A Borrowed Body, A True Tycoon

My stepsister dragged a stray man in from the pouring rain. Her eyes were rimmed with red as she looked at me.

Sienna, he got into a terrible car crash. He is in a vegetative state. It is just too pitiful.

She wiped away a fake tear.

How about I pay you, and you put in the labor? You can take him back to your place and nurse him back to health.

I looked at the man lying on the sofa. His face was ghostly pale, but it could not hide the sharp, aristocratic lines of his jaw and his inherently cold, untouchable aura. My heart softened. I nodded.

The very next second, a barrage of glowing golden text exploded in the air right in front of my eyes.

[ LMAO the supporting character took the bait! ]

[ This naive idiot has no idea that the vegetable on her couch is Alexander Kensington, the absolute apex predator of Manhattan's elite! ]

[ In the last timeline, the supporting character took him in, nursed him back to health, and became a billionaire's wife. The female lead was jealous to the point of madness. ]

[ That is why the female lead brought him home early in this reborn timeline! But she thinks wiping and feeding a living corpse is too much work, so she is dumping him on the supporting character again! ]

[ Exactly! She is going to let Sienna do all the dirty work for three months until he wakes up. Then the female lead will use that dark magic Transference Sigil she bought to forcibly swap bodies with Sienna. She will steal the credit and become the richest woman in the country. I can hear her calculating from outer space! ]

I froze in place.

My eyes swept over those glaring golden lines. A chill shot up from the soles of my feet straight to the crown of my head.

I turned my head and looked at Ruby. She was crying beautifully, but her eyes kept darting toward the bloodstained man on the sofa.

It was disgust. It was repulsion.

But beneath it all, it was undisguised, ravenous greed.

"Sienna, you know I have a weak constitution. I can barely take care of myself. How could I possibly care for a bedridden patient?"

Ruby stepped forward and affectionately linked her arm through mine.

"Plus, you are a certified caregiver. I feel safest leaving him in your hands. If you agree, I will transfer you two thousand dollars a month for your hard work. Please?"

Her tone was sickeningly sweet, but her fingernails dug painfully into my flesh.

She was terrified I would refuse.

[ Oh please. Two thousand bucks to play nursemaid to a comatose man for three months? The female lead is too cheap. ]

[ Poor Sienna. The female lead already bound the Transference Sigil to her. The moment the female lead wants to swap bodies, it is over. ]

[ Once Alexander wakes up, she will swap bodies, taking Sienna's form. All his billions will belong to her! ]

[ Tsk tsk. Sienna finally got a happy ending in the last life, and now she is going to be sucked dry again! ]

I lowered my eyelashes to hide the icy rage rolling in my eyes.

So that was it.

Ruby, you really played a brilliant hand.

You refuse to endure the grueling labor of caring for a comatose man, but you want to swallow the immense wealth and gratitude that comes from saving his life. You are even willing to use a toxic occult curse to steal my entire existence.

Seeing my silence, Ruby grew anxious.

"Sienna, aren't you the kindest person in the world? Are you really going to just watch him die?"

Moral kidnapping. She always used it with flawless precision.

If this were the past, I might have actually been fooled by her hypocritical mask.

But now.

I looked at the floating golden text and a barely perceptible smile curled the corners of my lips.

"Alright."

I looked up at her with a gentle expression.

Ruby's face lit up with joy. She opened her mouth to speak, but I sharply changed the subject.

"But Ruby, you know how incredibly expensive it is to care for a comatose patient. IV nutrition, a specialized medical bed, imported medications. Two thousand dollars will not even cover the taxes."

I stared at her freezing smile and spoke with absolute clarity.

"Non negotiable. Twenty thousand a month, three months paid upfront. Total of sixty thousand. Otherwise, you can keep him yourself. Or I can call the cops and let the city hospital deal with him."

Hearing this, Ruby's face drastically changed.

