Reborn to Destroy Him

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Roman viciously tore at my underwear, his scalding breath crashing against the hollow of my neck.

My eyes snapped open.

My entire body went rigid like Id just been struck by lightning.

A second ago, I was dragging heavy iron chains, coughing up blood, and dying in the agonizing throes of terminal stomach cancer.

Now, I was back in the exact moment he pinned me down.

To forever chain this ruthless ambitionistthe boy our family adopted to inherit the empire and act as my arranged husbandmy mother had just spiked his drink with a heavy dose of aphrodisiac.

In my previous life, this very night caused him to miss out on his true love. In retaliation, he locked my mother in a basement like a dog, imprisoned me in the master bedroom like a tyrant, and tortured me day and night with his suffocating, twisted possessiveness until I took my last breath. This was the catalyst for his deranged revenge.

Without a second of hesitation, I grabbed the heavy glass jar and smashed it brutally against his head!

Crash!

Glass shattered into pieces.

In this life, I refuse to be his plaything.

Chapter 1

"Mmph!" A blistering weight crushed me into the mattress. Callous lips branded a frantic trail down the side of my neck. The heavy iron chain locked around my ankle clinked sharply against the bed frame with every brutal thrust of his body.

Roman's fingers clamped around my throat. A dark, twisted smirk stretched across his lips. "Cleo, playing the starvation game with me now?"

"Every day you refuse to eat is another day I have someone make your mother's life a living hell. Let's see who breaks first. Your frail body, or hers"

"Brother." My eyes shifted blankly. The word slipped from my cracked lips.

Roman's movements abruptly halted. The temperature in the room plummeted. "What did you just call me?!"

Not in the past. Not in the present. For over twenty years, I had never once called Roman "Brother."

I knew from childhood that I was groomed to be his wife. Why would I ever call him that? But today I wanted to.

"Brother." A hollow, lifeless curve touched my lips. "Seven years. Hasn't it been enough?"

Since the day he married me and completely swallowed up my father's empire. This twisted revenge had dragged on for seven agonizing years.

In the beginning, I fought for a divorce, offered settlements, and even tried to end my own life in every way imaginable. But in the end, he forced me to give up. Because Roman held my mother's life in his hands.

If I behaved, her dog-like existence in that damp basement would be slightly less miserable. The truth was, I wasn't intentionally starving myself. I just couldn't keep anything down. The late-stage stomach cancer was a jagged blade twisting relentlessly in my gut.

"Enough?" Roman sneered, a sinister shadow crossing his face. His fingers clamped brutally around my jaw, forcing a bowl of warm broth down my throat.

"Cleo, what you owe me a lifetime wouldn't be enough to repay. Didn't you and your mother live in terror that I'd abandon you?"

"I promise you this. We are never, ever parting in this life. Are you satisfied, little sister?"

I was forced to swallow half the bowl of broth, but a violent heave wrecked my chest. I threw it all back up.

His face darkened into a furious mask. He flipped me over violently, his grip twisting painfully into my long hair.

"Refusing to eat? Fine! Then we continue!"

He lashed my wrists to the headboard with his silk tie, pinning me down. I had no choice but to endure his vicious, beast-like plundering, every thrust fueled by pure retaliatory rage. My body and mind were ripped apart in tandem.

Until the metallic copper stench churning in my ruined stomach could no longer be held back. Warm blood surged past my lips. Crimson droplets splattered against the pristine white sheets.

Roman's voice cracked in a sudden, panicked frenzy. His trembling fingers desperately wiped at the blood bubbling from my mouth. But the more he wiped, the more it poured.

"Cleo! Cleo! What's wrong with you?!"

My body went slack. Staring up at the blinding crystal chandelier overhead, a smile of liberation touched my bloody lips. "Roman in this life, we are finally even. Let my mother go."

A dizzying fog swallowed my brain, but a crushing weight remained pinned against my body. My brows knitted together. I forced my heavy eyelids open.

The sight of a deeply familiar, yet long-forgotten ceiling greeted me. My breath hitched. Was I not dead? Where the hell did Roman take me?

It didn't look like a hospital room. And it certainly wasn't the sterile master bedroom where he had chained me for seven years. It looked exactly like the house we used to live in.

RiiipThe silk of my pajamas was torn open, sending a violent shock of cold air across my bare chest.

A pair of distinct, calloused hands clamped down on my skin. A shudder ripped through me, goosebumps erupting across my skin.

My panicked gaze shot downwardcolliding straight into a pair of bloodshot, predatory eyes.

Chapter 2

Roman, looking noticeably younger, loomed over me. His chest heaved with heavy, ragged breaths, his eyes clouded with a feverish haze. Scorching kisses branded the skin of my chest.

A jolt of electricity snapped through my brain, sending my body into a spasm. This why did this feel exactly like the night my mother drugged him?

