After My Death, I Became His Queen.

Chapter- 1

The first thing I felt was sunlight.

Warm, golden sunlight spilled across my face through the curtains, so different from the cold darkness that had surrounded me when I died. For several seconds, I remained completely still, afraid that if I moved, I would wake up from whatever cruel dream my mind had created.

My chest rose and fell beneath the white sheets.

No pain.

No burning in my lungs.

No blood.

No shattered champagne glass beneath my fingers.

I slowly opened my eyes.

The ceiling above me was familiar.

Too familiar.

My gaze traveled across the room, taking in the pale pink curtains, the wooden dresser beside the window, the small bookshelf filled with novels I had not touched in years, and the framed photograph sitting on my bedside table.

My photograph.

Taken when I was twenty three.

I sat up so quickly that the room spun around me.

My hand flew to my chest.

Nothing.

I touched my ribs, my stomach, my throat, almost desperately searching for some evidence that the previous night had been real.

There was none.

I was alive.

But that was impossible.

I remembered dying.

I remembered Adrian standing across the ballroom while my body collapsed onto the marble floor. I remembered Emily holding my son in her arms. I remembered Noah crying for me. I remembered trying to reach him while my fingers became too weak to move.

I remembered Adrian watching me die.

I remembered Emily whispering, "She knows."

And Adrian answering, "She won't for long."

A shudder ran through me.

"No..."

My voice sounded unfamiliar.

Younger.

I threw the blankets aside and stumbled toward the mirror.

The woman staring back at me stopped my heart.

Long brown hair fell over my shoulders. My skin was smooth, my eyes were brighter, and there were no faint lines beneath them from years of sleepless nights. There was no exhaustion carved into my face.

There was no sign of the woman who had spent five years trying to make a broken marriage work.

I lifted my hand.

The woman in the mirror did the same.

My fingers touched my cheek.

Twenty three.

I was twenty three again.

"No," I whispered, shaking my head. "This isn't possible."

My eyes moved toward the calendar hanging beside my desk.

I walked toward it slowly, afraid of what I would see.

The date stared back at me.

Five years earlier.

My breathing stopped.

I grabbed the calendar from the wall and stared at it again as though the numbers might change if I looked long enough.

They didn't.

Five years.

I had gone back five years.

My knees weakened, and I sat down on the edge of the bed.

A laugh escaped my lips.

It sounded broken.

Then I started crying.

Not because I was sad.

Because I was alive.

For five years, I had forgotten what it felt like to wake up without fear. I had forgotten what it felt like to breathe without carrying the weight of another person's betrayal inside my chest.

I pressed both hands over my face and cried until my shoulders shook.

Then, slowly, another thought entered my mind.

Adrian.

My tears stopped.

I lowered my hands.

Today.

This was the day.

I remembered now.

Today was the day Adrian Vale was supposed to propose to me.

The memory came rushing back.

Five years ago, I had spent the entire morning nervous and excited because Adrian had told me he wanted to take me somewhere special that evening. I had spent hours choosing my dress. I had curled my hair, changed my earrings three times, and secretly wondered if he was finally going to ask me to marry him.

I had been so happy.

So foolishly happy.

I had believed Adrian was the love of my life.

I had believed his family would eventually accept me.

I had believed Emily was my friend.

I had believed my future was waiting for me.

I closed my eyes.

Five years later, that future had ended with my death.

But now I knew something I hadn't known before.

I knew exactly where the road led.

I knew every person who would betray me.

I knew every lie Adrian would tell.

I knew Emily would eventually become his mistress.

I knew she would become pregnant.

I knew she would manipulate my son.

I knew my own family would turn against me.

I knew Adrian would take everything from me.

And I knew someone had killed me because I had discovered something they desperately wanted hidden.

My eyes opened.

The woman in the mirror no longer looked frightened.

She looked determined.

I walked to the small wooden desk near the window and picked up my phone.

The screen lit up.

There were several messages from Adrian.

My fingers froze.

Adrian: Good morning, beautiful.

Another message appeared.

Adrian: Be ready by seven. I'm taking you somewhere tonight.

I stared at those words for a long time.

Once, they would have made my heart race.

Now they made my stomach turn.

I almost deleted the messages.

Then I stopped.

No.

That would be too easy.

