Fidelia woke with a violent gasp, her lungs burning as if she'd been drowning.

Her heart was hammering hard against her chest.

Her hands flew to her face feeling it and she found no oxygen mask. Then she pressed her hand on her chest feeling the heartbeat race.

She gulped air desperately, trying to calm herself down.

The prayer she'd screamed in those final moments when she was clinging to her life, pleading for one more chance. That prayer had been answered.

'I'm alive. I'm breathing. I can't believe it'

She grabbed her phone from the nightstand. The screen lit up and she saw the date

4th of November 2024.

WHAT!!!

The phone slipped from her trembling fingers.

November 2024. That was eight months before the wedding. Eight months before Bridget pulled her hair. Eight months before Silas stood over her hospital bed and pulled the mask from her face.

She had travelled back in time eight months before she died.

"No," she whispered. "No, no, no—"

She restarted her phone but the date didn't change. The familiar walls of her bedroom surrounded her—the curtains she'd replaced in January wasn't there, it was still the old ones.

She looked around the wall, the crack in the ceiling from the earthquake wasn't there, it hadn't happened yet.

She had really travelled back in time.

She pressed her palms against her eyes, but she could still see it: Silas's cold expression as he watched her suffocate. Bridget's satisfied smile. Alice's calculated cruelty.

'They killed me. My family killed me'

The thought should have broken her. Should have sent her spiraling.

Instead, something else crystallized in her chest—something sharp and cold.

'You all killed me once'

Fidelia slowly lowered her hands. Her reflection stared back from the darkened window across the room. She looked at herself in a deep frown and spoke:

"I won't let you do it again."

She stood on unsteady legs and walked to her desk. Opened her laptop then her fingers hovered over the keyboard for just a moment.

Then her fingers started moving around the keyboard together with her eyes on the screen fiercely with determination.

They thought she was weak, naive, easy to manipulate and easy to kill.

She was going to let them keep thinking that.

Fidelia Crawford had died once.

The woman they'd meet tomorrow at breakfast would be someone else entirely.

…………..

The next morning, Fidelia woke up in her bed.

Today was the day Silas proposes to her. The day she said yes like a fool.

She held her phone, steeling herself for the events that would unfold today.

Fidelia had a good memory, and she hardly forgot anything. Lost in her thoughts, a sound came from the door.

"Fidelia, breakfast is ready… Are you awake?"

After saying this, she didn't bother waiting for a reply before leaving. It sounded like a normal routine to her. Hearing her voice, the anger deep inside Fidelia started boiling.

That was her stepsister Bridget, the one that nearly killed her. No—she did kill her. It was something they had all planned and decided.

They all had a hand in her death: Bridget, Alice, and Silas. And Fidelia was coming for each one of them.

They were the only family she had, yet they made her miserable. What exactly had she done wrong right from when she was small? Fidelia really wanted to know why she was treated as an outcast.

Yes, she knew she was adopted, but was this the fate of all adopted children, or was hers just different? They always made sure she felt like shit.

Fidelia stayed lost in her thinking when her phone rang, and she saw the caller ID: Babe.

That was what she had used to save the person who had killed her. She couldn't believe she had fallen for him.

'Was I that miserable?' she asked herself, remembering his confession.

The phone rang again, and this time, she picked up.

"Hey, babe, hope you didn't forget lunch by 3:30 p.m."

Hearing the sound of his voice, Fidelia's stomach twisted. For a split second, her traitorous heart still ached for him—for the man she thought he was.

Then she remembered: the cold look in his eyes. The oxygen mask in his hands. The flatline.

Her jaw clenched.

'You're not real. You never were.'

She had deeply fallen in love with him.

She wanted to be with him. She really wanted to forgive him.

The past Fidelia wanted to tell herself she was still alive and that Silas was innocent—that it was the one from the future who had killed her.

Then she snapped.

"Am I stupid?" Fidelia said out loud, as the flashes of her death reflected in her head.

At that point, she saw him, looking at her coldly and expressionless.

Why did she struggle to breathe even before her death?

'This was all an act.'

Silas had looked at her coldly and expressionless while she struggled to breathe—moments before her death.

'This was all an act,' she said again, in denial.

Silence replied from the other side of the phone, confused by what she had said.