My gaze frantically darted around the room, taking in the familiar, suffocating decor. I was absolutely certain. It was that night!

Only last time, crippled by stomach pain, I had taken the "medicine" my mother gave me and passed out entirely. I never woke up to stop the nightmare from unfolding. But this time by some twisted miracle, I was awake.

"Roman! Brother, get a grip!" I shoved hard at his shoulders.

"Look at me. I'm Cleo. Your sister!"

Roman's body froze. He raised those bloodshot, disoriented eyes, staring at me in confusion for a few agonizing seconds. His brows knitted tightly together.

But I had clearly underestimated my mother's ruthless determination to secure this marriage. She had force-fed him nearly half a bottle of hard liquor. Mixed with the heavy aphrodisiac she had slipped him, whatever fleeting clarity Roman possessed shattered in seconds.

His burning palm slid down the curve of my waist, his frantic, uncoordinated fingers hooking violently into the waistband of my underwear

I grabbed the heavy glass jar filled with handwritten love notes from my nightstand and smashed it viciously against his head without a single second of hesitation.

Roman's heavy body slumped forward, pinning me down.

And then, he went limp.

I stared coldly at the dark blood seeping from his forehead, my chest heaving violently. In this life, to hell with the arranged marriage. To hell with family obligations. I just wanted him completely out of my life.

I tilted my head back, gasping wildly for air, and squeezed my eyes shut like a survivor crawling out of the wreckage. Thank god. Thank god.

A muffled buzzing vibrated under the bed.

I shoved Roman's dead weight off me, trying to crawl up and find the source of the noise. But the moment I sat up halfway, the room spun violently.

Whatever my mother had slipped into my stomach medicine was finally kicking in. I swallowed down a sickening wave of nausea, a thick, suffocating darkness creeping into the edges of my vision. Right before I blacked out, I realized what was vibratingRoman's phone.

The person calling was definitely Cecelia, the girl he secretly kept locked deep in his heart

"Oh, Cecelia, you're here. Looking for Roman? Come in, come in."

The muffled sound of conversation drifted in from outside the room. It was my mother, greeting a guest.

I pressed a hand to my throbbing temple and forced myself to sit up. Bright morning light was already spilling through the windows. The chaotic sound of footsteps approached my door.

"Roman is in Cleo's room."

"Huh? It's so early. What is he doing in Cleo's room?"

The lingering fog in my brain vanished instantly. My heart plummeted. Shit!

Cecelia was our former neighbor. Growing up in the same elite compound, our family, Cecelia's family, and Hayes's family were practically inseparable. Roman and Cecelia were the quintessential "perfect children" everyone else was compared to. They had been fiercely competitive since childhood, fighting over everything from grades to pride, all the way from high school through college.

On the surface, they looked like bitter rivals who couldn't stand each other. But in reality, they were just one confession away from crossing the line. Everyone knew exactly why my father adopted Romanto groom a future son-in-law to take over the family empire.

So, Roman and Cecelia made a pact. On the day of his college graduation, he was going to come clean to my mother. He would repay our family for raising him. But he would absolutely not do it by selling himself into an arranged marriage.

Instead, Roman was forced to down lethal amounts of liquor by my mother, drugged out of his mind, and missed all her calls. Terrified that something had happened to him, Cecelia showed up at our front door first thing the next morning.

Chapter 3

And then, intentionally guided by my mother, she bore witness to the horrific spectacle in my bed. Shattered and disillusioned, Cecelia went home, surrendered to her family's arranged marriage, and married the wrong man. Roman, fueled by endless regret and venomous hatred, dragged me through a twisted, agonizing hell for seven years

A muffled groan sounded against my leg.

The unconscious Roman stirred. He dragged himself up, his brows knitted tight, and pressed a hand to the back of his head. "Hiss"

His disoriented pupils slowly focused, ultimately locking onto my face. Roman's body violently stiffened, a violent tremor tearing through his eyes.

"Cleo!" He lunged at me, his hands violently shaking as they frantically pawed at my face and my lips.

Like he was desperately trying to wipe something away. His voice was furious, yet it trembled unmistakably.

"Who gave you permission to cough up blood?! Why didn't you tell me you were sick?!"

"Without my permission, you don't even have the right to die, do you hear me?! If you dare to die, I will torture your mother until she begs for death!"

Every word exploded like a bomb next to my ear. My body went completely rigid, a violent, uncontrollable shudder ripping through my chest.

"Roman, you" You were reborn too, weren't you?

Before I could finish, the doorknob turned. The people outside were coming in.

Panic flared. Without a second thought, I launched a vicious kick, sending Roman crashing off the bed. I instantly snatched the blanket and completely covered my exposed body. Dozens of handwritten love notes tumbled from the bed onto the floor as I violently yanked the covers over myself.

