My aunt Jessie claimed she had been reborn.
For my happy future, she insisted I marry the man she’d arranged for me.
But that man was the same person who had bullied me during my school days.
In my previous life, I married my bully, and in the end, I was brutally beaten to death by him while pregnant.
Jessie took all my possessions and had my body cremated, scattering my ashes to the wind.
When I opened my eyes again, it was the day she forced me to go on that blind date.
As I watched her spout nonsense, describing my “happy future” vividly, I laughed. She had no idea that I had been reborn too.
——
“Maggie, you must go on this blind date tomorrow. You don’t have a choice in this matter!”
A sharp pain in my arm pulled me back to reality. The person twisting my arm was none other than my aunt Jessie. Seeing her fierce expression, I felt a bit dazed.
I pinched my thigh hard – pain! I really was reborn!
In my previous life, after my mother died, Jessie borrowed all the death compensation money, leaving our family destitute. My father’s medical expenses depended on her mood.
But she wasn’t satisfied. For the sake of money, she manipulated and coerced me, repeatedly arranging blind dates for me.
She knew very well that the man she set me up with was the same one who had bullied me in school, but she still tricked me into marrying him.
When I refused, she threw the expensive medication I had bought for my father into the toilet right in front of me.
For my father’s sake, I knelt at her door for three hours.
She slapped me repeatedly until my face was swollen and my mouth bled. Only then did she ask, “Will you marry him now?”
“Yes!” I had no choice but to obey her.
She took all the wedding gifts and money.
On my wedding night, I was beaten by my husband.
When he fell asleep, I dragged my bleeding arm and ran all the way to my parents’ house.
But before I could get there, she blocked my way on the road.
I saw her holding a steel rod, walking towards me under the moonlight.
At that moment, I knelt and begged, trembling, “Aunt, please let me go. I don’t want any of the wedding gifts or money. You’re my aunt, for heaven’s sake! If I go back, I’ll die!”
She seemed not to hear me and swung the steel rod down on my bleeding arm.
Before I lost consciousness, I heard her cold voice, “Maggie, even if you die, you have to die at your husband’s house so I can get more money from your funeral. Don’t blame me. This is just your fate.”
I was dragged back to my husband’s house. The price of escaping was losing an arm and being bedridden for a month.
Not long after, my father died in the hospital, unable to receive timely treatment. He died with his eyes open.
Later, I was beaten to death by my drunken husband while I was pregnant.
After my death, I watched as Jessie took over all my possessions and bought an apartment for my cousin. But she wasn’t willing to spend 3,000 bucks on a proper urn for me.
In the end, my ashes were scattered into a river, and my soul dissipated along with them.
2“Are you deaf or mute?”
Jessie’s voice snapped me back to the present.
She reached out to twist my ear – the same conversation and actions as last time.
In my previous life, I didn’t dare to resist. She twisted my ear until it bled, yet she never softened. This time, no one would bully me!
I reached out and blocked her hand, twisting it back. She howled in pain.
“Do you even know this blind date? You’re so eager to push me into it! Tell me, did you get some benefit from him and now you’re trying to scam your own niece?”
I held up two fingers, aiming them at her eyes and jabbing hard, “Let me cure your jealousy and blindness since you’re so envious of others’ money and can’t tell right from wrong!”
She staggered back, clutching her eyes and wailing, “Ah, my eyes, I can’t see!”
After a few seconds, she started cursing me viciously, “Are you crazy? How dare you hit your aunt? Don’t you know I’m reborn? In the last life, you listened to me, married Gary Allen, and lived a glamorous life. Even your father’s illness improved because of it. I’m doing this for your own good. Don’t be so ungrateful!”
So, Jessie had been reborn too!
No wonder she was so adamant about setting me up with Gary. She knew I would die, allowing her to take all my assets.
Well, this just got interesting. Let’s see who can outmaneuver whom in this life!
“I don’t care if you’re my aunt or my great-aunt who crawled out of the grave. If you deserve a beating, you’ll get one!”
