Reborn to Reject the Billionaire's Cursed Heir

1: 1

I was the wildest rose in the harbor city, and Nathaniel Sanchez was its most famous devoted romantic.

I spent my nights in bright lights and liquor and reckless spending; he spent his days pining for the one who got away, somewhere overseas.

So after the two of us married, it surprised no one that we became a couple bound by nothing but hatred.

Until an earthquake, when Nathaniel, already at the door, saw me fallen in the living room and turned back without a second's hesitation to shield me under his body.

When they pulled me out, I had only scrapes. Nathaniel spent half a year in the ICU.

After that, the wild rose settled down and became a clinging vine that never left the house.

I washed and cooked for Nathaniel, folded the blankets and made the bed, and stood as his most steadfast support.

The day he became the richest man in the harbor city, the same Nathaniel who had never been able to stand the sight of me suddenly said to me, Antonia, if there's a next life, would you still marry me?

Before I could answer, everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was somehow back to before I married Nathaniel.

When my father once again pressed me to marry Nathaniel in my sister's place, I lifted my head and looked at him.

Dad, I won't marry him.

01

His answer was a slap, hard and without mercy.

Antonia Pruitt, the Pruitt family didn't raise you all these years so you could do whatever you please!

Mom chimed in from beside him. Antonia, Nathaniel is a good boy. The Sanchez family may be on the decline, but even a starving camel is bigger than a horse. This is a good place for you to land.

My mother wasn't wrong. Nathaniel really was a good place to land.

He was gentle, a gentleman. Even at his most disgusted with me in that last life, he never once said a cruel word to me.

Even when I cursed him with the most vicious things I could think of, he only clenched his fists and swallowed it in silence.

He had the skill and the strength to hold up a collapsing house.

The Sanchez family was a tangle of infighting between factions, and outside the family a whole crowd of illegitimate children circled like hungry animals.

In all of that, Nathaniel forced his way into a firm seat as head of the Sanchez family and built the failing house into the richest family in the harbor city.

But in this life, I truly did not want to marry him again.

I looked into my parents' eyes and asked the question I'd buried in my heart all through the last life.

If Nathaniel is so wonderful, why won't you let my sister marry him?

Their faces changed in an instant.

How can you compare yourself to your sister! Mom said it before she could stop herself.

Then she realized how it had come out, and a flicker of guilt crossed her face.

She softened her voice and explained, gentle and coaxing, Your sister is going abroad to study art. It's the one thing she loves. Antonia, why can't you give this to her?

Every word I had stuck in my throat.

Because for as long as I could remember, I had given things up for my sister too many times.

Unlike other families, I had been born for my sister.

Augusta Pruitt was diagnosed at three months old with severe thalassemia.

She needed cord blood from a direct blood relative to be treated.

And so they had me.

For as far back as I could remember, my mother had told me, Antonia, you're healthier than your sister, so you have to give way to her.

The toys, the clothes my parents bought, my sister always picked first. Only what she didn't want came to me.

She loved spicy food, so the dishes at home were always spicy, and even though I was allergic to chili, there was never a single plate that was mine.

My mother would only say, She has a difficult temperament and doesn't like real food. She only eats the plain stuff.

And my father would add, If she won't eat, let her go hungry. Don't indulge that picky-eater nonsense.

When it came time for school, so I could look after my sister properly, they put me into first grade a year early.

When I couldn't keep up, they always said, Antonia was born slow. She's not as clever as Augusta.

I clawed my way into Harbor City University, and my father said, Antonia, the Pruitt family has no sons. We need a socialite to hold our footing in the harbor city. Your sister isn't well, so this is something only you can do.

So at eighteen I plunged headfirst into the world of glamour and status and became the harbor city's famous wild rose.

My sister, meanwhile, didn't do well in school. Her grades weren't enough for a good university.

My parents sent her overseas to study art.

Now she was about to start her master's.

And my parents wanted me to give way for her.

Give way to what? She was perfectly capable of continuing her studies after she married.

My parents simply believed Nathaniel had the one who got away in his heart, that my sister would suffer if she married him, so they didn't want her to marry him. That was all.

I lowered my eyes and said it plainly. Dad, Mom, the one who got away, the one in Nathaniel's heart, is my sister.

2: 2

02

In my last life, I loved Nathaniel Sanchez.

Not after he saved me, but from the very beginning, from the moment I married him.

He really was a good man.

I never told him what I liked, yet he knew at a glance that I couldn't eat spicy food.

He knew I didn't like bell peppers, didn't like sweets, didn't like milk.

He knew I didn't like pink, didn't like dresses, didn't like fussy, overdone interiors.

So he hired a cook who made Cantonese food for me, filled my closet with casual outfits, and had the whole house redone for me.

He even noticed when my lips went pale that my period had come, and had brown sugar water and painkillers ready for me.

