Reborn Housekeeper: Stealing My Fate Won't Make You A Billionaire's Wife

Tags: Rebirth, Vicious Best Friend, High Society Drama, Shocking Reversal I knew perfectly well that the city's wealthiest heir was staying at the hotel tonight. Yet, when my best friend begged to swap shifts with me, I refused. Because I knew better than anyone that this ruthless billionaire heir was nothing but pure poison. In my previous life, I worked as a housekeeper at a five-star hotel to pay for my college tuition. While cleaning the presidential suite, I was dragged onto the bed by Ethan Hayes, the drugged-up heir to the Hayes empire. One wild night led to an unexpected pregnancy. Unable to afford a child, I decided to have an abortion. On the operating table, Ethan’s mother showed up with security and forcefully dragged me back to the Hayes estate. I never expected that when I went into labor, my best friend, Maya Vance, who was also a cleaner at the hotel, would storm into the delivery room wielding a chef's knife. She hacked both me and my newborn to death. "That room was supposed to be mine! I was the one who was supposed to sleep with Ethan Hayes and carry his heir! You stole my wealth and luxury! You ruined my life! You thief, I’ll kill you!" When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Ethan Hayes was drugged. Facing Maya's shift-swap request, I turned her down flatly. Since you want that life so badly, go ahead and dive into the Hayes family's toxic swamp yourself. "Chloe, my boyfriend just came to town. Cover my shift tonight, okay?" Maya muttered to herself as she walked into the locker room, already taking off her uniform. My mind blurred for a second, and a phantom, searing pain tore through my lower abdomen, snapping me instantly awake. I had been reborn. Back to the exact day Ethan Hayes had his drink spiked. Remembering my poor baby who had been slaughtered before even taking a proper breath in my past life, I lowered my head to hide the uncontrollable rage and grief burning in my eyes. Maya, whatever you wanted so badly back then, I'm letting you have it all this time. "Not today. I have an emergency. Find someone else." In our past life, it was Maya who begged me to take her shift. When I went to clean the presidential suite, a drugged Ethan Hayes dragged me into bed. That single accident utterly derailed my entire life. Now that I had a second chance, I would never repeat that nightmare. Maya hadn’t expected me to decline. Stunned for a moment, she quickly grabbed my hand and whined, "Chloe, please! You know Luke and I are long-distance. He barely saved enough bus fare to come see me. Just cover for me this once!" "I really can't. My mom complained of chest pains this morning, and she didn't pick up when I called her earlier. I need to go home and check on her." In my past life, because I didn't come home that night, my mother suffered a massive heart attack. Without timely treatment, she developed severe complications and required long-term hospitalization. The astronomical medical bills drove us into a corner. To keep from burdening me, my mother attempted suicide and fell into a persistent vegetative state. To pay for her life support, I had no choice but to surrender to Mrs. Hayes’s demands and keep that baby. At that memory, I ripped my hand away from Maya and walked toward the exit. She chased after me relentlessly. "Chloe, your mom has always been fine! You don't have to curse your own mother just to make up a lie! We grew up together! I’m only asking you to cover a single shift, and you’re making all these excuses! Are you even my friend?" Noticing our coworkers glancing our way, I shook her off again and called her out loudly, "Maya, how do you have the nerve to say that? Out of the last seven days, I worked five of your shifts! I make barely two grand a month, and you’ve already borrowed twelve hundred from me! How much more do you expect me to give you? Your boyfriend coming over versus my mother being sick—which one do you think matters more? Let me ask you: is this how a real friend acts?" Whispers instantly rippled through the staff room. "No wonder I rarely see her face around here. She’s been dumping all her work on Chloe." "Forget someone else’s boyfriend—even if it were my own date, my mother’s health would always come first. What a terrible friend." "Just taking advantage of a nice girl until she finally snapped." "Fine! Don't do it then! Chloe, after all these years, I finally see your true colors!" Red-faced and humiliated, Maya spat out a threat and stormed off. I walked out of the hotel doors smoothly, tilted my head up toward the penthouse suite where Ethan Hayes was staying, and let out a long breath. Maya, the golden cage you yearned for—I'm returning it to you. ... Back home, I immediately took my mother to the emergency room. Because we caught it in time, she only needed regular prescription medication to stay stable. That night, I slept peacefully in my own bed, while Maya next door never returned home. I didn't know whether she had skipped work to hook up with her boyfriend, or if she had successfully become Ethan Hayes's antidote. The next afternoon, just as I changed into my uniform and got ready for work, my supervisor barked at me. "Chloe! Skipping out on your shift yesterday, huh? Do you have any idea how many guest complaints we got? Forget about your paycheck this month!"The supervisor, Mark Davis, was a greasy, arrogant middle-aged man in his forties. Ever since I started working here, I noticed the creepy way he looked at both Maya and me. I had warned her to be careful around him, but she brushed me off, saying I was overthinking. "He's a top manager. He can have any woman he wants. Why would he look at broke college