📖 The Story Continues
The story doesn't end here.Continue reading the full story adaptation below and discover what happens next.
Reborn to Love Mr. Right – Episode 07
The Rolls-Royce waiting at the curb should have been familiar comfort after a long school day. Instead, Arianna stopped several yards away as laughter followed her down the steps. Students clustered near the luxury car, admiring its polished body and crest while speaking about it as if it belonged to Derek. The lie felt so established that no one even questioned it.
“A chauffeur’s daughter acting like she’s important,” one girl scoffed. “Derek isn’t even here yet. How does she have the nerve to ride in his car every day?” Her friends laughed and looked Arianna over with open contempt. In their version of reality, Derek was the generous heir and Arianna the poor girl clinging to him for status.
Arianna stared at them, too astonished to feel insulted at first. “I’m the chauffeur’s daughter?” she asked. “Did Derek tell you that?” The girls took her disbelief as embarrassment. They praised Derek for being kind enough to let someone like her share his ride.
“If it were me, I’d make her take the school bus like the broke girl she is,” another student said. More laughter followed. Arianna had heard far crueler words while bleeding on the ballroom floor, but this mockery exposed how early Derek had begun rewriting their identities. He had not waited until he controlled Taylor Industries to steal her name; he had practiced with classmates first.
“I’m broke?” Arianna repeated, and a laugh escaped her. The girls seemed offended that she found them amusing. She looked past them at the man in the driver’s seat and finally understood how the deception had survived. Jeff Davis, Derek’s father, had been helping his son perform the role of a wealthy heir every day.
Arianna opened the rear door and settled into the leather seat. The familiar Taylor family insignia was stitched discreetly into the headrest, visible to anyone who bothered to look. “Drive,” she told Jeff. Her tone carried the authority she should never have surrendered.
Jeff glanced at her through the mirror but kept the car parked. “Derek isn’t here yet. Let’s wait for him.” He spoke like a guardian correcting an impatient child rather than an employee receiving an instruction. In the first life, Arianna had accepted that tone because Derek convinced her Jeff cared for her like family.
“Derek can take the school bus,” she replied. “This is my car, and you drive for me. Or did you forget that?” Jeff’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. Outside, the students continued whispering, unable to hear every word through the closed windows but sensing that something unusual was happening.
Jeff turned partly in his seat. He had always considered Arianna easy to manage, a lonely heiress grateful for any imitation of familial concern. “What’s gotten into you?” he asked. “You’ve never spoken to me like this before.” His indignation revealed that he viewed her past courtesy not as kindness but weakness.
Arianna remembered Jeff accepting generous wages from her father while Derek used Taylor money to build his false identity. Years later, this man would watch his son take control of the company and treat its rightful owner like a beggar. Whether he knew about the planned crash remained uncertain, but his present loyalty was already obvious.
“Did you and Derek have a fight?” Jeff asked. His tone shifted into false patience. “My son has your best interests in mind. You should learn to appreciate everything he does for you.” The absurdity nearly made Arianna smile again. A paid driver was lecturing his employer’s daughter on gratitude toward the son she financially supported.
“I don’t need you to lecture me, Jeff,” she said. “Just drive.” The use of his first name stripped away the authority he had borrowed from her affection for Derek. Jeff faced forward, but resentment darkened his reflection in the mirror.
He could not understand the change. That morning Arianna had been the same obedient girl who waited for Derek, paid his expenses, and accepted every insult disguised as advice. Now she looked at Jeff as though she could see every ambition he kept hidden. He told himself it was a temporary tantrum that Derek would soon correct.
One day, Jeff believed, the Taylor fortune would belong to his son. Derek would marry Arianna, gain permanent control of the company, and elevate his father from the driver’s seat to the head of the household. With that future fixed in his mind, Jeff had already begun treating the young heiress as an obstacle within her own family.
Arianna leaned forward. “Are you leaving or not?” Her patience had ended with her first life. She would inform her father of Jeff’s insubordination, but first she wanted to see how far the Davis family’s sense of ownership had spread. The answer might reveal more than an immediate dismissal ever could.
Before Jeff responded, one of the students outside pointed toward the school entrance. Derek appeared with Ivy beside him, moving slowly because Ivy still held a tissue beneath her bruised nose. The waiting crowd brightened as though the supposed owner of the Rolls-Royce had finally arrived.
Jeff’s tension eased. “Look, Arianna. Derek and Ivy are here.” His relief made his allegiance unmistakable. He expected Derek to restore order and return Arianna to the obedient position all three of them preferred.
Derek strode toward the rear door without asking permission, Ivy close behind him. Students moved out of his way and watched admiringly. Every step depended on the assumption that Arianna would remain silent, just as she always had.
“Very well,” Arianna murmured. Leaving immediately would spare Derek public embarrassment, and she had no interest in sparing him anymore. She waited until his hand reached the door handle, then pulled it shut and locked it from inside.
Derek stared through the glass, his confidence cracking into disbelief. Ivy stopped beside him, and the crowd fell silent. Arianna met his eyes from the seat of her own car, ready to force the driver’s son to explain why the supposed chauffeur’s daughter had the power to keep him out.
