Chapter One
"Boss, we are surrounded, what should we do?" James's assistant, Ben, said through the phone in a panicked voice.
"The men are all dead, and I've been trying to reach the police, but there is no cell connection," Ben added. James didn't panic or break out a sweat. Instead, he placed his left arm behind his back and took a sip from a glass half-filled with beer. It was as if he was taking his last sip and he had already accepted his fate.
"Boss??" Ben called, but James had already ended the call, throwing the phone aside. James started to walk towards the railing, his gaze held determination as he climbed it, gazing down. He was 7 floors away from the ground, but that didn't faze him. All he held in his heart was regret, and the only way to wash away that regret and self-resentment was to end his life. That was the only way to atone for his sins.
He jumped with his arms spread and a smile on his face. At last, his soul could finally perish in hell because that's where he belonged after all the awful things he had committed in the past.
That same night, the whole world talked about the incident. The news headline read, "Billionaire James Jordan commits suicide by jumping from a tall building during his visit to Mexico." People couldn't help but wonder why a powerful man like James Jordan would commit suicide, and the reason was left unanswered.
James felt like he was falling into a never-ending pit of darkness and he could hear voices around him. The voice was a bit unclear but as time went on, it became clearer and clearer.
“I hope you will never wake up!” A very familiar feminine voice was heard. There was anguish, pain, and hatred in her tone. Was that Lillia?
James could hear his late wife, Lillia's voice beside him, and although it had been years since he heard that soothing voice last, he never forgot how she sounded. Although her voice never sounded lively or bubbly, it was always filled with pain and hatred, and he was the cause of her suffering.
"I hope you die in your sleep, you bastard!, That way my daughter and I can be happy,"
James felt his heart tighten in pain as he listened. His eyes opened to see his late wife, Lilia, standing beside him. However, this Lilia was different. She appeared a few years younger, around the age of 23-24. "I've prepared dinner," Lillia said coldly before walking away.
James sat up, his gaze wandering around the small house, and his eyes widened the moment he realized something. This was the house he had lived in with Lilia and their 4-year-old daughter, Jenna, before......
James looked around the living room for a second until his eyes landed on a 2006 Motorola RAZR that was on a small brown table. He grabbed it and switched it on to check the date and time. It was 02:19 PM on July 30th, 2006.
So, he wasn't hallucinating. He was back in the past. James dropped his phone back on the table and stared at his wife, who had already started eating. He felt an uncontrollable urge to pull her into his arms and hug her forever. Since he was given a second chance, he was not going to waste it. He swore to give them the best life they'd ever had this time around. James walked towards his wife and sat down on the dining chair to eat.
"Lilia," James called, and Lilia paused, looking up at him.
"I want to take a loan from the local bank," James said, watching slowly as anger flashed through Lilia's eyes, her fist hitting the table as she glared at him.
"Are you planning on taking another loan to spend it on drinking and playing measly bets with your friends?!" Lillia shouted in anger, throwing a steel spoon at James, who barely dodged it.
If James had reacted a second later, the spoon could have hit him.
"Wait, Lilia, calm down, it's not for that-," James tried explaining that the loan he was about to take from the bank wasn't going to be used for betting and lavish spending but to start a business. He wanted to give them a good life, but he didn't bother to give them one in the past. Surprisingly, James still had his memories and knew everything that would occur in the future, so he was planning on using the knowledge he already had concerning business to make lots of money and take care of them. He also wanted to make sure that they didn't die in this life and would protect them and lay down his life for them if need be, which was something he couldn't do in the past because he was nothing but a loser, and a coward.
"You're yet to pay the previous loans you borrowed from wherever you borrowed them from, and now you want to borrow another huge sum. Your reckless loans and your obsession with betting and drinks will put us all in danger one day." Lilia shouted in anger.
Although Lilia didn't mean that James's actions would cause her and Jenna's death when she said her last sentence. She meant that his actions might get them in prison for inability to pay back loans, but James still froze, his palm tightening into a fist.
He felt cold sweat break out on his skin as he remembered their painful past and the day his wife and daughter had passed away...
Lilia and James were high-school sweethearts who loved and cared for each other immensely despite the huge gap between each other's status and positions. Although Lilia's family was completely against it and hated James to the core, the young couple didn't care and got married.
After a few months of marriage, things changed, James changed from being a caring, amazing, and loving husband to an easily angered, abusive, and irritated man. He would hit Lilia anytime he felt that she was challenging him and hit their daughter, too, if she tried to protect her mom.
The day he lost his family, he was away, drinking as usual when he got into an argument with a man he had bumped into while staggering home. The man prolonged the issue more than he should have before letting James go.
James staggered home, and from the entrance, he saw more than 10 huge men wearing black all over with black glasses standing around his small home.
James recognized them immediately when he saw the ancient dragon ink tattooed around their necks. They were an organization he had loaned a huge amount of money from. James knew that they were there for him and he knew that he might not make it out alive if he stepped into the house.
So, he turned around and ran away as quietly as possible, forgetting how dangerous the organization was and the high chance that they would end his family as a warning to him.
James spent approximately 6 hours outside, wandering around the streets only to return to find his wife and daughter's dead bodies on the cold floor. His wife, Lilia, lay there, completely naked, with dried semen coming out from between her legs. They r***d her and buried a bullet into her heart, and Jenna looked like she was strangled to death after creating loud cries that the men would have probably found annoying.
Blood tainted the ground and the white walls that Lilia always cleaned every morning, making sure it was as sparkling as ever.
On that day, James held both of their cold, limp bodies and cried like a baby, experiencing different emotions all at once. He regretted everything; he wished he had been the one to die instead of them. He wished they could open their eyes just one more time...
Even after James rose to power, becoming the richest man in the country, he still couldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes a day, even with the help of sleeping pills. Their memories, their faces, his child's face, they all haunted him every time he closed his eyes.
As James recalled those memories, he felt pain coursing through his whole body. It was as if a knife was being repeatedly stabbed into his heart. His eyes widened, and cold sweat dripped down his forehead.
"James," Lilia called and placed her soft hand on his back, making him snap back to reality.
