Waking up as the villainess, what now?

Veronica Hayes opened her eyes to see a tall, broad-shouldered man standing with his back to her, taking off his clothes.

"Wait a bit, I’m going to take a shower first."

The man’s deep, magnetic voice sent a shiver down Veronica’s spine.

Where was she?

Her eyes darted around the room. A crumbling wall stretched out before her, chunks of plaster peeling off, smeared with sloppy graffiti and random doodles.

Wasn’t she just in a cab? How did she end up here so suddenly?

Before she could figure anything out, a gnawing hunger twisted her stomach, and her head felt like it was spinning.

The aroma of food drifted through the air, and with a clenched jaw and shaky arms, she forced herself to sit upright.

That’s when she realized she was lying on a bed.

The room was a large studio space, with the dining table and bed sharing the same area. Opposite her, slightly to the left, was the bathroom door.

Nearby, the man had already taken off his jacket.

He was lean yet well-built, with broad shoulders and long legs. His sharp features sculpted a face that was striking, with a detached and steely aura surrounding him.

But the cheap, mustard-yellow uniform he wore—for what looked like a food delivery service—clashed hilariously with his entire vibe. Veronica Hayes blinked a few times, staring at the man for quite a while.

Sensing her gaze, the man took off his delivery uniform and hung it on the back of the chair. He glanced at her with an indifferent expression.

"Eat first. I'll join you after I take a shower."

With that cold statement, he turned and walked into the bathroom.

Veronica was still in a daze, completely flustered. Well, might as well fill her stomach first and figure things out later. Just as she was about to get out of bed, a sudden buzz-like sensation echoed in her mind. Out of nowhere, a flood of unfamiliar memories overwhelmed her.

She froze, standing there like a statue.

Wait, did she just… transmigrate into a novel?

Now it all made sense. Everything! It all came flooding back.

She’d been in a taxi, rushing to catch a flight. Bored, she had been scrolling through a novel on her phone to kill time. Then, out of nowhere, the cab collided with a red-light-running sports car. The next thing she knew, she was somehow inside the very novel she had been reading.

That man earlier—the one acting all detached and frosty—that was Adrian West, the male lead of the story.

And her new identity? Apparently, the body she had transmigrated into also went by the name Veronica Hayes.

Six months ago, the original Veronica Hayes had been just a low-level employee at a big company called Enjin Group in Haishi. Her job? Basically running errands—nothing glamorous.

On that fateful day, she had been assigned to pick up an important client from the airport. But instead of the client, she ended up hitting someone with her car.What’s even worse? The person she hit wasn’t just anyone—it was Adrian West, the big-shot CEO she’d only met once before.

On the way to the hospital, Adrian suddenly woke up. But here’s the kicker—his brain was scrambled, and he couldn’t remember a thing about his past.

The original Veronica panicked right then and there. Her first thought? Oh no, jail time incoming. But she thought on her feet and came up with an absolute whopper of a lie. She told Adrian she was his girlfriend.

She spun some sappy story about how the two of them had grown up together in an orphanage, stuck by each other through thick and thin, and how she’d worked her fingers to the bone to send him abroad to study. Five long years of waiting for his return, only for him to get ambushed when he came back, beaten up, and left with amnesia. She even claimed she was the one who’d saved him from that mess.

With his mind wiped clean, Adrian bought every word of it.

Wasting no time, the original Veronica quit her job without even waiting to grab her last paycheck. She packed up and overnight whisked Adrian off to the remote town of Qingcheng.

Once there, she kept the charade going. She told him they were hiding from dangerous enemies and that he had to stay put in the rundown apartment they’d rented. Two months—two whole months—she kept him cooped up inside. She took his phone, banned all electronics, and left Adrian completely in the dark.

After those two months passed, she finally allowed him to step out and look for work. But even then, she made sure to warn him not to go near any big companies. Her excuse? She didn’t want their “enemies” catching wind of him through corporate spies.With sweet talk, persuasion, and a fair share of brainwashing, the original Veronica Hayes managed to get Adrian West into a small local company as a low-level employee, earning just $500 a month. That kind of money barely kept the two of them afloat, leaving Adrian no choice but to take up a side gig delivering food at night to make ends meet.

As for the original Veronica, she didn’t lift a finger. Her mind was entirely preoccupied with one thing—finding a way to have a baby with Adrian. She figured, if he ever regained his memory, he might hesitate to cut ties with her for the sake of the child. Who knows, maybe she could even end up marrying into his wealthy family, living the high life as a socialite. And if that didn’t pan out, at the very least, she could demand a hefty payout from him.

With that kind of plan in mind, job hunting was the last thing on her agenda. All she cared about was figuring out how to make it happen with Adrian.

But Adrian wasn’t some clueless pushover. Even without his memories, his instincts were sharp. No matter how smooth her lies were, something always felt off to him.

For instance, she had switched out his phone entirely, even changing his number. His contact list? It was wiped clean, apart from her information. No matter how he looked at it, it screamed suspicious.

And here was the kicker—he couldn’t feel a shred of affection for her, no matter how hard he tried. This so-called love she claimed they had? It was a total blank.

What made it worse was how suffocating her possessiveness became over the past six months. Adrian didn’t just feel controlled—he felt utterly trapped. If he got home even a minute late, she’d lose it completely—calling him nonstop, sometimes over ten, twenty times a day.

On top of that, the original Veronica Hayes was crazy lazy. She never lifted a finger, spent her days doing nothing but indulging in all kinds of ridiculous fantasies.

