My Husband Loved Me In My Past Life

On a stormy night, deep inside an abandoned prison, I lay there helpless, chains biting into my wrists and ankles. My body was a canvas of tiny needle scars, my skin blistered and raw. A blood-soaked white cloth covered my eyes, my hair hung in tangled ropes, and my lips had lost every trace of life's warmth.

I was in pain, but years of starvation and blood loss had left me too weak to put up a fight. Five years. Was this really how it ended?

"Luciana, how does it feel to lose your sight?" The voice was sweet as honey, yet edged with malice. "Jonathan Perez used to say your eyes were more beautiful than mine. Too bad your corneas are mine now."

Elianna, my twin sister, stepped closer in a flowing ivory silk gown, her voice polished with false innocence. Her immaculate appearance made my ruined state feel even more grotesque.

The familiarity of her voice sent a chill straight through me. "Elianna, have you lost your mind? I'm your sister!"

I turned my head toward her, though I couldn't see. We were born minutes apart. I never would've suspected her.

"No. I don't have a sister like you. I let those traffickers take you when you were three because you were never supposed to come back and take the place I had in this family."

"But it's all about to end now." Elianna unfastened my chains and flung me to the floor like garbage. Then she wrapped a chain around her own neck, digging in with fierce resolve.

I'd been imprisoned too long, too weak to resist. Elianna played the innocent as I lay beneath her, manufactured tears gathering in her eyes.

"Luciana, please don't take my corneas. I never meant to accept yours. I'm so sorry..."

"Don't come closer, Mom, Dad, brothers... Elianna is so scared..." She guided my hand toward her eyes, mere inches away, when the cell door burst open with a bang.

"Luciana, have you lost your mind?" My parents and five brothers rushed in, yanking Elianna away to cradle her as if she were made of glass. They surrounded her, fussing over the marks on her neck—then turned on me with fury and disgust.

The slap landed before I could react. Isaac, our father, struck me hard across the face, sending pain through every nerve. Blood seeped beneath the bandage over my eyes, staining the white cloth red.

Isaac's voice shook with rage. "Luciana, I paid the prison doctor, falsified your medical records, and authorized the surgeon who took your corneas for Elianna. By then you were buried under a conviction, isolated in an off-books infirmary, and no one was going to listen to you. Elianna is a rising star, and her eyes were damaged while saving your brother. What have you ever done for this family?"

"A parasite like you should be honored that your corneas could restore Elianna's sight!"

Isaac's words cut through me like a knife, yet they also gave me a sickening clarity. Hadn't I done plenty for my brothers? I spent years trying to earn my place, trying to thaw hearts that always ran cold.

For Mason, the financial titan, I studied finance like crazy, racking up credentials in two months, losing sleep on his projects. But when he made it big, he used the profits to shower Elianna with lavish gifts while I got nothing — not even a thank-you.

For my second brother, Rue, a gifted doctor, I served as his human guinea pig, enduring his endless experiments without complaint. When a car accident left him unable to walk, I used every therapy I knew to help with his rehabilitation.

For Adriel, the pop idol, I wrote his songs and choreographed his dances, never getting any credit, always living in his shadow.

Then there was Grey, my reckless youngest brother—I compromised my future by taking the blame for his academic misconduct and getting myself expelled from university.

Four years of constant giving, and never a shred of warmth in return. Isaac's offer was just one more betrayal. "Luciana, here's a share transfer agreement. Sign it, and I'll have the family legal team reopen your case and push for your release."

I let out a bitter laugh. After covering for them and ending up in prison, now they were dangling freedom in front of me like another tool of control. I didn't believe his hollow promises anymore.

Then Elianna pressed a concealed remote in her palm. A rigged igniter sparked beneath the doorway, catching the gasoline she had poured through the corridor. Flames raced across the floor.

"Fire! Protect Elianna..."

My family scrambled out, shielding Elianna with their bodies — leaving me behind yet again, just like they always did when danger hit.

As the fire closed in, I somehow found the strength to crawl, but Elianna hadn't bothered to unlock the chains around my ankles. She'd meant for me to die here.

As the flames closed in, I rasped out a vow with my final breath: "Elianna, Isaac... if there's another life, I will get my revenge."

My body was swallowed by the flames, reduced to ash. Even in death, my spirit stayed behind, tied to the charred wreckage by rage and agony.

In the aftermath of the fire, not a single family member came looking for me. But I watched as Jonathan — the estranged husband I had rejected — spent seven days sifting through the ashes, gathering what was left of me.

On the eighth day, dressed in beggar's rags, he carefully scooped up my ashes next to the chains that had held me captive.

Once so proud and unyielding, Jonathan now looked utterly shattered. His voice was a gentle whisper as he cradled what was left of me: "Don't be afraid, Luciana. I'm here to take you home."

Three months later, the Kelly family suffered an unimaginable financial collapse. Elianna disappeared—only to be found later with shattered limbs and her sight permanently destroyed, a brutal mirror of what she had done to me.

Each of my brothers soon met with mysterious deaths, and the Kellys vanished from the social scene.

One quiet afternoon, as usual, I was at Jonathan's side. He sent all the staff away, sat in the garden holding my ashes, and let the sun warm us both.

He pressed a tender kiss to the urn, whispering, "My beloved Luciana, this time, you're taking me home..."

Fire swallowed the estate, devouring everything in its path — even as I screamed, helpless, "Jonathan, don't!"