Chapter 1 Lilith

Dawn.

Creak.

For the first time in a long while, the locked guest room in a forgotten corner of Villa Olive opened-on its own.

A wheelchair rolled forward from inside, its wheels echoing gently across the marble floor.

The woman seated on it was morbidly thin, her bones jutting against pale, fragile skin. Her eyes, once full of warmth and life, now looked vacant-numb and lifeless.

Dressed in a plain, unflattering white dress, she looked as though she'd stepped straight out of a ghost story.

In the deafening silence, her bony hands trembled faintly as she wheeled herself forward-through the hallway, past the dining room after a left turn, then past the living room and the family portrait on the wall. A portrait that served no other purpose than to mock her very existence.

She seemed to catch a glimpse of her younger self-sweet and innocent-smiling gently in the same places she'd just passed through. The weight of those memories, once dear and precious, now pressed down heavily on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

Faster. Faster.

She urged herself silently, pushing the wheels harder, disregarding the way her brittle skin has begun to tear and bleed-and the pain that came with it.

Finally, she made it there-the sunroom.

Her favorite spot in the entire villa.

She used to like to sit there with a cup of her personal blend of coffee, watching the sunrise and sunset in peaceful solitude.

It had been her favorite pastime.

Her dim eyes brightened slightly as she crossed the threshold.

Six months ago, her entire world had crumbled into absurd chaos.

She had discovered that her childhood sweetheart-turned-husband of over thirty years was having an affair-with her dearest best friend, Claire Brooks. A woman she'd grown up with and treated no different than a biological sister.

Though devastated and heartbroken, Lilith knew better than to stay and endure it. Despite their earnest pleas and assurances that it was a one-time mistake, she insisted on divorce.

She never imagined that her refusal to believe their lies would drive them to such extremes.

They took away her access to every electronic device and locked her in the most secluded guest room. Then they began feeding her a cocktail of antidepressants and muscle relaxants. Over time, her body and mind deteriorated.

But the final blow came when she tried to reach out to the one person she thought would save her, someone she believed was oblivious to what she was going through-her sixteen-year-old son.

Only to be met with a derisive sneer. And a sentence that shattered what was left of her soul.

"You're not my mother."

That same day, she'd learnt a horrible truth from Claire's own lips, gently spoken with a smile that chilled Lilith to the bone.

"I'm sorry, Lily," she said sweetly. "But your baby was stillborn. Brandon worried you'd be too heartbroken, so he switched your baby with mine. But they were both his, so... it didn't really matter, did it?"

It didn't matter? It... didn't matter?

Lilith repeated those words in her head, over and over, like a broken record.

Then she snapped.

She grabbed a knife and lunged at the monster she had unknowingly invited into her home. But the long term drug use had left her too weak.

Lilith desperately wished to take revenge. How could she not, after all that's been done to her? She wasn't a saint!

But even her own family-the last people she could rely on for help-were easily fooled by the trio. They had spun a convincing tale: that Lilith's instability stemmed from untreated postpartum depression and the so-called empty nest syndrome, brought on by her 'son' growing increasingly distant and independent.

At some point, even she herself had begun doubting whether she was really as sick as they claimed.

So she didn't blame her family. At least, not entirely.

Because if she were in their shoes, she probably wouldn't have fared any better.

Her husband. Her best friend. Her son.

With the three of them working together, fooling others would be effortless.

Even during the rare family visits to check on her, Lilith would either be force-fed sleeping pills or stimulants-depending on the performance they wanted that day.

If they needed her quiet, docile, and vacant-eyed, they sedated her. If they needed her erratic and unhinged, they gave her pills that triggered manic episodes-just enough to make her look unstable.

It was those carefully orchestrated episodes that eventually convinced her family she was truly sick.

They were even touched-relieved-to see that Brandon and her 'son' had chosen to care for her at home instead of committing her to a mental hospital.

She had long stopped thinking about revenge or escape. She had no energy left to fight or the will to live. But suicide was never an option.

Besides, there was no need to force it as her body was already failing-death would find her soon enough. The only thing that kept her going for so long was her hatred... and the memory of the child she never even got to hold.

And now... today... she felt it.

Death was close.

All of a sudden, she realized it had been a long time since she last saw the sunrise.

So today, before she breathed her last, she wanted to see it one last time.

In the past, she wouldn't have been able to do this as the door had always been locked from the outside. But with her rapidly deteriorating health, they had let their guard down. No one cared anymore.

As if on cue, just as she finished that thought, golden light began to spill over the horizon, painting the sky in vibrant hues of orange, yellow and rose-red.

Then something even more magical happened.

Snow began to fall.

Bathed in the soft light of the morning sun and falling snow, the sunroom became a breathtaking sight to behold-like a fairy tale brought to life.

Lilith's breath hitched, then her lips curled into a faint smile.

Maybe, she thought, this was the universe's way of granting her a final moment of peace. A silent apology for all the pain and misery she'd been put through.

As she sat still, watching the breathtaking sky, her eyelids gradually grew heavy. Her heartbeat also slowed.

She knew this was a sign that she was about to die. But, she felt no fear, only a sense of relief.

Finally, she would be free.

Just as she was left with but a single breath, an abrupt mechanical voice echoed in her mind.

[System Initializing...]

Her eyes flew open.

Who was that? Who was speaking?

She tried to ask, but devoid of strength, her mouth wouldn't move. Her body was far too gone.

[Detected dying host... Activating automatic binding... Binding complete.]

[Hello, host. I'm the Luck Reversal System.]

System?

Like the ones from those serialized web novels she used to read as a teenager?

Lilith's heart, which had nearly stopped, suddenly fluttered with life.

[If you had the chance to do everything all over again, would you take it?]

Would she?

Yes. A thousand times, yes.

She had too many regrets.

So many wrong choices. So much she'd lost.

Her answer was silent but firm-Yes.

The moment the word formed in her mind, she saw the world around her freeze mid-motion.

The air. The snow. The light.

Time stood still.

Then, everything went dark.