Alexander's voice cracked the air.

"You're Mandy! Where's the real Emma?"

The goons closed in, Mandy's gun digging into my temple.

Her glare burned toward Ethan's yacht.

"Nobody move—get us on that boat!"

I winced, pain scrunching my face.

Ethan roared, eyes blazing.

"Don't touch her—I'll do anything!"

Mandy smirks. Mad. "Good."

She snaps at Alexander.

" Alexander, sign all your assets to Sophie. One cent short, she dies—and Emma's gone forever."

My head reeled.

This plot's a damn train wreck.

Ethan's voice broke, raw.

"No, Alexander! You can't!"

Alexander's jaw tightened.

"Sorry, no choice."

Mandy screeched, "Now!"

Her voice shredded the wind.

He pulled his phone, fingers flying, then frowned.

"It's authorized—takes thirty minutes to fully transfer."

"Perfect," she sneered, yanking me up, gun at my skull, dragging me to the yacht's edge.

Ethan lunged.

She snapped, "Move, and I blow it!"

A remote flashed in her hand.

Trigger-happy.

The yacht roared to life.

Mandy shoved me aboard, barking, "Drive!"

The head thug fumbled, trembling, and floored it.

Waves slammed the hull as I hit the deck, gun still pressed tight.

Ethan and Alexander shrank to dots, Ethan's screams fading into the sea's howl.

***

The boat rocked, wind slicing my face.

My stomach churned.

Mandy lowered the gun, slumping across from me.

"Congrats, Sophie. Mission done," she said, lips twisting into a cracked-doll smile.

Task done? But I'm losing something massive...

I zoned out, mind racing through the past days.

Then it clicked.

"Mandy, your system said if Alexander IDs you, you fail—and vanish, right?"

Her eyes flickered, stung.

"Reborn, I took Emma's body. She stole mine, playing my part. He'd still carve out my kidney for her."

"So you had to win him before he saw through you?" I squinted.

She laughed, hollow and warped.

"Sharp, Sophie. Too bad you're blind to the love right in front of you."

My face froze. "What?"

Her madness flared.

"I can't have it? I'll burn it all. your love dies with mine!"

***

The yacht jolted, engine choking.

"Out of gas!" the thug yelled, panicking.

A speedboat roared up.

Mandy's face hardened, gun slamming back to my head.

Alexander leapt aboard, shouting, "Mandy, I did it—where's Emma?!"

Ethan followed, James steadying him, breathless.

"Let her go!" His glasses glinted, face crumbling.

Mandy swung the gun to her own temple, smiling at Alexander, shattered.

"Sophie goes home, missing Ethan forever. I die, Emma's soul dies with me—you lose us both."

Before we could blink, she pulled the trigger.

Bang.

Blood splashed the deck, red blooming fast.

Alexander dove, cradling her, his wail tearing the sky.

"Emma!"

The real Mandy's body—Emma's shell, gasped once, then stilled.

Both gone.

The system buzzed sharp in my skull.

"Assets transferring. Task near complete. Host departing. Memory unlock."

Pain ripped my head open.

Six years old, shivering on a cold iron bed.

A chestnut-curled boy scales the wall, knees grassy, pressing warm cheesecake into my palms.

"Don't be scared, Sophie. Come home with me."

Ethan—through my whole life. 

His hugs, his self-defense lessons, his laughs at my wild ideas, his soft calculus coaching.

He told me later he'd confront his bastard status to claim his inheritance—for our future.

Then I died at my desk.

"Ethan..." I sobbed, tears flooding.