A chill pierced Arrabella's entire body.
Her chest felt tight as she struggled to draw breath. The water filling her throat made her cough repeatedly. Vaguely, she felt a pair of strong arms supporting her body before lifting her out of the swimming pool.
“Arrabella!” a man's voice sounded beside her ear. Cold. Firm. Not showing the slightest hint of panic.
A few seconds later, her body was laid down beside the pool. Arrabella coughed violently, water spilling from her mouth. Her breathing came in ragged gasps, while her head throbbed fiercely, as if she had just been struck by something.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a tall man with a handsome face and an expression as cold as ice. His shirt was soaked through, clinging to his body. His black hair was slightly disheveled from saving Arrabella from the pool.
Arrabella frowned.
Who was this man?
She tried to sit up, but a sudden stab of pain in her head made her body reel again.
Then something even stranger happened.
Fragments of unfamiliar memories flashed through her mind.
A family-arranged wedding involving a wealthy family.
A woman named Arrabella who was always subjected to humiliation. And a man named Nareswara Danendra.
Arrabella suddenly fell silent.
Nareswara Danendra?
The name sounded unfamiliar to her. Yet strangely, this body seemed to recognize the man standing before her.
A horrifying realization slowly surfaced in her mind.
This isn't my body!
She lowered her head and stared at both her hands. Her fingers moved slowly before her hands rose to touch her own face.
Everything was different.
This wasn't her face. This wasn't her body.
Even the life flashing through her mind wasn't hers.
Arrabella swallowed. “No way!” she screamed inwardly.
Her last memory was of being in her office. She had still been a busy female CEO handling her company. She even had plenty of work left to finish. Then she drank the coffee given to her by her younger half-sibling—coffee that had secretly been laced with poison.
She had thought she would go to the afterlife, but instead, she had transmigrated here!
She had awakened in the body of another woman who, astonishingly, had the same name as her.
So I transmigrated?
The answer came along with memories that grew increasingly clear. The original Arrabella had died after falling into the swimming pool.
That body had now lost its owner.
And Arrabella's soul from another world had filled the empty body. She had truly been given a second chance at life.
However, before she could understand the situation any further, the cold voice of the man before her sounded again.
“Now that you're conscious, don't cause any more trouble.”
Arrabella turned toward the man.
Nareswara stood there, straightening his shirt sleeves. Not the slightest concern showed on his handsome face. “If you can't swim, don't make a scene. You're such an idiot.”
Arrabella's eyes narrowed at once.
What?
She had just been saved from death, yet this man hadn't even asked whether she was all right. Instead, he treated her like a foolish woman who had deliberately gone looking for trouble.
The body's owner's memories came rushing back.
Her marriage to Nareswara had happened solely because their two families had arranged it. There was no love between them. Even after they married, Nareswara had always treated her coldly and had practically never regarded her as his wife.
Arrabella snorted softly. “You're the idiot.”
Nareswara stopped in his tracks. “What did you say?”
Arrabella glared at him. “You just called me an idiot? If I'm an idiot, then you're an idiot too!”
Then Arrabella quickly grabbed Nareswara's shirt collar, yanked him closer, and pulled his hair without hesitation.
Nareswara froze.
For the first time, the cold expression on his face cracked.
“I'm not a foolish woman!” Arrabella shouted as she continued yanking Nareswara's hair.
Nareswara stared at her in disbelief.
The Arrabella he had known all this time had been a weak, timid woman. A woman who could do nothing but cry whenever she was humiliated. Yet the woman standing before him now dared to grab his collar and pull his hair.
She was incredibly strong, too.
Nareswara even had to struggle to pry the woman's hand from his hair.
“What has gotten into you?” he asked coldly.
Arrabella released her grip roughly. “What's gotten into me is my self-respect!”
After saying that, Arrabella turned and left Nareswara standing there, his face still stunned.
She walked toward the bedroom she had occupied all this time.
But the moment she opened the bedroom door, Arrabella stopped in her tracks.
She stood there in stunned silence at what she saw inside.