If I wanted revenge, I couldn't afford to let Adrian know that anything had changed.

He needed to believe I was still the same Hannah.

The same trusting woman.

The same woman who loved him.

The same woman who knew nothing.

I placed the phone back on the desk.

"I'll play your game," I whispered.

"But this time, I'll know the rules."

A knock sounded on my bedroom door.

"Hannah?"

I turned. The door opened, and my mother stepped inside.

The sight of her nearly broke me all over again.

She looked younger too.

Her hair was darker, her face softer, and there were no traces of the years of stress that had eventually changed her.

She smiled when she saw me.

"You're awake."

For a moment, I couldn't speak.

In my first life, I had lost her too.

Not to death.

To distance.

To misunderstandings.

To the endless problems Adrian's family had created between us.

I had spent years believing my mother didn't understand me.

Now I knew how wrong I had been.

She walked toward me.

"Are you all right? You look pale."

I stared at her.

Then I crossed the room and hugged her.

She stiffened in surprise.

"Hannah?"

I buried my face against her shoulder.

The warmth of her arms around me almost made me cry again.

"I just missed you."

She laughed softly.

"You saw me yesterday."

"I know."

I held her tighter.

She didn't understand why her daughter was suddenly clinging to her like a child, but she didn't question it.

She simply stroked my hair.

"Are you nervous about tonight?"

I pulled away.

"Tonight?"

Her expression became amused.

"Adrian's proposal."

My heart tightened.

So it really was today.

"Yes," I said carefully. "I'm nervous."

My mother studied my face.

"Are you sure about him?"

The question made me pause.

In my first life, I had answered immediately.

Of course.

I had defended Adrian against anyone who questioned him.

This time, I looked at my mother and forced a small smile.

"I thought I was."

She frowned.

"What changed?"

"Nothing."

I looked away.

"Maybe I just need time to think."

My mother nodded slowly.

"Then take it. Marriage is not something you should accept because you are afraid of losing someone."

Her words struck me harder than she could ever know.

I looked at her.

In my first life, I had lost myself because I had been terrified of losing Adrian.

This time, I would never make that mistake again.

After she left, I stood in front of my wardrobe and stared at the clothes hanging inside.

Everything felt like a memory.

Every dress belonged to a younger version of myself.

A version who had no idea what was coming.

My fingers stopped on a black dress.

I remembered wearing it the night Adrian proposed.

I had thought it made me beautiful.

Now all I could remember was the ring he had placed on my finger and the way I had cried when he promised to love me forever.

I pulled the dress from the wardrobe.

Then I looked at it for several seconds before putting it back.

"No."

I chose something else.

A simple white dress.

Elegant, understated and nothing like what I had worn in my first life.

If Adrian expected the same Hannah to meet him tonight, he was going to be disappointed.

I sat at my desk and opened a blank notebook.

At the top of the first page, I wrote three names.

Adrian Vale.

Emily Laurent.

Eleanor Vale.

I stared at them.

Then I added another.

Daniel Vale.

And finally, after hesitating for several seconds, I wrote:

Clara.

My best friend.

The woman who had stood in the ballroom and refused to look at me while I died.

I didn't know whether she had betrayed me willingly or whether she had been forced into it.

That was one of the things I would discover.

I began writing everything I remembered.

Dates.

Names.

Places.

Events.

Every detail I could pull from my memory.

The first time Adrian met Emily.

The business meeting where they supposedly became close.

The night Noah first called Emily Mommy.

The argument Adrian and I had before my death.

The strange documents I had found.

The company accounts that had never made sense.

The conversation I had overheard before everything went wrong.

I stopped writing.

My pen hovered above the page.

There was something I had forgotten.

Something important.

Something connected to the reason Adrian had looked afraid before I died.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember.

The night before my murder, I had discovered something inside Hawthorne Holdings.

A financial transfer.

Millions of dollars.

Money that had been moved through several companies before disappearing completely.

I had confronted Adrian about it.

He had told me it was none of my concern.

But it had been my concern.

Because the money had come from an account connected to my name.

I opened my eyes.

That was it.

That was what they had been hiding.

Maybe the affair had never been the real reason they wanted me gone.

Maybe Emily had only been part of something much bigger.

I wrote one final sentence beneath the names.

Find out who killed me, and why?

Then I closed the notebook.