Reborn: I'll Ruin My Fraudster Family

A week before the college entrance exam, my twin brother, Tristan Doyle, runs away with a delinquent. Our parents abandon their massive corporate empire and set out to search for him. I intend to join the search, but a comment abruptly flashes across my vision. "Don't go, Ryan! If you skip the exam too, your family is doomed!" With no other choice, I shoulder the pressure and walk into the exam hall alone. Yet the moment the exams end, my parents return and lock me in the basement. Ten years later, I finally escape, only to discover that Tristan has stolen my identity. He's celebrated as that year's top scorer, gets a degree from a prestigious university, and is even married to my former high-achieving girlfriend, Alisha Hudson. They share a perfect life with two children. Furious, I attempt to confront them, but they bind me and throw me back into the basement. As I howl in rage, my parents reprimand me, "Tristan was never as smart as you, and that delinquent tricked him into running away. There was no way he could've gotten into college on his own." "You're his older brother. What's wrong with letting him have one thing? Stop being so selfish." I break down completely and die in despair. Only after my death do I learn that Tristan was the one who sent that comment. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the day Tristan elopes with the delinquent. The comment appears once more. As I stand there frozen, Alisha gently nudges me with a smile. "Go study! Your whole family's counting on you." Chapter 1 Alisha Hudson wore a simple white tee and jeans, with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. When she smiled, she still looked like the bright, top student I'd always known. But all I could see was her swinging that bat, smashing it hard against my forehead. Even when my parents dragged me back down into the basement, she just stood by and looked at me with pure disgust. We grew up together. How could she not tell my twin brother, Tristan Doyle, and me apart? "You look terrible, Ryan. Are you worried about Tristan? Don't overthink things. Right now, your only focus should be studying." She handed me a thick stack of papers and whispered, "These are practice questions written by the teachers at our prep class. The hit rate is incredibly high. Take them home and go through them a few times." As I stared down at the booklet, a wave of bitterness washed over me. In my last life, for the sake of my family and to live up to Alisha's expectations, I studied nonstop and ground through practice questions. In the end, it only paved the way for Tristan's success. "Thanks, Alisha," I said. Her face lit up with a brilliant smile, and I forced a smile of my own before heading home. But the second I stepped into my room, I shoved the practice booklet deep into a drawer and fired up a video game. Predictably, barely five minutes into my play, comments started flooding my vision. "The college entrance exam is next week, Ryan! Why aren't you studying? "Your brother is already a lost cause. If you don't step up, your family's entire future is going down the drain!" I kept playing without a word, but I couldn't help smirking to myself. To force me into taking the college entrance exam for him, Tristan was willing to weaponize our family's future to guilt-trip me. Before I could even finish the match, hurried footsteps echoed outside my room. Alisha burst in and snatched the phone straight out of my hands without a word. "Ryan, this is the most critical moment of your life. How can you be wasting time on games?" Without giving me a chance to speak, she dragged me over to my desk. She pulled the booklet out of the drawer and grabbed my favorite black pen from the holder. She was so efficient, like she knew exactly where everything was kept. Pinned to the desk, I was forced to grind through the questions under her watchful eye. With the house usually so lively, now dead quiet around us, my palms began to sweat. Tristan, Alisha, and I had grown up together, but she had always preferred my company. Once we hit high school, she even confessed her feelings to me, promising we'd go to the same university. Chapter 2 But it wasn't like Alisha never talked to Tristan, so how could she not care about him at all? Looking back now, in my last life, Alisha had been breathing down my neck every single second to make me study. She even insisted on seeing me into the college entrance exam center before finally leaving with peace of mind. Had she and Tristan been in cahoots all along to steal my score? But Tristan had been running wild with a delinquent since middle school. When did he manage to hook up with Alisha? My pen scratched across the paper for a couple of problems. Suddenly, a wave of chills washed over me. Noticing my shift in mood, Alisha reached out to touch me, but the second her skin brushed mine, I violently shoved her away. On the day the exams ended in my last life, Alisha had asked to meet me at a cafe outside the school, claiming they had found Tristan. I had rushed