Chapter 1

"Mom, Dad. I'm fine. Aurora didn't do it on purpose."

The familiar voice hit her ears, and Aurora Rivera's eyes snapped open. What was going on? She could have sworn she just heard Cecilia Rivera's voice.

That voice — the one that haunted her like a demon.

Her father, Quincy Rivera, saw that she was awake and immediately snapped at her. "What are you standing there for? Get over here and apologize to Cecilia. Now."

Aurora stared at the scene in front of her, unable to believe what she was seeing.

Cecilia was sitting on the couch with a bandage wrapped around her foot, while their mother, Imogen Fairfax, hovered around her with a face full of concern.

In that instant, Aurora's mind went blank.

She had been reborn.

She'd gone back to the day after Cecilia had been brought home as the Rivera family's true heiress.

Back then, Aurora had felt so guilty about taking Cecilia's place that she'd tried to get close to her — only for Cecilia to turn around, fake a fall, and blame Aurora for pushing her.

Aurora had tried every way she could to explain herself, but Quincy and Imogen refused to believe her. The whole thing had left a permanent crack in their relationship with her.

At the time, Aurora had assumed Cecilia staged it all to drive her out of the family. But she had it completely backwards. Cecilia had actually wanted to keep her there — as the one in the wrong.

The more Aurora was at fault, the more forgiving Cecilia appeared. And the more forgiving Cecilia appeared, the more it made her look generous and kind.

After that, Cecilia took everything — the parents Aurora depended on, the childhood sweetheart she was engaged to.

In her past life, it wasn't until Aurora was thrown out of the house and left dying in a blizzard that Cecilia showed up, draped in designer clothes, and told her with a smug smile that she was a reborn.

Cecilia had known the entire trajectory of Aurora's life from the start. Whatever Aurora tried to do, Cecilia got there first and took it all.

Aurora had thought it was absurd — until it actually happened to her.

She studied Cecilia carefully now, catching the brief flash of provocation in her eyes.

Everything clicked into place.

Just like last time, Cecilia was reborn too. And she was following the same playbook — using the same tricks to push Aurora into a corner where her family resented her, her lover rejected her, and her friends abandoned her.

Aurora wasn't going to give her that chance again. She was done being Cecilia's puppet.

"Aurora!" Imogen said sharply.

"Mom, Dad. I was wrong."

Aurora's voice was calm and clear.

"I shouldn't have let jealousy get to me and pushed Cecilia. Thank you for raising me all these years. But I don't think I should stay in this family anymore. I'll pack up and leave right now."

The room went dead silent.

Cecilia's pupils shrank.

What?

Aurora was supposed to argue. She was supposed to defend herself. Why was she just admitting it — and saying she'd leave? What was going to happen to the plan now?

Quincy stared at Aurora, stunned, then his expression shifted to fury.

"Are you throwing a tantrum? I told you to apologize, not run away from home."

"I'm not throwing a tantrum. I've thought it through. This is the last time I'll ever call you Mom and Dad."

Aurora bowed deeply.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me. If I ever get the chance, I'll find a way to repay you."

Quincy and Imogen both looked thrown off.

Aurora wasn't their biological daughter, but they had raised her carefully for years. She was accomplished — music, chess, painting, dance— and had brought them nothing but pride in public.

They had only meant to warn her, to make sure she didn't get ideas she shouldn't have. They never actually wanted her gone.

Cecilia's eyes shifted, and she immediately burst into tears.

"This is all my fault. If I hadn't come back, Aurora wouldn't be thinking about leaving. I'm the one who should go."

She turned as if to walk away, but Aurora stepped in front of her first.

"Don't. Quincy and Imogen are your biological parents. And I'm going back to mine."

Aurora's hand, hidden inside her sleeve, quietly curled into a fist.

She could see that Quincy and Imogen still genuinely cared about her right now. But she knew how it would go. Over time, with Cecilia constantly setting her up and making her look bad by comparison, that care would slowly turn into resentment and disgust.

In her past life, when all of this happened, she had been so desperate to stay in the Rivera family that she never once stopped to wonder whether her real parents were out there looking for her, waiting for her to come home.

Aurora didn't give anyone a chance to say another word. She went upstairs and grabbed her ID and documents.

Everything else she owned belonged to the Rivera family. She wasn't taking any of it.

On her way back down, she caught Cecilia watching her with a dark, stormy look — which quickly melted into a picture of wounded fragility.

"Aurora, my leg is hurt. I can't get around easily on my own. Could you stay a little longer, just until I recover? Then you can go."

Aurora's eyes narrowed slightly.

Was Cecilia trying to stall her with that?

"I don't have any nursing training," Aurora said simply. "And there's a housekeeper here to look after you."

Imogen looked at her with a complicated expression. "Do you really have to go? Cecilia just got back. I promise, if you stay, I'll treat you both the same."

Cecilia quickly chimed in. "Please, Aurora. I heard your family's situation is really difficult — lots of siblings, barely enough to eat. Wouldn't it be better to stay here?"

Something dark flickered in Aurora's eyes.

This was the first she was hearing anything about her birth family's situation. And Cecilia already knew all the details.

She understood exactly what Cecilia was afraid of. If Aurora wasn't living under the Rivera roof, she'd be out of Cecilia's reach — and Cecilia wouldn't be able to turn her into the same plaything she'd been in their past lives.

"It doesn't matter," Aurora said. "Whether they have money or not, they're my family." She looked at Quincy and Imogen one last time. "Take care of yourselves."

And she walked toward the door.

She was never going to repeat the tragedy of her past life.

Before she left, she took the allowance Quincy and Imogen had transferred to her over the years, put it all on a card, and left it on the vanity.

She was walking out with a few hundred dollars to her name — money she'd earned from a painting commission not long ago.

Now she just had to figure out how to get to her birth parents.

She was standing outside, head down, turning the problem over in her mind, when a black sedan rolled quietly to a stop in front of her.

The car was sleek and understated, but it had that unmistakable feeling of serious money.

The window slid down.

A young man's face appeared from the back seat.

Sharp, handsome features. An air of quiet refinement.

When his eyes landed on her, there was something in them — a flicker of emotion he was barely keeping in check.

"Excuse me," he said. "Are you Aurora Rivera?"

Aurora instinctively stepped back.

Old instincts, sharpened by everything she'd lived through, told her to keep her distance.

"Who are you?"

He looked at her. A beat of silence passed, like he was working to hold something back.

"I'm your second brother."