BEN PUBLICATION

Love over richness

Five years ago, I gave my fiancé, Floyd Meyers, my neural interface to save his life after a car crash left him in a coma. He promised to cherish me forever, but now he's engaged to another woman, Jaylah Ryan. Together, they're publicly erasing me, making it clear I'm being thrown out of the house I once called home. In my last life, I broke down. I cried and begged for an explanation. He told me a psychic claimed I was the source of his bad luck. He had me locked away in a mental hospital, then drowned me in the cold lake behind our house, convinced he was freeing himself from a curse. I sacrificed a piece of my own body for him, and he repaid me with humiliation and murder. But I woke up again, back in this house, just days before their engagement party. This time, I will not cry. I will not beg. This time, I have an escape plan, and I will walk away before he can destroy me again.

Two months pregnant, my mother-in-law poisoned my dog that I had raised for seven years and beat my cat that I had raised for five years to death. My husband questioned me, "Are our child important or are these pets important?" Later, in the end of the world with high temperatures, they threw me out of the house after my child was born. I was roasted to death by the sun. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the pre-apocalyptic world. I immediately had an abortion and ran away with my furry children. I let my mother-in-law's family struggle in extreme heat while I enjoyed eating ice cream, using air conditioning, and playing with my pets in my own safe house.

My eighteenth birthday was supposed to be a fresh start, "Lottery Day" for the Life Path Augmentation (LPA) program. My toxic mother, Susan, was desperate for me to get the Support Role Optimization (SRO) LPA, reducing me to the compliant trophy wife I was in my first life before it all ended in tragedy. But then, my older sister, Jessica, whose insatiable greed for an "easy life" was legend, bizarrely elbowed her way forward, only to be ironically assigned the very SRO meant for me. As I stepped up, the machine hummed, then announced its shocking verdict: I received the High-Potential Innovator (HPI) LPA, the burden that had led to Jessica' s ruin in our previous timeline. My mother' s carefully constructed world imploded; Jessica' s triumphant smirk dissolved into furious disbelief. They immediately launched their counter-attack, determined to crush this "dangerous" potential. My Caltech scholarship, my lifeline to a real future, was brutally yanked away, deemed a distraction from my "duty" to support Jessica's floundering attempts at social climbing. Every penny I earned from grueling dead-end jobs was siphoned into their bottomless pit of familial exploitation. "Family comes first," my father would drone, a chilling echo of their manipulation from a past I desperately sought to rewrite. This was it – the same old cage, just with new bars. But they fundamentally misunderstood. Their betrayal only fueled the quiet revolution brewing within me. As their carefully laid plans crumbled around Jessica, I wasn't just enduring; I was processing, learning, plotting. And soon, the architect of their downfall wouldn' t just be a thought, but a force.

The phantom chill of icy water jolted me awake, but I wasn' t drowning in Lake Champlain; I was safe in my luxurious Boston apartment. My fiancé, Matthew, and his mother stood over my bed, demanding I sign papers to dissolve our shared assets, claiming it was just a formality. But I recognized this moment, a chilling deja vu-I had been reborn just thirty days before "The Great Silence." In my last life, this conversation ended with me refusing, crying, feeling utterly betrayed and abandoned. I remembered how he' d later abandon me to monstrous creatures, using me as a decoy for his pregnant mistress. This time, there were no tears, only a cold, hard resolve. I signed away everything we had built, but my enemies didn't realize they were signing their own death warrants. My plan wasn't just to survive the coming apocalypse, but to exact a ruthless, quiet revenge. I walked out, leaving Matthew clueless, carrying his driver's license-a silent weapon. I drove north to my reclusive father's fortified compound, desperate to warn him and bring my Army Ranger brother home before the world went silent. Days later, Matthew called, desperate and alone, his mother and mistress gone. He begged for help, but I sent him to a decoy cabin, tracked by a hidden camera. Watching him stumble in, not alone as promised, I saw his true nature. The ensuing fight drew creatures, and he resorted to a horrifying act of self-mutilation to survive. He eventually found our true haven, using a child as bait to draw the creatures to our gate. But I had one last, silent trick up my sleeve, linked to his greed and his pride. With a single click, Matthew's old smartphone became his personal alarm, a blaring siren in a world that hunted by sound. His end was swift, brutal, and orchestrated by me. We rescued the traumatized child, Elyse, a silent victim like my own brother, Andrew, who had also mutilated himself to save innocents. Our fortress became a home, a sanctuary of silence and love, as we rebuilt a new family from the ashes of the old world. We became protectors, finding purpose and happiness not in spoken words, but in the enduring strength of our bond.

My mother, Karen, stood by my hospital bed, her face cold as my heart monitor slowed. I was dying from organ failure, a sudden, rapid illness, while my older sister, Brittany, thrived as a popular influencer, celebrated for achievements that were, in truth, always mine. This wasn't just sickness. It was the "Exchange System"-a chilling secret weapon my own parents had wielded. They' d systematically pilfered my successes, my health, even my Stanford-bound SAT scores, to fuel Brittany's fabricated "genius." My entire life was a lie, a resource to be drained for her benefit. My father, Rick, a silent accomplice, watched as I withered away. Every talent, every ounce of robust health, funneled into Brittany. As the final heart monitor beep flatlined, darkness consumed me, the bitter truth of their monstrous deceit searing my soul. How could my own family turn me into a mere resource, stealing my very life until I perished, all to elevate another's hollow existence? The injustice suffocated me. Was I truly just a battery for my "genius" sister, erased from history by those who should have loved me? Then, light. I gasped, bolting upright in my own bed. It was a month before the SATs-the turning point where my life last pivoted to its tragic end. The memories of my death, of Karen' s icy words, were vivid. This time, I would not be their victim. I knew their system. And this time, I would break its rules.

