Chapter 1

In my past life, my daughter, Chloe, knew exactly how terrified I was of snakes.

Yet, she still bought one and kept it in our house. She’d watch me jump around in sheer terror, a mocking smirk plastered across her face.

My husband, Leo, just stood by and watched with cold eyes. He even claimed we needed to "respect our child's hobbies."

He eventually snuck the snake into the bathroom while I was showering, calling it "exposure therapy" to help me get over my phobia. In a blind panic, I tried to escape through the window, slipped, and fell to my death from the sixth floor.

In this life, I don’t want Leo or Chloe anymore.

"Hey? Hey? Mom, can you hear me? I said I have a huge surprise for you!"

Chloe’s voice through the receiver made me realize I had been reborn.

I gripped my phone, my entire body trembling.

In my previous life, Chloe had used this exact same cheerful, innocent tone to urge me to come home.

The moment I opened the front door, a snake was waiting for me.

I’ve always had a paralyzing phobia of snakes. Just looking at a photo of one would make me break out in a cold sweat. But in that moment, a real, live snake was hissing and flicking its tongue right in front of me.

I couldn’t control my screams. I begged Chloe to take it away.

But she just looked at me with those innocent eyes and said, "Mom, this is my new pet. You have to be nice to it from now on!"

With that, she walked toward me, holding the snake in her bare hands.

My legs went completely weak. The gourmet cake I had bought for her slipped from my hands and smashed all over the floor.

Chloe rushed over, her face falling. "Mom! How could you be so careless? You ruined my cake!"

She pouted, on the verge of tears. But I couldn't care less about comforting her. As she moved closer, the small snake writhed in her hands, heading right in my direction.

"Ah! Get it away!" I turned to run, but my foot caught on the edge of the stairs, and I tumbled all the way down.

My leg snapped. I clutched my broken limb, screaming in agony. Then, I watched in horror as the snake slithered out of her hands and crawled onto my body. I blacked out from pure terror.

"Mom! Are you even listening to me?! You are being so disrespectful right now!"

Chloe’s sharp voice snapped me back to reality.

She was lecturing me in her childish voice. In the past, I would have found it adorable.

I would have smiled and said, "I'm sorry, sweetie. Mommy was distracted. Forgive me?" and then done everything to coax her out of her pout.

But now? I didn't give a damn.

Without saying a word, I hung up. I turned to the bakery clerk and said, "Actually, I don’t want this cake anymore."

The clerk, who was in the middle of boxing it up, froze.

"Ma'am, are you sure? This is the last custom strawberry shortcake we have today."

It was Chloe’s absolute favorite. It was always sold out by the time I picked her up from school.

Today, Leo had surprisingly offered to pick her up, which was the only reason I could get to the bakery early enough to grab the last one.

"I'm sure. I don't want it. You can sell it to someone else," I said. I paused, pulling out my VIP membership card.

"Also, I'd like to cancel my membership and refund the remaining balance to my card."

To get Chloe her favorite treats, I had pre-paid a ton of money at this high-end bakery over the years. The balance was easily over $2,000.

Now, I’d rather donate that money to charity than spend a single dime of it on that ungrateful brat.