[ She is panicking! The female lead was reborn, so she knows the Kensington family is tearing the world apart looking for him right now! ]

[ If Sienna actually calls the cops and the authorities take Alexander away, her entire body swap scheme is ruined! ]

[ But wait, why did Sienna counter so perfectly? Did she notice something? Is she playing the female lead? ]

"Sixty thousand it is."

Ruby gritted her teeth. A flash of physical pain crossed her eyes at the cost, but it was quickly replaced by feverish fanaticism.

"I will pay the money. But you must take perfect care of him, Sienna! You have to handle his food, his hygiene, everything personally. Do not let anyone else touch him!"

She stared at me like I was a highly efficient, free piece of machinery.

[ LMAO sixty grand in exchange for a hundred billion dollar empire. The female lead won the lottery! ]

[ Sienna actually thinks she made a profit. In three months she is going to learn what true despair feels like! ]

My phone chimed.

Sixty thousand dollars had been deposited.

I put my phone away and smiled brightly.

"Do not worry. I will take excellent care of him."

Ruby looked like a massive weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She covered her nose in disgust, unwilling to stay in the room for a single second longer, and ran out the front door.

Only the man and I were left in the living room.

The heavy metallic scent of blood saturated the air.

I walked over to the sofa and looked down at this legendary figure. The ruthless, cold blooded crown prince of Manhattan's elite.

Right now his eyes were tightly shut. His face was the color of crushed chalk. He looked utterly defeated.

I fetched a basin of warm water and a towel, gently wiping away the dried blood crusting his face.

The golden text exploded in front of me again.

[ Actually the male lead is completely conscious right now! His body is paralyzed, but his hearing is perfectly intact! ]

[ Yes! He definitely hates the female lead right now. He heard every single word when she looked at him with disgust and used him as a bargaining chip! ]

[ When the body swap happens, the drama is going to be legendary! ]

My heart skipped a beat.

He was conscious?

I leaned down.

The man's sharp, aristocratic features were mere inches from mine. Even in this pathetic state, he radiated the suffocating pressure of a man used to absolute power.

My sharp eyes caught a microscopic detail. The fingers resting by his side twitched in a faint spasm.

He really could hear.

My mind raced through a dozen different plans. I gently reached down and hooked my pinky finger around his. I leaned close to his ear and deliberately softened my voice.

"Let's go home."

I moved Alexander to my small apartment.

I used the sixty thousand Ruby gave me to rent a top tier medical bed and life support monitors overnight. I drained my own meager savings to buy premium IV nutrients and the best imported wound care medications.

Looking at Alexander hooked up to the tubes, I took a deep breath.

Washing his hair. Bathing his body. Massaging his atrophied muscles. Dressing his severe lacerations.

For three solid hours, I worked until I was drenched in sweat and my lower back was screaming in agony.

But I did not stop.

Because the golden text told me he could feel everything.

[ Sienna has it so rough. This is not a job for a human being. No wonder the female lead could not handle it. ]

[ But she is so meticulous. She even cleaned the dried blood out from under his fingernails. ]

[ Alexander has severe OCD. He must be touched beyond belief right now! ]

I wrung out the towel and dabbed the last drops of moisture from his face.

With the blood and grime gone, his true face was finally revealed.

Sharp eyebrows, a prominent nose, a jawline carved from marble.

I looked at Alexander, reached out my hand again, and gently hooked his pinky finger.

"If you can hear me, give me a little response. Okay?"

Dead silence.

Two seconds later.

The man's eyelashes gave a violent tremble.

The very next second, his stiff, heavy fingers moved with agonizing slowness.

He curled his pinky backward, hooking tightly onto mine.

[ AHHHH! The Crown Prince responded! ]

[ He is famous for being a violent, cold blooded tyrant. I cannot believe he is being this obedient for Sienna! ]

[ Obviously! When a man is trapped in the darkest abyss, the person who pulls him out becomes his entire world! ]

My heart stirred. I leaned down and whispered.