"I'll be there, don't worry," Fidelia said and dropped her phone.

Fidelia swore she was going to take her revenge on every single one of them.

'I'm not going to be weak-hearted again, and I will never be. I died, and I'm not planning on dying again till every single person has paid.'

And like that, she had made up her mind. Fidelia freshened up and grabbed her bag.

Before that, she opened her laptop and scrolled for a while.

When she was finally done, she had gotten the location she wanted.

She closed the laptop, kept it in her bag, and then left her room for the dining.

"What took you so long? Your food was getting cold," Alice said.

'Yeah Cold. Like your freaking heart.'

Fidelia forced her hands to unclench under the table.

"I think she took her time to dress this morning. Is there a plan I'm not aware of?" Bridget said, smiling.

'You have no idea.'

Fidelia smiled back, sweet and innocent. "How did you know? Are you spying on me?" Fidelia said jokingly.

At this point, Bridget laughed, and Alice followed.

"What are you both hiding from me? Come on, tell me."

"You shouldn't mind Bridget, Mom. I'm just going on a date with Silas this afternoon."

Fidelia smiled like she didn't know they had all planned it out.

The fake smiles and the sudden act of kindness were all so she and Silas could start dating, get married, and then wreck her.

"Oh, that's nice."

"Who knows, more surprises may appear today."

'You can't imagine the surprise I have planned,' she thought to herself.

"I can't wait," she said out loud.

She smiled in sudden joy, thinking she really had talent in acting.

She finished her meal and left the house.

All she really wanted was peace of mind, away from this pit of hell she called her family.

And she was going to destroy them, no doubt.

But her heart was still shaking.

She really wanted to control her emotions.

Immediately, she stepped out of the house, she felt her chest in pain and almost tripped.

The second she stepped outside, her legs gave out. She caught herself against the wall, gasping. Her chest felt like it was caving in.

Breathe. Just breathe.

She'd just sat across from the people who murdered her. Smiled at them. Laughed with them.

Her hands were shaking. She pressed them flat against the cold stone until they stilled.

Not yet. Fall apart later. Right now, you have work to do.

She had to hold the wall to stay on her feet.

She told herself she had been so disgusted seeing the people who had planned her death.

And she was pretending she didn't know.

Fidelia Crawford was the first daughter, second child of the Crawford family.

She had an elder brother who hardly greeted her, but she didn't care.

She preferred a secret and private life, an identity no one knew about her.

Fidelia took out her car keys and went to the car, driving to the salon.

She needed a better look for someone who was going to seduce someone important for her revenge plan to work.

"How do you want it?"

Fidelia was looking at herself when the hairstylist asked, "The usual cuts, right?" But Fidelia didn't want the curly look anymore.

"No, I don't want the curls anymore."

This got the hairstylist shocked. She had only asked as part of her usual routine, so she didn't expect the response from Fidelia.

Stretching into something sexy, Fidelia said she had long hair, and she felt she needed a confident, sexy look.

Fidelia opened her eyes and saw a beautiful, sexy lady in the mirror.

For the first time, she smiled as she looked at herself.

The hairstylist said even she was shocked by Fidelia's transformation from a nerd to someone hot.

But something didn't feel right—and it was the outfit.

"I need to change my outfit. I can't miss the epic date," Fidelia said.

Then she paid the stylist and told her to keep the change.

Fidelia checked her watch. 10:47 AM. Right on schedule.

She'd hacked Mia Thompson's calendar last night after her resolve formed. Salon appointment, 10:45. It was almost too easy.

She adjusted her new hair in the mirror and waited.

Then she stood up, she was about to leave when she heard her name.

"Fidelia."

Acting like she hadn't planned to meet up with the person in front of her, she smiled.

"Reporter Mia, wow, it's been a long time."

Fidelia started walking to hug her.

This was her classmate back in the day.

She was a reporter, but not an ordinary reporter—the one that targeted politicians, exposed their scandals, and revealed their bad deeds.

"You really look different than the last time I saw you," Mia said.

"Really? Well, things happened. Speaking of things, let's have a drink. We need to talk."

Mia was shocked and confused.

They were schoolmates, but they needed to talk?

The Fidelia everyone knew was the weak lady, but what no one knew was that she was actually a hacker.

