In the operating room, the surgeon, Stewart Morris, said cold and ruthlessly to his assistant, "Issue a notice of critical illness to Miranda Sanchez's family. Also, after her death, donate her heart to Wendy Johnson."
Miranda was lying on the operating table under twilight exhaustion, fully awake enough to hear those cruel words spoken by her fiancé.
Yes, Stewart was her fiancé, and also the surgeon performing this operation.
The cold scalpel cut into her skin where no anesthesia had been injected, and the sharp pain made her entire body tremble.
She cried out in despair, "Why, Stewart?"
Everyone had always seen Stewart and her as the perfect affectionate couple in Sailor City.
But now, she was lying helpless on the operating table while he was about to cut her heart out alive!
Stewart neatly sliced her skin open with his scalpel, his voice as indifferent and heartless as ice:
"Because Wendy said you gave me all of your heart, and she thought it was dirty. She's jealous, so I'm going to dig it out and feed it to the dogs."
Miranda's eyes widened in shock, her blood pressure soaring. "Why? What's going on between the two of you?"
Wendy had been her best friend since childhood. They weren't sisters, but their bond had always been closer than sisters.
When Wendy was nine, she had fallen, and Miranda had pulled her up, leaving a scar on Miranda's eye from a rock.
At eighteen, Wendy was nearly assaulted by gangsters while saving Miranda.
Yet in the end, it was her most beloved fiancé and her dearest friend who betrayed her!
Within moments, Miranda's chest was cut open, revealing her red, beating heart.
Even with the best medical equipment keeping her alive, the pain was unbearable.
A soft, tender voice suddenly spoke:
"Stewart, why don't you step outside and let me do this? I don't want her filthy blood staining your hands."
Miranda's eyes shifted and saw Wendy standing beside her in a hospital gown.
Her delicate little face looked pale and fragile, yet her words dripped with venom.
The cold, heartless Stewart instantly softened at her words.
"Alright, Wendy. Be careful. Don't let her toxic blood dirty your hands."
He turned and left with the anesthesiologist and his assistant, leaving the two women alone in the operating room.
Wendy looked down at Miranda from the side of the table, her smile sweet and harmless.
"Miranda, are you really so angry over something this small?"
She picked up the scalpel and gazed at Miranda's exposed, beating heart. Her innocent smile only grew brighter.
She chuckled softly.
"It was Stewart and I who killed Uncle and Auntie. And it was us who threw your brother into the sea to feed the sharks."
Her voice was sweet and gentle, but every word stabbed like a knife into Miranda's chest.
"But you blamed Timothy instead, hating him with all your heart. And then you even got engaged to Stewart, the man who murdered your family, and handed Sanchez Group over to him. Don't you fear your father will toss and turn in his grave?"
Miranda roared in grief and fury, "You… you… I'll kill you both!"
Wendy only smiled and calmly placed a ventilator over Miranda's mouth.
"Don't get worked up. There's still a good show to come. One that will make you hate me so much you'll turn into a vengeful ghost."
Miranda's bloodshot eyes widened as she watched Wendy pull out a recorder.
Wendy pressed the button and began to speak in a voice that was not her own, yet chillingly identical to Miranda's:
"I'm Miranda, 25 years old, female. Today, I am making my will, and my fiancé Stewart Morris is writing it for me…"
Miranda's heart nearly stopped. Her eyes burned with disbelief, horror, and rage.
If she hadn't been present herself, she wouldn't have been able to tell that the voice wasn't hers!
Wendy recorded Miranda's will in her voice, leaving most of the Sanchez family's property to Stewart and a small portion to Hope Primary School.
No, it wasn't her will.
No!
Miranda wanted to fight back, wanted to scream, but her life was slipping away and she didn't even have the strength to move!
She was filled with rage.
Wendy finished recording and smiled at her. "I forgot to tell you that I'm a voice actress, and I've practiced imitating your voice for years."
She had trained for ten years, just for this moment, until her voice sounded exactly like Miranda's!
Wendy bent close, her smile cruel. "I'll also use your voice to leave a final wish for Timothy, to marry me, the murderer who killed you!"
To her, Stewart was nothing more than a stepping stone and a borrowed knife. There was no way she would ever marry him.
Wendy laughed as she leaned over Miranda. "Do you think Timothy will go crazy when he finds out the antidote he gave you was actually poison, and that the woman he is marrying is the one who killed you?"
She then answered her own question with a mocking smile. "Of course he'll go crazy. He's the kind of man who would die for you."
Miranda gritted her teeth, her voice hoarse with hatred. "Wendy!!!"
The more furious Miranda became, the more delighted Wendy was.
She laughed louder and said, "Miranda, I'll live your life in your place! I'll claim all of your glorious identities, the ones you've been hiding."
Wendy knew about Miranda's secret talents and identities, like being a hacker and a professor of traditional medicine.
But now, every single one of those identity would become hers!
She leaned down close, her expression twisted with triumph. "In short, everything you have will belong to me… Ow!"
Her face stung. She touched her cheek and found blood.
Miranda had used the last of her strength to scratch Wendy's face!
But by doing that, Miranda was gambling with her life.
Wendy's fury exploded. She reached out, grabbed Miranda's heart, and crushed it!
Miranda's body convulsed violently. Her eyes widened, and then… she was gone.
---
"Juliana, I'm telling you, the Leach family has named and claimed you. Even if you die, you'll still be their ghost!"
That was the first thing Miranda heard when she woke up, and it was all she had heard for the last half hour.
It was only then that she realized the truth: she had come back to life.
But this time, she was inside the body of Juliana Lewis, the eldest daughter of the Lewis family in Ocean City.
Juliana was twenty years old, five years younger than Miranda had been.
She was infamous in Ocean City as a useless troublemaker.
She had dropped out of school, fought, partied, chased after pleasure, and even kept boy toys as lovers, just because the man she loved didn't want her, and she wanted to show him she didn't need him.
Today, Juliana had run away from home, fallen into the river by accident, and been rescued.
But to her father, Jermaine Lewis, it looked like she had done it for the man she loved, refusing to marry Benson Leach, a man known for being cruel and a short live span.
After watching her stay silent for half an hour, Jermaine finally roared, "Juliana, I don't care whether you listen or not. I'll send you to the Leach family tonight, even if it means dragging you there in a coffin!"
Miranda raised her eyes slowly, her voice calm and steady. "I'll marry him."
In this country there were two great financial powers, the Greene family in the north and the Leach family in the south.
If she wanted revenge against Stewart and Wendy, the only way was to marry into the Leach family and borrow their strength!
From today on, Miranda was Juliana.
She would return to Sailor City as Juliana Lewis, the young lady of the Leach family, and take her revenge on Wendy and Stewart!
Jermaine had no idea why Juliana, who would rather die than marry Benson Leach, suddenly agreed so easily.
But he didn't care about her reasons. As long as she accepted the marriage, that was enough for him.