Our bridal room was set on fire, and my husband, a firefighter, was grievously wounded while trying to save me. I sent him to be saved at the hospital where Winnie Sloan, his childhood friend worked, but the surgery ended up being a failure, and my husband passed away.

After the announcement that my husband was deceased, Winnie told me that his dying wish was that he wanted a child. Hearing that, I powered through my grief and used the sperm he had previously frozen to conceive a child through IVF, raising my son to be enrolled in the most prestigious university in the area.

On the day of the celebration party, my son kicked me out and invited my husband and Winnie onto the stage as his 'biological parents', and that's when I found out that my husband had faked his death.

All those years ago, he and Winnie had swapped out the embryo I'd conceived in secret. The son I had painstakingly given birth to and raised turned out to have no blood relation to me whatsoever. Meanwhile, my husband had been enjoying a luxurious life overseas with Winnie while waiting for a chance to reconnect with his son.

In my rage, I confronted them and demanded an explanation, but ended up dying because they pushed me down the stairs.

When I came to, I was back to the day of the fire.

Roaring flames lit up the bedroom, sending waves of heat and smoke that choked me to tears.

"Sweetheart, stay there and don't move!"

Hearing the voice message my husband sent me, I finally realized that I was reborn.

My husband's name was Joey Pierce, and he was the captain of the local firefighters. In my past life, I trusted him completely, not moving a single muscle even when my flesh was burning while waiting for him to come in and save me.

It was only after my death that I found out that he had intentionally told me to stay there, where the flames were the most severe. With his logic, the more pain I went through, the more it'd be deserving of him 'saving my life'!

Thinking back to how I was discriminated against after being disfigured in the fire, I immediately doused a blanket with water and dashed out of the room, covering my nose and mouth.

"Nina?"

I had only just arrived at the living room when I came right upon my husband, wearing a firefighter's uniform. Without a second word, he tore the wet blanket right out of my hands, and shouted, "Why didn't you follow my orders?!"

His expression was fierce and vicious, just like when he pushed me down the stairs.

All at once, the memories started flooding back, my limbs pulsating from phantom pains, and I instinctively tried to flee the scene.

Before I could do anything, however, Joey carried me by the waist and hoisted me to the nearest window. "Sweetheart, you go first! This is too dangerous!"

Then, he opened the windows and pushed me out right onto the mattress below, and the brunt force of the fall knocked me right out.

By the time I woke up again, I was already lying in the hospital.

"Miss Nina, your husband isn't doing very well!" Without caring for my injuries, a nurse snatched me right off my bed towards the operation room.

In my past life, I waited for Joey here too, and I almost passed out crying after I heard that he couldn't be saved.

The next moment, the doors to the operation room opened, and Winnie walked out, pushing Joey who was covered with a piece of white cloth.

"I did all that I could." Her eyes were red, and she glared at me with hatred. "He died from the fire, all because of you! If you have any conscience left, take care of his parents and relatives for the rest of their lives!"

In my past life, I felt nothing but tremendous guilt at her words, and I immediately kneeled in front of Joey, reaching for his hand and swearing that I'd take good care of his family.

After that, my parents-in-law asked me for money time and time again so that they could enjoy their lives, not caring that I had a son to raise. His relatives followed suit, citing the excuse that I was the one who had caused Joey's death in the first place.

I worked hard all my life to feed their family, yet Joey was enjoying large condominiums and luxury cars overseas with Winnie, enjoying trips all around the globe.

Back to the present, I only stared right at Joey, thinking how I'd get this horrendous couple to pay the price for what they did to me.

Seeing how I was unresponsive, Winnie's tone became rushed. "Nina, how can you be this ungrateful? This is your responsibility!"

In response, I only rolled my eyes at her and took out my phone, dialing a number.

"You… You're terrible!" Winnie pointed at me as she started to sob.