I pulled out a lipstick from my pocket and scribbled all over her pale face, mocking her, “Jessie, since this blind date is so great, why don’t you marry him yourself? You’ve been a widow for so long; it’s time you enjoyed the sweetness of love!”
Jessie grabbed a mirror and saw that I had drawn a large turtle on her face. She clenched her fists and screamed.
She rushed at me, knocking me to the ground.
As we fought, I kicked her a few times to vent my anger.
3“Stop fighting, stop, please!”
A voice I hadn’t heard in so long but knew so well broke through the chaos – it was my father!
I rubbed my eyes to clear them and looked again. It was really him.
That’s right, at this point, my father was still alive.
Jessie took advantage of my distraction and grabbed a glass vase from the table, smashing it over my head.
With a loud “crack,” the vase shattered on my head. My skull buzzed from the impact, and a sharp pain flooded my senses. Warm liquid trickled down from the wound.
I clutched my head and crouched on the floor, gripping a shard of the broken vase tightly in my hand.
My father rushed over and cradled me in his arms, wiping the blood from my forehead with deep concern.
His embrace was so warm. In my previous life, he was my only source of comfort.
My eyes stung, and large tears splashed onto the floor.
In my last life, when my father died in the hospital, I was beaten unconscious by my husband. By the time I woke up at the hospital, Jessie had already cremated my father’s body.
Not being able to see him one last time was my greatest regret.
My father couldn’t help but scold Jessie:
“Jessie, Maggie is your niece. You’re being too harsh. If she doesn’t want to go through with this match, maybe we should just drop it!”
Jessie got up slowly, using the table for support. Narrowing her eyes, she gritted her teeth and said:
“Brother, you’re being foolish! I’ve been reborn and carry memories of my past life. I know what’s best for Maggie!
“In her last life, Maggie married Gary Allen and lived a comfortable life as a wealthy wife, raising two children. That’s her fate! And now she’s biting the hand that feeds her and acting ungrateful.
“Where else would you find a man like Gary Allen? He’s the richest man in the city. If it weren’t for him specifically asking to marry Maggie, how could this unimaginable fortune ever come to our family?”
Gary Allen was a twisted monster!
He wasn’t just ugly; he had cruel fetishes. Seeing me cry and beg for mercy only excited him.
He married me just to torture me to death.
In this life, I needed to plan ahead.
4Jessie continued to babble on about how gentle Gary was and how wealthy his family was. When she got excited, she reached out to twist my ear again.
I seized the moment, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward me. Pressing the shard of glass against her throat, I said,
“Jessie, I’m not marrying him. Do you understand?”
My father stomped his foot anxiously, pleading with me to put down the shard. His worry made him cough so hard he could barely breathe.
Jessie smirked, unfazed.
“Look at your father. How long do you think he’ll last without my help? Maggie, after your mother died, he raised you all on his own, always thinking of your well-being. And what have you done for him?
“Your father needs money for surgery. I’ve paved the way for you, so what’s your problem?”
After my mother died in a car accident, the person responsible paid us a large sum of compensation. My father was frail and sickly, relying on medication for years, and that compensation money was all we had.
During my college years, I paid for all my expenses through part-time jobs.
When I graduated and returned home, I found my father lying on a filthy bed, coughing violently, his chest rising and falling rapidly, surrounded by the mess of his sickness. That was when I learned Jessie had borrowed all our money, claiming she needed it for my cousin’s college tuition.
What had my father and I done to deserve this? We were only trying to be kind, trusting someone who didn’t deserve it.
Does being a good person mean you deserve to die?
I refuse to believe that!
I pressed the shard harder against Jessie’s throat, causing a thin line of blood to appear.
In a cold, menacing tone, I said,
“Pay it back! I want every cent you owe us, right now!”
Jessie shrugged and sneered, “No money here. If you want my life, take it! But killing me will ruin yours. Remember, I’ve already died once – I’m not afraid to die again.”
My father coughed into a tissue, which came away stained with bright red blood.
