Chapter 1

When I got my second chance at life, the first thing I did was scatter my husband’s ashes.

In my last life, he faked his death, leaving his ‘orphan’—his younger brother’s son—in my care. He told me to treat his family, a supposedly widowed sister-in-law and her nephew, well. I worried my daughter, Lily, wasn't sharp enough to make her own way, and I thought maybe the nephew could look out for her if she couldn't find a partner. So, I agreed to his dying wish.

For Kyle, I gave up the secure job I’d worked hard and paid so much to get, and I emptied out our family savings to help Kyle and his wife settle in the city. Years passed. They rose through the ranks to become high-ranking officials. I took Lily, hoping they’d give her a stable job.

But Dean, my supposedly dead husband, appeared at their office. He ordered Kyle to kick my daughter to the ground.

“I thought you’d changed,” he sneered. “That you weren’t the desperate village woman who clung to me for a chance to move to the city anymore. But no, you’re still the same, trying to scheme for that worthless dead weight!”

He instantly had us thrown out. To keep up his good name, he even forced Lily into a remote, abusive marriage as a second wife to Old Man Riley, deep in the mountains. I was so enraged, my old illness flared up, and I collapsed and died right there on the street.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back—the day Dean faked his death.