girls like us? Chloe, you might look plain, but you sure are full of yourself." Unable to convince her, I could only watch from afar as she flirted her way around Mark, smiling brightly even when he groped her. After that, our duties became worlds apart. I was assigned to scrub bathrooms and hallways, while Maya was handed the presidential suites. Whenever Maya had me cover her shifts, Mark turned a blind eye. I had already anticipated that he would cause trouble for me on Maya’s behalf, so his harassment didn't rattle me in the slightest. "I heard you lied about your mom being sick just to skip work. Young and already rotten, even cursing your own mother! Spill it—where did you go yesterday? Whose bed did you crawl into? Looking like a cheap little flirt, acting trashy all day long. Probably batting your lashes at male guests while scrubbing toilets. Shameless!" Seeing that I didn't argue, Mark grew bolder and reached his hand straight toward my chest. "Probably worn out by men already anyway. Come on, let me touch. Make me happy, and I might just take you off bathroom duty." From the corner of my eye, I caught several shadows turning the hallway. The people I was waiting for had arrived. I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face, intentionally provoking him. "Mark, stop acting like you own this hotel! If you lay another hand on me, I’m taking this straight to upper management and filing a sexual harassment report!" Taking the slap without a flinch, Mark sneered with blatant arrogance. "Report me? Go right ahead! Let's see who believes you! In this building, I am God! If you want to keep working here, you do whatever the hell I tell you to do." With that, he grabbed my shoulders and leaned in to kiss me. "Stop!" Mark was violently yanked backward, a fist slamming square into his jaw, knocking him to the floor. "Fuck! Who the hell dare—" Mark looked up, only to freeze when he met the venomous stares of the hotel's corporate executives. He choked on his words. The hotel had been anonymously reported for mismanagement, prompting high-level executives to conduct a surprise inspection today. They had just guaranteed that their operations were strictly regulated. Who would have thought that the moment they stepped into the housekeeping department, they’d be humiliated like this? "Are you alright?" Ethan Hayes asked in a remarkably gentle voice. Meeting his warm gaze, I froze for a moment before quickly lowering my head. "I'm fine." In my past life, after that night happened, I sneaked out while he was fast asleep. I couldn't afford to get entangled with billionaires, so I wanted to pretend it never occurred. But the morning-after pill I bought at the local pharmacy turned out to be expired. The next time I saw Ethan was at the Hayes manor. I was six months pregnant, and his mother smugly announced to him, "Ms. Price has agreed to carry the child to term. I’ll give her a lump sum, and the baby will have nothing to do with her afterward. As for you, get married if you want, or don't. I won't nag you anymore." I still vividly remembered how grim and repulsive his face looked back then. Right after that, Ethan flew abroad and never returned until the day I was killed. I knew he simply didn't want to look at me. I thought our paths would never cross again in this life, forgetting that this luxury hotel was an asset under the Hayes Group.Mark was fired on the spot. The replacement supervisor treated everyone fairly. Maya’s easy work days were over. I expected her to throw a tantrum. Yet, surprisingly, she acted as though a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders, beaming with excitement every day. I figured she must have succeeded in spending that fateful night with Ethan. A month later, the fall semester began, and our cleaning shifts were moved to the evening. During lunch at the campus dining hall, I purposefully carried a bowl of hot fish soup past Maya's table. She instantly gagged, clutching her mouth. "Oh my god, Maya, are you pregnant? Did you and your boyfriend not use protection? You're still in college; getting pregnant out of wedlock looks terrible!" I shouted in exaggerated shock. In my past life, it was Maya who publicly humiliated me by screaming about my pregnancy in front of everyone. I didn't have a boyfriend, so nasty rumors spread like wildfire across campus, claiming I had seduced a hotel manager and was acting as an escort for wealthy sugar daddies. Although there was no hard proof and the university didn't expel me, my scholarships and financial aid were completely stripped away. Coupled with my mother's crushing medical expenses, the judgmental stares of professors and peers, and the predatory creeps cornering me, my dignity was shredded into pieces. For money, I willingly became an incubator for the Hayes family. In this life, if Maya wanted the Hayes family's fortune, she was going to pay the exact same price. "That's impossible! I took the pill!" "Maya, you didn't buy that pill from the little pharmacy down our street, did you?" I looked at her with faux pity. "That place was packed with counterfeit and expired drugs. It got raided and shut down by the health department last week." Horror drained the color from Maya’s face. She dragged me straight to a clinic for a blood test. When the positive confirmation report was placed in her hands, she broke down into hysterics right there, sobbing and demanding an immediate abortion. It was as if the baby wasn't a golden ticket to high society, but a monstrous curse set to destroy her. Her reaction puzzled me. Wasn't this exactly what she wanted? "Maya, you're pregnant. Even if you want an abortion, shouldn't you tell Luke?" "No! He can never know! The baby is definitely