"Roman, are you okay?!" Startled by the sight of him on the floor, Cecelia rushed in and frantically tried to help him up.

But Roman just stared at her like a complete idiot. After a long beat, a name slipped from his lips in disbelief. "Cecelia?"

"Yeah." Cecelia nodded, a faint flush creeping across her cheeks. "I called you last night, but you never picked up. I was terrified something happened to you, so I I came to check on you."

Roman's pupils violently contracted. He instantly exhibited the exact same reaction I hadfrantically scanning the room in absolute disbelief. He was clearly processing the shock of his own rebirth.

But my mother, who had not been reborn, reacted with ten times the intensity. Seeing that we hadn't slept together, her voice instantly spiked an octave. "What is going on? Why haven't you two"

"Mom!" I desperately cut her off. "I accidentally knocked over the stomach medicine my brother just brought me. Can you mix me a new cup?"

"And have the cleaning staff come in and sweep up the glass. Ugh, what a shame. That glass jar full of notes got smashed, too."

I lifted my gaze toward Cecelia, who looked visibly relieved, and offered a soft smile. "Cecelia, you're here for my brother, right?"

"Yeah." Cecelia nodded, stealing a shy glance at Roman.

By now, Roman had completely snapped out of his shock. He took a slow, deep breath, staring directly at her face, his voice low and hoarse. "Cecelia, it's been a long time."

Roman and Cecelia stepped out to talk. But before leaving, he adamantly insisted on sweeping up the shattered glass in my room himself. Including every single handwritten note scattered across the floor.

Carefully. Meticulously. Not leaving a single piece of paper behind.

As he carried the trash bag out, he paused, throwing a long, unreadable stare at my mother and me. But in the end, he didn't say a word, slowly pulling the door shut behind him.

Chapter 4

I didn't care. I collapsed back onto the bed, letting out a long, shuddering exhale like I'd just dodged a bullet. "Scared the hell out of me."

"Cleo." My mother sat on the edge of my bed, her face ghost-white, trembling hands gripping the sheets. "Don't you love Roman? Why didn't you make him stay?"

My eyelashes fluttered. A familiar, dull ache hollowed out my chest. But more than anything, I just felt a crushing sense of relief.

"But he doesn't love me, Mom. You can't force these things. We can't just hold his adoption over his head and force him into a transaction."

My mother buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with desperate sobs. "If Roman really marries Cecelia, what happens to us? He'll throw us away! What about your father's company?"

I knew exactly what was going on. My mother wasn't just terrified of losing the golden boy she had groomed to be her son-in-law. She was terrified of losing the empire my father bled to build.

Roman was the "heir" my father had hand-picked and trained. But without a marriage certificate, he was an outsider. If he took over the company and decided to gut us out of spite he was a massive liability.

"But Mom." I pulled the blanket tightly around me, sitting up and wrapping my arms around her. "You set a trap for him. Aren't you terrified he'll resent you?"

"What if he marries me, swallows the company, and locks us both in this house just to torture us? We wouldn't have a protector."

"We wouldn't even have the leverage to fight back. I'm the only one you can truly trust."

My mother's sobbing abruptly stopped. She stared at me for a long time before finally saying, "Cleo, I promise I'll find you a powerful husband. A son-in-law who can take over your father's company."

I stared at her, completely speechless. That is not what I meant, Mom! Is it entirely impossible that I don't need a husband to fix this mess?

Roman didn't come back all day. By 10:30 PM, he was still MIA. But around eight, Cecelia updated her Instagram. The photo was a candid shot of Roman's profile.

The caption read:

[You are worth my courage.]

I silently double-tapped it and left a completely genuine comment:

[So happy for you two!]

Not long after, my phone rang. The voice on the other end was cold, magnetic, and completely straight to the point. "Come out. I'm at your front door."

I pressed my lips together, a strange knot forming in my stomach, and offered a soft, "Yeah."

I grabbed my jacket off the bed and shoved my arms into the sleeves. Right as I reached for the front door, my mother suddenly perked up. "Cleo, is that Hayes?"

"Yeah." I nodded, my fingers freezing on the doorknob for a second.

Hayes. The youngest son of the Hayes family, the third pillar of our elite compound. My childhood best friend. In my past life, he was the poor bastard who married Cecelia, drew Roman's psychotic jealousy, and ended up completely destroyed in the crossfire.

Oblivious to my sudden tension, my mother's eyes lit up as she leaned closer. "You know, Hayes is a great catch. We know his roots, his family background is perfect, it would be a total power merge"

Click. The front door suddenly swung open from the outside, the wood gently bumping against my shoulder.

Roman stepped into the entryway, bringing a violent rush of crisp autumn air with him. He held two takeout bags of Pad Thai in his hand. It was from the spot my mom and I loved most.

