The Man They Betrayed Reborn as Their Boss

Chapter 1

 

Rain fell softly that evening, tapping against the window as if knocking on the door to someone’s final moments.

Inside the spacious room that now felt unbearably empty, Jeremy lay on the bed he had built with his own hands, a bed that once symbolized love, but now served only as a velvet prison for a dying man.

The ivory ceiling he once painted himself had dulled under the dim glow of the lamp. His breathing was heavy and ragged, each inhale like a knife slicing through his lungs.

His body no longer felt like his own. His legs trembled just from the effort of moving. His hands shook as he tried to lift a glass of water, it slipped, shattered against the marble floor, the sound sharp and cruel in the silence.

He no longer counted the days. Every morning felt like an extension of the hopeless night before.

“The doctor said I’m recovering.”

Then why do I feel closer to death each day?

Jeremy’s gaze drifted to the framed photo on his bedside table, a family portrait. Him, Claire, and their little boy, probably playing in the garden right now.

Their smiles in the photo felt like mockery. The same smiles that once gave him a reason to come home now stabbed deep into his chest.

The door opened quietly followed by the echo of high heels clicked against marble. The scent of expensive perfume filled the air.

“Darling,” Claire’s voice came soft and sweet, but to Jeremy’s ears, it slithered like a serpent’s whisper.

She sat at the edge of the bed, her red lips curling into a smile that once brought comfort.

Behind her stood Lucas, dressed in an expensive suit, arrogance thinly veiled behind a polite grin. A glass of wine dangled casually from his hand.

Jeremy stared at him faintly.

His old friend. The man he had helped rise, the one he trusted to run his company while he was ill.

Now, they stood side by side, too close, too familiar. As if their bodies had long since learned the shape of each other.

“How are you feeling today, Jer?” Lucas asked, his tone light and friendly, but the mockery underneath was unmistakable.

Jeremy didn’t answer. He only shook his head weakly, eyes searching Claire’s face for something like a flicker of guilt, a trace of love, anything.

But all he found was indifference and impatience.

“Claire…” he rasped, voice breaking. “I don’t understand… the doctor said I was getting better, but my body… it’s getting weaker… every day…”

Claire looked at him for a long moment. The smile never left her lips, but her eyes, the eyes that once made him fall in love, were empty now.

She leaned closer, her tone gentle, almost tender.

“Darling,” she whispered softly, “do you know why your body keeps failing you?”

Jeremy swallowed hard. 

“Why…?”

Her smile shifted, gentler still, but laced with something cruel.

“Because I’m the one making you that way.”

Jeremy froze. For a moment, he thought he’d misheard her. But Claire continued, calm… almost pleased.

“For the past year,” Claire said softly, almost as if confessing a secret, “I’ve been poisoning you. Little by little. I made sure you’d never suspect, so you’d think it was just the side effects of your medication, or work stress.”

A low laugh broke from behind her.

Lucas.

He leaned casually against the wall, his eyes gleaming with amusement, as if watching a show crafted for his pleasure.

“I told her you’d never notice,” Lucas said, chuckling. “You trust too easily. Too damn naive.”

Jeremy tried to move. His hand reached weakly for the edge of the bed, but his strength was gone. His entire body trembled violently, his breath ragged and shallow.

“Why…” his voice cracked. “Why are you doing this to me, Claire?”

Claire tilted her head, watching him the way one might watch a broken toy.

“Because I’m sick of living with you,” she said coldly. “You think this big house, your money, your precious title as my husband made me happy? You were always working, always busy trying to be the good man, while I was expected to smile and wait for you every night like some obedient doll.”

She stepped closer, tracing his face with a fingertip, a touch that once soothed him, now made him want to scream.

“I wanted more than just being a good wife.”

Lucas moved in, his hand sliding easily around Claire’s waist, a gesture so intimate it made Jeremy’s stomach twist.

“We’ve taken care of everything,” Lucas said. “Your assets, your company, this house, everything’s already under our names. So, rest easy, old friend.”

Jeremy stared at them, disbelief and despair colliding behind his fading eyes. Tears slipped down his cheeks before he even realized it.

He wanted to rage. To scream. But anger was useless when even your own body refused to live. All that remained was ruin.

“Our son…” Jeremy whispered, voice trembling on the edge of nothing. “At least… don’t hurt him.”

Silence for a moment. 

Then Claire laughed softly, sweetly, a sound that pierced deeper than any blade.

“Oh, Jeremy… still so naive.”

She leaned close, her lips near his ear, and whispered, words that shattered whatever was left of him, “Your son? He’s not even yours.”

Jeremy’s world collapsed. For a moment, his heart truly stopped, not from poison, but from pain beyond words.

Claire stood, and Lucas wrapped an arm around her waist. Together, they walked out of the room with calm, elegant steps, as if they’d merely finished attending a polite evening event.

The door closed behind them.

Jeremy lay there alone. His hand trembled atop the blanket, his gaze fixed on the empty ceiling above, a void swallowing everything that once mattered.

His breaths grew slower. His body colder.

Through the fading rhythm of his heart and the rain outside, his lips quivered, shaping the final words he would ever speak, “If… there’s life after this… I… won’t love you again.”

A single tear slipped down his cheek. Then, darkness.

But within that darkness, a light too vivid to belong to death.

When Jeremy opened his eyes, air filled his lungs, fresh, sharp, alive.

The day of his death… was the day his second life began.