Chapter 1 — Back Before The Wedding Day

The rain lashed the windshield in waves, the wipers hissed steadily, but could not erase all the blurry water in front of Do Khanh Linh's eyes. She clutched the steering wheel with both hands, her heart pounding in her chest not because of the slippery road, but because of the file of documents lying next to the passenger seat - evidence she had just found less than an hour ago, something that could overthrow the creative director position that she had spent five years of her youth building up.

The USB that fit in her jacket pocket contained all the screenshots: messages between Vu Dang Khoa - the man she was about to marry in three months - and Hoang Bao Ngoc, her close friend from college, who was sitting in the deputy design chair right next to her every day. Not only the secret love messages, but also the fake capital contribution contract, which will turn her into an embezzler of billions of dong from the corporation she is contributing to.

"I have to meet lawyer Kien tonight," Khanh Linh muttered, her eyes still glued to the deserted riverside road in the July rain. "As long as he confirms the legality of these contract pages, I will present them to the board of directors tomorrow before they can take action."

The phone on the stand lit up, the name Vu Dang Khoa appeared on the screen. She hesitated for a second then pressed the button to listen. His voice echoed through the car speakers, unusually urgent.

"Linh, where are you? Go home, my mother wants to talk to you."

"I'm busy, tomorrow," she replied, trying to keep her voice calm even though her heart was boiling with anger. "You go home and rest first."

"Linh—" Dang Khoa's voice was choked, as if he was trying to say something but didn't have the courage. The call was silent for a few seconds before he hung up.

At that moment, Khanh Linh did not realize that the call was not a coincidence. The car suddenly wobbled slightly when she stepped on the brake at the turn before Binh An bridge - the pedal slid to the floor of the car without any resistance in response. She pedaled again a second time, a third time, panicking and pushing with all her might, but the car only went faster on the wet road surface.

"No... no way..." She screamed, both hands yanking on the handbrake, the car still didn't slow down, just swayed like a wounded animal rushing towards the bridge railing.

The sound of metal grinding against concrete, the sound of glass shattering, and the last headlight she could see was the dark water under the bridge rushing straight towards her. In the last split second of consciousness, the image that appeared was not Dang Khoa's face, but her father's small sewing factory, where the smell of new fabric and the sound of sewing machines were once her peaceful world before she stepped into this whirlpool of fame and fortune.

*

"Linh! Linh, are you awake yet? It's eight o'clock, you have an important contract signing today!"

A familiar voice rang in her ear, startling Khanh Linh, her body was drenched in cold sweat, her breathing was rapid as if she had just emerged from the water. She raised her hands to look — no scratches, no blood, no pain. The room around her was not a hospital room, nor the luxurious apartment she once lived in with Dang Khoa, but a familiar small room with light yellow painted walls that were peeling in some places, an old wooden desk, and the floral curtain she used during her student days.

"Mom..." She exclaimed, her voice trembling, looking at the woman standing at the door of the room, holding the shirt she had just ironed. finished. Her mother — who passed away from illness three years ago, at the exact time she remembers clearly.

"It's mom, why are you looking at me so strangely?" Mrs. Hanh - Khanh Linh's mother - stepped forward and placed her hand on her daughter's forehead. "Do you have a fever? Your face is so pale."

Khanh Linh couldn't answer, her throat was choked by an emotion too big to name. She looked around the room again, her eyes stopping at the calendar on the wall: March 14, five years before that fateful rainy night - the day she signed a contract to accept the position of creative director of the spring collection project at Bao Tin fashion group.

"You... are you reborn?" She whispered, her trembling hand stroked the top of the desk, feeling each wood grain was strangely real.

Mrs. Hanh thought her daughter was mumbling because she was sleepy, so she just smiled, said a few words about breakfast, then left the room so Khanh Linh could prepare it. Left alone, Khanh Linh sat down on the edge of the bed, holding her head with both hands, memories of five years later rushing back like a flood - every meeting, every time Dang Khoa avoided her eyes, every forced smile of Bao Ngoc every time he mentioned the collection sketch, and finally the evidence she found just a few hours before her death - the fake capital contribution contract orchestrated by Mrs. Kim Chi, Dang Khoa's mother.