"Miss Sloan, what's the problem here?" Joey's teammate, his vice-captain Tony Ross pushed me aside and led his teammates to surround Winnie in a protective circle. From the looks of it, they were worried about poor little Winnie, and their glares told me as much too. If one didn't know better, they'd think the firefighters were glaring at a wanted convict.

"It's all my fault…" Winnie choked as she sobbed, but I could see the vindictive glee in her eyes. "I don't care how Nina treats me, but Joey died because of her! How can she play games on her phone at a time like this?"

Hearing this, Tony reached towards me and grabbed my phone, smashing it towards the ground angrily before pointing at me. "Apologize to her right now!"

Seeing this, Winnie continued pushing the line. "Nina, you probably weren't educated well at home, but playing games in a hospital like this is very disrespectful!"

I didn't say anything, only bending down to pick up my phone. Thankfully, it was good quality enough to have survived the impact.

"What an awful person!" Tony shouted. "I respected you as Joey's wife, but I didn't expect you to be someone this disgusting!"

I ignored her, only swiping the button to accept the call on my phone.

"Hello, is this the Body Donation Center?"

"Yes, what do you need?" The voice of the staff resounded, and everyone turned to look at Winnie. Within moments, I'd managed to expose her for lying about me playing games on my phone, and her face was flushed in embarrassment.

"I want to donate my husband's corpse," I said. "He just passed away, so can you please come to Charity Hospital as soon as possible?"

The staff on the other end immediately agreed, and said they'd need thirty minutes to arrive.

Thirty minutes, huh?

I wondered how long Joey could last.

Winnie finally reacted to what I was doing, and her eyes widened. "How could you donate Joey's body? He's not going to be able to rest in peace!"

Tony didn't offer a single word of apology for blaming me for something I didn't do, and continued to be Winnie's staunch supporter. "That's right! Who knows, maybe this is a ruse, and you plan to sell Joey's organs to the black market! I won't be surprised if a woman like you does something that dirty, after all."

The other firefighters nodded and voiced their agreement, looking at me as if I was a piece of irredeemable trash.

I thought it was a waste of time to try to explain anything to them, so I just took out the digital body donation application form Joey and I had signed.

In my past life, Joey had agreed to sign a body donation form with me to placate me, and I had forgotten all about it, too occupied with grieving his sudden death. By the time I remembered, his body had already been cremated and buried, so I threw it to the back of my mind.

Even Tony couldn't say a single word in rebuttal, seeing Joey's signature on the donation form.

"No, you can't donate his body!" Winnie ran and stood right between me and Joey. "His organs were damaged badly from the smoke, so it wouldn't have any value!"

She was a doctor, so she knew better than anyone that her reputation would be utterly destroyed once the people from the body donation center verified that Joey wasn't dead.

"Well, that's for the people from the body donation center to decide, isn't it?" I asked. "Even if his organs are damaged, I'm sure he could make great contributions for the medical field, right? He's a wonderful, selfless man who sacrificed his life to save me, so I'm sure he'd agree with my decision."

Hearing this, Joey's teammates started becoming convinced by what I had said.

"That's true, our captain was a good man…"

"Donating wouldn't be all that bad, at least we'd be able to see him at the medical school…"

Easily enough, I noticed how Joey's toes were trembling in fear, and how the white cloth on his forehead was damp with cold sweat.

If he was exposed for faking his death, his reputation that he had spent such a long time building up would hit rock bottom in no time.

Seeing how futile her efforts were, Winnie started going with a different approach.

"Actually, Joey had one last wish!" She exclaimed, reaching to grab my hand. "He wanted you to have a baby for him through IVF! You're responsible for his family losing its successor, so you should give birth to one for him!"

As she talked, she glanced at her subordinates standing beside us, and their hands scrambled towards me, holding me in place as Winnie continued to speak. "I already sent in a request for his sperm to be unfrozen, so they're going to become inactive if you don't go there soon. How will you take responsibility for their family line ending?"

