Joshua's eyes snapped open and the scream died somewhere between his lungs and his throat.His whole body was shaking. The sheets underneath him were soaked through with sweat, sticking to his back like a second skin. His heart was slamming so hard against his ribs that he pressed his palm flat against his chest just to make sure it was still in one piece.He was alive.That was the part that didn't make sense. Because he remembered dying. He remembered every second of it. The rope biting into his wrists. Elena standing over him with that look on her face, the same face he had loved for six years, watching him bleed out on the floor like he was nothing. Lorry standing next to her, one arm around her waist, grinning like a man who had already won a long time ago.And her parents. Her mother turning away so she wouldn't have to watch. Her father spitting on the ground next to his head and saying he should have gotten rid of Joshua years ago.Then everything had gone black.Now he was ly

Joshua walked fast. His legs carried him down the sidewalk with the kind of urgency that made people step out of his way without thinking about it. The morning air was still cool and the street was just starting to fill up with early commuters, but Joshua wasn't paying attention to any of them. His eyes were locked on the corner store three blocks ahead, the one with the faded green awning and the neon lottery sign blinking in the window.He remembered this day perfectly. Every detail of it was burned into his memory like a scar that never healed right.In his previous life, he had been walking to this exact store at this exact time. He had wanted to buy the last scratch ticket on the roll, the one sitting behind the counter with a gold border and a lucky number printed across the top. But when he got there, a fat man in a wrinkled Hawaiian shirt had been standing at the register, already pulling out his wallet. The fat man bought the ticket. The fat man won one hundred million dollar

Elena's denial hung in the air like smoke, but Joshua didn't even blink.He looked at her standing there with her face red and her chest heaving, her eyes darting between him and Victor like a trapped animal trying to figure out which direction to run. Every person in the café was staring at her, and she didn't even realize it. She was too busy pretending she hadn't just given herself away."You never cheated." Joshua repeated her words back to her in a flat, bored voice. "Fine. Then the baby in your belly should have no problem passing a paternity test."Elena's whole body went still. Her mouth opened but nothing came out. Her hand moved to her stomach without her even thinking about it, and that tiny, automatic gesture told the entire room everything it needed to know."A simple DNA test, Elena. That's all it takes. If the baby is mine, you have nothing to worry about. If it's not mine, well." Joshua tilted his head slightly. "I think we both know whose it really is."Elena's legs b

Elena's family didn't waste a single minute.The moment the word fifty million left Elena's mouth for the third time, Gerald was already on his feet and reaching for his jacket. Patricia was fixing her hair in the bathroom mirror, and Lorry was looking up restaurants on his phone with one thumb while his other arm stayed wrapped around Elena's waist."The Golden Terrace." Lorry turned his screen toward Elena and tapped the name at the top of the search results. "Five stars. Most expensive restaurant in the city. Wagyu steaks, imported wine, the whole thing. If we're celebrating fifty million dollars, we should eat like it.""We don't have the money yet, Lorry." Patricia's voice drifted out from the bathroom, cautious and thin."We will." Elena smoothed down her blouse and grabbed her purse. "And when we do, I don't want to remember that we sat in this miserable apartment eating instant noodles on the night we found out. Let's go. I'm paying."The four of them piled into Lorry's car an

The silence in the restaurant lasted exactly two seconds after Gina's words landed. Then Elena exploded."One million dollars?" Elena's voice came out as a raw, ragged scream that shattered whatever was left of the dining room's quiet atmosphere. Her face was so red it looked like someone had slapped her with a hot iron, and her eyes were bulging as she jabbed her finger toward Joshua's table. "That money should have been mine! That bastard Joshua is squandering my money! Every cent he has belongs to me!"The entire restaurant turned to stare at her. An older woman in pearls at the nearest table lowered her wine glass and looked at Elena the way someone looks at a pigeon that has just flown into a church. A man in a pinstripe suit three tables over whispered something to his wife, and they both shook their heads slowly. A young couple near the bar stopped eating entirely and just watched, their forks frozen halfway to their mouths.Nobody in the room understood what this screaming wom