She's Too Busy Winning to Watch Him Cry novel Chapter 5

In the dead of night, Lyra jolted awake from a terrible nightmare.

In her dream, a pair of chilling, terrifying eyes had stared her down, torturing her until she begged for the end.

In her past life, Rowan had gifted Jasmine his personal art galleries, an entertainment agency, and the very company he had stolen from the Fairchilds...

How could she not hate him?

Her teeth ground together in sheer resentment.

Looking at the sprawling empire of the Jameson Group, its tech division had the greatest future potential. Since she had been reborn to a time before it became an industry titan, she had a chance.

Lyra decided she would acquire the microchip manufacturing plant Rowan had originally targeted and poach the core engineering team from Jameson Tech. It was the absolute key to rewriting her destiny.

But first, she needed capital.

...

Martha, the housekeeper, was always the first to wake up.

She had to prepare breakfast for the family of four, as well as for herself and Leo, the butler, before heading to the market for groceries.

But this morning, through the dim light, she saw a slender silhouette sitting in the living room and jumped in surprise. "Miss! You're up so early?"

"Martha, could you gather all the newspapers from the last few months and bring them to me?"

"...Of course." Martha found the request odd but didn't pry. She fetched a thick stack of papers from the recycling bin in the corner. "What do you need these for?"

"Business," Lyra replied vaguely, grabbing the stack and hurrying back to her room.

She spread them out across the floor.

Her first step was to leverage her knowledge of the future to buy out the bankrupt microchip plant, along with a few stocks guaranteed to skyrocket.

The only problem was she couldn't remember the exact name of the plant. She scoured the tiny financial columns, hoping something would jog her memory...

Her parents and Caleb woke up, and her mother even brought her breakfast, reminding her to eat. Lyra barely registered a word.

It wasn't until a few hours later, when her phone started pinging relentlessly, that she was finally pulled from her thoughts.

She picked up her phone. A group chat of wealthy heirs run by Luke was blowing up, all repeatedly mentioning one name: Jasmine Ford.

Seeing that name again made her breath hitch.

[Rowan got thrown into the ocean by that syndicate and drugged. The Jamesons are currently hunting down everyone who was on that yacht.]

[The Jamesons are super grateful to Jasmine for saving his life.]

[I think Rowan is falling for her. Someone saw them on a date at a restaurant.]

[Is this for real?]

Someone tagged Rowan directly.

The chat was going absolutely insane.

Rowan, however, maintained his silence.

...

Rowan had slept with Lyra while entirely out of his mind.

It wasn't surprising that he had mistaken his savior's identity.

"Yeah." There was no point in hiding it.

"Some friend she turned out to be..." Caleb muttered, before ending the call.

Lyra sat silently on the floor for a moment, deciding it was for the best. In her previous life, Caleb had held a somewhat favorable opinion of Jasmine. This would nip that in the bud.

She picked up the newspaper, ready to resume her research.

But scenes from her past life kept flashing violently through her mind.

One moment, it was Rowan's furious face: 'Enough, Lyra.'

Whenever Jasmine was set up or framed, Rowan immediately assumed Lyra was the mastermind, treating her with absolute disgust.

The next moment, it was Rowan's merciless destruction of the Fairchild family. Her father suffering a heart attack, Caleb dying a horrific death, and even Caleb's wife...

The entire world had blamed Lyra for dragging her family down to ruin.

Her breathing grew ragged. Clutching her throbbing head, she lay back on the floor, trying to ground herself.

...

Just then, her phone rang again.

This time it was her friend, Melanie. "Lyra, did you hear? Rowan is going after Jasmine."

"Luke and the guys are saying he treats her like absolute royalty. Someone even took photos of them at an auction."

Melanie put her on speaker and forwarded a few pictures.

Lyra glanced at them casually. In the photo, Rowan was on his phone, the metallic gleam of his luxury watch wrapping around his lean wrist. Sitting intimately close beside him was Jasmine, looking elegantly aloof in a stunning ivory dress.