Chapter 1

To secure a ten-million-dollar investment for the company, I ended up in the ER ninety-nine times for alcohol poisoning in just three months.

It wasn't until I died a miserable death from stomach cancer that I realized the truth. My husband had been using me as a human shield to protect his female secretary from drinking.

He was just waiting for me to die so he could replace me with her. All my shares and assets worth hundreds of millions were snatched up by the two of them.

Now, I've been given a second chance at life. I've awakened a special Alcohol Exchange System.

After midnight tonight, any physical damage I take will be transferred to them tenfold.

When that secretary tried to force me to drink a hundred Boiler Makers in front of a client, I just smiled.

"A hundred shots? That's boring. They just delivered two tons of top-shelf bourbon. Let's drink… until one of us drops dead."

1

"Valerie, if you can actually finish ten thousand shots, this fifty-million-dollar deal is yours!"

Mr. Harrison's eyes gleamed as he made the grand promise.

"Everyone says Valerie Sterling is the Iron Lady of the business world who never gets drunk. I wonder what she'll look like after ten thousand rounds?"

I looked at the table of predatory colleagues and smirked.

In my past life, I had destroyed my body for the business I built from scratch. Waking up in hotel rooms, disheveled and alone, had become a regular nightmare.

I once broke down in tears and begged to call the police. It was my husband, Desmond Miller, who stopped me.

He looked at me with watery, aggrieved eyes.

"Our business is just starting to take off. We need these mentors to support us. If you offend them now, are you trying to ruin everything we've worked for?"

I had no choice but to swallow my pride and the pain.

But when I was finally discharged from the hospital after a stomach pump, I saw Desmond getting into a fistfight with a high-profile client.

He did it because that wealthy brat had merely touched his secretary Melody's hand.

When I showed my jealousy, Desmond didn't even wipe the blood from his lip. He shielded Melody behind him.

"She's a young girl fresh out of college. She doesn't know how the world works. As her boss, I have to protect her."

"As for you, instead of figuring out how to please the clients, you're picking fights with a girl. You're in your thirties, why are you so immature?"

Desmond is thirty-five. Melody Brooks is only twenty-two.

His righteous act almost made me doubt my own instincts. But now…

My cold gaze swept toward the end of the table where Melody sat. She was using her bangs to hide the flirtatious glances she was exchanging with Desmond.

On her delicate finger was a ruby ring I had hesitated to buy for six months. Her custom-made silk dress cost six figures just for the hand-stitching!

Does this look like the spending habits of a fresh college graduate?

I let out a cold laugh and tapped the table.

"Is Secretary Brooks deaf? Stand up and pour your boss a drink."

"Sterling Heights Corp doesn't pay you twelve thousand a month to sit there and look pretty."

A flash of malice crossed Melody's eyes, but it vanished instantly.

She couldn't wait to pour me glass after glass of high-proof liquor.

In my last life, she used the excuse of an alcohol allergy to avoid every drink at every gala. She wouldn't even pour them.

I was never good with words. To appease the clients she offended, I would just stay quiet and drink harder and faster.

Desmond used to complain that I smelled like a brewery. Even when I drank until my stomach bled, he would just shove me into a taxi.

Then he would personally drive Melody home in his Rolls-Royce.

"Valerie, she has an allergy! If you want to drink, pour it yourself!"

Desmond interrupted me impatiently. "You're the one acting like a martyr trying to drink ten thousand shots. Don't expect us to help."

"Drink up. Melody needs to be in bed for her beauty sleep by ten-thirty. You have fifteen minutes."

Hearing my husband say that, Melody smirked triumphantly. She touched her hair and moved to sit back down.

Since when did she get to decide when to sit in my presence?

I signaled my assistant to pull her chair away.

"I am the CEO of this company. Did I give you permission to sit?"

"This is your final notice. Either pour the drinks, or get lost!"

"Valerie Sterling! You're crossing the line!"

Melody's eyes started to well up. Desmond immediately pointed a finger at my face.

"If you have a problem, take it out on me! What kind of person bullies a young girl?"

"This is Melody's first business dinner. What right do you have to make her serve? She's my secretary, not a bar girl! Don't push your luck!"

I was pushing my luck?

In my last life, I stupidly protected the company's interests, suffering from alcohol poisoning and internal bleeding for the sake of contracts.

While I was unconscious in the ER, I overheard Desmond and Melody talking.

"Mr. Miller, the contract was already signed. Why did you lie to Valerie and make her drink so much?"

"Hmph, I just hate how self-righteous she is. Does she really think a woman can keep her thumb on me forever?"

"I'm going to play her like a dog until she drops."

"You're the best, babe. Once that old woman is dead, we can be together forever."

That night, I was dumped alone at the hospital entrance. The scumbag and his mistress went back to the bridal suite I had decorated myself.

When I woke up, they both denied everything, calling me a paranoid madwoman.

Looking at the two of them now, I only felt a searing pain in my heart.

Before I was killed, I had been an ostrich with its head in the sand.

This time, I looked at the hypocrite in front of me and tilted my head.

"You have a problem with it? Then you can get lost with her."