His icy gaze dragged over my jacket. "Where are you going this late?"

Chapter 5

I paused, my fingers unconsciously curling into tight fists.

In my past life, Cecelia and Hayes faded out of my world early on. I had no idea if their marriage was actually happy. All I knew was that Roman despised Hayes from that point forward.

Every time their paths crossed, Roman's mood would turn violently dark. He would come home and ruthlessly punish me in dead silence

"Just going for a walk." I pressed my lips together, refusing to tell him who I was meeting. I simply brushed past Roman, pulled the door open, and stepped out into the crisp night air.

"Mom." Roman swapped his shoes and walked in. I lingered by the half-open door, hearing him set the takeout bags onto the table, his tone perfectly steady. "Brought you late-night takeout."

Through the crack, I saw my mother's eyes tremble, a sheen of tears pooling in them. "Roman, last night Mom was just terrified"

"Mom," Roman chuckled softly, cutting her off. "I understand. And please believe me, I will never forget the grace you showed by taking me in."

"No matter who I end up marrying, I would never abandon you or Cleo. Let the past stay in the past."

My mother choked back a sob, nodding frantically. She was about to speak when Roman, casually snapping apart a pair of disposable chopsticks, asked in an offhand tone, "It's late for Cleo to be heading out alone. I wonder if it's safe."

"Don't worry," my mother laughed softly. "She went to see Hayes. With Hayes around, she'll be perfectly fine."

"Roman, Hayes isn't just a partner at a top-tier law firm, he's always been incredibly attentive to Cleo. If those two were to marry, it would be an absolute power merge, don't you think?"

Snap.

The disposable chopsticks in Roman's hands splintered into two jagged pieces.

Under the dim amber streetlights, a black Porsche 911 sat quietly by the curb. Its aggressive, aerodynamic curves somehow looked understated and composed right nowjust like the man sitting in the driver's seat.

The driver's side window was rolled halfway down, revealing a sharp, jaw-dropping profile. Spotting me, Hayes subtly tilted his head toward the passenger seat. "Get in."

I pressed my lips together, lowering my gaze as I pulled the heavy door open and slid into the leather seat. The suffocating tension in my muscles inexplicably melted away. I let out a soft exhale.

"Want to go see the sunrise?" Hayes's low, magnetic voice filled the enclosed space.

I blinked, momentarily caught off guard, and shook my head. "No."

Hayes shot me a sideways glance. "Find a bar? Cry it out?"

I sighed, shaking my head again. "No need. Really, it doesn't hurt that much."

I wouldn't deny that it still stung. But honestly? I was also relieved. Happy, even.

Hayes threw me a skeptical look, clearly not buying a single word of it. "You better be."

I knew he didn't believe me. After all, he knew exactly how hopelessly obsessed I had been with Roman. He knew how my entire existence used to revolve around waiting to marry him.

"Hayes, I know this sounds crazy right now, but I genuinely don't love him anymore. He's with Cecelia, and I'm actually happy for them."

His knuckles turned stark white against the leather steering wheel. He turned his head, his dark, unfathomable gaze pinning me down for a long, heavy moment. Completely out of nowhere, he asked, "That glass jar full of notes I gave you the day before yesterday did you open it and take a look?"

I froze. A flush of awkwardness washed over my face. "I mean, I hit something with it and it definitely broke open. But I wouldn't exactly call it opening it"

Confusion rippled across Hayes's face. He clicked open his seatbelt and leaned his broad frame over the center console, invading my space.

We were so close that, to anyone looking through the windshield, it looked exactly like we were kissing. He locked his gaze onto my eyes.

For the first time, a trace of nervous tension leaked into his voice. "What do you mean you wouldn't exactly call it opening it? Don't tell me you gave it to someone else?"

"Oof," I winced, guilt twisting my features. "I didn't give it away, it's just"

Chapter 6

The passenger door was violently ripped open.

Before my brain could even register the sudden blast of freezing air, a brutal grip clamped around my bicep, physically dragging me out of the leather seat.

Slam!

The heavy car door was shoved shut.

Roman towered outside in his black wool trench coat, his face carved from ice.

The hand locking my arm in place squeezed with bone-crushing force. He was digging in like he was trying to snap my joint in half. A dark, feral hostility churned in his pupils, looking ready to tear me apart.

"Cleo, you let him kiss you? You actually let him put his mouth on you?! Did you agree to it?!"

I completely froze. "He didn't" kiss me.

"What, Roman, don't think I'm good enough to be your brother-in-law?" Inside the Porsche, Hayes casually sat back. A mocking, dangerous smirk played on his lips as he stared Roman down through the half-rolled window.

His voice was deceptively calm, but every single word dripped with venom. "You're busy playing house with your own girlfriend, but you're still micromanaging your sister's love life? Caring this much about Cleo aren't you worried Cecelia might get jealous