"I am going to heal you. But you have to cooperate with me. Can you do that? Do not be afraid. I will never abandon you."

A faint friction brushed against my skin.

The force of his pinky hooking mine slowly tightened.

The apartment door was suddenly shoved open.

Ruby stood in the doorway, covering her nose with a look of extreme disgust.

"Sienna, this dump smells absolutely revolting. Is this living corpse going to rot in..."

Her voice abruptly died in her throat.

Ruby stared blankly at the bed.

Stripped of the blood and dirt, the man was breathtakingly handsome.

The disgust in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by undisguised awe and a sickening greed.

But she quickly forced her expression into a mask of bitter cruelty.

"What good is a handsome face? He is still just a cursed cripple!"

After cursing him, she turned her venomous glare on me.

"I paid you to be a nursemaid. Who are you trying to seduce, holding his hand like that? You cheap tramp!"

Golden light flashed in front of my eyes.

[ The female lead is pure poison! She is deliberately trying to enrage the male lead so he hates this body! ]

[ Exactly! Once she uses the sigil to force Sienna into her body, Alexander will wake up and instantly want to kill the new female lead! ]

[ She is borrowing his knife to commit murder! ]

Seeing my silence, Ruby sneered and raised her hand high.

"I am talking to you! Are you deaf?"

A sharp slap cracked across my cheek. Her manicured nails instantly sliced open the corner of my mouth.

The metallic taste of blood flooded my tongue.

Before I could even swallow the blood, the quiet man on the bed suddenly went into a violent convulsion.

The heart monitor connected to his chest let out a piercing, high pitched alarm.

His eyebrows locked together. His entire body radiated an aura of extreme, violent rejection.

Ruby shrieked in terror and stumbled backward.

"What is wrong with him?! Did you give him the wrong medicine?!"

I ignored the throbbing pain in my lower back and completely ignored her.

I stepped right up to the bed, turned my back to Ruby, and flawlessly hooked Alexander's pinky finger again.

"It is okay. I am right here."

It was like magic.

The man's violent convulsions stopped instantly.

His tightly knit brows slowly relaxed. His skyrocketing heart rate dropped rapidly back to a safe, steady rhythm.

That stiff, massive hand locked onto my pinky with a death grip, exactly as it had before.

He squeezed even harder than the last time.

The golden text erupted.

[ AHHHH! The Crown Prince heard Sienna getting bullied and went totally feral! ]

[ A vegetative body absolutely cannot handle that kind of emotional spike. He is literally fighting his own ruined nervous system to protect her! ]

[ He has developed an absolute psychological dependency on her. He refuses to let anyone hurt a single hair on her head! ]

Ruby peeked out from behind the doorframe, staring at Alexander clutching my hand.

Instead of being angry, her face twisted into a mask of irrepressible ecstasy.

"Well Sienna, it looks like he really likes you. You better hold onto this blessing tightly."

After Ruby left, the apartment fell quiet again.

I turned back to the bed.

With the outsider gone, the man's brow furrowed anxiously once more. His entire body remained rigid. He had absolutely zero sense of security.

I took a deep breath and sat on the edge of the mattress. The second my fingers brushed his.

He latched onto my pinky like a drowning man clinging to the only piece of driftwood in the ocean.

With that single point of contact, his rigid muscles instantly melted into the mattress.

I looked at his pale, thin lips and could not help but smile as I soothed him.

"Sleep peacefully."

"When you sleep, I am not going anywhere."

"If you need anything, just squeeze my finger. I am always going to be here."

His breathing hitched.

Then, very faintly, his pinky rubbed against the pad of my finger.

Two months passed.

Under my relentless, day and night care, Alexander's muscles stopped atrophying. Color slowly returned to his ghostly pale face.

Every single night, that one mobile pinky finger would lock onto mine, refusing to yield a single inch.

During these two months, Ruby came looking for trouble every few days.

"Wow, treating him like treasure? Only you would sell your soul for a crippled vegetable!"