Everything about him was good. He just didn't love me.

He wouldn't kiss me, wouldn't hold my hand, and certainly would never let his guard down and sleep beside me.

He and I were friends, not lovers.

Until the night he got drunk.

His secretary was on leave, so one of his friends called me instead, asking me to bring him home.

Nathaniel held his liquor well. Drunk, he only rested with his eyes closed, just a little slower to react, a little more docile than usual. Whatever you asked him to do, he would do it.

So I got him home without any trouble.

He usually slept in the guest room, but I took him back to his own room and brought him a glass of lemon water.

I meant to just leave, but looking at Nathaniel's lips, still pressed tight even in sleep, something drew me toward him.

I wanted to steal a kiss.

A kiss only I would know about.

That way I could quietly hold on to it alone at night, and not feel so lonely.

I lowered my head and lightly brushed his lips.

There and gone.

The next second, Nathaniel's warm hand pressed against the back of my head and pulled me all the way down.

Nothing like his usual restraint. Nathaniel bit at my lips, out of control, his tongue moving freely inside my mouth.

I was too startled to move, and could only let him take what he wanted.

Until at last, he sighed in satisfaction against my ear, and called out a name Augusta

Only then did I understand that the moonlight he kept hidden in his heart had always been my sister.

My sister and I shared the same mother, after all, and looked somewhat alike. It was no wonder he mistook me for her.

The only one to blame was me, for failing to keep my own heart in check.

And me, for not being able to break free of my family's grip.

Marrying him, I suffered, and so did he.

So in this life, I will let him go, and let myself go too.

Mom looked a little surprised, watching me as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

In the end, it was Dad who spoke Antonia Pruitt, the Sanchez household is a mess, and your sister is too soft. She'd only get walked all over if she married in. The two families arranged this match when you were children. There's no breaking it off, so you have to marry.

I pressed my lips together, wanting to ask why they were so biased, but in the end I never got the words out.

Because I already knew the answer.

My sister was their child. I was only their tool.

I clenched my fists, ignored the ache spreading up from deep inside, lowered my head, and said Augusta likes Nathaniel too. I don't want to hurt her.

3: 3

03

I found out how my sister felt the day Nathaniel came home from the hospital.

I took care of him at home, gave it everything I had.

He said he wanted soup, so I spent an hour busy in the kitchen.

By the time I carried the fresh pot upstairs, Nathaniel was gone.

The bedroom window stood wide open, the wind lifting the curtains high.

I panicked, terrified something had happened to him, and rushed to the window, only to see my sister standing down in the courtyard.

She demanded, "Why didn't you tell me it was you?"

Nathaniel's eyes were red, his whole body taut with restraint. "Better that I grieve alone than the two of us grieve together."

That was how I learned my sister had once had a boyfriend.

An online relationship. They'd never met, never even known each other's names.

Later the man was pushed into marriage by his family, and the two of them broke it off.

My sister was sick for a long time over it, wasted away to almost nothing.

Nathaniel drank himself under every day, in agony.

Neither of them knew they were meant to be husband and wife.

It was only by some cruel mix-up that I ended up wedged between them.

Nathaniel was the first to realize it.

At the wedding, the moment he heard Augusta Pruitt speak, he recognized the woman he loved.

My sister cried until she nearly fell apart. She grabbed Nathaniel by the collar and demanded like a woman gone mad, "You recognized me, so why did you still marry her? You could have called off the wedding, you could have made me the bride. Why didn't you!"

"If I'd done that, what would have happened to Antonia?"

My sister froze.

She'd grown up used to taking whatever she wanted from me, never once thinking about how humiliated I would have been if Nathaniel had called off the wedding that day.

A second earlier I'd been aching at the discovery of what the two of them felt for each other, but hearing Nathaniel say that, something sweet rose up in me despite everything.

I thought Nathaniel probably loved me. Otherwise why would he speak up for me instead of taking my sister's side?

But the next second, his words shattered every illusion I had.

"Most of all, the Sanchez family is too complicated right now. I don't want you to suffer."

What suffering was there in the Sanchez family?

Nothing but a few jabs from the elders, a few sneers from the cousins on the side branches.

What kind of suffering was that?

It wasn't even as hard as my days at home.

Yet even that small amount of suffering, they refused to let my sister endure.

Augusta Pruitt held Nathaniel's sleeve, tipped her face up to him, and asked, "Nathaniel, once the Sanchez family settles down, will you divorce her? Please?"

I stared hard at Nathaniel, even more on edge than Augusta.

Nathaniel gently tucked the loose strands of hair from Augusta's forehead behind her ear, and said, "All right."

I couldn't say what I felt in that moment, only that my future had already been given its ending.

And now, all I feel is relief.

Thank God I've been given this life again, a chance to set all of it right.

