Part 1The True Heiress Refuses to Return

At six, I was brought home by the Daltons.

Twelve years later, they learned the devastating truth about the girl they had so cruelly cast aside—the impostor daughter. Her life after leaving them had been a tapestry of misery.

And so, on the day Sophie died by suicide, regret consumed them all.

My parents and my brother could no longer bear to look at me. They planned to marry me off, to ship me away like damaged goods.

But Caden stopped them. He honored our betrothal and married me, but only so he could torture me himself.

"It's all your fault," he would hiss, his voice dripping with venom. "The day you came back, why did you have to cry in front of Sophie? She had done nothing wrong. Why did you have to drive her away? Why couldn't you just let her be?"

"...Iris," he’d whisper in the dark, "you have to atone for what you did to Sophie."

Later, I died in childbirth.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the morning they first came to the orphanage.

The little girl in the bed next to mine asked for the heirloom locket I had worn my entire life.

I froze for a second.

Then I smiled. "Of course. It's yours."

* * *

The words had barely left my lips when the little girl stared, first in disbelief, then with a look of pure, unadulterated joy spreading across her face.

"Really?! Iris, you'd really give it to me?"

She hesitated, her eyes scanning me up and down. "But... isn't this your most precious thing? You always said you'd wear it until your family came for you."

Everyone at the orphanage knew that the locket around my neck was more important to me than life itself. The matron told me it was on me when she found me as a baby.

"It's from your mommy and daddy, Iris," she would say, stroking my hair. "They'll come back for you one day."

That sliver of hope became my anchor. Other children were jealous; many tried to snatch my locket. Once, when a group of them cornered me, I swallowed it whole rather than let them take it. I nearly had to be rushed to the hospital. After that, they left me alone.

But now, I calmly unclasped the locket from my neck and placed it in the girl's small hand.

I smiled at her. "Of course, it's real. It's yours now."

"I... I don't want it anymore," I added softly.

The girl's fingers instinctively closed around the locket, clutching it to her chest as if she expected me to snatch it back.

I didn't move.

In my past life, the Daltons had identified me by that very locket.

But this time, I would give up anything to sever all ties with them.

In this life, the Daltons would still find their long-lost daughter.

But it would not be me.

When the Daltons arrived at the orphanage, I feigned a stomachache and hid myself away.

Later that day, I heard the news. The prestigious Dalton family from the city had finally found their daughter. It was the girl now wearing my locket, Anna.

No, she would be Anna Dalton now.

That night, back in the cramped dormitory, I listened to the soft breathing of the other girls.

For the first time in my life, a profound peace settled over my heart.

In this life, I thought, I finally don't owe anyone anything.