3: 3
I stared at my phone screen, my fingers trembling faintly.
After learning I had late-stage stomach cancer, I'd sunk into a fog. That was the reason I stopped fighting the marriage alliance.
I only had a few months left anyway.
But I never understood it. I'd always eaten clean and healthy. How could I have gotten a disease like that?
Mom and Dad didn't believe me either. They insisted I was faking the whole thing.
Now I saw it clearly. This had been Otto's scheme all along, a trap inside a trap.
The captions exploded across the screen.
【Holy hell, is that something a human being would do? How did we never see how ruthless Otto was in the last life!】
【So the stomach cancer was fake!】
【Millie, it's not too late to turn back now!】
I didn't react. I just went home.
If I had parents who loved me, a brother, a man who loved me the way I loved him, I'd have been willing to fight for it.
But now, all I wanted was to see them dead.
The living room light was still on when I got home.
Otto saw me come in and held out a glass of milk. “Eat the cakes already. If Sophia finds out you still haven't touched them, she'll start reading into it again.”
I took the milk. “It's too late now, they'll sit heavy on my stomach. I'll eat them tomorrow.”
Otto frowned. “Don't forget, then. A few little cakes, and you have to keep putting it off?”
I smiled. “You know my stomach's bad. Relax, I'll definitely eat them tomorrow.”
Otto stared at me for a couple of seconds. “Fine. Go to bed early, you have to get up for hair and makeup.”
I nodded, and when he wasn't looking, I poured the milk out the bedroom window.
The next morning they dragged me up at five for makeup.
The makeup artist clicked her tongue admiringly at my face. “Miss Fox, your skin is gorgeous. Barely needs any concealer.”
I smiled and said nothing.
After all, this face was about to be ruined.
Nine thirty in the morning. Half an hour before the wedding officially began.
I sat in the waiting room with my eyes closed, resting.
Sophia pushed the door open in a hurry, a box of cakes in her hand. “Millie, didn't you say you'd eat the cakes today? Otto said you forgot, so he had me bring them over specially.”
The captions went wild.
【Don't eat it! Unless the host dies, the body-swap curse can't be reversed!】
【There's no undo button in life, Millie!】
The curse was that absolute? Perfect. Exactly what I wanted.
I ignored the captions, took the box of cakes, and picked one up and bit into it right in front of Sophia.
A moment later I felt something wriggle down my throat and into my stomach.
Then I ate a second cake, and a third.
The look on Sophia's face shifted from expectation to pure elation.
She suddenly leaned in close and dropped her voice. “Millie, do you know what you just ate?”
I played dumb. “Sweet almond cakes……”
“Wrong.” She smiled. “It's the curse. The child parasite is already inside you, and the mother parasite is inside me. Half an hour from now, we'll swap bodies. And then I'll be Millie Fox, and you, you'll only ever be Sophia……”
She stared at me, waiting for me to scream, to fall apart, to drop to my knees and beg.
But I didn't.
I just leaned back in the makeup chair and looked at her. “Oh, really? Well, congratulations.”
Sophia's smile froze.
“You're not scared?”
“Scared of what?”
“You're not afraid I'll take everything from you? Your company shares, your parents, your fiancé……”
“Of course I am.” I forced out two tears. “Sophia, can't you take the curse out? Please……”