Adrian West, meanwhile, was out delivering takeout till late every night. When he got home, he still had to clean up and bring her food and drinks.

At first, he felt guilty towards her, but over time, that guilt morphed into resistance, then disgust. Eventually, he started deliberately extending his shifts, delivering late into the night, just so he wouldn’t have to come home.

A couple of days ago, things hit a breaking point.

They had a huge fight about it, and Adrian couldn’t hold it in any longer. All the doubts he’d been bottling up came pouring out—straight-up asking her if she was lying to him about anything.

The old Veronica freaked out, and in a fit of spite, decided to stop eating altogether. She actually starved herself to death. When she woke up, it wasn’t her in the body anymore—it was the new Veronica.

And, as it turns out, this story is one of those angsty romance rebirth novels.

In the past life of the female lead—Adrian's fiancée—she spent over a year waiting for him to come back. Just when she thought she’d heard good news about his return, the plot took a wild turn.

Adrian didn’t just come back with no memory of their life together; he also brought along another woman—one who was pregnant.

That woman? Veronica Hayes.

Adrian told everyone she was carrying his child, and he had no choice but to take responsibility. Veronica Hayes thought she had everything under control this time. She went all out, creating chaos—bullying Adrian West's mute sister, causing his grandfather's death out of sheer anger, and framing the heroine for crimes she didn’t commit.

The heroine ended up utterly devastated, so much so that she gave up entirely. But just as she decided to let go, she got hit by a car and died on the spot.

Adrian West’s memory came flooding back, and with every truth laid bare, he finally saw everything clearly. The guilt and rage consumed him, driving him to make Veronica's life a living hell.

In her second life, the heroine seemed to have wised up. No more waiting around; she immediately turned her attention to Adrian’s younger brother. Naturally, this change meant the plot went off script—Adrian became the second male lead. When he found out that his fiancée was planning to marry someone else, his shock triggered an early return of his memories.

Veronica’s miserable ending came even faster this time. Just like her first lifetime, Adrian forced her to terminate her pregnancy, then personally sent her to prison for five whole years. Once out, her suffering didn’t stop. Adrian tormented her until she died on the streets.

Through both lives, Adrian never changed—his first love never came back to him. In the past, it was because she had died. In this life, his role as the second male lead trapped him in the ultimate “chasing her back too late” trope.

After absorbing all these memories, Veronica was completely and utterly stunned.After digesting all that memory stuff, Veronica Hayes couldn't help but roll her eyes. The novel conveniently skipped over these juicy details, and back when she was just a reader, she'd thought Adrian West was cold-hearted to the extreme.

Well, now that she was in the thick of it as Veronica, her perspective had definitely shifted. The original Veronica? Wow, what a mess-maker. Seriously, how much drama could one person dish out? And why did she have to be the one cleaning up after it? Talk about rotten luck.

Adrian's family was probably going to track him down in less than a year, and by then, everything would hit the fan. She needed to escape before that happened. But where could she possibly go?

If she stayed anywhere in the country, Adrian's powerful family would find her faster than she could blink. Their reach was insane. Honestly, it baffled her why it had taken them over a year to find him in the first place. But hey, plot holes—gotta love 'em.

So, escape abroad was her only option. Simple plan, right? Except, um, one tiny detail: she was flat-out broke.

The original Veronica had just started working a little over a year ago, burning through her meager paycheck each month and racking up debt on shady online loans. Renting a place with Adrian? Yeah, even that was funded by borrowed cash. Now she was staring down a debt of over twenty thousand bucks. Perfect.

No matter how much she racked her brain, Veronica couldn’t think of a solid way out of this mess.

"Fine," she muttered, her stomach growling in protest. "One thing at a time. Let's get some food first."She dragged herself out of bed, shuffled over to the small table, and started eating from the takeout box.

She had just had a few bites when the water in the bathroom stopped running.

Adrian West walked out of the bathroom, now dressed in gray pajamas. He was carrying a plastic tub full of freshly washed clothes. Not just his own either—Veronica Hayes' messy pile of clothes was in there too.

Normally, Veronica would just toss her dirty clothes into the tub and leave them soaking there for hours, completely ignoring them. In this hot weather, by the time Adrian came home at night, the water reeked. Without fail, he'd clean the mess for her whenever he was done with his own shower. Over time, Veronica had become completely hands-off.

To put it bluntly, she was living the kind of life where all she had to do was sit back and let him take care of everything.

Adrian glanced at her as she bent over the table, busy shoveling food into her mouth. After standing there silently for a moment, he turned and headed out to the balcony to hang up the laundry.

Hearing the commotion, Veronica snuck a quick glance at him.

She had to admit, the man really knew how to run a household. Working all day, delivering food at night, and still coming home to do chores—he'd been doing this for months without a word of complaint.

But it wouldn't last. Not once he remembered everything.

The kinder he was now, the colder and more ruthless he would be when all of his memories came back.After hanging the clothes, Adrian West cleaned the room once more before heading to the bed. Sitting down on the edge, his face was completely expressionless as he stared at Veronica Hayes.

"You need to stop the drama. Tonight…I agree."

Veronica's heart skipped a beat. She quickly averted her gaze and focused her attention back on her meal.

Adrian had always slept on the old couch, claiming he didn’t want to disturb her rest since he usually returned late. From the moment they’d met, they hadn’t so much as brushed fingertips, let alone anything more intimate.

But now, here he was—on the bed. Probably because the original Veronica had refused to eat these past few days, trying to use a hunger strike to get her way. He must’ve run out of patience and given in.