Introduction

The cold, damp concrete was the last thing I remembered.

A guard' s boot had connected with my ribs, a brutal punctuation to a life spiraling out of control.

They said I tried to kill Liam, my best friend.

A frame job so perfect, even I almost believed it.

My art career had evaporated.

My finances were a joke.

I was a magnet for every piece of misfortune the world could throw at me.

Meanwhile, the Peterson family thrived.

My fiancée, Chloe, was a local celebrity.

Her father shot up the corporate ladder.

Her aimless sister landed a six-figure job.

And Derek Stone, Chloe' s deadbeat ex, became a tech mogul overnight.

Their good fortune mirrored my ruin.

It wasn't coincidence, I realized too late.

It was a transaction.

They were feasting on my life, my luck, my very soul, through some dark ritual disguised as love.

Then, darkness.

An endless, silent fall.

Until a sharp, piercing ring jolted me back.

It wasn't a prison bell.

It was the clinking of champagne glasses.

My eyes snapped open.

I was standing on a plush red carpet, holding a champagne flute, wearing the suit I' d bought for my engagement party.

Chloe Peterson stood before me, radiant in a white dress, a smile as bright and as fake as I now knew it to be.

The same smile she gave me in the courtroom when they read the guilty verdict.

I was back.

Back in the grand ballroom of the Peterson family mansion, on the very day my life had been signed away.

The day the ritual began.

The rage, the betrayal, the memory of dying alone on a prison floor churned inside me.

"Just a bit dizzy," I said, my voice steady, betraying none of the chaos in my mind.

This wasn't a repeat.

It was a second chance.

And I was going to burn their entire empire to the ground.