She enjoyed hacking, but she always used it to help people—those who were scammed, she recovered their losses and all.

Now, she was going to use it for something quite dangerous in her revenge plan.

Before leaving her home, she had checked a potential ally, hacked into her database, and found Mia Thompson's schedule. So she made it look like a coincidence, meeting her there, before she had her hair done.

"Mia, how would you like a juicy story? About two months from now, be ready to publish it."

Fidelia started with a catchy intro, and it worked. Mia was feeling invested.

"Who am I talking about here?" Mia asked seriously.

"Someone you would love to destroy. The first son of the Carson Empire," Fidelia said.

"Silas?"

Mia was really shocked and caught off guard.

She had been targeting Silas for quite a while now, but everything she had done had always backfired or been covered up.

"Yes. Silas Carson."

Fidelia smiled dangerously. Her first ally had been won over.

Fidelia had sealed the deal with Mia, but it wasn't that easy.

But Fidelia didn't expect easy after all.

Fidelia needed Mia to trust her, so she promised she was going to send a gift to her before the agreed time.

She was from a wealthy family, but she was only the eldest daughter in public. Meanwhile, she had no position in the company. She had limited access to money and property.

While driving, Fidelia finally decided her next stop.

She went shopping for outfits she would wear on her dates.

She only bought three complete sets before she moved on and then she entered a computer café.

She needed to fulfill her promise. The promise she had made to show her first ally what she could do.

When she entered, she scanned around and saw that there were a lot of computers, and people were using them.

So she took a spot that was quiet and far from the noise and people around her.

"Let's begin."

She clapped her fingers, logged into the computer, and her hands started moving really fast.

She kept on inputting codes and a series of codes as she was in the process of hacking into the phone of her target.

Her target was a spoiled brat who was stalking young girls online.

In no time, she got into his Instagram account, which was very easy for her.

"Oh, you piece of shit," she said.

Had she been a few minutes later, he would have already posted it to his anonymous account.

She wiped out all the chats, videos, and pictures that were on his phone.

The brat had blackmailed girls in his school to send their nudes.

Then she said, "Done." as her hands finally stopped as she pressed the button.

"What the hell? What's wrong with my phone?" Billy Barton said.

He was the rich brat who had been having fun sexually abusing his classmates.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Billy held his phone tight and started hitting it on the bed hoping things would changed.

What he wanted to do had failed.

He could not find the chats, videos, or pictures of his new plat thingy he had saved.

He wondered if his phone was being hacked.

Still looking at his phone, it suddenly went blank and then some characters and letters started forming.

Then the display screen changed and then a video played.

It was a video of him and his friend smoking and harassing girls at the back of the school gym.

He watched the video playing and his eyes widened in shock and fear, how was the video still here when he had deleted it from his phone.

His mind was racing as he thought after a while, some text messages started forming:

Continue your ways, and I will make sure the whole world sees it.

After that, his phone went back to normal but Billy was terrified to the core.

He couldn't let that video go viral If not, his father was going to kill him.

Immediately his phone went back to normal, he went to his gallery and deleted all the pictures and videos he had.

His phone was hacked, right?

So, now that he had deleted them, he planned to use a new phone to continue what he had been doing.

He quite enjoyed what he was doing and didn't want to stop.

And then, as if whoever hacked him really knew what he planned, the video played again on his screen.

And Billy was terrified now. He held his shaking hands together as beads of sweat were starting to form.

Realization hit him that he seemed he had messed with someone he shouldn't have and that thought scared the hell out of him.

Then suddenly a message popped up again:

'Last warning. Do not test me'

Immediately after the message popped up the phone went back to normal.

It was as if Fidelia could reach Billy's mind, but she had only predicted and decided to give him a second warning.

But she still wasn't done.

"I'm not done yet," she said, staring at the screen.

It wasn't moving again.

Then she closed the screen of his phone.

Billy was quite worried and scared that he stood far away from his phone.

After a while, he moved closer, switched it open, and unlocked it with his fingerprints.

Right after using his fingerprints, the phone started acting up again.

This time, it wasn't his Instagram-it was his bank account.

The fingerprints he had just used gave Fidelia access to his bank account.

She had copied them, so she could use them to open his bank account.

As she did that, she wiped out half of what he had for allowances and savings.

