Framed By Family, Reborn By Love

My family framed me for corporate espionage, and my uncle told me I was dead to them. So I obliged. I faked my own death and built a new life as Elia Parker, a successful architect married to a tech mogul.

But after five years, my past refused to stay buried. My cousin found me at my own grave and dragged me to a public event, parading me around like a ghost.

My uncle, who left me to rot in a hospital, feigned shock.

My aunt shrieked that I was a monster for faking my death.

Then she lunged, her nails raking across my cheek and drawing blood.

"You ungrateful bitch!" she screamed.

As I stood there bleeding, my so-called family just watched, not one of them moving to help. It was the same cold indifference that had destroyed me five years ago.

Just as I was about to break, a voice cut through the chaos, quiet but radiating power. "Is everything alright here, Elia?"

It was my husband, Javier Bates. And the look on his face told me their world was about to burn.

Chapter 1

Jillian Henry died on a Tuesday. The day was gray and cold, much like the stone that now bore her name. I stood before it, the damp earth clinging to my Italian leather boots, a stranger looking at her own obituary. The name etched into the granite-Jillian Henry-felt like a relic from another lifetime, a ghost I had long since buried.

"Jillian Henry. Beloved Daughter. Cherished Friend." The words were a mockery.

They were lies, every single one of them. The only truth on this polished slab was the date of death: five years ago. Five years since I ceased to be Jillian. Five years since Elia Parker was born.

A shiver, cold and unwelcome, stole down my spine. It wasn't from the November chill, but from the raw, exposed nerve of a past I thought I had perfectly cauterized. This stone, this meticulously carved lie, was a monument to their deceit, not my memory.

I ran a gloved finger over the cold inscription. The stone was newer than most, its edges still sharp, its surface glistening with fresh rain. Too new for someone supposedly dead for half a decade. It screamed of an afterthought, a convenient narrative for a story they wanted to sell.

A faded silk ribbon, once vibrant red, was tied to the corner of the headstone. It was mine. A ribbon from my high school graduation, given to me by my mother. It was brittle, frayed, but unmistakable. The sight of it made my stomach churn.

A shuffling sound broke the quiet. An old man, the cemetery caretaker, rounded a row of ancient oaks, his breath pluming in the frigid air. He paused, his gaze snagging on me, then on the headstone. His eyes widened, a flicker of fear crossing his weathered face.

"My goodness," he mumbled, his voice raspy. "You look just like her. A spitting image. Though you' re a bit... sharper. She was always so... soft."

He peered closer at the stone. "Five years this week. Poor girl."

A laugh, sharp and brittle, escaped my lips. "Poor girl?" I repeated, the words tasting like ash. "She' s not poor. She' s dead."

He frowned, leaning on his rake. "Well, yes. That's what I said. Died entirely too young."

"I am Elia Parker," I stated, my voice firm, leaving no room for doubt. "And I'm very much alive."

The caretaker just shook his head, a mixture of pity and confusion in his eyes. "The mind plays tricks in old age, I suppose. Had me thinking a ghost was walkin' around. You really do favor her, though. Same eyes." He went back to raking fallen leaves, dismissing my existence with a shrug.

I watched him go, a cold knot tightening in my chest. He was just an old man, living in his own reality. But his words, his belief in the lie, felt like another brick in the wall they had built around my past.

Elia Parker. Celebrated architect. Partner to Javier Bates, the brilliant tech mogul. Mother to Daisy, the light of my life. This was my reality. This was the life I had painstakingly built from the ashes of Jillian Henry.

Jillian Henry was a nightmare. A naive, trusting fool who believed in family, in love, in the sanctity of a promise. She was the girl who poured her heart into designs, who saw beauty in every blueprint, who believed her talent would speak for itself. She was soft, as the caretaker said. Too soft.

They had framed her for corporate espionage, her jealous cousin Kolby and his manipulative wife Caitlyn. My uncle Benson, my supposed mentor, publicly disowned me. My ambitious boyfriend, Darryl, abandoned me for a promotion. They left me for dead, spiritually, emotionally, professionally. So I gave them what they wanted. I died. I faked my own obscurity and disappeared.

This headstone was a monument to their betrayal, their greed, their casual cruelty. It wasn't for me. It was for them, a convenient way to erase their guilt.

But I wasn't here to mourn a ghost. I was here to make sure that ghost stayed buried.

A voice, familiar and sickly sweet, cut through the silence, sending a jolt of ice through my veins. "Jillian? Is that really you?"

My breath hitched. My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. No. It couldn't be. Not now. Not here.

I instinctively turned to flee, to disappear back into the safety of my new life. But it was too late. A hand, cold and clammy, clamped around my arm, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"Don't you recognize me, cousin?" the voice purred, closer now, dripping with false concern.

I slowly turned, my eyes locking onto the face of Kolby Wells. He looked older, lines of bitterness etched around his mouth, but the smug self-satisfaction was still there, a constant shadow. His eyes, however, were wide with a genuine, sickening shock.

"It can't be," he whispered, his grip tightening on my arm. "You're... you're supposed to be dead."