In my past life, all I could think about was giving birth to a baby, an extension of Joey's life, and I didn't even care that I was still weak and frail.

In the end, I only gave birth to an ungrateful child, Winnie and Joey's flesh and blood instead of mine!

After my son grew up, he started contacting them behind my back, and was brainwashed by the two into treating me as a free nanny at his beck and call.

Once I outgrew my usefulness, he kicked me aside and reunited with his birth parents. They were all parasites, each and every one of them!

This time, I wouldn't let Winnie have her way.

Reaching to grab Joey's bed tightly, I shouted, "I won't move a single step until the people from the donation center arrive!"

Winnie's plan was as clear as day.

She wanted to make me go away so that she could transfer Joey's body in secret, thus avoiding the people from the donation center. My reaction, evidently, made her completely lose any semblance of composure.

"Nina!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "You're just trying to buy time until Joey's sperm becomes inactive!"

"How dare you?!" Tony glared at me, before raising his hand in a full arch and slapping my face, making it numb immediately.

"You have no other choice!" He said through gritted teeth, and it almost looked like he was trying to kill me with his glare alone. "If you didn't set your house on fire to attract Joey's attention, he wouldn't have died! You owe this to him, and you will never be able to repay him even if you spend the rest of your life trying!"

"I… set my house on fire…?"

I was dumbstruck, and it only seemed to make him even angrier.

"Don't even try to say you didn't, because I have proof!"

After he said it, he threw his phone at me, showing me the chat history between him and Joey and the messages he had sent right after I reported the fire.

He was complaining to Tony about how I had set our house on fire again, saying that I was petty and jealous, wasting public resources to get his attention.

Of course, I had never committed arson on purpose. When our house went up in flames, I was cleaning the bathroom without any access to anything that could cause a fire.

In all the years we were married, I always suffered quietly, not telling him about any of my woes since he was working hard as a firefighter. Naturally, I had never committed arson at all, much less because of petty jealousy.

I turned to look at Joey again, realizing that he was even worse than I'd imagined.

There was small wonder, then, why the firefighters treated me coldly in my past life, and why I always had a hard time finding a job no matter where I went.

So he was the cause, tricking everyone into believing that I was nothing more than a foolish woman who had caused her own husband's death because of jealousy.

"Nothing you can say to this, huh?" Tony asked smugly. "Come on guys, let's get her to do the procedure!"

I was able to deal with Winnie's assistants, but a whole team of firefighters who were put through grueling and systematic training was a whole other story.

In a rush of adrenaline, I grabbed a knife placed on a nearby table, and held it against my stomach.

"Come on then!" I threatened. "If anyone takes one step closer, I'll make sure I can't ever give birth!"

Tony and the others didn't dare to move, and I glanced at the clock once more.

Ten minutes left.

Another ten minutes, and I'd win this war of attrition.

Winnie was quick to notice the time they had left, and her shouts became frantic. "Get her! She wouldn't dare to actually stab herself! Are you going to take responsibility if Joey's sperm becomes inactive?!"

"Right! She wouldn't…"

Tony and the others stepped closer towards me.

In the past, I would've hesitated, but this was nothing compared to the strife I had experienced in my past life.

Without any hesitation, I plunged the tip of the knife into my stomach, and my shirt was quickly dyed with blood.

Tony froze on the spot, while Winnie continued having a fit.

She wanted to use my womb to spare herself the pain of childbirth, after all, so she wouldn't want me to lose the ability to give birth.

She stared at me like a hawk for a few more moments, before an idea popped seemed to pop into her head, twisting her expression into a mocking sneer as she sent a message on her phone.

And so, time passed by, second by second.

I was still bleeding, but I only had to hold out for another five minutes.

Another five minutes, until I can…

"You give me my son back!"

My in-laws appeared without warning, and kicked me to ground while I wasn't expecting it.

My mother-in-law stepped on my throat and reached down, tugging my hair gleefully. "We've already called the police! We'll get you arrested for committing arson and killing my son!"