Her words were a grim reminder.
If I killed her, what would happen to my father?
His illness couldn’t wait. I needed to get him treatment immediately.
I knew Gary would pay for our wedding expenses, and that was the fastest way to get the money.
Weighing my options, I moved the shard from Jessie’s throat to her hand, slashing it several times.
Blood flowed freely from her hand.
“Linda, consider this a warning – stay out of my family’s business! I’ll agree to the match, but you won’t touch a single cent of the wedding expenses! Otherwise…”
I made a slashing motion across my neck.
The look on her face was priceless – frustrated, but unable to do anything about it. What a satisfying sight!
5A few days later, Jessie, with her hands still bandaged, took me to meet the match.
The man waiting wasn’t a stranger.
It was Gary Allen, the very man who had beaten me to death in my past life.
We had gone to high school together. He was the epitome of a spoiled rich kid, arrogant and unbearable.
His family donated a building to the school, so he strutted around like he owned the place.
But even someone as obnoxious as him had a weakness – a girlfriend. He dated the school’s beauty queen, though their relationship was tumultuous, filled with constant arguments.
Once, while I was cleaning the rooftop, I witnessed his girlfriend slapping him and threatening to break up.
Gary caught sight of me staring, mouth agape, and shot me a death glare, warning me that if I said a word, I’d regret it.
Later, while getting water during a break, I accidentally bumped into him.
Before I knew what was happening, Gary kicked me in the stomach, sending me tumbling down the stairs. He didn’t even stop, just kept chasing after his girlfriend.
I curled up on the ground, clutching my stomach, when two male classmates dragged me to the boys’ bathroom.
Gary, leaning against the sink with a lit cigarette, barked, “You made my girlfriend think I was cheating. You’ll pay for that.”
He grabbed my hair, holding the cigarette dangerously close to my face, my long hair catching fire instantly.
I begged him to stop, but it only seemed to excite him more. Just as the flames licked at my face, he doused me with cold water from the sink, leaving me shivering and soaked.
This happened several times, each incident worse than the last.
Whenever he was in a bad mood, he would take it out on me, torturing me to make himself feel better.
When he wasn’t locking me in classrooms overnight, he was spreading vile rumors about me.
The worst was when he and a group of boys stripped me and took photos. My father had to call the police to break down the door and rescue me.
The incident was covered up, but from then on, I was terrified of him.
His torment lasted for over a year.
I was forced to transfer schools to escape his wrath, and only then did I begin to recover from the trauma.
6Thinking about the humiliation I suffered in my past life, my eyes welled up with tears.
And the man sitting in front of me was the one responsible for it all.
He tapped his fingers lightly on the table and greeted me with a smirk, “Hey there, long time no see! Guess we’re meant to run into each other again.”
His disgusting voice sent chills down my spine.
The scene from the night of my death flashed through my mind.
At that time, I was three months pregnant, with my body covered in bruises from his relentless beatings.
I lay curled on the ground, pleading with him to stop:
“Gary, you can hurt me all you want, but even a beast wouldn’t harm its own child. The baby is innocent – how can you do this? Please, stop!”
But he was blinded by rage, his fists raining down on me like a violent storm.
He snarled at me, “Maggie, you think you’re fit to have my child? If it weren’t for you, Samantha wouldn’t have left me to go abroad, and she wouldn’t be marrying someone else tonight! You ruined my love, and now you’re going to pay with your life!”
So that’s how it was.
The woman he loved was marrying someone else tonight, and he wanted to take my life in revenge.
I was so tired, so exhausted from living.
Whether I lived or died, it didn’t matter anymore. I spat out a mouthful of blood and gave Gary a bitter smile.
“Do you know that you’re a psychopath? No sane woman would ever be with you. Samantha never loved you; she just used what happened with me as an excuse to leave you. What good is all your money? You’ll never win a woman’s love!”
His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at me.
“Fine. Let’s see if you can last until tomorrow!”
He grabbed a steel rod and, with all his strength, brought it down on my abdomen...