When I told my parents that Nathaniel was my sister's online boyfriend, they hesitated.

They didn't know how much my sister loved this boyfriend, but they knew she'd fallen gravely ill over him, had wasted away.

They ached for their daughter.

But the Sanchez family was in too much chaos now, and they were afraid my sister would lose out if she married in.

That was when I laid down my second bargaining chip.

"I hear the Griffin heir's father has ordered him to marry within the month. I'm willing to marry into the Griffin family instead."

4: 4

04

The harbor city had plenty of great families out in the open, but underground there was only one: the Griffins.

Rumor had it they held countless casinos, and could make more in a single night than most old families earned in a lifetime of grinding.

And the Griffins had only one heir, Gordon.

By all logic, people should have been clamoring to marry into the family. In truth, everyone kept their distance.

Because Gordon Griffin was cursed to bring death to his wives.

He had married seven times, and every wife had died a terrible death.

So no one in the harbor city dared marry him.

But I had no choice.

He was my only way out of the Pruitt family.

My parents hesitated.

Not because they thought marrying me off to Gordon Griffin was a bad idea, but because they were wondering whether Augusta would have a good life married to Nathaniel Sanchez.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then said, "Once I marry into the Griffin family, Gordon becomes Nathaniel's brother-in-law. The Sanchez family won't dare touch him or Augusta. And he loves her so much. She's sure to be happy."

Father mulled it over, then made the call. "I'll go see old Mr. Griffin tomorrow."

And just like that, the marriage was settled.

I went back to my room, and before I could even let out a breath, the phone rang.

An unsaved number.

But I knew it well.

It was Nathaniel Sanchez.

In my last life, we hadn't exchanged contacts until after we were married.

So I was certain. He had come back with me too.

I pressed answer, and Nathaniel's low voice came through.

"Antonia, I knew it. You came back too."

There was a smile in his voice, and it made something in me tremble.

I pressed my lips together and said nothing.

He was still smiling as he said, "Antonia, I'll come to the Pruitt house to see you tomorrow."

My heart skipped a beat.

I found myself wondering if I'd decided too hastily. What if, this time around, Nathaniel and I could be happy together?

What if he loved me too?

I drifted through the whole night in a daze.

When morning came, the dream was over.

Nathaniel did come to the Pruitt house. He wasn't there for me. He was there for Augusta.

He told Augusta who he was.

At first she couldn't believe it. Then she cried and thanked the heavens for arranging it, or the two of them would have missed each other.

I listened to the commotion from my room, strangely calm inside.

This was the outcome I'd seen coming all along, wasn't it?

Only after the house had gone completely quiet did I come out of my room.

Just Mother was left.

She told me Father had gone to the Griffins, and Nathaniel and Augusta had gone to Iceland.

Because Augusta's greatest wish was to see the northern lights in Iceland, just once.

I lowered my eyes and said flatly, "The Griffin marriage. Make it quick."

That same night, Father came back with news.

The Griffins were even more anxious than we'd imagined.

They wanted me to go with Gordon the very next day to file for the marriage license and move into the Griffin house.

Father had been hesitant at first, but the Griffins said they'd sign over three of their companies to the Pruitt family.

The moment he heard that, he agreed without a second thought.

So the minute he got home, he was pushing me to pack, telling me to be at the county clerk's office the second the doors opened the next day.

I had no complaints. I packed my things.

And when the Griffins sent someone to collect me, I got in the car without a fuss.

Meanwhile.

In Iceland, Nathaniel's eyelid twitched all at once.

He didn't feel that anything bad had happened, only that Iceland, locked in its endless night, was a little dull.

But he couldn't leave yet.

He owed Augusta too much in his last life, so in this one he meant to take her through everything she wanted to do.

And then marry Antonia with a clear conscience.

The thought of Antonia brought a faint smile to his lips.

"What are you smiling about?" Augusta asked, tilting her face up at him.

His smile dimmed a little. Every time he looked at Augusta, he thought of everything Antonia had suffered in the Pruitt house.

Still, he answered mildly. "Nothing."

He spent a month traveling abroad with Augusta.

She was reluctant to leave and pouted at him. "Nathaniel, let's stay a little longer, please? I don't want to go home!"

He felt a flicker of irritation. It was almost the time when he and Antonia had married in his last life.

This time, he wanted to give Antonia a grand wedding.

So for the first time, he refused Augusta flatly.

Augusta cried, heartbroken.

He didn't go to comfort her.

His mind and eyes were full of Antonia, and the thought of taking her as his wife again made him smile despite himself.

But when he returned to the Pruitt house, something felt off.

Calvin and Samantha asked him, all warmth, when he would be marrying Augusta.

He pushed down the unease in his chest and said in earnest, "Uncle, Aunt, there's been a misunderstanding. The one I want to marry isn't Augusta. It's Antonia."

"But Antonia's already married!"