Billy was seeing what was happening and he was screaming, trying to stop it as he continuously tapped on the screen.

Then he smashed his phone on the ground, hoping it would stop, but it was already too late.

The money had gone-and just like that, it was sitting in one of Fidelia's burner accounts.

Her hands went back on the keyboard as she continued typing, focusing on the screen.

She kept on typing as if she was searching for something, and her eyes widened.

She found it-three victims from Billy's blacklist.

Immediately, she twitched, then hacked into their phones.

Then, in no time, she got his accounts and wired the money inside.

Then, she left a note:

Compensation.

After she was done, she sent the same video to Mia.

Mia checked her phone and said, "Wow... how did you-" She paused, then shook her head. "Never mind. We have a deal."

And then she hung up.

---

Now she had another plan. She was going to hack a billionaire who had just hit big before he lost everything.

The main reason Fidelia had gone to the cybercafé was simple-hack the funds of a multimillionaire.

Her first target was Andrian Richardson, the so-called third son of the Richardson empire. Bridget's beloved fiancé.

She smirked. She wasn't going to attack them head-on.

Not yet.

No, she told herself. This has to be slow. Painful. When I'm done with them, they won't ever get back up.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, a blur of motion. Files opened, passwords cracked, hidden folders unearthed. Every minute gave her more-emails, transactions, records-everything Andrea Richardson thought he had buried.

Then she found it.

Her eyes narrowed.

Crypto?

There it was-news about him buying a massive amount of cryptocurrency in her past life.

"Cryptocurrency," she muttered under her breath. "So that's where the money went."

But why would Andrea, the "third son no one takes seriously," dump money into digital coins?

Then she remembered.

Bridget had once mentioned that one of his coins skyrocketed in value, making him ridiculously rich.

Fidelia chuckled bitterly.

Yeah... but that was before he got hacked.

This same man who had made billions was wiped clean, and he was a mess after.

"Yes, let me wipe you clean, my dear."

She used her most advanced hacking tool to break through, then went back to work. She created dozens of new wallets and crypto accounts, then wiped everything clean.

"Oh, I see you already hit big," she muttered.

She transferred the money from his account into hundreds of crypto wallets she had created and saved every private key.

"Almost done," she whispered.

She had seen this before-others getting caught-so she had to clean up quickly so no one could trace her.

Her hands were starting to hurt now, but she didn't give up.

Now, all the funds of the billionaire were with her.

Then she went into the crypto market. At this point, it was at its low limit.

Then she was done.

She started clearing her traces, saving the passwords.

She reset her timer, shaving off another ten seconds.

I have to work faster, she told herself.

She logged out from the server, removed a flash drive, and shut down the system together with her laptop.

Then she clenched her fists in victory-and everyone in the café strangely looked at her.

But she didn't care.

She took her phone and made the phone call.

"Hi. This is Fidelia Crawford."

"Yeah, I know. My son-to-be's sister. Hello."

"Don't be so sure," Fidelia murmured, too low for him to catch.

"Yeah... so what did you want? I don't think you've called me before," Andrea said on his phone.

Hearing the sound of his voice, Fidelia was sure the big news hadn't hit him yet.

"To help you," she said. "Check your account. I wiped it clean not long ago."

"What? You must be joking."

Andrea didn't believe it. He thought it was a prank.

"Go on. Check. Do you think I'm bluffing?"

He went ahead to check and he couldn't believe his eyes.

The account was empty, like-fucking clean.

"Who the hell are you and what do you-"

"Calm down. Relax. I'll give you everything back," Fidelia said.

Andrian wasn't stupid. He didn't have the upper hand here so he thought for a while, then spoke.

"What do you want?"

"It's simple," she said.

"Marry me." Then she hung up and texted him a location where they would meet.

....

Author's Note:

Dear readers, please drop a review-it would mean a lot. I'll be releasing many new chapters soon!

By now, no one should be home. Alice was always at her spa by noon. Bridget at her gym pretending to "train."

The Crawfords' mansion had never felt like home, but today, it felt like a chessboard.

"Let's begin."

From her bag, she pulled out the tiny cameras she'd purchased on the deep web. They weren't cheap she had to drain one of her crypto wallets for them - but they were worth every cent.

