Chapter 1

I was a medical student at Northport Medical Academy, specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

My roommate, Ria Russo, once contracted a shameful, incurable infection. I was the one who hid it from the school and treated her in secret.

Later, when she got pregnant, I helped her cover that up too.

A month after she gave birth, my own mother went into labor.

It happened right in the ward where Ria and I were interning. My mother gave birth to a baby boy who had a strange, long tail.

To pay for my brother's medical bills, my father worked as an Uber driver day and night. He eventually died in a horrific car crash caused by exhaustion.

My mother couldn't handle the trauma and lost her mind.

For their sake, I dropped out of school. I lived a miserable, pathetic life.

It wasn't until I was on my deathbed that Ria came to mock me.

Only then did I realize she had swapped her baby with my brother all those years ago.

My real brother had been sold to human traffickers for a high price long ago.

……

1

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the moment Ria Russo offered to watch over my mother for me.

"Elara, you've helped me so much lately. Let me take your shift for the next few days."

My roommate, Ria, had a strange flicker in her eyes.

Staring at her familiar face, my mind felt hazy for a second.

"Elara? What are you thinking about?"

When I didn't respond, Ria walked over and shook my shoulder twice.

That was when I realized I had been reborn. I was back on the day my mother was about to give birth.

By chance, my father was away on a business trip and couldn't make it back in time.

I was the only one left to take care of her.

In my previous life, when Ria offered to cover for me, I was moved to tears of gratitude.

But now, I simply smiled and agreed.

"It's a deal then."

As soon as I agreed, Ria smiled and walked out of the lounge.

Watching her satisfied figure disappear, a cold light flashed in my eyes.

How did I not notice how fishy this was in my past life?

Ria was so lazy she didn't even want to work her own shifts.

Why would someone like her beg to do extra work for me?

Once Ria left the room, I threw on my white coat and sprinted toward my mother's labor ward.

My mother was an older pregnant woman. Since my father wasn't around, she had been admitted to the hospital early.

"Elara, honey, just focus on your work. You don't need to keep running over here."

"I gave birth to you all by myself back in the day. I'll be fine."

Seeing me rush in, my mother sat up in bed.

She gently peeled an orange and handed a slice to me.

Seeing her safe and sound, I let out a long breath of relief.

My mother had always been a strong and kind woman.

In my last life, even when she thought her baby was a deformed monster, she never thought about giving up on him.

She didn't know that the baby was just a cuckoo in the nest, a sickly parasite.

That child dragged our family into poverty, indirectly killed my father, and drove my mother insane.

And I had dropped out of school with nowhere to go, doing odd jobs just to survive.

In the end, I ended up homeless on the streets because of that sickly boy.

By then, Ria had already become the Chief of Medicine.

Before I died, she told me that my brother had been swapped.

That was when I found out the deformed child was actually the result of her secret affair with the Department Head.

The deformity happened because of their reckless lifestyle. They had caught a nasty infection that reached the fetus in the womb.

The irony was that I was the one who cured her infection.

I was the one who helped her hide her pregnancy from the academy.

Meanwhile, my healthy baby brother had been sold off by her and the Department Head.

They were nothing but a pack of human traffickers.

My poor brother.

He ended up with permanent disabilities, begging for scraps under a bridge.

Just thinking about it made my blood boil.

I will never let that happen again in this life.

"Mom, I'm an adult now."

"Just lie down and rest. Tell me if you need anything."

"Don't worry. I will make sure both you and my brother are safe."

I helped her lie back down and squeezed her hand firmly.

"Elara? How is your mom doing?"

Ria appeared in the room out of nowhere.

She looked at my mother on the bed, pretending to be worried.

"She's fine. Everything is good."

Thinking about the disgusting things that happened in my past life, I blocked her at the door.

This time, I wouldn't give her a single chance to get close.

"Elara, what are you doing?"

Ria's eyes flashed with a hint of malice when I blocked her path.

"Nothing. I just wanted to ask you for some advice on postpartum care."

Seeing her annoyance, I intentionally brought up her one-month-old child.

"I...."

As expected, Ria's expression stiffened for a brief moment.