CHAPTER 01
Ever since I was little, I often wondered:
“Why am I so unhappy?”
A father who treated me like property.
An abusive stepmother.
A half-brother who constantly racked up debt through gambling and failed businesses.
But the day I first met Paydan—
—I remembered my past life.
And I understood why I had been so miserable.
Because the world I lived in was inside a romance fantasy novel I had read in my previous life.
To the Arrogant You.
And I…
was the female lead of that very novel.
So I endured all my misfortunes in silence.
Even when my family abused me.
Even when hardship never stopped knocking at my door.
Because “I am the protagonist of this world.”
Paydan would love me forever.
And surely, a beautiful future full of roses awaited me.
Just like Cinderella, who lived happily ever after.
…Why hadn’t I realized that fairy tale endings aren’t promises of forever—
they’re just frozen snapshots of the most beautiful moment?
The “happy ending” of the original story didn’t even last a year.
Paydan brought home his first love, Elise, and handed me divorce papers.
Even then, I refused to believe he had changed.
“This can’t be happening… Paydan’s just going through a hard time. He’ll come back to me. He has to.”
Because our love was destined—
written in the pages of a story. So it had to be…
But what I got for clinging to that belief was—
“No matter what, how could you kill an innocent unborn child, Leticia?”
An accusation.
That I had caused the miscarriage of a child that never even existed.
With that excuse, Paydan kicked me out of the duke’s estate—without a single coin of alimony.
Suddenly homeless, I went to my family for help.
“What nerve do you have, coming back here? Because of you, your father’s business is falling apart!”
“We can’t even afford to eat. If you have a shred of shame left, disappear!”
With no more money left to squeeze out of me, I was nothing but a nuisance to them.
In the end, I faced winter on the streets.
Cold, starving, and utterly miserable.
That’s when I finally realized:
The most miserable a person can be… isn’t when your husband brings home a mistress,
nor when he demands a divorce for her.
It’s when you don’t even have money to die with dignity.
My pitiful life hit rock bottom when I happened to pick up a piece of stolen bread—
and got falsely accused of stealing it.
No one believed me when I tried to explain.
I was declared a criminal and thrown in prison.
All for a single piece of bread.
“Ha… haha…”
I laughed bitterly, like I’d gone mad, wrapped in the freezing cold of the prison cell.
Then one day—
A man appeared before me as I lay dying from tuberculosis.
I couldn’t see him well in the dark, and I didn’t try to.
Whether he pitied me or cursed me—
nothing mattered anymore.
I was about to let go of my fading consciousness when I heard his voice:
“Don’t you regret it?”
A question no one had ever asked me before.
And with it, something stirred inside me—
something small and long dead.
“…I regret it.”
To the point my heart could burst.
To the marrow of my bones, I regretted it.
I poured out everything I had never told anyone, in a scream-like confession.
That I foolishly believed fate had made a man like that my destined one.
That I couldn’t bring myself to abandon the family that never loved me.
“I just wanted to be happy.”
Why did I, who had done nothing wrong, have to die like this?
Why?
“I want my life back…”
It was too late now.
“If there’s a next life… I hope you’ll be happy.”
The man’s voice was soft, like a lullaby.
With that, I closed my eyes.
And at that moment—
‘…A butterfly?’
In my blurred vision, I thought I saw a shimmering butterfly.
But like an illusion, it vanished.
And when I opened my eyes again…
“I’m… back in the past?”
Somehow, I had returned—
to the very day I first received the divorce papers.
A second life, granted like a miracle.
And I made up my mind:
“This time, I won’t be a fool.”
Paydan, the male lead of the original story, was rich.
He owned many businesses.
Everyone knew that.
But there was one thing they didn’t know:
“Behind every one of his successes… was me.”
I was going to use my memories to steal all his wealth and businesses.
No more freezing, starving, or begging.
They would taste that life instead.
And me?
I would live in splendor, in happiness, more than anyone else.
“I’ll show you what real hell looks like, Paydan.”
In this life, I would take my revenge—
with money.
