I Faked Love, He Spoiled Me Rotten

"I just clocked out of a triple shift, and I'm completely dead on my feet. Can we just skip it tonight?" an exhausted voice muttered. Louisa Hart snapped her eyes open, totally startled. She instinctively scrambled backward until her back hit the wall, finally taking in her dim surroundings. Where the hell was she? Wasn't she supposed to be dead? Someone had held her head underwater—she could still vividly remember the suffocating panic, the desperate struggle, and the slow sink into the dark... The man started stripping out of his clothes, the rustle of fabric getting closer and closer. Catching a scent that felt vaguely unfamiliar, Louisa reacted on pure instinct and swung her hand. Slap! Her palm landed right on his face. The guy froze, poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue. A sliver of light peaking through the curtains caught his face. He had incredibly sharp, chiseled features—a straight nose, a clean jawline, and thin lips pressed into a hard line. Louisa's eyes went wide. 'Dominic? Wait, no. He looked way too young, and he didn't have that intimidating, billionaire-heir vibe yet.' Frowning deeply, he stared down at her, his eyes heavy with annoyance, though he kept his voice tightly checked. "Louisa, what are you throwing a tantrum over now?" Her mind went completely blank. The yellowed ceiling of the cramped, partitioned room, the muffled TV blaring next door, and the rattle of old pipes—it all came rushing back. She had reincarnated! She was back to the days before they broke up! Louisa was a nursing grad from a vocational school, just getting by working at a small-town hospital. Back then, Dominic Rodger was just a low-paid construction worker. He got rushed to the hospital after a bad accident on site while she happened to be on duty. Catching a glimpse of the wealthy-looking guy who dropped him off, she assumed Dominic was some rich brat. So, she went all out taking care of him while he was out cold, and even paid his medical bills out of her own pocket. But when Dominic finally woke up, he told her straight up, "Look, I just haul bricks at a construction site." She was totally speechless, but since she'd already spent the cash, she wasn't going to let him off the hook until he paid her back. Dominic was genuinely grateful. He pulled day shifts at the site, drove an Uber at night, and still managed to pick up her dry cleaning, grab her coffee, and drive her to and from work. She took it all for granted without feeling bad at all. Honestly, she was just obsessed with his face and loved how he never complained, and he was always at her beck and call. Eventually, they became a thing. She ended up quitting her nursing job, leaving him to pick up the tab for all their living expenses. Later on, she got sick of being stuck in a small town and insisted on moving to Newville to strike it rich, so he followed her there. When they first arrived in Newville, she flat-out refused to live in a dark, windowless basement or some cramped, shared apartment crawling with roaches. Gritting his teeth, Dominic shelled out almost a grand a month for this place. It was split up by cheap drywall, so paper-thin you could literally hear the neighbors sneeze. The rent was totally crushing Dominic, who was brand new to the city, but she still wasn't satisfied. Until one day, the truth finally dropped. She wasn't even the one who saved him back then, and the medical bills she paid were only hundreds of bucks, not hundreds of thousands. His actual savior was a sweet, super-rich heiress. Once Dominic's real identity came to light, he went to claim his billionaire heir status and ended up marrying that rich girl. Meanwhile, she was dumped back in the small town to figure things out on her own. But he had already spoiled her rotten. She didn't even know how to put a resume together and absolutely hated job hunting. She kept making huge scenes, running off to Newville to mess with Dominic, until one of the rich heiress's fanboys killed her just to show his loyalty. Drowned to death one second, reincarnated the next. Louisa's legs went totally weak, and she dropped to her knees right in front of Dominic. Dominic was stunned, a look of pure confusion flashing across his eyes. "You..." He opened his mouth but couldn't find the words, so he just knelt down too. "Can we not play these crazy games?" he muttered, sounding completely exhausted and desperate. "I seriously can't take this anymore. I'm wiped out." The two of them knelt face-to-face, knees touching, barely half a meter apart. Hearing this, Louisa cringed. She wished she could just disappear right in front of his handsome, high-class face. The awkward silence made her brain spin at top speed, her survival instincts kicking into overdrive. She scrambled back up. "What do you mean 'crazy games'? The lights were off, okay? You scared the absolute crap out of me." Dominic pushed himself up by his knees pretty slowly, his eyes locking onto her twitching eyelashes. Since when did she ever give a damn about how hard he worked? Feeling guilty under his stare, Louisa defaulted back to her usual bratty self. "What are you staring at? You smell like pure sweat. It stinks!" She pinched her nose, took two steps back, and pointed at the cramped bathroom where one could barely even turn around. "Hurry up and go get cleaned up." Dominic worked as a security guard during the day, hit the construction site after dinner, and then delivered food for a few hours. How could he not smell? Without saying a word, Dominic grabbed a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom. This apartment was literally a drywall-partitioned cage. The two-bedroom spot was crammed into five tiny rooms. As the sound of the shower started, Louisa remembered the feeling of having her head forced underwater, and her hands started to shake. The voices from her past life seemed to echo in her ears again— "Just throw her straight into the ocean!" "What a pathetic loser! Got dumped and still keeps crawling back." "Hurry it up! Clara and Dominic will be here any minute." Dominic took a quick shower. When he walked out, he was just in a tank top. He didn't even glance her way, just pulled back the blanket and crashed. The second his head hit the pillow, his breathing slowed down. He was completely wiped out. Working guard duty by day, delivering food by night, and pulling shifts at the construction site on top of that. Every single dime he made from burning himself out went straight into Louisa—an endless money pit. Louisa hesitated for a moment before freezing up and lying down, curling into a tiny ball on the bed. A steady warmth radiated from beside her. It had been forever since she last shared a bed with Dominic. All she could remember was how, after the truth came out and he dumped her, she lost her mind trying to track him down, only to face his cold, annoyed stares every single time. The sheets rustled behind her. Louisa's body went stiff. The next second, Dominic pulled her into his arms. He warmed her freezing hands and tucked her feet between his legs, his movements completely automatic. It was so warm. Dominic patted her back, his voice sounding super drowsy. "Go to sleep." Louisa froze, her dazed mind finally realizing she had actually been reborn. She was vain, and she absolutely hated being abandoned. She had been so jealous of Dominic's wife, regretted lying to him, and just couldn't accept that she had ruined her only ticket to getting rich. That's why she kept pestering him over and over again. So many awful people in the world got to live perfectly fine lives. Was she really worse than those rich bullies who ran wild, or more unforgivable than actual killers? Why did she have to be the one to die? Having a second shot at life, she only wanted to know one thing—could she escape that brutal death this time around? Her death in her past life had been so gruesome that the terror had been practically baked into her bones, forcing her to be extra careful now. Even if she couldn't keep Dominic's heart down the road, she could absolutely never piss him off like she had done before. She remembered it clearly—back when Dominic was first recognized as the heir, even the coworkers who had only grabbed a few meals with him ended up striking it rich. But the lie she told back then was bound to blow up sooner or later. Louisa knew herself well. She wasn't that smart or born into a rich family, but she loved money. Now that she finally landed a rich guy, how could she willingly go back to being down and out? But being reborn didn't magically give her a new brain. She wasn't going to turn into a genius overnight. In her past life, after Dominic went back to the Rodgers and found out she'd been lying to him from day one, he didn't actually hurt her. Instead, he just gave her a chunk of cash to leave. It was her own greed that ruined everything. So, what if she started treating Dominic a bit nicer from now on? She'd probably get even more money that way, right? And the second she got the cash, she'd bail. Doing the math, Dominic probably had about six months left before the Rodgers tracked him down. She should still have a chance to play her cards right and keep Dominic happy, right?