Ophelia's steps on the white marble flooring are silent, too silent, like a phantom is walking. Her black leather loafers feel light on her feet.
Blackwood Mansion is ever so familiar to Ophelia. Same ivory-golden walls with decors that cost a fortune to many and art pieces that highlight the Blackwood family's long history of wealth.
Yet, none of it seems to excite her blank, unfazed hazel green eyes, which are lost in the numbness of years of agony and abandonment. Walking inside her bedroom, Ophelia locks it and throws herself on the soft mattress, which dips under her weight.
She lacks nothing. A wealthy, powerful family; beauty that makes her stand out in thousands; and a brain that once turned around the entire power game of the underworld.
However, she only knows numbness, rage, and betrayal. A small sigh leaves her tired self. Too tired to move, too tired to think. This is her 3rd life and she has no idea other than revenge is there even anything she wants.
Sleep clouds her mind before she could finish processing everything. Sunlight pours through the window, wind gushing in, carrying the soft fragrance of roses and lavender right under her room.
Hours later, Ophelia opens her eyes to the nonstop ringtone of her phone. Without looking or opening her eyes, Ophelia answers her call with a hum.
"Ophy, why aren't you answering my calls?"
High-pitched, soft, feminine voice... Ophelia clutches her phone tightly. The memory of getting stabbed by the woman she trusted more than anything in this world makes her stomach twist in pain and rage.
"Ophy? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Elosia sounds annoyed from the lack of response. Looking back, she always talked in such a tone, and Ophelia thought it was her way of showing how much she thinks of Ophelia as her own.
Stupid!
"Okay, fine. Don't say anything. Don't blame me later if I end up messing up Vin's birthday present."
Vincent. Another traitor!
Ophelia's jaw twitches, and her numbness gets replaced by the pure, raw vengeance that has clouded her mind. Her chest is burning, but her voice doesn't give away her disdain.
"Where are you?"
Elosia gets a bit stunned by Ophelia's unusual distant tone, because all these years, Ophelia always sounded happy talking to Elosia even if Elosia often mistreated her in a twisted way.
"Crescent Boutique."
"I am coming."
Ophelia doesn't wait for Elosia to follow up. Her stomach and chest still burn from the agony and unbearable pain of betrayal from the two people she considered her chosen family.
Her steps are heavy but intentional. Her reflection in the mirror still looks vibrant and flawless compared to her past life. She is yet to come to accept this world is a novel she read.
But she knows she isn't going to live like her past two lives, both as Odette, the girl who ran away from her family to escape abuse from her mother. Nor as Ophelia, the girl who sacrificed everything just to be loved, only to be killed afterward.
A single tear rolls down her blank hazel green eyes. Tear of sadness? Tear of vengeance?
Only time would have told it.
Ophelia dressed herself in a black sleeveless silk blouse with a leather blazer and high-waisted white pleated wide-legged pants. Her hourglass body shape and prominent curves look even more accentuated due to her tailored fitted outfit.
She doesn't straighten her black curls or wear tone-up cream to be more appealing to Vincent. Bold red lips became the center of her makeup with a pair of teardrop diamond earrings.
"I am no longer going to change myself to be loved. All I care about is revenge."
Her bloodless, chilling words echo in the silent room where the only source of light is sunlight pouring through the massive window. She wears her high heels. Staffs look at her weirdly when she walks past them.
Nobody is in the habit of Ophelia walking with such pure confidence and disinterest. She walks past her elder sister Ivy, whose eyes widen in surprise seeing Ophelia in such an elegant yet sensual outfit.
Inviting but dangerous.
"Where are you going looking like this?"
Ophelia stops but doesn't look back. "To cause trouble in your boutique."
A frown makes Ivy give more attention to Ophelia, who had already taken the car key from Butler. The pink Pagani was gifted to Ivy by her fiancé.
"Hey, you can't take that car!" Ivy gasps, seeing a familiar car key.
"You don't even use it. Don't be such a snob, Sister." Ophelia's nonchalance makes Ivy take a step back. Something inside her warns her...
Ophelia has changed.
Blackwood Mansion is huge. Twenty bedrooms with three different wings, a ballroom, two indoor pools, a theater, a massive garden in the backyard, and a long vineyard stretching across the mansion.
Ivory and gold—that's the color of the Blackwood family. Being one of the richest families in Europe, owning the largest textile and industrial corporation in London, the Blackwoods have been in business since the Victorian Era.
From outside, they are perfect. Yet from inside, Ophelia feels like a prisoner, the biggest criminal in the world just for being born at the cost of her mother's life.
It takes two hours for Ophelia to stand before the Crescent Boutique, the boutique owned by her sister. Tucked into the luxury street, Crescent Boutique isn't even open to most people.
Guards stand alert, seeing the familiar pink Pagani. But surprised to see Ophelia instead of her sister.
Damp roads from rain earlier give off a city smell in the air. London's air is cold and cloudy.
"Is Elosia Jonas inside?" Ophelia's calm yet dangerous undertone makes guards exchange glances.
"Yes. Young Master Dimitri is also inside with her."
Ophelia tosses the car key to the guard, who catches it expertly. Inside the boutique everything screams old money.
Starting from the soft carpet on the wood floor to the dimmed chandelier in the middle of the massive boutique house containing some of the most finely detailed clothes and golden accessories.
Ivory and golden have always been the main theme of the Blackwood family, which is inevitable even in the boutique house. The rich fragrance of something woody and lavender makes Ophelia's chest lighter.
The manager runs to her with a silent curtsey, not loud or flashy enough to distract other buyers. "Young Miss Elosia and Young Master Vincent are inside the private booth."
Ophelia feels a chilling feeling in her body. She is curious about when Vincent and Elosia's affair even started in her past life.
Vincent and Ophelia started dating in high school; he was the only guy Ophelia ever looked at or wanted to build a life with.
Ophelia's steps are soundless on the soft carpet. The private room is soundproof, and she knows there is probably no one inside other than Vincent and Elosia.
Her chest is beating fast, and her neck is sweating, though her face is emotionless.
She pushes the door slightly, and breathing gets stuck in her throat like someone is squeezing her tight.
Elosia straddled over Vincent's lap, his one hand on her hip and another on her lips, tongue, and teeth.
Ophelia's grip on the doorknob tightens.
[So I have been betrayed and used for a very long time.. ] Ophelia thought. Her palm itches to tear those two away, but Ophelia plans something bigger.
Something far more dangerous...
"How long will you act like a lover to that clingy bitch, Vin?" Elosia sneers in disgust, but in Vincent's eyes her attitude is adorable.
His longer fingers run through her soft blonde hair, his eyes full of affection, which was never directed to Ophelia.
"Just wait a bit, Babe. I will make you the queen of the underworld."
A twisted smirk tugs Ophelia's lips, her eyes spitting out venom unknown to them.
Suddenly... she hears footsteps coming down from the second floor of the boutique. Silent yet powerful, carrying weight and authority just in the way one walks.
Ophelia steps back. Her expression is unreadable, though she knows who this is coming from on the 2nd floor, which is a place not even Ophelia could enter until she became the owner of the Blackwood family.
The ultra-exclusive floor where only through a handwritten invitation from Ivy can one enter, with the finest fabrics from across the world and the best tailors all ready to make any clothes for the customer.
And Ophelia remembers the day from a past life...
That one fateful encounter that changed her life then will change her life now too....
"Oh, I wasn't expecting to see my little sister-in-law here."
Seeing a dead man alive is going to be another part of Ophelia's daily life. And this irony. Ophelia doesn't know when she is going to get habituated to it.