She maliciously kicked over the basin of hot water I had just drawn. The scalding water splashed all over my legs.

I did not dodge. I endured the searing pain of the burns, lowered my head, and quietly cleaned up the mess.

On the bed, Alexander's fingers dug into the bedsheets so hard his knuckles turned white. The veins on the back of his hand bulged.

He was using every ounce of his willpower to suppress his murderous rage.

I gently hooked his pinky to soothe his violent emotions.

I knew Ruby was getting impatient. She was desperate to swap bodies.

The harder she tried to make Alexander hate her face, the more perfectly calm I remained.

Another month passed before the golden text appeared again.

[ Sienna is so tragic. She has no idea the female lead already got the dark magic Transference Sigil from the occult master! ]

[ That sigil is pure evil. The moment the female lead activates it, their souls will be forcibly swapped! ]

[ Poor Sienna cleaned up his filth and slaved away for three months, and tomorrow everything will be stolen from her. She is just making a wedding dress for someone else! ]

Looking at the text, I turned my head and stared fixedly at the man with his eyes shut tight.

I leaned down and asked in a whisper so soft only the two of us could hear.

"Alexander. If one day, I suddenly wear a face that is completely foreign to you."

"Will you still be able to recognize me?"

Dead silence.

One second later.

The man's fingers trembled. He applied force in the opposite direction, hooking my pinky with bone crushing strength.

Exactly as the golden text predicted, Ruby kicked my door open the next morning.

The second she walked in, she viciously dug her nails into Alexander's newly scabbed wounds.

Golden light flashed frantically in front of my eyes.

[ HIGH ALERT! Patriarch Kensington tracked the GPS! His convoy is pulling up to the building right now! ]

[ The female lead is making her move! She is maxing out his hatred, and then she is going to trigger the swap! ]

Sure enough, Ruby leaned close to Alexander's ear and laughed venomously.

"You dead cripple. I have been praying for you to die every day for three months. Why are you still breathing?"

Alexander's eyes snapped open. He stared at her with a gaze filled with apocalyptic, murderous intent.

But the very next second.

A vicious light flashed in Ruby's eyes. She slammed a piece of yellow parchment hard against her own chest.

A violent, catastrophic tearing sensation instantly ripped through my entire body.

My vision went black. It felt like my internal organs were being thrown into a meat grinder.

When I opened my eyes again, my perspective had completely shifted.

I looked down and saw the expensive Chanel dress Ruby had been wearing.

The body swap was a success.

Crash.

The cheap metal door of the apartment was violently kicked open.

A dozen men in black suits flooded the room, securing the perimeter in seconds.

An old man with silver hair, leaning heavily on a carved walking stick, stepped into the room.

The moment his cane struck the floor, the oppressive aura of absolute authority plunged the temperature in the tiny room to below freezing.

The ruler of Manhattan. Patriarch Arthur Kensington.

His eyes locked onto Alexander, whose eyes were open on the bed. The old man's eyes instantly went red.

"Alexander! Your grandfather was too late!"

Ruby, currently wearing my face, immediately dropped to her knees and began sobbing hysterically.

"Mr. Kensington! You are finally here!"

She pointed a trembling finger at me, weeping tears of blood.

"My sister Ruby has lost her mind! She hated Mr. Kensington for being in a coma. Not only did she starve him, but just now she was digging her nails into his wounds trying to murder him for his money!"

"For three months, I woke up before dawn and stayed up all night keeping him alive. But she came here every day to torture him!"

Her acting was Oscar worthy. She even pulled up her sleeve, revealing the scratch marks she had inflicted on herself just moments ago.

"Look! These are the injuries she gave me when I tried to stop her from hurting him!"

The golden text scrolled like a waterfall.

[ She is utterly shameless! Framing the victim while playing the hero! ]

[ Oh no, oh no. Sienna is stuck in the female lead's body right now. She has no way to defend herself! ]

[ Patriarch Kensington is notoriously protective of his own. He is going to skin Sienna alive! ]

Patriarch Kensington's gaze snapped toward me.

