Chapter 1

The moment I was about to hand over my entire savings to fund my fiancé's startup, lines of text drifted across my vision.

"Whatever you do, don't give Lewis Gilbert that money, and don't help him start his company! Once he makes it, he'll set a fire and burn you alive!"

"Then he and his first love will sit back and enjoy everything you built, have seven or eight kids together. And you'll be ground to ash and scattered, denied even a proper burial!"

Seeing me freeze, Lewis asked me.

"Harper, are you having second thoughts about helping me?"

"How could I? I only hate that I can't give you more."

I pressed the card with a million dollars on it into Lewis's hand.

"This is everything I've saved. Take it for now. If it's not enough, I'll figure something out."

1

The text scrolled faster.

"This Harper Sawyer is such a lovesick fool. Told her a hundred times and she won't listen. She deserves to die!"

"How is Harper this brain-dead? Can't she see we're warning her? Did a donkey kick her in the head?"

"Is this what a top-tier lovesick fool looks like? She knows the scumbag's going to kill her, and she still wants to give him everything!"

"……"

I didn't need to read them one by one. Every single line was cursing me out.

I'm not a lovesick fool, and I'm not brain-dead.

It's just that in my last life I listened to that floating text and refused to hand over my savings to fund Lewis's startup.

With no seed money, his business failed, and in his humiliation and rage he charged into my home and stabbed me a hundred and twenty-one times.

Rather than follow the text and spend every day on edge, bracing for Lewis's revenge.

Better to walk straight through the original plot, so at the very least I'd know exactly when he'd come for me.

Lewis took my card and went to the bank right away to withdraw the money.

With that first pot of startup cash, and the connections I'd introduced him to, his project moved along remarkably smoothly.

When the first profit came in, Lewis gripped my hand, moved to tears.

"Harper, without you there'd be no me, not the way I am today. Once my company takes off, I'll marry you right away!"

He took out a little red box. "Open it and see."

I opened it. Inside was a gold necklace.

"Do you like it? Let me put it on you."

Lewis lifted the necklace and fastened it around my neck.

I saw the text again.

"A million dollars, and all she got back was a three-gram gold necklace, thinner than one of my hairs."

"Harper, don't you dare get all touched. He's giving you a necklace so he can squeeze more money out of you. Do not give it to him!"

Once the necklace was on, Lewis spoke.

"Harper, I'm about to launch a new project. I'm a little short on funds. Could you help me out again?"

The text kept drifting past.

"The scumbag's about to make Harper sell her house."

"I've already given you all my money. Where would I get more?"

"Didn't your parents leave you that old house? You don't even live in it. Why not just sell it and help me out."

"But that's the only thing my parents left me before they died."

"Things are just things, people are what matter! Harper, the second this money comes through, my company can start running."

"When that happens, I'll give you shares. I'll make you the company's biggest shareholder!"

The text scrolled wildly.

"Don't you believe him! Sell that house and you'll have nothing left! And once he uses your money to become a self-made rich man, he'll marry another woman."

"All that's waiting for you is death!"