My name is Sarah Miller, and I’m reliving the worst day of my life. I’ve already lived this nightmare once: my five-year-old daughter, Emily, gone. She’s found drowned, and chilling security footage shows *me* pushing her into the pond. The first time, I was branded "Monster Mom," a "Child Killer," and died in prison, screaming my innocence. My parents withered under the shame. But I woke up, back on that same Tuesday. I vowed to change everything, locked every door, kept Emily home. Yet, she vanished from our locked house. And the footage? It still shows *me* pushing her. My husband, Mark, erupted in rage, my mother-in-law shrieked accusations as I was arrested. How can this be happening again? I changed everything! The house was secure! Who is doing this? Who is truly framing me in this impossible loop? As the handcuffs clicked, a desperate, insane lie tore from me: "It wasn't me! It was my parents! They’re the killers!" This shocking accusation, born of raw anguish, bought me precious time. It forced the police to look beyond the obvious, leading them to a fake preschool setup and the terrifying truth: my identical twin sister, Jessica, thought long dead, was alive. And she wanted my life.

My life was a blueprint for success. Ethan Miller, a rising star in architecture, about to claim the American Horizon Architectural Prize, surrounded by my loving sister Ashley, my beautiful fiancée Victoria, and even my adopted brother Jason. But one call, one dark warehouse, shattered it all. Ambushed, my hands crushed, my career obliterated, I woke to a nightmare. My own sister and fiancée, the women I trusted most, confessed to orchestrating the brutal attack to clear the path for Jason’s success. They abandoned me in an earthquake, then left me for dead on an exploding yacht, all while publicly slandering my name to cover their tracks. The betrayal was a pain far deeper than any broken bone, a horrifying injustice that twisted my soul. Why them? Why Jason? Why this absolute destruction of my life? But just as despair threatened to consume me, a mysterious offer emerged: "reforging" through Phoenix BioGenesis. I accepted, not for healing, but for a chilling rebirth, returning as a ghost of my former self, a silent observer ready to meticulously dismantle the lives of those who thought they had won. This time, the masterpiece would be my revenge.

Dr. Evelyn Reed had finally done it. Three years of relentless work, the neural interface cure for her paralyzed husband, Ethan, was a success. A triumphant smile touched her lips as she reached for her phone to share the life-changing news. But an email caught her eye, a cheerful invitation that turned her world to ice. "Dr. Ethan Vance and Miss Tiffany Reed request the pleasure of your company at the celebration of their marriage." Ethan. Her husband. Tiffany. Her own niece. It was a sick joke, a complete error, yet the high-end Parisian wedding agency confirmed its legitimacy. Her joy evaporated, replaced by a cold dread as she drove through the night, a ghost to a celebration she was never meant to see. She saw him there, standing, whole, laughing, with Tiffany tucked into his arm, radiant in white. He kissed her, a tender kiss meant for the world to see, and Evelyn' s world tilted off its axis. Then she heard them talking, overheard their cruel confessions: he had always loved Tiffany, while Evelyn was merely "a necessary step," "a convenient solution." The man she had sacrificed everything for, the man who had promised his undying love, had been betraying her for two years with her own blood. The pain of betrayal, the hollowness of her sacrifice, the absolute injustice of it all, left her hollowed out, empty of tears. She watched him walk away from her in the hospital, choosing Tiffany, right after a fire, right after she found out a bomb, orchestrated by Tiffany, nearly killed her. This wasn't a love triangle; it was a war, and she was losing. Driven by a quiet, ice-cold resolve, Evelyn began to fight back.

Waking up and settling into a dangerous situation, Jordyn Barker suddenly turned into a special soldier of the future, when the world had just experienced a terrible disaster with thousands of dangerous monsters always lurking human's life. Her journey to become a great soldier begins here.

The flickering TV in my dingy motel room was the only light, illuminating the peeling wallpaper. On screen, Ethan Vance, my ex-fiancé, smiled his perfect, camera-ready smile, touting 'EvolveAI' and his "future-defining" Prometheus algorithm. Reporters swarmed him; he was the king of Silicon Valley, the brilliant mind behind the world' s most advanced AI. My world. My code. My future. He had stolen it all. Everything. I remembered the day he left, his eyes cold and empty, my three years of coding on a hard drive in his bag, a venomous "You were always just… holding me back." He didn't just take the code; he took my savings, my reputation, blacklisting me from an industry I helped build, all while Bethany Cole, my best friend, stood arm-in-arm with him, eyes gleaming with triumph. They left me with nothing but eviction notices, forcing me to sell everything I owned, living as a ghost under pseudonyms, cleaning up security flaws for companies that would never hire Scarlett Hayes. The pain of that betrayal was a constant, suffocating darkness, a deep pit I couldn' t climb out of, trapped by unseen enemies and their whispers of my failure. But watching him on that screen, basking in my stolen glory, a cold, sharp rage began to burn through the despair. In that cheap motel, I swore a vow: I would get justice, I would take back what was mine, and he would not build his empire on my ruins. My chance came weeks later: a vulnerability in his IPO network led me to a familiar digital signature-a back door I'd built into 'Prometheus,' a failsafe only I knew. He was arrogant, so certain he' d erased me he never looked for the ghost I' d left behind. He was on the verge of becoming a billionaire. And I had the key to his kingdom. A slow smile spread across my face. The game wasn't over. It had just begun. I wasn't going to be a victim. I was the storm he never saw coming. I would let him climb to the peak of his triumph. And then, I would burn it all to the ground.