She started with the common areas: the living room, the hallways, even the kitchen. She placed one behind the chandelier in the dining room, one under the glass coffee table in the lounge, and one inside the large vase by the stairs.

Then she reached the master bedroom - Alice and my adopted father's room. It was quite bigger than the rest of the other room

She slipped a camera into the bookshelf, another near the bed frame.

Something tugged at her mind and she stared at the desktop on the dresser.

Her gut told her to check it.

She powered it on, bypassed the simple password (Alice's birthday - amateur), then hit the first wall: an encrypted system inside.

"Let's see what you're hiding, Mother," Fidelia muttered, her fingers flying across the keyboard. It took her five minutes to break through.

And what she found made her blood turn to ice. She saw her room live on screen

She clicked through other folders. Video archives.

They'd been watching her. Sleeping. Dressing. Crying.

They'd been watching everything.

A hollow laugh left her throat. "So that's your game? Watching me like a lab rat?"

Two can play at this game.

She wiped every video of herself clean, replacing them with glitching static feeds. If they checked, it would look like a corrupted system.

Then she inserted her flash drive and copied everything else - all their video archives, encrypted files, and even personal emails. She didn't know what she'd find yet, but she would use it.

Then, the CCTV alert chimed. A live feed popped up, showing Bridget and Aliceat the front door, and she was punching in the pin.

"Shit."

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, overriding the system. She scrambled into the admin settings and set a temporary lock.

"Invalid code," the screen read.

Outside, Bridget cursed. "What's going on? Did you change the code?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Alice snapped, trying again.

Invalid!

"Why isn't this working?"

Fidelia smirked. "Not today."

She yanked her flash drive out, closed every program, and powered the computer down. Then she bolted out and ran to her room.

It was only after Fidelia calmed herself that she came out of her room and found her stepmother and stepsister in the living room.

"We're back," the stepmother said.

"Welcome," Fidelia replied casually.

They turned to look at her, then glanced at each other before looking back. Their expressions shifted instantly, surprise, maybe even confusion.

"You... you've changed all of a sudden," the stepsister said, her tone unsure.

"Aren't you supposed to be on your date? At least after this round?" the stepmother asked.

"I'll be leaving soon," Fidelia said, unfazed. "I bought a new outfit, so I came home to change."

"Oh, that's true," the stepmother muttered, her expression still caught between surprise and something else.

"You... look really different," the stepsister added. Her words sounded like a compliment, but the uncertainty in her voice betrayed her feelings-she wasn't sure if she was impressed or simply displeased that Fila suddenly looked stunning.

"Yeah," Fidelia said, brushing off their stares. "I changed my haircut too. I didn't like the old look."

Without giving them more time to respond, she turned and walked back into her room.

She had two things to accomplish today, and she was ready.

By the end of today, she would have prepared shocking news on her enemies. She made sure every plan was in place.

Fidelia stepped out of the house and got into her car.

She looked really hot and sexy so much so that Alice and Bridget couldn't help but suspect something was up

Fidelia got into her car, ready to drive.

Just then, she received a message from Silas: "I'm already here, waiting for you."

She quickly replied, "I'm almost there. Order me a good wine-I'm really craving it."

Fifteen minutes later, she arrived.

It was a truly fancy restaurant-one of those places popular among the rich.

Fidelia halted for a moment and smiled, staring at the glowing sign. This is good... really good, she thought.

She walked inside, her heels clicking against the polished floor.

As she scanned the room, she spotted Silas waving at her from a table in the distance. But she wasn't looking at him.

Her eyes locked onto someone else.

A strikingly handsome man-clearly wealthy-sat not far from Silas. His suit was perfectly tailored, the top buttons undone, revealing just enough of his chest. He was on his phone, looking effortlessly powerful.

Fidelia walked closer, heart racing slightly, and then spoke.

"There you are," she said, her tone smooth. "Hi, I'm Fidelia."

She stretched out her hand to shake his, taking in his presence.

Seeing him in person now... she felt something strange.

She had met him somewhere before-she was sure of it. But she couldn't quite remember where.

Andrew's eyes widened in surprise.

He had met her just last night.

They had a one-night stand.

Is she pretending... or does she really not remember? he thought to himself, keeping his expression neutral.