It was dark, cold, and dripping with the lethal intent of a man who decided who lived and died.

"You arrogant, filthy creature. You dared to touch someone from my family!"

Two bodyguards immediately lunged forward. They pinned my shoulders down with crushing force and kicked the back of my knees.

I hit the hard tile floor with a heavy thud.

The pain of a fractured kneecap shot up my leg.

I did not struggle. I did not bother explaining.

Because I knew that in the face of absolute power, explanations were useless breath.

I lifted my head, looking past the Patriarch, staring straight at Alexander on the bed.

Ruby stood to the side, a smug smile hooking the corner of her lips, acting as if the hundred billion dollar empire was already sitting in her bank account.

Patriarch Kensington walked to the edge of the bed, looking at his grandson with heartbreak.

"Alexander, you suffered."

He pointed his cane at me and Ruby on the floor. His voice was freezing cold, carrying the finality of a death sentence.

"Tell your grandfather. Between these two women, who is your savior, and who is your tormentor?"

"Today, I will make her wish she was dead."

The room fell into a deathly silence.

Ruby looked at Alexander with eyes full of shining expectation.

I looked at him too.

Alexander leaned against the headboard. A chilling, razor sharp smirk pulled at his pale lips.

He slowly lifted the right hand that I had held for three months, and pointed it straight at.

Ruby.

More accurately, he pointed at the woman wearing my face.

"Her."

Alexander's voice was rough as sandpaper, but it carried an undeniable, lethal certainty.

"She is the one who tortured me day and night."

The room went dead.

In a room so quiet you could hear a pin drop, the only sound was the faint, rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor.

The triumphant, victorious expression frozen on Ruby's stolen face completely shattered.

Her eyes widened so far they looked like they would pop out of her skull. She shook her head like a maniac.

"No! Impossible! Alexander, are you confused from the brain injury?"

"I am Sienna! I am the savior who worked day and night to keep you alive for three months!"

She scrambled wildly toward the bed, desperately trying to grab Alexander's hand. But a bodyguard stepped in and kicked her brutally to the floor.

"Stay back!" the bodyguard barked.

Ruby ate dirt, but she refused to give up, screaming at the Patriarch.

"Mr. Kensington! You have to see the truth! I really am the one who took care of him!"

"His brain is damaged! He is confusing me with my evil sister!"

Patriarch Kensington frowned deeply, the veins bulging on the hand gripping his cane.

He looked at Alexander and spoke in a low voice.

"Alexander, you just woke up. Is your mind still clouded?"

"Grandfather is here. You do not need to be afraid. Whoever hurt you, I will have them torn limb from limb."

"My mind is perfectly clear."

Alexander rested against the pillows.

Though his face was still pale, those dark, bottomless eyes burned with a terrifying, hellish fury.

He snapped his head toward Ruby. His piercing gaze scraped across her face, and he let out a cold laugh.

"In the past three months, you came here exactly twenty seven times."

"The first time, you called me a cursed cripple, kicked over a basin of boiling water, and severely burned someone."

"The fifth time, you dug your fingernails into my healing wounds because you said I smelled."

"And just ten minutes ago, you leaned into my ear and told me you had been praying for me to die every day, and asked why I was still breathing."

With every sentence Alexander spoke, Ruby's face grew another shade of white.

By the end, she had collapsed into a pathetic puddle on the floor, her teeth audibly chattering.

"No. That wasn't me. I didn't say those things. I am Sienna."

She was still offering pathetic, weak lies, snot and tears smearing all over her face.

Patriarch Kensington's face was as black as thunder.

He raised his heavy cane and smashed it violently against the floorboards right next to Ruby's head.

"You venomous wretch! You dared to dig your claws into my family!"

The old man laughed from pure rage, his eyes practically dripping with murderous intent.

