Chapter 1

1

In my past life, I poured my entire life savings into funding my husband's startup.

Yet on the eve of the company's IPO, he handed me divorce papers and an equity transfer agreement.

The sole beneficiary listed was his secretary.

The moment I woke up after being reborn, I burned every joint bank account passbook in our safe.

In this life, when he invited me to discuss an investment pitch, I turned around and signed with his biggest rival.

When he sent an anniversary gift, I fed it directly into the paper shredder.

I even anonymously leaked his prized business proposal straight to his fiercest competitor.

He once promised to give me a real home. In the end, he refused to even pay the heating bill for my hospital room.

This time, I will not even give him the chance to say he owes me.

He will only be able to watch from the financial news as I become the industry icon he could never hope to touch.

……

I opened the safe, took out the joint bankbooks, and flicked my lighter.

My team members stared at me in pure shock.

"Boss Zoe, are you crazy? Isn't that your joint marital property?"

Just moments ago, I was extending an olive branch to them, inviting them to start a new studio with me.

The next second, I opened the safe and set all the assets Gavin and I shared ablaze.

Flames danced in the ashtray, greedily swallowing the last bankbook.

Right next to those ashes lay a brand-new commercial deed.

I looked up at Leo, the young project coordinator who had just spoken.

In my previous life, Leo had spoken up for me. Gavin fired him on a fabricated excuse, reducing him to delivering takeout in the freezing rain.

"Husband and wife?" I let out a soft laugh and pulled a thick folder from my tote bag.

"Take a look at this."

I had retrieved these documents from our penthouse the moment I woke up last night.

There were invoices for a luxury condo Gavin bought for his secretary under the company name, offshore wire transfers, and consultation logs with a top divorce attorney.

He had hidden them in plain sight, right inside the most obvious drawer in our living room.

In my past life, I worked day and night for the company. I was completely blind to how long he had been plotting this divorce and equity theft.

Shock washed over my team, quickly followed by looks of deep concern.

I stared calmly at those incriminating agreements as old memories surged back.

In my previous life, a younger version of me crouched on the floor of a cheap rental, fixing a jammed printer.

Gavin stood nearby, kicking an empty instant noodle cup in frustration.

"Hurry up! Mr. Warren's proposal has to go out tonight!"

The printer broke down completely that night. Gavin flew into a rage, smashing everything in the tiny apartment.

A flying shard of glass sliced open my cheek. Sweating cold bullets and clutching my aching stomach, I called Mr. Warren to apologize.

After the storm passed, I saw Gavin smoking on the balcony. In a fit of despair, I ran down the stairwell.

Halfway down, I ran into Gavin's mother.

Years ago, I was an isolated, bullied orphan, forced to fight stray dogs for scraps.

Gavin's mother had happened to walk by the orphanage while dragging young Gavin by his ear.

She saw me digging beneath a tall tree, my fingernails bloody and torn.

She rushed over and grasped my hands, her heart breaking at my gaunt, pale face.

She gently wiped the sweat from my forehead and wrapped my bleeding fingers in her warm silk scarf.

My eyes were full of guarded suspicion, but I could not resist her warmth.

Before I lost consciousness, she pulled me tightly into her arms.

Back then, I could not understand why a stranger would show me such kindness.

The orphanage director had always told me I was an ungrateful wretch who deserved to be dumped there, and that nobody would ever love me.

On the stairs that night, Gavin's mother looked just as she had under the sunlight back then.

She held a warm takeout box and spoke to me with anxious tenderness.

"Zoe, sweetheart, what happened? Did that brat upset you again? Don't worry, I'll go give him a piece of my mind."

A wave of bitterness hit my chest. She had taken me in from the orphanage, and I lived with their family for ten years.

Two years ago, a sudden tragedy took the family's patriarch.

I poured my entire life savings into backing Gavin's business, simply wanting to erase the sorrow from that kind woman's face.

Yet on her cold hospital bed in my past life, she wept and confessed a horrifying truth to me.

Only then did I mock my own stupidity. There really was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

Snapping back to reality, I picked up a charred scrap from the ashtray. The word "Joint" was barely visible.

"Do you know why I chose today?"

I opened my laptop screen, displaying an acquisition offer Gavin had just received.

"Tomorrow, he plans to use this money to acquire our rival. And as for all of you……"

I pulled up a confidential HR document. Every single person in this room was on the immediate termination list.

Furious shock flashed across everyone's faces.

"Now……" I slid the deed and the new business blueprint across the table. "Whoever wants to join my new studio can sign their equity partnership agreements tonight."

When Gavin kicked the lounge door open, he arrived just in time to see Leo tossing his employee badge straight into the trash can.