anything in the world! You owe her your life, so you HAVE to do this for her!" Carter quickly grabbed a pen and flawlessly forged my signature on the surgical consent form. Mason grabbed a cup of milk heavily laced with liquid sedatives, completely ignoring my injuries, and aggressively tried to pry my jaw open to pour it down my throat. "Chloe, why the hell did you have to wake up right now?!" "Just be a good girl and be an organ donor for Audrey! It's not that hard!" I thrashed wildly, trying to fight them off, but my body was covered in casts and sutures. I couldn't move an inch. Their eyes were completely dead, devoid of human empathy. They forcefully pinched my nose to force my mouth open, ready to pour the drugs in. My brain was getting foggy from the lack of oxygen. My consciousness began to slip. Right at that exact, terrifying second... the heavy oak door to the VIP suite was violently kicked open with a deafening CRASH.
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "401618", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel