At first, Isabella thought she was hallucinating.
Her fingers gripped the soft sheets as she sat up, her breath ragged. The faint scent of lavender and old wood surrounded her — the familiar smell of her childhood room.
She reached for the calendar again.
It really did say five years ago.
Her eyes darted around the room — the pale pink wallpaper, the vanity cluttered with cheap makeup she hadn't yet learned to use properly, the single suitcase in the corner.
Everything was exactly as it had been the day before she got engaged.
Her throat tightened.
"This can't be real…"
But the ache in her chest was real enough. The memory of the betrayal — his cruel words, her sister's triumphant smile — still burned behind her ribs.
A sharp laugh escaped her lips before she could stop it.
"So the universe decided to be kind for once?" she whispered to the empty room.
"Fine. Let's see how kind it stays when I burn it all down."
She stood and crossed to the vanity, staring at her reflection in the cracked mirror.
This was the old Isabella — naïve, wide-eyed, soft-spoken.
But she saw something new in her own eyes now — a spark she'd never dared show before.
She leaned close to the mirror, her lips curling into a slow, dangerous smile.
"You wanted to abandon me? Betray me? Poison me? Not this time."
Later that morning, she descended the grand staircase of the family home — a house she'd once thought was warm, but now realized was just gilded rot.
Her mother looked up from the breakfast table, frowning.
"You're awake early. You should eat. Today's an important day."
Isabella's heart twisted. This was it — the day Daniel would approach her father to ask for her hand.
The day she'd said yes and signed away her future.
Not this time.
"I'm not hungry," she said evenly, meeting her mother's startled gaze.
She walked out the door without waiting for permission — another thing the old Isabella would never have dared.
The city streets smelled of rain and exhaust as she hailed a taxi.
There was someone she needed to see first — someone her past self had foolishly avoided.
The one man her father had warned her to stay away from.
Alexander Grey.
The ruthless CEO who had destroyed rivals, swallowed companies whole, and crushed her family's business underfoot years ago.
The man who had looked at her once at a charity gala — and smiled like he already owned her.
If she was going to take control of her fate, she needed power.
And Alexander had more of it than anyone else in the city.
She sat back in the taxi, her pulse quickening as the driver weaved through traffic.
Her reflection in the window showed the faintest smirk on her lips.
"If I have to sell my soul to the devil, so be it," she murmured.
"Better than letting them kill me again."
The taxi screeched to a halt in front of Grey Enterprises — a sleek tower of glass and steel, cold and imposing.
Isabella stepped out, her heels clicking on the marble pavement.
She tilted her chin up, the morning light catching in her eyes.
And as she pushed open the heavy glass doors, she thought:
"Let the game begin."