Chapter 1
Aria Whitmore died on Christmas Eve.
A stranger slit her throat in one swift motion, and her vision
instantly flooded with crimson.
“Die,” a man’s voice growled from behind her. “You shouldn’t
have come back. You stood in Tessa’s way–took everything that
was rightfully hers!”
Aria crumpled to the ground, her body drenched in blood.
The searing pain forced her to curl inward, her consciousness
flickering like a dying flame.
‘Tessa? My sister? I stole from Tessa? Aria thought, her mind
sluggish. But I’m the Whitmore heiress. If anything, Tessa took
everything from me,‘ she wondered.
Her parents adored Tessa. Her brothers worshipped her. Even
her fiance had fallen for her.
Tessa was the golden child, blessed with everyone’s devotion.
She had fanatics, too–people so blindly loyal they’d commit
crimes for her.
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Clutching her bleeding neck, Aria almost wanted to laugh. You
didn’t have to go this far.
The cancer had already been eating her alive for two years. She
didn’t have much time left anyway.
‘There’s no cure. I’ve been ready to die. This is just an early
release, she wondered.
She forced her breathing to steady, waiting for the suffocating
agony to fade.
While the killer was gone, she fumbled for her phone and typed
a message into the pinned family group chat.
Aria: [Guys, I’m dying. If anyone’s free, come collect the body.]
She didn’t want to rot undiscovered for days.
Or maybe she just wanted one last reason to fight for her life.
Tessa: [Aria, I’m so sorry! This is all my fault! I’ll tell Mom and
Dad and the boys to come home right away. Please don’t hurt
yourself–don’t do anything reckless!]
Lucas: [Are you insane? You’ve been threatening suicide for
years. If you really wanna die, go do it somewhere else. Collect
your corpse? Disgusting.]
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Mason: [Noted.]
Mom: [Aria, sweetheart, stop competing with Tessa, okay? We forgot to tell you we were celebrating her birthday. That’s on me. Don’t blame Tessa, please?]
Dad: [Today is Tessa’s special day. Do you really have to ruin everything? When did you become so cruel? I’m disappointed in
you. Keep this up, and I’ll disown you.]
Lucas: [Ignore her, Dad. She’s a pathological liar. Always faking
suicide for attention. Pathetic. Tessa’s the only sister I need. Aria,
I regret ever bringing you home.]
‘Tessa’s birthday? Aria’s chest tightened. But it’s mine too,‘ she
wondered.
The messages kept coming. The knife wound hadn’t hurt this
badly.
Now, though? It felt like her heart was being ripped apart. She
trembled violently.
So this was her family’s reaction to her death.
Aria laughed bitterly. No matter how hard she’d tried–how
much she’d humbled herself, begging for scraps of their love-
she’d never been enough. Not for her parents‘ warmth, not for
her brothers‘ protection.
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This was it. She surrendered. No more hoping.
With her last bit of strength, Aria smeared blood across her
screen as she typed:
Aria: [OK. I’ll die now.]
No more fighting. No more competing with Tessa.
The pain swallowed her whole. There was no surviving this.
Aria closed her eyes and waited.
Just before the darkness took her, fireworks exploded over the
distant mountains.
Christmas had arrived.
The killer returned, stuffed her into a small suitcase, and locked
her away in a damp, pitch–black basement.
When Aria opened her eyes again, the world was blinding
white. The sharp scent of disinfectant burned her nostrils,
jolting her senses awake.
The searing pain radiating through her body served as a cruel reminder–she had been saved. She was in a hospital.
I’m alive? She almost laughed. How lucky.
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The evening sun blazed outside, painting the room in gold. The
clock on the wall ticked steadily. Aria reached for her phone, the
screen lighting up with a soft glow.
She checked the date, then stared at her bandaged wrist. A sharp
throb pulsed beneath the gauze.
Aria closed her eyes.
In her previous life, she had died.
In the end, her corpse had been stuffed into a suitcase, left to rot
in obscurity.
But now? This wasn’t survival. She had traveled back in time-
five years into the past, to the year she turned twenty.
