The Body Swap That Made Her a Billionaire—and Me Awake Chapter 01

The Body Swap That Made Her a Billionaire—and Me Awake Chapter 01

My stepsister, Lena Thorne, dragged home an injured stranger from the street, her eyes red and glistening with fake tears as she turned to me.

“Evelyn, he was in a terrible car accident, and now he’s in a coma. It’s just so sad.”

“How about this: I’ll foot all the expenses, and you handle the daily care. Take him back to your place and nurse him back to health?”

I looked at the pale man on the bed. Even covered in grime and blood, his sharp, regal features were hard to miss. My heart softened, and I nodded.

The next second, floating lines of text exploded in front of my eyes, like comments on a livestream:

[LMAO she actually fell for it!]

[Evelyn’s so clueless—she doesn’t realize that ‘vegetable’ is Kayden Hatfield, heir to a billion-dollar empire!]

[Last time around, Evelyn found Kayden first and landed herself a billionaire husband just from playing nurse. Lena was absolutely green with envy.]

[So Lena came back in time, grabbed him before Evelyn could—then figured out that taking care of a comatose man is a nightmare. Now she’s passing the buck to Evelyn!]

[Exactly! Evelyn does all the messy round-the-clock bedside grunt work for three months to wake him up, then Lena uses her body-swap hex, swaps bodies, and steals Evelyn’s life. That is some next-level manipulation!]

I froze, rooted to the spot.

An icy dread shot straight through my bones.

I turned to look at Lena, who was still crying prettily. She dabbed at her eyes, but her gaze kept sliding to the bloody man on the bed.

It was full of disgust.

And barely hidden greed.

“Evelyn, you know I’ve always been frail. I can barely take care of myself, let alone a sick person,” Lena said, stepping closer and linking her arm through mine. Her fingernails sank into my forearm hard, desperate. “Plus you’re a top-tier private caregiver, so you’re the only person I’d ever trust with him.”

“I’ll send you two grand each month as pay, sound good?”

Her voice was sweet, but her grip was iron.

[Two grand a month for all the gritty and round-the-clock intimate care for three months? What a scam!]

[Poor Evelyn. The body-swap hex is already active. Lena can swap their bodies whenever she wants.]

[Once Kayden wakes up, she’ll become Evelyn and inherit his billion-dollar fortune!]

[Evelyn finally worked her way out of the gutter to build a solid life, and now she’s gonna get used and burned out all over again for someone else’s gain!]

I lowered my gaze to hide the cold fury boiling inside me.

So that was it. Lena had it all planned out. She didn’t want to do the hard work, but she wanted once-in-a-lifetime windfall for saving the tycoon. And she was using dark magic to steal my entire life.

When I didn’t answer, Lena got anxious.

“Come on, Evelyn, you’ve always been so kind. Are you really going to let him die?”

She’s always been a pro at laying on a guilt trip. In my past life, I would have fallen for it.

But now…

I glanced at the floating comments and smiled to myself.

“Fine,” I said, looking up at her with a calm face.

Lena’s face lit up, but before she could celebrate, I kept talking.

“But Lena, you know long-term coma care costs a fortune. Prescription food, special beds, medicine… Two thousand dollars couldn’t cover even a tiny slice of the bills.”

I watched her frozen face and said, word for word, “Twenty thousand dollars a month. Three months, paid upfront. Otherwise, you keep him here. Or I’ll call the police and have him taken to a county shelter.”

Lena’s face went pale.

[Uh oh, she’s panicking! Lena knows the Hatfield family is offering a huge reward for Kayden’s safe return!]

[If the cops take him away, her whole body-swap plan is ruined!]

[Wait, Evelyn’s counter-offer is way too on point. Did she figure it out and just trap Lena on purpose?]

“Fine! $60,000, I’ll pay it!” Lena gritted her teeth, a flicker of financial regret flashed across her face. “I’ll pay, but you have to take care of him yourself. Everything. You cannot pass any of this work off to anyone else.”

She stared at me like I was just free labor.

[Sixty grand to score a billion-dollar future? Lena’s scamming her way to generational wealth for pennies.]

[Evelyn has no idea she just signed up for three months of hell.]

My phone pinged as the sixty grand hit my bank account.

I put my phone away and nodded cheerfully. “No need to fret, I’ll look after him properly.”

Relieved, Lena pinched her nose against the smell of blood and ran out of the room without a second glance.

Now it was just me and the man on the bed. The room hung heavy with iron tang of fresh blood.

I walked over and looked down at Kayden Hatfield. The so-called ruthless heir of a corporate empire. Right now, he was just pale, broken, and pathetic.

I got a warm, wet cloth and started carefully wiping the blood and dirt from his face.

More comments popped up: [Fun fact: Kayden is fully conscious. His body is paralyzed, but he can hear every word spoken around him!]

[He definitely hates Lena’s guts after listening to her badmouth him and sell him off like property!]

[When the body swap happens, it’s gonna be popcorn-worthy chaos later on!]

My heart jumped. He could hear everything.

I leaned closer. Even battered and broken, he still had a commanding presence. Then I saw it: the faintest twitch of a finger by his side.

He really was aware.

I thought fast, then brushed my pinky against his and lowered my voice to a soft whisper right by his ear.

“Let’s go home.”