Chapter 1
Thunder rumbled ominously overhead as rain began to pour, drenching Tiffany Kelley. She collapsed onto the muddy ground, her body battered and covered in blood.
A woman loomed over Tiffany, pressing her foot against her back with a triumphant smirk. “Tiffany Kelley, always too proud to back down. Fine, I’ll break every bone!” she sneered, signaling the two men behind her.
Despite the relentless torture and her weakened state, Tiffany stubbornly lifted her head, hér eyes blazing with defiance as she met the woman’s gaze.
Though Tiffany was covered in blood and grime, her eyes burned with fierce intensity. They were vibrant and alive with anger and hatred, and the sheer force of her glare sent a shiver down the woman’s spine.
The woman hesitated for a moment, startled, but quickly recovered. “What are you waiting for? Throw her in! I want to see how a dead woman can still oppose me!” she snapped viciously.
“Yes, ma’am,” the men responded in unison, moving swiftly toward Tiffany. They kicked her into the nearby swamp as if she were nothing more than a discarded sack.
Tiffany felt the cold grip of doom tightening around her. Though unwilling to surrender, she could only curse herself for falling into such a dire situation.
As her consciousness began to slip away, memories from her past flashed before her eyes.
Tiffany was the cherished daughter of the esteemed Kelley family, adored by all who knew her. But her life unraveled when she made the mistake of trusting the wrong person
She had been engaged to her fiancé for five years, and out of blind loyalty, she took the blame for a crime she didn’t commit. This fateful decision severed her ties with her family, triggering a cascade of tragedies: her father’s death from grief, her mother’s suicide in a fiery blaze, and her brother’s poisoning, which left him mute and mentally impaired.
Instead of the love and recognition for which she had sacrificed everything, Tiffany was met with cold disdain from her fiancé. “Do you think you deserve it?”
The words cut deep, a cruel mockery of her sacrifices. ‘Deserve it? What a twisted joke, Tiffany thought.
As the suffocating mud closed in around her, she felt no fear. Instead, a bitter laugh welled within her, a final act of defiance against the absurdity of her life. But the woman standing nearby wasn’t done.
With a triumphant smirk, she delivered one last, merciless blow.
“Oh, Tiffany, I forgot to tell you,” the woman sneered, her voice dripping with malice. “It was me who pulled the plug on your father’s oxygen supply. It was me who burned your house to the ground. And your brother? I poisoned him. As for that fiancé you loved so much, we’ve been together for years.”
She leaned in closer, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “You can only blame yourself for being so naive, making it so easy for me to take everything your family had.”
As those words pierced her, Tiffany’s body trembled violently, sinking deeper into the swamp. Her eyes,
Her eyes, wide with fury, blazed with unquenchable rage. A guttural roar tore from her throat, “Sandra Olson, you’ll die a miserable death!”
But her words were devoured by the swamp, emerging as nothing more than garbled gibberish as mud and water filled her nose and mouth. The suffocation became overwhelming, pulling her under until she was completely submerged.
Everything went dark. Yet, the boundless hatred within Tiffany refused to be extinguished.
Another clap of thunder echoed ominously through the sky.
Tiffany felt a scream tearing from her throat, and then, suddenly, her eyes snapped open. Bright sunlight filtered through the leaves above, casting harsh rays on Tiffany’s face. She found herself sprawled in a field on the outskirts of town, soaked and disheveled.
“Wait, this scene… Tiffany froze as the memory rushed back. She realized this was the day of her eighteenth birthday when she had carefully planned an outing to confess her feelings to Kenneth Harper, surrounded by her classmates and friends.
Tiffany vividly remembered how Kenneth had cruelly d her sincere confession. In front of everyone, he had coldly said, “Tiffany, give up already. Even if you yet awkward were the last woman on earth, I would never want to be with you!”
His harsh, humiliating words had shattered her heart. Devastated, she had run off alone, getting lost in the rain. Eventually, she slipped, sprained her ankle, and passed out in the very spot where she now found herself.
‘How could I have been so pathetic?’ Tiffany thought, a wave of self-loathing rising within her as she felt the urge to slap her past self. But as she raised her hand, she noticed something strange. Her hands were fair and smooth, unmarked by the scars or excruciating pain from torture.
Sandra’s
‘Wasn’t I… dead? Didn’t I die in that swamp on that stormy night? Or did I just…?’ Tiffany’s heart raced as she hesitantly moved to pinch herself, trying to make sense of the impossible.
“Ouch!” Tiffany yelped as a sharp pain shot through her. ‘It’s not a dream, she realized with shock and disbelief as she felt the pain. I’ve gone back in time to the day of my eighteenth birthday!’
“Oh my goodness! Thank God!” Tiffany burst out laughing, tears streaming down her face.
‘It wasn’t a dream. Everything that happened is still vividly etched in my mind!” Tiffany thought, reflecting on her past folly. She recalled letting her cruel uncle, Stan Olson, and his family get close, which had allowed her cousin Sandra to exploit the situation.
Tiffany had come to understand the depths of human cruelty and deceit. But now, none of the tragedies had yet to unfold, giving her a chance to make things right.
“An eye for an eye! I’ll make sure those who wronged me pay double!” Tiffany muttered as she wiped her tears.
Feeling her phone buzzing in her pocket, she pulled it out and saw it was a call from Kenneth.
Tiffany and Kenneth had been childhood friends, but her affection for him was one-sided. She made several foolish attempts to win his heart over the years. Eventually, Kenneth’s attitude shifted, promising to marry her, but only if she took the blame and went to prison. for his lover’s crime.
Desperate to win his love, Tiffany agreed, even severing ties with her parents, which led to her father collapsing in anger. After five years in prison, her only reward was Kenneth’s cold dismissal: “Do you think you deserve me?”
Recalling her past naivety, Tiffany smiled grimly and casually answered the call.
Kenneth’s cold, irritated voice immediately cut through the air.
“Tiffany, can you stop being so willful? Do we really have to come and fetch you? If it weren’t for your father, I wouldn’t even bother calling you,” Kenneth said. “And stop dreaming because I will never like you
The words were exactly as she remembered, and she could see Kenneth’s disdainful expression through the phone.
Tiffany stroked her chin, replaying how she had responded before. She saw her former self, tearfully pleading, “I’ll change for you however you want me to be. Please, accept me once. It really can’t live without you…
Thinking about how desperate and pitiful she had once been, a smirk slowly spread across Tiffany’s face. She then replied, enunciating each word with icy clarity, “Go to hell!”