"I'm dead," she muttered, her voice gradually steadying. "Died because of trusting the wrong person, because of naively thinking that sincerity would be reciprocated with sincerity." She stood up, walked to the mirror, and looked straight into her twenty-seven year old face - younger, without the wrinkles of worry that had accumulated during the last years of her previous life.

"But this time," she said to her reflection, "no one will steal my life again."

She quickly put on the business suit hanging on the hanger - the same gray suit she had worn at the fateful contract signing that year - but this time, before leaving the room, she stopped at her desk, opened a drawer and took out an old leather-bound notebook, a gift her father gave her when she graduated from design university. She flipped through the blank pages, scribbled a few notes — names, dates, events she clearly remembered that would happen in the next five years: the day Bao Ngoc started approaching Ms. Kim Chi, the day her original sketch was swapped, the day the fake contract was drawn up.

"If in my previous life I died because I didn't have time to preserve the evidence," she whispered, closing the notebook and putting it in the bottom of her backpack instead of keeping it in her office bag like before, "in this life I will keep everything from the very first moment."

Stepping downstairs, the smell of coffee and toast wafted through the air. Her father - Mr. Do Van Tai - was sitting at the dining table, his hands still sticky with sewing powder from the workshop, smiling gently when he saw his daughter coming downstairs.

"You signed a big contract today, right?" he asked, pushing the glass of hot milk towards her. "I believe you will do well. My daughter has been talented since she was little."

Khanh Linh looked at her father, her eyes stinging. In her previous life, because she was engrossed in her career and plans in the luxurious world, she gradually distanced herself from this small garment factory, only coming back a few times a year during Tet holidays. In this life, she told herself, even though the road ahead is still tumultuous, she will not let herself lose the most precious things again.

"I'll do well, Dad," she replied, her voice firmer than the innocent version of herself by five years before. "And this time, I'll do things the right way, from the beginning."

On the way to Bao Tin Group, sitting in a taxi instead of being picked up by Dang Khoa like in her previous life, Khanh Linh opened her notebook, her eyes stopped at the first line she had just written: "March 14 - the day destiny begins. This time, I will be the one in control." The taxi window was foggy from the drizzling rain outside, but in her heart, a steely determination was forming, clearer and colder than anything she had ever felt in her previous twenty-seven years of life—both this life and her previous life.

Bao Tin Group's headquarters building appeared after the rain, its tall glass block reflecting the blurry streetlights, just like in her memories - luxurious, cold, and hiding many calculations behind its flashy cover. The taxi stopped in front of the lobby. Khanh Linh took a deep breath before getting out, her hands tightening the strap of her backpack where her precious notebook was kept.

As soon as she entered the lobby, she saw Hoang Bao Ngoc waiting at the reception desk, with a slim figure in a beige office dress, her expression still intact with the innocence and enthusiasm of a college friend that Khanh Linh once trusted absolutely. There is no trace of the betrayal that will happen in the future — or perhaps, those seeds have been silently sprouting for a long time that Khanh Linh, in her previous life, was never alert enough to realize.

"Linh! You're here!" Bao Ngoc waved his hand and ran to hug you, his voice still sweet and friendly as always. "I've been nervous for you since that morning. Creative director of the spring collection project - the dream position of so many people, finally belongs to you."

Khanh Linh looked at her friend, her heart filled with a complex feeling that was hard to name - both the pain of someone who had been betrayed and the regret for a beautiful friendship that once truly existed before being manipulated and corrupted by the jealousy and ambition of others. She decided that this time, she would not let things go the same way.

"Thank you," Khanh Linh replied, giving a sincere smile but her eyes were a bit discreetly probing, something she had never known how to use in her previous life. "After signing the contract later, I'll invite you to lunch. There's something I want to discuss with you."

"What's so serious?" Bao Ngoc asked, tilting his head slightly curiously.

"The story about what we will do together in this project," Khanh Linh replied, her eyes scanning the large lobby, stopping briefly at the stairs leading to the board meeting room - where Ms. Kim Chi was waiting. "I want to make sure, this time, none of us regret any of our decisions."

That careless statement made Bao Ngoc just laugh, not suspecting anything out of the ordinary. But for Khanh Linh, it was the first silent declaration of war she sent to destiny - a destiny that this time, she was determined to rewrite every page herself, not letting anyone, even the person she once called her best friend, have a chance to take it away again.