Chapter 1

On the day of my daughter's eighteenth birthday, I discovered she had been switched with another baby at the hospital.

After bringing my biological daughter home, I thought our family was finally complete.

I never expected that within a year, I would be diagnosed with terminal cancer.

On my deathbed, I gathered both my adopted daughter and my biological daughter to my side.

"In my heart, you're both my daughters. When I'm gone, please take care of each other..."

To my horror, they sneered in unison.

"You might see us as daughters, but we never saw you as a mother!"

My adopted daughter knocked my medicine off the table, her face twisted with disgust.

"Did you really think raising me for eighteen years made you my real mom? We don't even share a drop of blood!"

At the same time, my biological daughter ripped out my ventilator, her eyes burning with pure malice.

"My foster mother raised me for eighteen years! In my heart, she's my only mother!"

Without hesitation, the two of them grabbed a pillow and smothered me to death.

Until the moment I stopped breathing, I couldn't comprehend it.

One was the flesh-and-blood daughter I carried for nine months. The other was the daughter I had pampered and adored for eighteen years.

Why did they join forces to drag me straight into hell?

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I gave birth eighteen years ago.

"Congratulations, it's a healthy baby girl!"

The nurse's cheerful voice cut through the newborn's piercing cries.

"Come, hold your baby."

Before I could even process what was happening, a tiny, wrinkled infant was placed gently into my arms.

The moment I saw that familiar little face, realization hit me like a tidal wave. I was reborn.

I was back eighteen years ago, right at the moment I gave birth!

The suffocating agony of my previous death still burned fresh in my mind. Combined with the massive blood loss from labor, my vision went dark, and I passed out cold before I could utter a single word.

When I opened my eyes again, the baby was gone from my arms.

In my past life, I had fainted just like this, and when I woke up, the nurses had already moved the baby to the hospital nursery.

That was precisely when my baby had been swapped.

Panicked, I dragged myself out of bed and rushed toward the neonatal nursery.

Just as I reached the door, I caught a glimpse of a woman slipping out through the emergency exit.

I ran straight to the bassinet labeled with my name, Lillian Vance. A newborn baby girl was lying inside.

Newborns usually look nearly identical. In my past life, I had only caught a fleeting glance of my daughter before passing out.

That was why I had lived in complete ignorance of the swap for nearly two decades.

But after spending eighteen years raising her, I recognized the baby in the bassinet at a single glance. It was Evelyn, my adopted daughter.

She had a faint birthmark near the corner of her eye, one that grew more distinct as she grew up.

The baby the nurse had handed me earlier had nothing of the sort.

The child had indeed been switched.

My mind immediately snapped back to the woman slipping through the back door. It had to be her!

I sprinted through the exit and caught sight of her turning into the stairwell.

Just as I reached the heavy fire door to catch her red-handed, a familiar silhouette through the glass panel froze me in my tracks.

It was my personal driver, Mark Davis.

He furtively took the baby from the woman's arms, keeping his voice down to an urgent whisper.

"Fast work. Did anyone see you?"

"Of course not! I timed it down to the second and swapped her with our own little girl!" The woman chuckled smugly.

"Once our daughter grows up, we'll have her drain that rich bitch of every single cent!"

Mark hesitated slightly.

"What if she refuses to recognize us when she's older? She'll be raised in luxury, after all. She might not care about us."

"And what if Lillian leaves everything to her own real daughter? We'd end up raising someone else's kid for nothing, without seeing a dime!"

The woman scoffed, overflowing with confidence.

"She's my flesh and blood! There's no way she won't acknowledge us!"

"As for this brat in my arms, after I raise her under our thumbs for eighteen years, I'll make damn sure she obeys us."

In that instant, the brutal truth shattered my world.

It had never been an accidental hospital mix-up. It was a calculated, cold-blooded swap.

The culprits were my driver Mark Davis and his wife Martha. They worked in tandem from the inside out, keeping me in the dark until the very day I died.

In this life, I had stumbled upon their conspiracy before it even began.

They had laid out an eighteen-year death trap just for me, waiting for me to step right into it.

Since they had put so much effort into this lethal scheme, exposing them right now would be far too easy.

I would make sure every ounce of agony I suffered in my past life rebounded onto them, a hundred times over.

Without making a sound, I quietly turned around and walked back to the nursery.

Looking down at the sleeping Evelyn, the hatred from my horrific death surged through my veins.

In my previous life, I had held her in the palm of my hand for eighteen years. Even after finding my biological daughter, I never treated Evelyn any differently.

I provided her with the finest life money could buy. Eighteen years of motherly affection had made me view her as my own soul.

I had even allocated 50% of my company's shares to her in my will.

And yet, she turned on me like a rabid beast, smothering me with her own hands.

In this life, that tragedy will never repeat itself.