"My head hurts so much." The girl on the bed thought.
She raised her hand and rubbed her forehead, feeling a sense of dizziness that made her feel like she was floating on a dark cloud.
What was going on? How could she still be conscious?
Could humans sense sounds and experience emotions even hours after their death?
Maliah Philips's eyelids twitched. A strong light shone in. She narrowed her eyes and slowly opened them.
What she saw was a dilapidated brick house with old furniture. It was not her luxurious villa.
Wait, why did this room look so familiar?
Maliah tried to calm down her racing heart as she looked around the room again, trying to make sense of the situation.
The quilt was made of coarse materials, and the old bed was made of wood. When she got out of bed, she saw canvas shoes, not high heels.
Trembling, she put on the shoes and walked slowly to the vanity mirror in the room.
She stared at the young woman's face and the bruise on her forehead, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Didn't she die in an accident in her company's elevator?
When she saw the calendar hanging on the wall, she suddenly smiled.
She actually went back in the spring of 1977!
"Dad, do you even remember she is your biological granddaughter? Demi has been in the countryside for more than ten years and has suffered so much. We finally found her. Can't you grant her such a small request?"
Suddenly, a familiar female voice came from outside. It was none other than her adoptive mother, Nataly Norris.
"But Adam and Maliah are in love with each other. Maliah suffered a lot with us all these years and almost lost her life. We can't forget what happened back then just because we found Demi."
Hearing this, Maliah's memory of her previous life suddenly came back to her.
Speaking of which, she and Demi Harrel had a real-life mistaken identity story.
The Harrell family was highly regarded as a prominent medical family, with Yandel Harrell serving as its patriarch and a renowned physician in the country. However, due to his decision to save Joseph Campbell, a man who was being hunted at the time, he incurred the wrath of the Campbell family's enemies. They issued threats to not only eliminate the Campbell family but also the Harrell family as well.
Mr. Campbell wanted to protect them, but he couldn't keep them by his side all the time. At that time, Yandel had a newborn granddaughter, the youngest and only girl in the Harrell family. Her family was worried about her safety. Therefore, Yandel's daughter-in-law, Nataly, came up with the idea of swapping her child with a child from another family.
Yes, Nataly secretly swapped the child without telling the Harrell family. After a month, when she brought back a different girl, Yandel and her husband Tyson Harrell were furious and demanded that she return their real granddaughter. However, Nataly refused to reveal where the child was.
Coincidentally, at this time, the enemies came to seek revenge. In a panic, the whole family could not worry about anything else and ran away with the child. And so, they fled to the south.
Yandel was fond of the girl and treated her as his own granddaughter. He even cautioned Tyson and Nataly to keep the secret and to treat the girl as their own child. He advised them not to let anyone know about the swap.
Fifteen years later, the Harrell family received a letter from the Campbell family informing them that the threat against them in the capital had subsided and that they should return.
After they returned to the capital, as a gesture of gratitude for the Harrell family's kindness years ago, the Campbell family built them a house and helped them register their residency in the city.
However, Mr. Campbell felt that it was not enough to repay the Harrell family's kindness. When he saw how adorable Maliah was, he had an idea of arranging a marriage for her.
On Maliah's 16th birthday, Mr. Campbell proposed to Yandel to arrange the marriage between Adam Campbell and Maliah.
Since this was proposed by Mr. Campbell himself, no one in the family dared to object. Naturally, the Harrell family didn't have any objections either. It would be a good thing for them to be even closer to the Campbell family.
At the age of 16, Maliah was already engaged.
Initially, they had planned to wait for Maliah to turn 18 before arranging her marriage into the Campbell family. However, Nataly unexpectedly brought her biological daughter, Demi Philips, back to the Harrell family before Maliah reached the age of 18.
Yandel was caught off guard when his biological granddaughter, Demi, was brought back, but he found himself in a difficult situation. Now that his real granddaughter was right in front of him, he couldn't bear to send her away.
Yandel had allowed Demi to return to the family, but Nataly had different plans for Maliah. She wanted to send Maliah back to her biological parents, claiming that they needed someone to look after them.
Yandel saw through Nataly's ulterior motives, as she only wanted her own daughter to inherit everything. Yandel strongly opposed sending Maliah away and insisted that both of them stay in the Harrell family.
When Demi returned, she changed her name back to Demi Harrell, and Nataly organized a family dinner to celebrate her return. The Campbell family was also invited, and it was there that Demi saw Adam and learned that he was Maliah's fiance. She caused a scene and demanded to marry Adam instead.
The banquet had to end abruptly, and as soon as their guests left, Maliah and Demi got into a fight. Demi pushed Maliah to the ground, causing her to hit her head on a stone and faint.
After gathering her thoughts, Maliah took a deep breath.
In her past life, when she woke up, she had argued with Nataly and Demi, claiming that they had agreed to her engagement without her permission. And now, they wanted to break off the engagement so that Demi could marry Adam.
After Demi returned, she had been picking on Maliah and taking away all her belongings. Maliah had let it slide, but why did she have to sacrifice her marriage? Would she have to let Demi harm her in the future just because Demi suffered in the countryside while she was raised by the Harrell family?
On that day, Maliah had a nervous breakdown. Yandel sympathized with her and stood up for her. Nataly couldn't persuade Yandel, so she had to give up.
However, Demi and Adam became closer to each other. One day, Demi brought Adam to tell Yandel that they were in love and asked for his blessing. Yandel flew into a rage and said that if Demi saw Adam again, he would kick her out of the Harrell family. The Campbell family didn't like Demi either, so the matter was dropped.
At the end of the year, the Harrell family and the Campbell family held an engagement party for Maliah and Adam. The wedding was scheduled for the end of the following year. However, after the wedding, Adam refused to sleep with Maliah. He claimed that since she was still in school, it would be bad if she got pregnant. But before Maliah even graduated, Adam had secretly gotten Demi pregnant.
Maliah's lips curved into a cold smile. She pushed the door open and walked out.
