"Charlotte, don’t blame Grandpa Jacobs for being harsh—it’s just that... you’ve outlived your usefulness."

"If you’d just hand over the last formula to Maud, the Jacobs family is willing to give you a payout. After all, you and Bertram were engaged once."

Benjamin Jacobs’s words, calm but full of pressure, echoed through the hall.

Charlotte stood in the main room of the Jacobs estate, her clear eyes cold and unwavering.

Three years ago, it was Grandpa Jacobs who went out of his way to arrange her engagement with Bertram.

During those three years, she handed over every single one of her valuable medical formulas to the Jacobs’ pharmaceutical team.

The Jacobs family had gone from your average rich household to a rising powerhouse in the ancient martial arts scene—none of that could’ve happened without her. But now that they’d squeezed everything they could out of her, they were discarding her like trash.

Every one of her formulas was priceless, more precious than the last. If word got out, it would send ripples across the globe—you couldn’t put a price tag on them.

And now Benjamin was offering her compensation? Laughable.

Facing her was the ever-authoritative Benjamin Jacobs, her fiancé Bertram, and his beloved Maud Wyatt.

Charlotte’s eyes, amber and sharp like a cat’s, flicked across their faces with a hint of mockery. She didn’t look the least bit broken or defeated.

These past three years, everything she did for the Jacobs family was just to repay an old debt they’d done for the Bennett family.

Even when none of the credit ever went to her, and people believed every one of those milestones was thanks to Maud.

At first, the Jacobs family looked down on Maud, treating her like some bumpkin from the mountains.

But once Maud started revealing her hidden skills—doctor, martial arts prodigy, top-tier hacker, celebrity—it was a complete 180. Suddenly, she was their golden girl.

Now, the world only knew Maud as the future madam of the Jacobs family and darling of every industry heavyweight.

All those miracle pills? Of course, they had to be Maud’s creations.

She was showered with praise.

And Charlotte? The real contributor? Forgotten.

“Charlotte, we get that this might hurt, but other than a couple of formulas, you really can’t compare to Maud. We chose her because it made sense. Hope you understand.”

Seeing her stay silent, Benjamin tried softening his tone.

Charlotte’s cat-like eyes narrowed slightly, doubt creeping in.

Had the Jacobs family ever truly helped her family out of kindness back then? Or was everything just part of a bigger plan?

Now looking back, none of it added up.

Benjamin, caught under Charlotte’s piercing gaze, grew irritated.

Sure, he knew what they were doing wasn’t right—but so what?His tone hardened. “Charlotte, even if you don’t think for yourself, at least think about your parents. They raised you, that wasn’t easy, right?”

That was a threat, plain and simple.

Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat.

She already knew the Bennetts weren’t her biological parents—something the Jacobs family didn’t know either.

But the Bennetts had treated her like their own, never once favoring their real daughter over her. She couldn’t drag them down with her.

She’d made some real dumb choices these past three years. Just because the Jacobs family had once helped the Bennetts, she’d let her guard down completely.

In the end, she did write out the final prescription—that last formula was unlike the others. Incredibly rare. Priceless.

But she'd left in a flaw. One that only she knew about. The recipe wasn’t actually complete.

Maud Wyatt took the formula without noticing anything off. She smiled tightly, eyes gleaming with overconfidence.

“A true gem. Not even my master has seen something like this—an elixir that can supposedly grant eternal youth.”

She folded the note away, gentle with it like it was a treasure.

“But what a shame.”

She raised her eyebrows at Charlotte, a soft smirk playing on her lips. “You’ve got to go. The fewer people who know about this, the better. Sorry, Miss Bennett.”

Then, without giving Charlotte a second to react, she flicked her finger. A silver needle appeared and sank into the center of Charlotte’s forehead.

Just the tiniest dot of blood showed.

Before everything went black, Charlotte saw Bertram looking at Maud like she hung the stars.

And Benjamin Jacobs’s eyes—approval, admiration. That ruthless, decisive personality? Perfect qualities in their future matriarch.

Dumping Charlotte for Maud? Absolutely the right call. His grandson clearly had great taste.

…

…

“Did you screw Maud over on purpose? Give her the wrong formula for the Snowbone Pill? Why does it fail every single time she tries it?”