Then, Alexander's gaze bypassed everyone in the room and landed squarely on me, pressed onto my knees by the bodyguards.

I was currently wearing Ruby's face.

But as Alexander looked at me, his cold, severe gaze instantly melted into incredible softness, carrying a trace of deeply hidden heartbreak.

"And her."

Alexander raised his hand and pointed at me.

"She is the one who spent the last three months cleaning up my filth, bathing me, feeding me medicine, and dragging me back from the gates of hell."

The room erupted into quiet gasps.

The bodyguards exchanged bewildered looks. The hands pinning my shoulders subconsciously loosened their grip.

Patriarch Kensington looked utterly baffled. He looked at me, then back at Alexander.

"Alexander, are you absolutely certain?"

"Grandfather."

Alexander cut him off, his tone absolute.

"I would never fail to recognize what is mine."

The golden text scrolled in a frenzy.

[ HELP! Sienna is wearing the female lead's face! How did the male lead figure it out?! ]

[ Yeah! Her face changed, her voice changed. Does the male lead have X-ray vision? ]

[ Did he just guess? What if he got it wrong? ]

I was stunned too. I looked up at the man on the hospital bed, tears swimming in my eyes.

He recognized me.

He really recognized me!

Under the confused stares of everyone in the room, Alexander slowly moved his right hand and extended his pinky finger.

He looked at me. A storm of intense emotion raged in his eyes. His voice was hoarse beyond belief.

"In the last three months, during the countless dead of night when the pain was driving me insane and I thought I could not hold on."

"It was her who hooked my pinky, over and over again, telling me not to be afraid."

"It was her who held my hand every time the heart monitor went off, telling me she would always be there."

Alexander's eyes turned red.

He took a deep breath, as if using every ounce of strength he had left in his body, to speak his final truth to me.

"In this entire world, she is the only one who knows I am terrified of sleeping alone."

"She is the only one who left a lamp on every single night, standing guard over a living corpse."

"Faces can change. Voices can be altered. But that warmth, that absolute dependency carved directly into my bones and my blood. I, Alexander Kensington, would never mistake it even if I died."

As his words faded into the air, I could no longer hold back. The tears broke the dam and slid silently down my cheeks.

Wearing Ruby's foreign face, separated by a crowd of armed men, I slowly extended my trembling hand and faintly, so faintly, hooked my own pinky finger in the air.

Alexander immediately responded.

His pinky hooked forcefully in the empty space, as if crossing the barrier of life, death, and physical flesh, locking onto me with unbreakable force.

The golden barrage completely exploded.

[ AHHHHHH I am sobbing! The ultimate romantic warrior has arrived! ]

[ To hell with the Transference Sigil! In the face of true love, dark magic is garbage! ]

[ The Crown Prince is too cool for words! He never loved the skin, he loved the soul that saved him! ]

[ The female lead calculated everything, and the clown was her all along! Deserved! ]

Seeing her empire crumble, Ruby had a complete mental breakdown.

She shrieked and lunged at me like a rabid animal.

"You bitch! What kind of demonic seduction did you use?!"

"Give me back my wealth! I am Sienna! I am the real Sienna!"

Before she could even touch the hem of my dress, two bodyguards slammed her brutally to the floor. Her cheek was pressed hard against the freezing tiles, rendering her completely immobile.

"Drag this lying, murderous viper out of my sight!"

Patriarch Kensington roared his orders.

"Throw her in the Kensington underground holding cells! Without my explicit order, no one gives her a single drop of water or a crumb of food!"

"I am going to make her taste what it means to beg for death!"

"Yes sir!"

The bodyguards dragged Ruby away as she squealed like a slaughtered pig.

As she was dragged past me, she glared at me with eyes full of pure venom and madness. She mouthed a silent threat.

"You won't be smug for long."

I watched coldly as she disappeared down the hall, but my heart did not feel an ounce of relief.

Because I knew, the true curse of the Transference Sigil was just beginning.