Reborn, I Refused Love and Chose Power Instead

“Bitch!”

The bodyguards pinned me down at once as Michael slapped me across the face again and again, each strike searing hot against my skin.

“You already tore us apart once. Why the hell are you trying to come between us again in this life?! Abigail, you hurt her, and I’ll make you pay a thousand times over!”

The taste of blood filled my mouth.

I seized a brief opening and bit down on his hand, hard, until I tasted his blood, too.

“You’re insane!”

Michael frowned, yanking his hand back.

My hair fell over my eyes as I said coldly, “Who said I was trying to separate you two? If you love her so much, why not go to vocational school with her?”

Michael froze.

Emily instinctively turned to look at him, too.

But he said nothing.

I let out a cold laugh.

“See? I never stood in your way. Not once. Even in the last life, if you’d really had the guts, nothing could’ve pulled you apart. But no, you couldn’t let go of Roosevelt. You couldn’t give up your family's stock value. And you couldn’t bring yourself to blame your precious little lover. So you blamed someone else instead.”

I stared at him and sneered.

“Michael, you’re not a victim. You’re just a coward, a clown in his own tragedy.”

“Enough!”

Michael’s voice trembled as he grabbed Emily’s hand and turned to leave.

“You really are insane.”

The bodyguards trailed behind him, disappearing out the door.

I collapsed to the floor like discarded cloth, left behind without a trace of dignity.

A sudden notification lit up my computer screen.

It was a message from a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

[Student Davis, we were deeply impressed by the project files you submitted. We’ve decided to make an exception and admit you as a research member of our university. We look forward to your contributions to the nation’s scientific development.]

Attached is an official offer letter.

Tears streamed silently down my face.

In truth, the misplaced affection from my past life had never been my real regret.

What haunted me most was that I had been so close to breaking a critical technological barrier for my country, only to die on the delivery table because of Michael.

Michael was never my regret.

It was the dream that had been torn from my hands, the unfinished work, the halted research.

But this time, armed with everything I remembered from before, I had made the breakthrough.

At last, in this life, I could chase my dream again of serving my country through science.

In the days that followed, I threw myself into remote collaboration with the research team.

Once the technology was deployed, it would push the nation’s scientific advancement to an entirely new level.

For enterprises like the Hernandez family’s, rooted in old-money traditions and outdated industries, it would be a fatal blow.

The night before I was to report in, I quietly packed my bags.

But just as I was about to step out, more than a dozen people stormed in and dragged me away without warning.

My parents, beaming as if they’d won the lottery, couldn’t stop smiling.

“You really hit the jackpot this time,” they said cheerfully. “The Hernandez family agreed, college or not, the marriage will still go through.”

“For the next four years, you’ll stay at the Hernandez estate and learn how to be a proper Mrs. Hernandez. Once Michael graduates, he’ll return and make you his bride.”

I couldn’t breathe.

The Hernandez family was built on deep-rooted traditions, a world where women bowed morning and night, weren’t allowed to touch electronics, and had to obey strict rules, dutiful wives, submissive daughters-in-law, perfect mothers.

Any disobedience was met with punishment.

In my previous life, I had been spared.

Because they needed my expertise to keep their stock afloat, and because Michael shielded me, they hadn’t dared to enforce those suffocating customs.

But I had seen the fate of other women in that house, obedient dolls shackled by rules.

“I’m not going!”

I screamed and thrashed, only for a sharp slap to land across my face.

Mom’s brows pinched with disgust.

“Do you know how many girls dream of marrying into that family but never get the chance? You’ve already lost your advantage, and they’re still willing to take you. You should be grateful!”

“I…”

Before I could finish, a filthy rag was shoved into my mouth, cutting off my cries. They dragged me into a car like cargo.

When I came to, I was already locked inside the room the Hernandez family had prepared.

Outside the window, the sound of laughter drifted in, a celebration banquet.

They weren’t celebrating me. They were sending off Michael and Emily.

Michael had spent a fortune to buy Emily a spot at a private university near Roosevelt.