over excitedly, but it wasn't Tristan waiting for me. It was my parents, holding a coil of rope. They locked me in the basement and left. Panic-stricken, I scrambled to pull out my phone and called Alisha for help. But the moment I hung up, my parents walked in with grim expressions. Not only did they snatch my phone, but they also forced me to strip naked to ensure I wasn't hiding anything else. After that, I lived a hand-to-mouth existence in that basement, swallowing my own spit to quench my thirst. Every time I tried to escape, Dad would bring out a whip and beat me until I blacked out. Once, I was beaten so badly my mouth was filled with blood, and I couldn't chew food. Mom simply tossed a used baby bottle at me. "Pretending to be dead after a little beating? I seriously don't know why I even gave birth to you!" I struggled to clamp my lips around the teat and tasted a strange, chalky milk. Thinking about it now, that was the period Alisha was giving birth to her second child with Tristan. I used to hate my parents for their favoritism and for cruelly locking me away for ten years just for Tristan's sake. But living this life over again, I finally realized that it wasn't just my parents who were biased. Alisha, the innocent first love I once worshiped, was the same. "Ryan, what's wrong?" I dodged her fingers, grabbed my phone, and bolted toward the door. "I'm worried about Tristan. I need to go look for him." I ran fast this time, but Alisha called over the bodyguards to pin me down. Smiling, she grabbed my arm and forced me back into the chair. "You can look for him after the college entrance exam is over." She locked me inside the room from the outside. Even when my hand shook so hard I couldn't hold a pen, she refused to let me leave. I had to force myself to calm down, pretending to memorize test formulas while pacing around the room. As I passed the door, I caught the sound of her voice on the phone outside. "He's worried about you, so he's distracted. Don't worry. I'm keeping an eye on him. "You've been stressed out for so long. Take this chance to relax and have fun with your parents. "Me? I have more important things to take care of here. Once we're at the same university, we'll have all the time in the world to be together." I kept muttering formulas under my breath, but the corners of my mouth curled into a smirk. They wanted to go to the same university? Let's see if they actually had the brains for it. After hanging up, Alisha unlocked the door. I instantly used every ounce of my strength to push past her and bolt outside while shouting, "Don't try to talk me out of it! Tristan is my twin brother! There's no way I can just ignore him!" Fast footsteps chased right behind me. "Ryan, don't worry. He's only acting on impulse. He'll come back eventually. But if you don't study and miss out on Armitage University, your family will become the laughingstock of the city!" I ignored her entirely, sprinting out of the house and straight toward the train station. "As far as I'm concerned, the college entrance exam isn't more important than Tristan!" The moment the words left my mouth, comments began flashing violently across my vision, practically blinding me. "Ryan, are you out of your mind? If you ace the exam, you'll make the headlines! It'll be way easier to find him then! "Ryan, go back now. This is your chance to bring honor to your family. If you mess up the exams, your parents will blame you!" Chapter 3 I gritted my teeth and threw every ounce of my energy into sprinting out of the neighborhood. This time, I stayed away for three days and three nights. When exhaustion hit, I would hole up in an internet cafe, but I never stayed long before heading back out to fake a search for Tristan. Whenever I ran into parents of classmates who asked why I wasn't at school studying, I would put on a frantic act. "My twin brother, Tristan, ran off with a delinquent! My parents are out searching for him. How could I just sit around and focus on myself?" In no time, rumors that the Doyle family's second son had eloped right before the college entrance exam spread like wildfire across the entire town. Two days before the exam, Alisha and the bodyguards finally tracked me down and dragged me home by force. Tristan and my parents were already back. They looked like they weren't done having fun yet, as they were still dressed in light beach sun-protection shirts. Alisha tried her best to flash me a smile, but it looked incredibly forced. I pretended not to notice the barely concealed rage on their faces and rushed over to throw my arms around Tristan. "Tristan, you're finally back! I've been so worried about you that I couldn't even focus on my books! Now that you're home, let's study. Alisha brought over a practice booklet. I'll grind through the questions with you." Since his goal hadn't been achieved yet, he had no choice but to go along with it. I stayed by his side, watching him fake an effort through the evening when he clearly wanted to do anything but study. Eventually, hit with a question he couldn't solve, he