The heavy scent of antiseptic stung Daniel’s nostrils, grounding him in a reality he thought he had left behind forever. The cold, hard clipboard pressed against his legs through the thin hospital blanket.

Sign it, his mind whispered, echoing the tragic mistake of his past life. In that timeline, overwhelmed by the sudden news of his beloved wife Daisy tumbling off a coastal cliff, he had blindly signed the Chu Family Share Transfer Agreement. He had believed her sisters, Vivian and Chloe, when they said it was necessary to protect the company’s stock from plummeting during the crisis. He didn’t know then that Daisy was resting comfortably in a luxury villa overseas, laughing at his grief while her family systematically stripped him of his assets, his corporate standing, and eventually, his life.

But fate had hit the reset button. The timeline had rewound.

“Daniel, you need to focus,” Vivian’s voice cut through his thoughts. The woman in the black dress tapped a heavy gold pen against the clipboard. Her eyes, devoid of any real sorrow, bore into him. “The board of directors is panicking. Daisy’s… accident… has caused the market to react violently. If you don’t transfer her equity to us temporarily, hostile takeovers are imminent. You know she would want her family’s legacy protected.”

Chloe, playing the softer role in her pink dress, reached out to touch his arm. “Please, Daniel. We are all grieving. My sister loved you. Don’t let her life’s work be destroyed because you’re too stubborn to sign the paperwork.”

Daniel looked down at the characters on the page: Chu Family Share Transfer Agreement. It was a legally binding execution order for his financial ruin. If he signed it, fifty-one percent of the voting rights in OmniCorp would shift directly to the Chu family trust.

Slowly, Daniel lifted his gaze. The mask of the broken, grieving widower vanished, replaced by the chilling calm of a seasoned corporate predator.

“Hostile takeovers?” Daniel’s voice was raspy from sleep, but the underlying steel made Vivian take a half-step back. “The market hasn’t even opened yet, Vivian. The search and rescue teams are still actively sweeping the shoreline. And you’re here, smelling of expensive perfume, shoving equity transfer documents in the face of a man who supposedly just lost his wife?”

Vivian’s perfectly painted lips thinned. “We are trying to be practical, Daniel! The PR disaster—”

“There is no PR disaster because there is no confirmed death,” Daniel interrupted, his voice echoing sharply off the sterile walls. He picked up the clipboard and carelessly tossed it onto the bedside table. It landed with a loud, dismissive clatter. “According to the corporate bylaws, a shareholder’s voting rights and equity cannot be redistributed until a death certificate is issued by a federal medical examiner. Or did your lawyers forget to mention that little legal hurdle?”

Chloe’s eyes widened, a flicker of genuine panic breaking through her facade. “Daniel, what are you saying? The police said the fall was unsurvivable. We are just trying to help.”

“Help yourselves,” Daniel scoffed, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. The lingering weakness of his hospital stay was easily overpowered by the adrenaline of vengeance. “Let me make this perfectly clear. I am the legal proxy for Daisy’s shares. Not a single cent, not a single fraction of a percentage of her equity will be moved until I see a body. If you two are so worried about the company’s stock, I suggest you get down to the beach and start digging through the rocks yourselves.”

“You arrogant fool!” Vivian snapped, the polite sisterly act fully evaporating. “You are an outsider! You married into the Chu family wealth. You don’t have the power to hold the board hostage!”

Daniel stood up, towering over them despite the hospital gown. He leaned in, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “I built the infrastructure that doubled the Chu family’s net worth in three years. I hold the patents. I control the supply chain algorithms. I am the reason you can afford that designer dress, Vivian. Now, get out of my room before I call security and have you escorted off the premises for harassing a patient.”

Stunned by this sudden, terrifying shift in the man they thought was a pushover, the sisters exchanged a nervous glance. Without another word, Vivian grabbed the clipboard, and the two of them hurried out the door, the click-clack of their heels echoing down the hallway like a frantic retreat.

Once the door clicked shut, Daniel walked over to the window. The city skyline stretched out before him—a concrete jungle where only the most ruthless survived. He had been a lamb in his past life. This time, he was the wolf.

He picked up his smartphone from the nightstand. It was time to build his counter-offensive. He bypassed his regular contacts and dialed a secure, encrypted number.

“Marcus,” Daniel said when the line connected. Marcus was his brilliant, utterly loyal Chief Financial Officer, a man the Chu family had falsely accused of embezzlement in the previous timeline to get him out of the way.

“Mr. CEO? You’re awake. How are you holding up? The news about Daisy…” Marcus’s voice was heavy with genuine concern.

“Listen to me very carefully, Marcus. Daisy is not dead.”

Silence hung on the line for a long moment. “Sir? The police report—”

“It’s a fabrication,” Daniel said coldly. “A staged event designed to trigger a succession clause in the corporate charter. I need you to initiate a silent lockdown on all of OmniCorp’s liquid assets. Freeze the offshore accounts under the shell companies the Chu family thinks I don’t know about. I want a forensic audit started immediately on Vivian and Chloe’s personal expenditures over the last six months.”

“Understood,” Marcus said, his tone shifting instantly from sympathetic to purely professional. “What’s the end game, Daniel?”

“We are going to let them think they are cornering me,” Daniel smirked, his eyes reflecting the cold city lights. “Let them call an emergency shareholder meeting. Let them try to force a vote of no confidence to strip me of my CEO title. We are going to build a legal cage so tight that when I finally reveal that my dear wife is sipping margaritas in a tropical paradise, the SEC will be waiting to arrest the entire Chu family for massive securities fraud and market manipulation.”

Daniel tightened his grip on the phone. “They wanted my fortune, Marcus. I’m going to make sure they are left with absolutely nothing. The game has just begun.”