his, but I just started college! If he finds out, he'll force me to drop out and marry him! Please, keep this a secret from him. I have to get rid of it!" I nodded reassuringly while secretly hitting 'save' on the audio recording on my phone. The next morning, she asked me to accompany her to the abortion clinic. Not long after Maya was wheeled into the procedure room, just like in my previous life, Mrs. Hayes arrived with a squad of bodyguards, storming the room and hauling her off the table. Hiding in the hallway, I watched. Maya started out trembling and terrified. Until Mrs. Hayes declared, "The child in your womb is the eldest grandson of the Hayes dynasty. You are not touching a single hair on that baby." The confusion on Maya’s face flickered for only a microsecond before exploding into pure, unadulterated ecstasy. She looked as though she had been struck by a multi-million-dollar lottery ticket falling from the sky. Watching her obediently follow Mrs. Hayes out, I shook my head with a cold smile. Every gift bestowed by fate comes with a hidden price tag. It’s never free. In my previous life, everyone in high society knew I was merely a surrogate tool who would never become Mrs. Hayes. Even so, the socialite heiresses desperate to marry into the Hayes family never spared me. They didn't just want me to miscarry; they wanted me dead. During the eight months I stayed in the Hayes mansion, I was rushed to the ER six times—every single incident an intentional setup. Twice, I nearly lost the baby. Three times, I barely clung to life. One vicious assault damaged my left eye, leaving me permanently blind on that side. Yet not a single culprit was ever held accountable. It was my comatose mother and the fragile heartbeat growing in my stomach that gave me the strength to endure that living hell. In this life, it was Maya's turn to enjoy that "blessed" life.Back on campus, the exact rumors that destroyed me in my past life were now slapped onto Maya. As her best friend, whenever curious classmates poked around, I acted utterly baffled. "I really don't get it either. The baby was clearly her boyfriend Luke's. But when I went with her to the clinic, Mrs. Hayes showed up and claimed it was Ethan Hayes's heir! I didn't even know she had broken up with Luke..." With that single statement, the rumor that Maya was a cheating gold-digger playing two men was set in stone. Students cursed her shamelessness with disgust, and even her parents back home were publicly humiliated. Soon after, Maya returned to school to withdraw permanently. When she came back to the dorm to pack her things, she had withered down considerably in just a few days, sporting a nasty purple bruise on her forehead. Yet the moment she spotted me, the exhaustion vanished, replaced by a radiant sneer. "Chloe, the one who slept with Ethan this time is me. I'm the one carrying his heir. Are you eating your heart out with jealousy?" I understood immediately. Maya had been reborn too. Having secured the wealth she craved in her previous life, she was desperate to flaunt it in my face. Playing dumb, I asked, "Maya, didn't you say the baby belonged to Luke? How did it suddenly become a Hayes?" Our roommates instantly perked up their ears. "Shut your mouth! What kind of garbage are you spewing? I'm carrying Ethan Hayes's child! The firstborn grandson of the Hayes empire, the future heir! Oh, I see. You're just jealous! You're furious that I’m going to be the future Mrs. Hayes! Ever since we were kids, Chloe, you always had to compete with me—grades, scholarships, praise from teachers! But this time, you can never take away what's rightfully mine!" Maya looked wildly smug, completely oblivious to the utter disgust in everyone else's eyes. ... After Maya left, my campus life settled into peaceful normalcy. Every day, Maya would spam my SnapChat with photos flaunting designer bags, diamond jewelry, and endless stacks of cash handed to her by the Hayes family. A few months later, she sent me an invitation to Mrs. Hayes’s extravagant birthday gala at the Hayes estate. Remembering what I went through in that house, I genuinely wanted to see what kind of "paradise" she was living in, so I accepted. She was draped in a haute couture gown, nose tilted toward the ceiling as she looked down on me. "Chloe, look at that cheap rag you're wearing. This is my future mother-in-law's gala, packed with the elite. You look like a total embarrassment." Though her words were dripping with venom, her face was beaming with petty triumph. "Whatever. Someone of your low status doesn't belong among these guests anyway. Put on an apron and serve drinks. That's the only job suited for someone like you." She tossed a server's uniform into my arms and ordered a maid to watch me change. I complied smoothly, feeling not an ounce of anger. Because I knew: the higher she flew right now, the harder she would shatter later. During the party, Mrs. Hayes dragged the visibly pregnant Maya around the ballroom, introducing her to socialites: "Mr. Vance, good evening. Her? Oh, she's nobody. It's the grandson in her belly that matters." Halfway through the evening, the man of the hour, Ethan Hayes, finally arrived. Seeing his mother hovering around a heavily pregnant woman, he frowned in pure confusion. "Mom, who is this?" Mrs. Hayes took Maya’s hand, scolding playfully, "This is Maya! When your drink was spiked at the hotel last month, she was the one who saved you. She's carrying your child! I gave her permission to have it, so even if you never marry, the Hayes family has its heir!" Ethan’s face twisted into utter shock. "How could she possibly be carrying my child? The moment I was drugged that night, I went straight to the ER. I never touched a woman!"