Chapter 1

In my last life, I walked in on my husband tangled up with his first love, and I ran to my mother-in-law in tears to tell on him.

All she handed me was a divorce agreement.

"Stop making a scene. Sign it and go."

I left the marriage with nothing, and in the end I froze to death in a rented room in the dead of winter, with no one even coming to claim my body.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the second before I pushed open the bedroom door.

Through the crack, his first love was cooing at him, calling him her man.

I didn't push the door.

I crept downstairs. Veronica Henson was sitting alone in the living room watching a health program, her teacup long empty, and not a single soul beside her to refill it.

I knelt down to pour her more tea, my smile sweet and soft.

"Mom, Cole's swamped with work. From now on I'll keep you company for tea and a chat every day."

It wasn't until right before I died last time that I finally understood: the sole signing rights to the Henson family's 3.8-billion-dollar trust had always been in Veronica's hands.

What was my husband, really?

Winning him over could never do what winning over his mother could.

That night, I knocked on Veronica's bedroom door with a pillow in my arms, and made my voice small and pitiful.

"Mom, I'm scared sleeping alone. Can I stay with you tonight?"

……

Hugging my down pillow, I stood timidly in the doorway of the master bedroom.

I held my breath and waited for her to speak from the bed.

Veronica was propped against the headboard, still leafing through a financial report, and only lifted her eyes when she heard me.

I didn't shrink back. I pressed my chin into the soft pillow, and slowly let my eyes redden around the rims.

"You're a grown woman. Still afraid of the dark?"

Her voice was a little hoarse.

"It's not the dark."

I sniffled, keeping my voice very low.

"Cole didn't come home again tonight. The house is too empty, and it makes me anxious."

"Mom, you're all I have."

Her hand went still on the report.

She took off her reading glasses, looked for a second or two at my thin nightgown, asked nothing, and simply lifted the heavy silk quilt, clearing more than half the bed for me.

"Shut the door. Come here."

I hurried under the covers, turned onto my side, and pressed myself close against her arm.

"Mom, you're so warm."

She didn't answer, just reached up and switched off the bedside lamp.

I thought the night was settled, but then a string of heavy, urgent footsteps came pounding down the hallway.

Cole shoved the bedroom door open.

"Jane Fox! What the hell are you doing in the middle of the night?"

He hadn't even taken off his suit jacket, his tie hung crooked around his neck, and there was a faint trace of rose perfume on him.

The very brand Chloe loved most.

He crossed to the bed in a few strides, threw back the quilt, and clamped his fingers hard around my wrist.

"Get back to your own room!"

"Don't come in here bothering my mother's rest!"

I didn't fight it. I let his force pull me while I shrank into the pillow, both hands gripping the edge of the quilt.

"I'm sorry… Cole, I was just scared…"

"I'll go right now, don't be angry, don't wake Mom…"

Seeing me the same meek, take-it-lying-down way I always used to be, Cole only got worse. He yanked hard and dragged half of me out of the covers.

"Enough with the poor-me act."

"Sucking up and playing sweet, is that the only thing you know how to do?"

"Get out, now!"

The next second, a crisp slap rang out, especially clear in the dark.

Veronica sat up and swung her hand hard across Cole's arm. There was real strength in it, enough to knock the designer watch right off his wrist.

"Mom! What are you doing?"

Clutching his arm, Cole's face was pure disbelief.

The light came back on.

Sitting up against the headboard, Veronica's face was grim, and when she lowered her eyelids, Cole instinctively took half a step back.

"Who taught you to kick your own mother's door open in the middle of the night?"

"What, in a hurry to see me into my grave?"

Cole went pale.

"No, Mom, it's Jane. She doesn't know her place."

"In the middle of the night she insisted on running in to pester you. I was afraid she'd disturb your rest."

Veronica listened, then let out a snort through her nose.

"She knows her place better than you do."

She pointed at the door and said just one word.

"Out."

Cole clenched his back teeth and glared daggers at me.

"Mom, don't be fooled by her fake little innocent act!"

"Get out and pull the door shut behind you."

But Cole didn't dare talk back again. He jabbed a finger at me, then turned and slammed the door on his way out.

A crash came from the hall a moment later. He'd probably lost his temper and kicked over the vase in the corridor.

The room went quiet.

I slowly slid back under the covers and tucked the quilt around Veronica again.

"Mom, I'm sorry. It's my fault that Cole got angry."

"I'll go apologize to him tomorrow."

Veronica turned her face toward me and studied me for a long while.

"Apologize for what?"

"He comes home reeking of some other woman. Does he really think my nose has gone blind?"

Last life, Veronica knew perfectly well that Cole was cheating and still swept me out the door, because back then all I could do was cry and make scenes, and the moment trouble came I looked to someone else to fight my battles.

A useless, discarded wife really wasn't worth protecting.

Things were different now.

Through the quilt, I nestled lightly against her arm, my voice soft but steady, no stumbling.

"Mom, whatever Cole does out there, all I want is to take good care of you."

"You're the only one I can lean on in this family."

For a long time, Veronica said nothing.

Only after Cole's footsteps had faded completely beyond the door did she raise her hand and give the back of mine two soft pats.

I closed my eyes, the corners of my mouth curving up.

Three point eight billion in family fortune.

Cole Henson, you won't get a single cent.