Just as Charlotte’s mind came back online, that cold voice slammed into her.

Her pupils flickered. That voice... she knew it too well. She’d come back?

The Snowbone Pill—cleanses the body of toxins. For regular people, it was basically a miracle, adding years to their life and shaving a decade off their age.

And for martial cultivators? It could take their training to the next level, fast.

It was insanely valuable. The kind of thing ancient martial clans would pay through the nose for.

Last time, a single pill had sold for 50 million.

The Jacobs used this formula to build relationships and win influence in the martial world.

The Snowbone Pill—yeah, that had been the very first formula she handed them.

So this was... three years ago?

If she had the timeline right, she’d already been engaged to Bertram for a couple of weeks.

Last time, Benjamin Jacobs had arranged the engagement. And the moment it was official, he was breathing down her neck to hand over the formula.

What she hadn’t expected was that the minute she gave it up, the Jacobs pharmaceutical team froze her out completely.

Said she only knew how to write formulas, not how to actually make the pills. That she should move on to writing the next one.

That she didn’t need to worry about production.

So she didn’t.

And shocker—Maud, along with the talented Jacobs team, couldn’t cook up a single working batch.In her past life, when Bertram Jacobs threw that question at her, Charlotte Bennett didn’t say a word—just quietly brewed the Snowbone Pill per the recipe.

It shut up the Jacobs family’s pharmaceutical team, alright.

But no one thanked her.

They just stubbornly assumed she must be hiding something, that their failure was because she'd given them an incomplete secret.

Clearly, they didn’t get it—alchemy takes skill.

Charlotte curled her lips, scoffing at their ignorance.

Seeing her smirk, Bertram snapped, his temper flaring. “Charlotte, you really did this on purpose. You’re so selfish!”

“You faked that formula just to mess with Maud and wasted everyone’s time for half a month!”

Her amber cat eyes darkened, full of disdain. She cut him off coldly, “Get out.”

Then she turned on her heel.

She’d had enough of this place—even a minute more felt disgusting.

Bertram stood there, stunned.

She actually told him to get lost?

Charlotte, who’d always been so obedient, never talking back, suddenly showed her claws like a wild cat?

“Let’s get something straight,” he bit out, “I never wanted this engagement. Grandpa made the call. If you still want to be my fiancée, you’d better hand over the real formula—otherwise, deal with the consequences.”

Charlotte paused, then looked back at him. “Wow, sounds like I’m desperate to marry you. Fine, let’s call off the engagement.”

Her gaze was sharp and calm.

Bertram’s face turned dark as thunder, his eyes cold.

“Ridiculous!” came the angry voice of Benjamin Jacobs.

Charlotte looked up and saw the old man approaching fast, leaning on the arm of a young woman.

His gaze swept over Charlotte—hard to read—then landed on Bertram, turning razor sharp. “Bertram, what the hell did you just say?”

“Charlotte’s grandfather was my long-time friend. Even though he’s no longer with us, I chose her as your fiancée after careful consideration!”

“Is this how you talk to your future wife? Hurry up and apologize!”

Bertram had already calmed down.

He knew exactly what his grandfather wanted—the Jacobs family still needed that formula. Alienating Charlotte now would be dumb.

He wouldn’t have snapped if she hadn’t gone after Maud.

Taking a deep breath, he forced his face into something more neutral.

Looking at her, he said, “Charlotte, don’t take what I said too hard. I just... you shouldn’t have handed over a fake recipe and wasted everyone’s time.”

“I know you don’t like Maud, but she’s always stayed in the background. She’s not trying to steal anyone’s spotlight.”

Charlotte stared at him coldly, listening to him spew whatever nonsense he thought sounded good.

“Yeah, Charlotte, my cousin was just venting. He really cares about you—don’t take it seriously,” chimed in the girl standing beside Benjamin.

Charlotte turned her eyes on her.

Amelia Thompson.

Two-faced as ever—nice in front of people, nasty behind their backs.

She could still recall how, in her past life, Amelia had looked at her with such smug contempt.

And that one line that stuck in her head: “Idiot. Did you seriously think you could be my sister-in-law? Maud’s the one I look up to.”