After Rebirth, I Became My Ex's Aunt-in-Law

Bella hesitated, taking one last look over her shoulder at her luggage sitting abandoned on the cold concrete of the parking garage.

”What about my things?” Bella asked, clutching her thin cashmere cardigan tightly around her chest.

”Oh, don’t worry about it!” Leo beamed, balancing the two bottles of soda against his hip. ”This is Sinclair Tower. The security here is insane. Nobody is touching your bags.”

Bella bit the inside of her cheek. She turned and followed the two siblings toward the residential elevators.

As the brushed steel doors slid shut, sealing them inside the mirrored cabin, Bella’s tears miraculously dried up. She stood in the corner of the elevator, crossing her arms. She looked at Leo first. He was bouncing slightly on his heels to the faint elevator music, wearing an oversized graphic tee, baggy cargo pants, and a bucket hat. He looked exactly like what he was: a nineteen-year-old kid who had gotten lucky on a casting call.

Then, her gaze slid over to his older sister.

Jade was leaning against the back railing, holding the greasy pizza boxes. Bella performed a top-to-bottom visual sweep. Jade was wearing a plain, unbranded cream sweater, a pair of blue jeans, and basic white sneakers.

’Plain,’ Bella diagnosed, her upper lip curling slightly. ’She isn’t ugly, but she’s not exactly pretty either. Boring. Boring. Boring.’

”So,” Bella started, pitching her voice into a delicate, polite hum. ”Do you guys actually live here in the hotel?”

”Just for a little bit!” Leo answered cheerfully as the numbers on the digital display ticked upward. ”Our house is currently being renovated, so we’re crashing here for a bit.”

Bella inaudibly scoffed.

’Crashing,’ she thought. She knew exactly what was going on here. Leo had just secured his first major paycheck from The Empress’s Shadow, and like typical, financially illiterate new money, he was blowing it all on a temporary, flashy stay at Sinclair Tower just to flex for Instagram.

The elevator chimed softly.

The doors opened to a dimly lit, plush-carpeted hallway on the sixty-fifth floor.

Bella followed them down the corridor, mentally preparing herself to enter whatever cramped, basic-tier room they had booked.

Leo stopped in front of a sleek oak door and leaned forward, pressing his eye toward a tiny, discreet black panel mounted on the wall.

A thin, red laser swept horizontally across his pupil.

Beep. Click.

The deadbolt disengaged, sliding back with a metallic thud.

Bella froze. Her jaw slackened slightly. She stared at the black panel, completely bewildered. Since when did standard hotel rooms have biometric retina scanners?

Leo pushed the door open, gesturing for them to enter. ”Welcome to the crib!”

Bella stepped inside. Her eyes immediately began darting around the space.

It was a suite. It was incredibly modern, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the glittering Manhattan skyline, but it was... compact. There was a cozy living area connected to a sleek, open-concept kitchen.

’Okay,’ Bella thought, recovering her smugness. ’So they aren’t that rich. This is definitely the smallest residential layout Sinclair Tower offers. I know the floor plans from the website.’

The space was immaculate. It was almost frighteningly tidy. There were no clothes draped over chairs, no shoes kicked off by the door, and no clutter on the counters.

’The sister,’ Bella deduced, side-eyeing Jade. ’She must clean up after him. Classic stick-in-the-mud.’

”I’m going to go wash my hands,” Jade announced, setting the stack of pizza boxes down on the marble kitchen island. She offered Bella a tight, polite smile. ”Make yourself at home.”

Jade disappeared down the short hallway toward the bathroom.

”I’ll grab some plates and cups!” Leo chirped, dropping the two-liter sodas onto the counter and ducking his head into a lower cabinet.

Left entirely to her own devices, Bella began to roam.

She drifted toward the living room, her eyes scanning the built-in bookshelves flanking the flat-screen TV. She found a collection of beautifully framed family photographs.

Bella picked up a small, silver frame.

It was a picture of Leo as a young boy, maybe ten or eleven years old. He was missing a front tooth, grinning widely at the camera.

But it wasn’t his smile that made Bella stop breathing.

It was what he was wearing.

Young Leo was dressed in a navy-blue blazer adorned with a very specific, intricate gold-embroidered crest on the breast pocket. He was wearing a stark white collared shirt and a maroon-and-gold striped tie.

Bella’s blood ran icy cold.

She recognized that uniform.

It was the official uniform of L’Institut de Valmont—the most elite, notoriously exclusive private boarding school in the French Alps. It was an institution reserved exclusively for European royalty, old-money dynasties, and the children of global heads of state.

Lydia had once attempted to bribe the admissions board of Valmont with a half-million-dollar ”donation” just to get Bella on the waitlist.

The admissions board had respectfully, firmly declined the money, stating that the Vale family did not meet their ”pedigree” requirements.

Bella stared at the photo, her mind spinning wildly out of control.

’He went to Valmont?!’ Bella panicked, her hands suddenly trembling as she carefully set the silver frame back onto the shelf. ’That’s impossible! You have to be born into generational wealth to get in! Are they... are they European elite?!’

She looked back toward the kitchen, staring at Leo, who was currently humming a TikTok audio while juggling paper plates.

Her entire assessment of their tax bracket shattered into a million pieces. They weren’t new money. They were stealth wealth. They were the kind of rich that didn’t need to wear logos because their entire existence was a flex.

”Bella?”

Bella jumped, whirling around.

Jade had returned from the bathroom. She was drying her hands on a small towel, offering Bella that same, perfectly pleasant, vanilla smile.

”You can go wash up in the bathroom, if you’d like,” Jade offered, pointing down the hall. ”It’s the first door on the left. Take your time.”

”T-Thank you,” Bella stammered and scurried down the hallway. The door of the guest bathroom clicked shut, then the pleasant smile melted off Jade’s face.

Jade whipped around and marched into the kitchen. She slammed her hand down onto the marble island, right next to the pizza boxes.

Smack.

Leo jumped, nearly dropping a stack of paper plates. He looked at his sister, his eyes wide.

”Are you insane?!” Jade hissed, her voice dropping into a furious whisper-yell.

”What?!” Leo defended, taking a step back. ”I was just getting napkins!”

”You invited a snake into our home!” Jade whisper-shrieked, jabbing an angry finger toward the hallway. ”Do you have any idea how much trouble we can get in because of this?!”

”I know!” Leo whisper-yelled back, setting the plates down defensively. ”But she was crying on the concrete, Jade! She was sad and alone! I couldn’t just leave her there, that’s terrible karma! She’s my co-star!”