Chapter 1: The Day I Died
The rain came down like the world itself was crying, drumming mercilessly against the windows of the penthouse. I should have been used to it by now—storms were nothing new—but tonight felt different. Tonight, the thunder wasn't just outside; it was inside me, shaking my chest, rattling my heartbeat. I knew the truth even before I saw it: betrayal wears a smile, and tonight, it had my face in the mirror.
Amara. That's who I was—or who I had been. Strong, smart, ambitious. Every step I'd taken, every move I'd made, was calculated, but apparently not calculated enough. Because even now, as the city lights blurred through the tears on the window, I could see it all unraveling. The world I had built, meticulously, piece by piece, was crumbling. And the person holding the hammer? My closest friend. My lover. My confidant.
Ethan. I should have seen it coming. I knew the faint shifts in his gaze, the way he lingered a little too long on others, the small lies that stacked up like bricks in a wall I refused to notice. But I had wanted to believe in him. Wanted to trust. Foolish. Naive. I'd never been more awake to the truth than I was at this exact moment.
The door opened quietly, almost apologetically, but I already knew who it was. His smile hit me before I even saw him, the same smile he wore when everything seemed perfect. That smile now felt like a dagger pressed to my ribs.
"Amara," he said softly, his voice syrupy, calm. Too calm.
I didn't respond. My instincts screamed, but my body stayed frozen, locked in disbelief.
"You should have trusted me," he continued, stepping closer, the soft click of his shoes against the marble floor echoing like a funeral march. "I always knew this day would come. That one day, you'd realize… it was all for a reason."
I laughed, sharp and bitter, the sound cracking in the room. "A reason? You call this reason?" My voice trembled, but I forced it to stay steady. "You ruined everything I worked for. Everything I believed in. Everything I was."
He tilted his head, that infuriatingly smug expression settling on his face. "Not ruined, Amara. Redirected. You'll see."
Redirected. What a word. So clean. So neat. A way to wrap murder in velvet. But my mind, frantic now, replayed the moments I had been blind. The phone calls I didn't return, the deals that went south overnight, the sudden whispers in the office that I was incompetent, unworthy. All orchestrated. By him. By everyone I trusted.
By the end of the evening, I realized what I had been blind to: the betrayal wasn't just emotional. It was financial. Corporate. Personal. Every foundation of my life had been stripped away by people I loved. And tonight, the storm outside mirrored the one inside me. Only one thing remained crystal clear: I would pay. Or I would die trying.
The next moments are a blur, like watching the world from underwater. My vision tunneled as Ethan reached for the envelope on the counter. My heart lurched—my instinct screamed. But it was too late.
"You'll never see it coming," he whispered, pressing something cold against my palm. I felt the sharp sting, the bitter taste of metal and inevitability. My lungs seized.
And then… darkness.
I should have felt fear. I should have screamed. But I didn't. Because even in death, clarity arrived. Every betrayal. Every lie. Every dagger they had driven into me—it all made sense. The truth settled in my bones like ice.
I had been nothing but a pawn. A fool.
Yet even in the blackness, even as life left me, one thought blazed brighter than any star I had ever seen: they would pay.
---
I woke up gasping. The world smelled different. Clean. Yet unfamiliar. My chest heaved violently as I tried to sit up. Panic set in. Where was I? Who was I?
The reflection in the mirror across the room was not mine. At least, not fully. The eyes were mine—sharp, alive, burning with something that felt like a storm—but the face, the body, the name tagged on the small bracelet around my wrist: "Sophie Alade."
I had been reborn.
My mind whirled, fragments of memory clashing with the present. Amara? Ethan? Betrayal? Death? And now… this. Sophie. Daughter of the man who had ruined my life in my past life. Fate had given me a second chance. One I did not ask for. One I did not understand yet. But one I would use.
I swung my legs off the bed and touched the floor, the cold hitting my feet like a slap. It was real. Every ache, every heartbeat, every thought—it was all real. And just like that, the rage that had been smoldering in the grave now ignited into a wildfire.
They thought they had won. They thought Amara was gone forever.
How little they knew.
---
I stood by the window, watching the city wake under a gray, early morning sky. People rushed past, unaware. Oblivious to the fact that someone was plotting, planning, and waiting to take it all back. I clenched my fists, nails digging into palms. The woman in the mirror had no idea who I was yet. Sophie Alade. The heiress, the golden child, the unsuspecting pawn in her own life. But she would learn. She would.
And so would I.
I needed information. Contacts. Secrets. Money. Power. Everything I had lost—and more. But first… I had to understand this life. Step into Sophie's shoes without faltering. Her world was mine now, a tool, a weapon, a stage. And when the time was right… the reckoning would begin.
Because revenge isn't patient. It's not kind. It's not merciful.
Revenge is survival.
And I had been given another life to survive—and to destroy.
I drew a breath, deep and deliberate. The storm outside had passed, leaving only the quiet hum of the city. But the storm inside me raged on. It had always raged.
This time, it would not stop until every person who had wronged me—betrayed me, abandoned me, stolen from me—paid.
And they would.
They had no choice.
Not anymore.