"You already know who I am," Andrew said calmly, "and a lot about me already."

He shook her hand firmly, then gestured for her to sit.

But she didn't.

Instead, she gave his shoulder a light tap. "I'll be back. I have to take care of a big mess," she said casually.

Without waiting for a response, Fidelia turned and walked away, her heels echoing against the marble floor.

Andrian turned his head, watching as she confidently strode toward another section of the restaurant.

Fidelia walked back and sat down at the table Silas had reserved for the two of them.

"Who was that?" she asked casually.

"Never mind," Silas replied, glancing briefly in the direction she'd gone earlier. "That was Bridget."

"Oh," Fidelia said, brushing it off as if it didn't matter.

"You're late," Silas added, his tone teasing but with a hint of reproach.

"Yeah... I had to take care of something," Fidelia replied smoothly.

Silas didn't want to spoil the atmosphere, so he simply nodded and said, "Okay."

Then, with a small smile, he opened the menu. "I already have an idea of what we should have."

But before Fidelia could respond, Silas snapped his fingers.

Almost immediately, a small band of musicians appeared from the side of the restaurant, playing a soft, romantic tune on their trumpets. One of them handed Silas a bouquet of fresh roses, which he took with ease.

The sound of the music made several diners turn their heads toward them.

Fidelia raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What are you up to, Silas?"

Then Silas stood up.

Seeing this, Fidelia slowly stood too, sensing something unusual.

He walked closer to her, then suddenly dropped down on one knee.

The restaurant gasped in unison, a quiet murmur spreading among the guests as they all turned to watch.

Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him pull a small velvet box from his pocket.

Silas opened it, revealing a sparkling ring.

His eyes locked onto hers as he said, firmly and clearly,

"Fidelia Crawford... will you marry me?"

Gasps and whispers filled the room. Someone nearby muttered, "Oh my God, he's proposing!" while another diner whispered excitedly, "She's so lucky."

Fidelia blinked in surprise, then smirked slightly. "You sure know how to draw attention," she whispered teasingly.

"Only for you," Silas replied with a confident smile, still holding the ring out toward her.

"Say yes!" A woman at another table suddenly called out, making the room chuckle softly.

Now, every eye in the restaurant was on her, waiting.

Everyone was expecting her to say "yes." But if only they knew that the e person she was about to marry was the devil himself. Someone who had killed her, at least, that was what it felt like.

Fidelia laughed suddenly, covering her mouth. "No... no, I won't," she said.

And then-silence.

The entire restaurant went still. Forks paused mid-air. The music faltered.

"No?" Silas repeated, his voice low, almost disbelieving.

She met his gaze, her eyes cold. "No. I'm not going to get married to you. The engagement is off."

The band stopped playing, an awkward silence spreading like wildfire.

People were whispering now. Why did she say no? What's happening?

Silas slowly rose to his feet, confusion and anger swirling in his expression. "Fidelia, come on... stop joking," he said, his voice unsteady. "What's going on?"

She didn't reply.

Instead, Fidelia calmly poured herself a glass of wine, lifted it to her lips, and took a slow drink as if nothing had happened. Then, without looking back at him, she turned and walked away.

Some distance away, behind one of the pillars, someone had been watching the entire scene unfold-Andrew.

So... she was even engaged? he thought, stunned. What was the whole deal with asking her to marry him? Was it because of this?

Silas followed her, his steps heavy, calling her name in a low, desperate tone.

But Fidelia ignored him.

She walked with purpose, heels clicking against the marble floor, until she arrived at another table-Andrew's.

She sat down across from him without a word, her face composed as if nothing had happened.

"Can we go somewhere more private?" she asked him, her voice soft but commanding

"And hold my hands like we are a couple."

"What...why should i. I barely know you, " Andrian said, sounding like he wasn't impressed by her tone.

"Have you forgotten about your assets so soon?" Fidelia said with a grin.

"Fine." Andrian closed his eyes and sighed, accepting his fate. By that time, Silas was already by their table.

Seeing this, Andrian stood up, and then he moved close to Fidelia.

"Babe, let's go," Andrian said with a smile and caught Fidelia off guard as he stretched his hand.

'Hmm, you pick up fast..perfect.' She wouldn't lie his action caught her by surprise.

But then another surprise happened.