"Death is not the end. For me, it was only the beginning."
In the cold, sterile halls of the courtroom, Althea Ysabelle Cruz stood, trembling—not from fear, but from the unbearable weight of betrayal.
Her name was being dragged through the mud. Once hailed as a self-made businesswoman, known for her ethics and hard work, she was now the centerpiece of a national scandal. Fraud. Embezzlement. Corporate theft. Charges she had never dreamed of committing. And behind the scenes, the people she trusted most watched with smug satisfaction.
She glanced across the room—her former mentor, her best friend, even the man she once thought she'd marry. Each face held the same smug expression. They had used her brilliance, milked her ideas, and when they no longer needed her, discarded her like trash.
"I gave them everything," she whispered.
The gavel slammed down. "Sentenced to 15 years in prison."
It wasn't the years that broke her. It was the injustice. The crushing truth that no one came to her defense. Not even her own family, who had long distanced themselves from her out of shame. She was utterly alone.
Two weeks later, behind the grimy bars of her tiny cell, Ysabelle took her last breath. Whether it was the illness or the heartbreak, no one knew for sure. The headlines barely blinked. Another scandalous end to a once-rising star.
But fate had other plans.
---
She awoke to the warmth of silk sheets, the scent of jasmine, and the distant sound of crashing waves. Her body felt different—lighter, smaller. Panic surged through her as she scrambled up, only to be met by the reflection in the grand antique mirror across the room.
It wasn't the face of the disgraced thirty-two-year-old entrepreneur.
It was a teenage girl. With long black hair, porcelain skin, and unmistakably expensive silk pajamas embroidered with the initials YDV.
The door swung open. A maid entered, bowing her head.
"Good morning, Young Miss Ysabelle Dela Vega. Breakfast is ready. Your father is waiting."
The blood drained from her face.
Dela Vega.
The most powerful conglomerate family in the Philippines.
The family whose empire once crushed hers.
And now, she was one of them.