Reborn to Reject the Billionaire's Cursed Heir

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I was the wildest rose in the harbor city, and Nathaniel Sanchez was its most famous devoted romantic.

I spent my nights in bright lights and liquor and reckless spending; he spent his days pining for the one who got away, somewhere overseas.

So after the two of us married, it surprised no one that we became a couple bound by nothing but hatred.

Until an earthquake, when Nathaniel, already at the door, saw me fallen in the living room and turned back without a second's hesitation to shield me under his body.

When they pulled me out, I had only scrapes. Nathaniel spent half a year in the ICU.

After that, the wild rose settled down and became a clinging vine that never left the house.

I washed and cooked for Nathaniel, folded the blankets and made the bed, and stood as his most steadfast support.

The day he became the richest man in the harbor city, the same Nathaniel who had never been able to stand the sight of me suddenly said to me, “Antonia, if there's a next life, would you still marry me?”

Before I could answer, everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was somehow back to before I married Nathaniel.

When my father once again pressed me to marry Nathaniel in my sister's place, I lifted my head and looked at him.

“Dad, I won't marry him.”

01

His answer was a slap, hard and without mercy.

“Antonia Pruitt, the Pruitt family didn't raise you all these years so you could do whatever you please!”

Mom chimed in from beside him. “Antonia, Nathaniel is a good boy. The Sanchez family may be on the decline, but even a starving camel is bigger than a horse. This is a good place for you to land.”

My mother wasn't wrong. Nathaniel really was a good place to land.

He was gentle, a gentleman. Even at his most disgusted with me in that last life, he never once said a cruel word to me.

Even when I cursed him with the most vicious things I could think of, he only clenched his fists and swallowed it in silence.

He had the skill and the strength to hold up a collapsing house.

The Sanchez family was a tangle of infighting between factions, and outside the family a whole crowd of illegitimate children circled like hungry animals.

In all of that, Nathaniel forced his way into a firm seat as head of the Sanchez family and built the failing house into the richest family in the harbor city.

But in this life, I truly did not want to marry him again.

I looked into my parents' eyes and asked the question I'd buried in my heart all through the last life.

“If Nathaniel is so wonderful, why won't you let my sister marry him?”

Their faces changed in an instant.

“How can you compare yourself to your sister!” Mom said it before she could stop herself.

Then she realized how it had come out, and a flicker of guilt crossed her face.

She softened her voice and explained, gentle and coaxing, “Your sister is going abroad to study art. It's the one thing she loves. Antonia, why can't you give this to her?”

Every word I had stuck in my throat.

Because for as long as I could remember, I had given things up for my sister too many times.

Unlike other families, I had been born for my sister.

Augusta Pruitt was diagnosed at three months old with severe thalassemia.

She needed cord blood from a direct blood relative to be treated.

And so they had me.

For as far back as I could remember, my mother had told me, “Antonia, you're healthier than your sister, so you have to give way to her.”

The toys, the clothes my parents bought, my sister always picked first. Only what she didn't want came to me.

She loved spicy food, so the dishes at home were always spicy, and even though I was allergic to chili, there was never a single plate that was mine.

My mother would only say, “She has a difficult temperament and doesn't like real food. She only eats the plain stuff.”

And my father would add, “If she won't eat, let her go hungry. Don't indulge that picky-eater nonsense.”

When it came time for school, so I could look after my sister properly, they put me into first grade a year early.

When I couldn't keep up, they always said, “Antonia was born slow. She's not as clever as Augusta.”

I clawed my way into Harbor City University, and my father said, “Antonia, the Pruitt family has no sons. We need a socialite to hold our footing in the harbor city. Your sister isn't well, so this is something only you can do.”

So at eighteen I plunged headfirst into the world of glamour and status and became the harbor city's famous wild rose.

My sister, meanwhile, didn't do well in school. Her grades weren't enough for a good university.

My parents sent her overseas to study art.

Now she was about to start her master's.

And my parents wanted me to give way for her.

Give way to what? She was perfectly capable of continuing her studies after she married.

My parents simply believed Nathaniel had the one who got away in his heart, that my sister would suffer if she married him, so they didn't want her to marry him. That was all.

I lowered my eyes and said it plainly. “Dad, Mom, the one who got away, the one in Nathaniel's heart, is my sister.”