excused himself to the bathroom and ended up cursing in there. But the more miserable he looked, the more satisfied I felt. While Tristan was still in there cursing, I stood up and said, "Tristan, I'm hungry. I'm going to grab some snacks. Keep studying without me!" Once outside, I headed east, planning to hide out at a classmate's house. Comments immediately flashed before my eyes. "Ryan, don't go that way! The delinquent is waiting for you out east! "She's furious that your brother went home, and she's planning to take it out on you!" My footsteps faltered for a second, but then I walked east with even more determination. The man who had stolen my identity in my last life wouldn't be this kind out of nowhere. After walking for half an hour without seeing any sign of the delinquent, I was just about to let out a sigh of relief when a figure suddenly blocked my path. Rebekah Cohen stood there with her bright red hair and a lip piercing, wearing a sinister smile. "Tristan, we agreed to run away together. How dare you toy with me?" I froze, then shook my head. "You have the wrong guy. I'm Ryan." She marched toward me, casually flipping a pocket knife in her hand. "You literally just called to apologize and said you'd be waiting for me here in a blue tee. "And now you're claiming to be Ryan? Do you think I'm stupid? You think I'm going to let you screw me over twice?" Frowning, I quickly backed away. Tristan was so terrified I'd escape that he had actually sent Rebekah to corner me. This was a woman who had been getting into brutal street fights with guys since she was a kid, always aiming to do real damage. As I frantically calculated an escape route, sudden footsteps echoed behind me. Alisha appeared, holding a thick stack of practice booklets. "Rebekah, that's Ryan. Can you seriously not even recognize your own boyfriend?" Rebekah shot a suspicious look at her, then back to me. After a long silence, she spat violently on the ground. "He's playing games with me again! Tristan Doyle, I'm going to destroy you!" Alisha didn't let out a sigh of relief until Rebekah finally turned the corner. But her grip on my wrist remained vice-like, as if she were terrified I would vanish from under her nose again. "Ryan, let's go back. Everyone has been looking all over for you." She escorted me back into the house. My parents didn't let me out of my room again until the morning of the exam. Chapter 4 When I asked about Tristan, my parents did nothing but sigh dramatically. "He ran off with Rebekah again. It's our fault for not raising him right. Ryan, you have to do well on this exam. The entire future of our family rests squarely on your shoulders." Dad drove me to the exam center. The moment I walked through the school gates, Alisha kept her eyes glued to me. They were pulling out all the stops just to ensure I took that exam smoothly. It was clear they were determined to have only one top-tier university student from the Doyle family. The other twin had to appear as if he had never set foot in the exam venue to avoid any future complications. Alisha "escorted" me all the way to my designated room before leaving me in the security line. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her heading toward her exam room. That was when I cleared my throat and tapped the student in front of me on the shoulder. "Of course I'm Ryan! Tristan and I might be identical twins, but it's not like we're clones!" The comments appeared again. "Ryan, what are you doing? If you cause a scene, you won't be able to take the exam! "Stop it right now!" I ignored the flashing comments and kept talking. "I have a birthmark behind my left ear. Tristan doesn't have that." The student in front of me looked completely bewildered, but someone nearby who recognized me pointed a finger. "Didn't Tristan run away with Rebekah? As his brother, how can you even have the peace of mind to take the college entrance exam instead of looking for him?" The surrounding students immediately began whispering. "Man, those two really look identical. If it weren't for that birthmark behind the ear, you honestly couldn't tell them apart." "But Ryan is being way too selfish. He only cares about his own future." "Exactly. If something happens to Tristan out there, Ryan will be building his successful life on his brother's ruin." They continued to criticize me until a proctor finally stepped in to quiet everyone down. I stared at the now silent chat overlay, squeezing my sweat-slicked fists. … When the exam ended and I walked out of the exam center, the long-absent comment resurfaced. "Ryan, get home fast! Your brother is back, and he's crying and begging to see you!" I sneered inwardly. Pretending I had forgotten something, I turned around and walked back toward the building. After a few steps, I broke into a sprint toward the side exit. This time, I had to find a place to hide until… "Ryan, where are you going in such a rush?" Cold sweat instantly drenched my back. Alisha stood there in her school uniform. Beneath her neatly styled bangs was a gentle smile. But behind