Lazily Yours.

"We needed a scapegoat."

The words rang in her head like a tolling bell. She trembled in response. Despite the words that made her heart sank, her gaze never left the body of the small little boy next to her. Looking at the small bruised body was akin to having her heart cut into small little pieces.

The agony was slow and painful.

Yet there were no tears in her eyes. The days of torture made her gaze blank, vacant.

The smell of blood, urine, and feces around her was thick.

"Gabi…"

Gabrielle slowly dragged her gaze to the man sitting languidly in front of her. It was none other than her cousin, the future Prime Minister of Du Empire, Alfons Sutton.

A man who grew up pitiful.

A man that Gabrielle's father adopted when he was ten.

"Gabi… I really didn't have a choice. I have to sacrifice you for the greater good."

The greater good. Those were the words that Gabi's father used to tell her. Everything was for the greater good.

Her lips trembled as the memories of her late father invaded her memories. The father that she loved the most passed away days after she turned twenty. That was ten years ago.

Yet the memories of those painful days never left her.

She carried it for the last ten years of her life as she supported Alfons, the only relative she had left.

Who would have thought that Alfons would betray her like this?

"Please don't blame me. If you want to hate someone… hate that father of yours. Or should I start calling him father as well?" There was a mocking smirk on her cousin's face.

'Father? Why would he call him father?' Despite the pain in her parched throat, she wanted to ask him what he was talking about. However, Alfons already instructed his men to cut off her tongue.

"Ah, right you didn't know." Alfons was smiling. "I was his bastard. I am your older brother Gabi… not your cousin."

The revelation was sudden, but it wasn't enough to surprise her anymore.

"That man didn't want to acknowledge me. So I… ended his life." Alfons added. This time, Gabi's pupils shook. "Ah… after so long. I was finally able to confess my sins." There was a hint of relief in the man's voice.

"When we're younger… he always promised me he would acknowledge me once I do something for the benefit of the Sutton Family. But how could do that? I lack the education or the knowledge. It was always you, Gabi. The brilliant one. The prodigy." Alfons suddenly stood up and approached her, then she crouched, decreasing the distance between their faces.

"I hate you," he added. "I was the firstborn. He married my mother first, but your mother seduced him. The support of your maternal family blinded him and he abandoned me."

"Why? Was it because my mother was just a small-time factory worker that he once played with?"

"Tsk… this is pointless. You can't talk back." He let out a loud sighed that echoed inside the small room made of concrete. Then Alfons sat next to her. "When you were learning piano, I was picking up some garbage to feed my dying mother." He lifted his head and stared at the bulb that illuminated the room. "When you were learning to paint, I was learning how to build a small box to protect me and my mother from the rain."

"When you were learning about politics, I just started learning how to read."

"And yet that old man dared to say that you are smarter than me."

He snorted.

"But that was all in the past, isn't it Gabi?"

He turned his head back to her.

"Right now, you are just a puppet that I made. Someone that would do everything for the sake of the family name, for the sake of me."

His melancholic gaze vanished. "And now… you are going to be the sacrificial lamb for the family." He reached out and started stroking her bald head.

"This is all for the family that you love the most, Gabi. So… you should be happy." His gaze drifted towards the three-year-old corpse next to Gabrielle. "And that bastard child of yours who doesn't even have a father… Ah… I don't know what to say. Why did you even keep that child, anyway? Did you know how it affected my reputation when you got pregnant from a random one-night stand? Tsk. Disgusting child."

Anger surge inside Gabrielle's eyes. She had been tortured for days. They already cut off her tongue and fingers, her toes were missing either. And yet, all those things couldn't compare to the heartache that she felt as she watched him hurt her son.

"What? Are you angry? Don't you get it? Killing you and the child is the key to the revolution. Once my people see what the 'Ye Family' did to you, they would raise hell. After all, you are my beloved little cousin. My sweet little cousin who couldn't even open a bottle of wine." He snickered. "Now… now… why don't you just close your eyes and die?"

Slowly, Alfons' face turned dark until he became a monster.

The monster… in her dreams.

….

Gabi sat up in a jolt! Sweat covered her body as tears continued to stream down her face.

She gnashed her teeth, her hands clenched tightly into a fist. This wasn't the first time that she had dreamed of the things that she experienced in her past life.

And she was certain this wasn't the end of those dreams either.

She slowly stroked her chest and wiped her tears away.

Her eyes roamed inside her room. The muted colors that she liked the most when she was still twenty years old, reminded her that she was still in the Sutton Mansion. All those terrible things that she experienced in the past timeline have yet to happen.

She recalled waking up with all those memories just a few days ago. It was after she fainted on the day of her father's funeral.

That's right, she went back ten years before her demise.

And this time… she is going to survive.