Chapter 2

2

My face was full of sorrow and deep sympathy for my cousin.

Yet my feet didn't move an inch.

"Dad, this isn't Seattle. Here, I'm just an incoming graduate student, not the heiress of the richest tycoon in town."

The message was clear: my hands were tied.

Hearing this, Garrett glared at me furiously.

"Why the hell did you pick a school so far out in the middle of nowhere? This place is complete uncivilized trash!"

I remained cold and indifferent as I watched them chase after Felicity. Not a single ripple stirred in my heart.

They were supposed to be my closest family, but in the end, the only reliable things were the stock transfer documents and the ten million dollars sitting in my account.

Over the next few days, I used that money to set up everything for my graduate life, living the comfortable days that should have belonged to me in my previous life.

Meanwhile, the video of Felicity being dragged out by security blew up on social media.

Humiliated and furious, she caught an overnight flight straight back to Seattle.

Just like in my previous life, she completely trashed my bedroom!

In my past life, that happened because I slapped her down the stairs.

My father and brother had personally told her to throw all my belongings out of the mansion to make her feel better.

She had even torn up the only family photo album of me and my late mother, taking pictures of the shreds to gloat.

This time was no exception.

Looking at the photo of torn paper scattered all over the floor, I swallowed the dull ache in my chest.

In my past life, I immediately booked a flight home and beat her black and blue.

At that time, my father was negotiating a massive cross-border merger, and the chaos caused him to lose focus, blowing a multi-billion-dollar deal.

When my grandmother found out, she declared she never wanted to see me again and had bodyguards drag me back to school.

Without Grandma's protection, my brother had effortlessly plotted to get me expelled.

This time, I calmly sent a voice memo:

"Be careful not to cut your hands, Felicity. Dad and Garrett would be so heartbroken."

Then, I forwarded the screenshot of our chat into the family group:

[Felicity made it back home safe. Dad, Garrett, you don't need to look for her anymore.]

In my previous life, my father gave her permission to trash my room.

What would happen now that she did it completely unauthorized?

I smirked, tucked my phone into my pocket, and walked into the laboratory.

The next morning, my father called to apologize. "Sweetheart…"

My dad rarely called me that unless something catastrophic had happened.

"Felicity trashed your room. She even ruined your mother's keepsakes."

"I'm so sorry, Hazel."

He offered to compensate me with another three percent of company stock.

I choked back tears, my voice trembling:

"She could throw me out of the house and I wouldn't care. But… those were the only things Mom left me."

"No one is throwing you out!" Guilt practically oozed through the receiver. "You are my only daughter! Who would dare kick you out?!"

"Felicity just lost control of her emotions, and she's already been punished!"

With that, he sent me a photo.

In the dead of winter, Felicity was kneeling in a thin cotton dress right in the drafty corridor of the family estate.

Her cheeks were swollen and bruised dark purple from slaps, her capillaries completely ruptured.

Grandma had stepped in.

Grandma despised anyone who disrupted family order.

"Hazel, please put in a good word with your grandmother."

"Felicity is fragile and sick. She can't survive kneeling in this freezing cold!"

All that groveling, and it was still for Felicity in the end.

I wiped away a single stray tear from the corner of my eye.

"Fine. On top of the three percent stock, I want a fully paid estate villa."

Instead of screaming in rage, my composed sorrow earned all their sympathy.

My dad agreed instantly, approving a massive budget for my new estate.

Garrett also texted, offering to cover all interior design and renovation costs.

He even praised my kindness: "When Felicity tore up Mom's things, I blew my top at her."

"We spoiled her too much. How dare she wreck your room like that!"

I gave a cold laugh and went to plead for Felicity with Grandma.

Grandma felt sorry for me and handed over the management rights of a subsidiary company:

"Keep the money close and don't take their crap. Your father has lost his damn mind! Who knows who he'll leave the family empire to!"

I quietly accelerated the process of buying the estate.

On the day I signed the property deed, Felicity sent me a barrage of new family portraits:

[Uncle Richard said it doesn't matter that the old photos got torn up, we can just take new ones. You're not mad, are you, Hazel? Old folks say four is an unlucky number anyway, three makes a real family portrait.]

I replied with a simple: "You should wear more blush, pink suits your skin tone. Go take another set."

[Garrett insisted on taking the whole family on a two-week European tour to make it up to me. I thought we were just going to the local faux-European strip mall!]

[This is just to make up for my distress. We didn't leave you out on purpose.]