those innocent eyes lay nothing but cruelty. My eyes frantically darted around for a classmate to call out to, but my parents stepped up from both sides, each grabbing one of my arms. Mom pretended to wipe the sweat from my face, but I caught a heavy whiff of a sweet fragrance, and the world went completely black. When I woke up, I was in that damp basement that had been my prison for ten years. The biting cold made me shiver, and my heart sank into a hollow dread. The exact same outcome again! My parents approached me without any trace of their previous warmth. "Ryan, the doctors say you've developed severe psychological issues and might harm yourself. We can't bear to see you suffer in a psych ward, so you'll be staying down here from now on." My body felt entirely drained of strength. I could barely force my eyes open. "Mom, Dad, am I not your son too? If you wanted Tristan to go to a top university and live a good life, I could have tutored him. Why did you have to strip away everything that belongs to me?" My parents exchanged a surprised glance. Then, a look of resentment washed over Mom's face, and she slapped me hard across the cheek. "Don't try to act like his brother now! You took advantage of how busy we were to bully Tristan. You even had Rebekah drug him so she'd get pregnant, then had her run away with him so he'd miss the exam. You did all of this just to ruin him!" Chapter 5 Mom continued yelling, "If Tristan hadn't reached out to us for help after running away, we never would have known how utterly cold-blooded you are!" My heart hammered against my ribs. "I didn't! I never did any of that!" Mom turned her back to me, while Dad unhooked a whip from the wall and brought it down hard across my skin. "You're still lying? You're the older brother, yet instead of looking out for Tristan, you tried to ruin him! I'll beat you to death, you ingrate! I should have just suffocated you the day you were born!" I screamed as the whip struck me. I tried to explain, but they wouldn't give me a single second to speak. Dad lashed me over a dozen times. Just as I was about to black out from the pain, Mom finally spoke up. "Don't actually kill him. We might need him again in the future." Breathing heavily, Dad stopped and hung the bloody whip back on the wall. Before leaving, they looked down at me. "Tristan isn't as smart as you, and you ruined his chances by forcing him to run away and miss the exam. He's bound to fail now. "As his brother, you'll hand your identity over to him. You're not losing anything." The pain was so agonizing I couldn't even twitch. In the pitch-black basement, the only light came from the comment flashing across the ceiling. "Just accept reality. You get free food and drinks down there, and you don't even have to go to school. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me." Through those floating words, I could practically see Tristan's smug face. I forced my mouth open to speak, but my body gave out, and I passed out. What followed was a rerun of the exact same agonizing torment from my last life. I lost track of how many times I went hungry or how many times I was beaten. But I held onto my rage, stubbornly surviving day after day. Then, while I was half-asleep, the bodyguards burst into the room. "Damn it! Who the hell called the cops and reported there were firearms hidden in the basement? Move him now! Don't let this mess up Mr. Tristan's university enrollment!" On the day I was supposed to be walking into Armitage University with my acceptance letter, I finally saw the blinding sunlight again. The bodyguards shoved me into the trunk of a car and took off. Once the car started, someone slid into the passenger seat, and a terrifyingly familiar voice spoke. "I'm taking him out of town right now. I'll make sure nobody can tip off the cops ever again. "I'm fine. It doesn't matter if I report for orientation a day late. "Tristan, don't overthink it. Ryan ruined your life, so he owes you this. Forget about his identity. Even if he had to give you his life, he wouldn't have the right to say no." Alisha spoke a few more soothing words before telling the driver to step on it. She seemed frantic, ordering the driver to floor the gas pedal as if she couldn't wait to rid herself of me. Soon, the car hit a red light. Taking advantage of the sudden stop, I quietly pulled the emergency release chord inside the trunk. I squeezed through the opening lid and sprinted straight toward Armitage University's registration desks. By the time I gasped my way there, the enrollment process was nearly over. Tristan was dressed in the exact sportswear I usually favored, standing beside our parents and putting on his best well-behaved act. "Thank you, professor. We'll be leaving Ryan in your hands." Dad, usually a prideful and arrogant man, bowed slightly, desperate to secure a stellar impression for his beloved younger son. I balled my hands into fists and charged forward into the crowd. "I'm the real Ryan Doyle! He's my twin brother, and he's trying to steal my identity to get into this university!"