Chapter 3

The night wind cut through my thin pajamas as I wandered down the dark, tree-lined streets of our gated community.

Occasionally, a car drove past, its headlights illuminating my pathetic, shivering figure.

Calm down, Georgina. Think, I told myself.

If they managed to wipe every trace of me from the house, the rest of the world couldn't have gone crazy too.

I reached into my pocket. Thank God. Before leaving the hospice, I had slipped my phone and my wallet into my pocket out of habit.

I pulled out my driver’s license. Under the dim glow of a streetlamp, my pupils dilated in shock.

The photo on the card was definitely me.

But the name printed next to it read: Olivia Bennett.

The date of birth, the address—everything belonged to that broke college student.

My hand shook, and the card clattered onto the asphalt.

How?

My wallet never left my side. When did they swap my ID?

I grabbed the card, my heart hammering against my ribs, and dialed my mother’s primary care physician, Dr. Evans.

The phone rang for a long time before a sleepy voice answered.

"Hello, Dr. Evans. It’s Georgina," I gasped, trying to keep my voice steady.

Silence stretched for two seconds. Then, Dr. Evans spoke, his voice laced with confusion.

"Olivia? Why are you calling this late?"

"Mrs. Williams was discharged this afternoon. Georgina took her home hours ago."

Olivia.

Even he called me Olivia.

The world spun around me. I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper.

"Dr. Evans, listen to my voice! I am Georgina!"

"I'm the one who paid for her chemotherapy! We discussed her surgical options just last month!"

The doctor sighed, his tone turning annoyed.

"Olivia, have you been drinking? Every time Georgina came in, she was accompanied by her husband, Anthony."

"Anthony signed all the financial paperwork. You're just the tutor. Stop calling me with this nonsense."

Click.

They hadn't just stolen my life. They had rewritten everyone’s memories.

But how? That was impossible. It defied all logic.

Unless...

A terrifying thought crossed my mind.

I sprinted to the main road, hailed a taxi, and gave the driver the address of the company I built from scratch—Aether Technologies.

Even if Anthony bought off the hospital and my home, Aether had hundreds of employees. Someone had to recognize their CEO!

The skyscraper was still glowing with lights at 2:00 AM.

I burst through the glass doors of the lobby. The night receptionist immediately stood up.

"Olivia? What are you doing here at this hour?"

Her voice was sweet, but it felt like a sledgehammer to my chest.

I ran to the desk, slamming my hands down.

"What did you just call me? Look at my face!"

"I am Georgina Williams! I built this damn company!"

Terrified by my crazed look, she took two steps back.

"Olivia, stop playing around."

"Mr. Carter announced at the company-wide meeting this afternoon that you were let go from tutoring Lily. He explicitly blacklisted you from entering this building."

As she spoke, her hand snucked under the desk, pressing the silent security alarm.

I bypassed the desk, running toward the elevators.

"I need to see Anthony! I want to see the corporate registry! I am the majority shareholder!"

Within seconds, three burly security guards tackled me to the ground, pinning my arms behind my back.

"Let me go! You blind fools! I'm the one who pays your salaries!" I screamed, my hair tangled, looking like a literal lunatic.

The head of security looked down at me with disgust.

"Olivia, Mr. Carter was kind enough to fund your college tuition and give you a job."

"And this is how you repay him? Trying to steal his wife’s company? Get her out of here before I call the cops!"

They dragged me out of the lobby and threw me onto the cold, wet pavement.

My knees scraped against the asphalt, blood seeping through my pajamas.

I looked up at the massive neon sign of Aether Technologies.

I designed that logo myself on the night Anthony proposed to me. Now, it felt like it was mocking my stupidity.

I had lost everything. My name, my family, my money, my business.

In a matter of hours, I had been completely erased from the world.

I curled up under the streetlamp, tears finally spilling over.

Why? Why did Anthony do this?

If he fell in love with Olivia, he could have just asked for a divorce. I would have walked away. I was never a beggar for love.

Why use such a sick, elaborate scheme to skin me alive?

As I drowned in despair, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

It was a calendar notification: [Tomorrow, 10:00 AM: Replace smart vacuum filter.]

My eyes snapped open. My heart skipped a beat.

The smart vacuum!

To keep an eye on Lily while she played in the living room, I had secretly modified the camera on the smart vacuum cleaner.

It didn't run on our home Wi-Fi. It bypassed the main network, connecting to a private cloud server I had set up during my college coding days.

An account Anthony didn't even know existed.