AOA 1

Prologue

The moment I laid my heavy body on the bed, consciousness slipped away in an instant.

The shock of manifesting as an omega for the first time in 24 years, followed by a sudden pregnancy, had completely thrown my body out of balance. My memories would cut out in patches, I’d collapse unconscious, drift in and out of shallow sleep over and over.

This was another one of those times. I’d practically blacked out from exhaustion but couldn’t fall into proper sleep.

My confusion and anxiety bled straight into my dreams. Memories I didn’t want to recall surfaced one by one, no matter how hard I resisted.

Shortly after I started my last year of high school, my father died in a car accident. That winter, my mother passed away from pancreatic cancer. Just like that, I was left alone with my younger sibling.

I can’t even describe how devastated I was. I cried for a long time, completely lost about what to do or where to go from there.

My father had no siblings, and while my mother did, neither my uncle nor my aunt was in any position to help. There was no family we could lean on.

But I couldn’t just fall apart—not with a sibling who’d only just entered middle school. I had to do whatever it took to survive.

It was just before my high school graduation. I was nineteen, legally an adult, and in decent physical health. I could take care of myself.

We had to sell the apartment we’d lived in for over a decade to cover my parents’ hospital bills, but between that and the insurance payouts, we had just enough to get by for a few years. My unmarried aunt even took my sibling in to care for them. As long as I worked hard, we’d be okay.

My grades had always been average, so college was never in the cards. I planned to go straight into the workforce and support my sibling with whatever I could earn.

That plan stayed intact, right up until my uncle, who’d fraudulently claimed my mother’s insurance, gambled all the money away and hanged himself. Worse, he’d taken out loans in my name, leaving me with over a hundred million won in debt.

And that wasn’t the end of it. Not long after I started working at a factory, my sibling suddenly fell ill. It was a rare condition with a name too long to memorize, something neurological. The doctor said that without treatment, their heart would eventually stop.

Fortunately, it was curable—but so rare that it wasn’t covered by insurance. Three surgeries, drug treatments, and years of rehabilitation would cost hundreds of millions of won. I cried endlessly when I returned home that day.

I had to save my sibling. But I had no money.

I searched everywhere for solutions, but the process to receive medical financial aid would take too long. Even my aunt’s deposit on her villa wasn’t enough to cover the costs.

Just as I was seriously considering turning to loan sharks, my biological father showed up.

I’d always known I was adopted, but I never knew whether my birth father was alive or dead. His sudden appearance was a shock.

He didn’t say he missed me or that he’d wanted to see me. Instead, he said he’d pay off my debts and cover my sibling’s treatment—on the condition that I agreed to an arranged marriage.

An arranged marriage, in this day and age? I had my doubts, but I wasn’t in a position to be picky.

I changed my name from Lee Eunho to Jeong Minchae and married a man I didn’t know.

Fortunately, just as he promised, my sibling’s life was saved. After two years of marriage, I manifested as an omega and became pregnant. And the day I found out I was pregnant… my husband died.

It had been about two weeks ago.

I could barely remember the funeral. Everything passed in a haze, like a dream.

My chaotic dreams played back the saddest, most horrific moments of my life in an endless loop. The news of my father’s car crash. The image of my mother, emaciated from cancer. The crushing hopelessness of not knowing how to live on. The terror of possibly losing my sibling. And finally, the cold, distrustful eyes of a man.

I understood him. Even I could hardly believe that a single night had resulted in a child. Even now, I still couldn’t.

And his death, too.

It felt like he’d barge in at any moment, opening the door and demanding an explanation in a low voice. And once again, I would say the same thing: I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Those two years of marriage had been a mess. Mostly because of me. The side effects of my medication had left me half out of my mind. So whatever he’d wanted me to explain—then or now—I still didn’t understand.

His death marked the worst possible end to our arranged marriage. But none of my problems were solved. The debt remained, and my sibling was still in the middle of treatment.

And worst of all—I was pregnant.

My biological father, stepmother, and even my father-in-law all said the same thing: I had to keep the baby. More specifically, they wanted an alpha boy.

If I gave birth to the child… then what?

A heavy pressure settled in my chest. I felt bound by invisible threads, drained of strength—like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb.

My anxiety returned in the form of a nightmare. As I relived the worst moments of my life, my throat suddenly closed up.

Cough.

A choking cough escaped me, and I snapped awake.

“What the fuck? What the hell?”

A sharp voice jolted me further. I forced open my heavy eyelids—only to see a man with narrow, sneering eyes staring back at me.

Jeong Guhyeon.

My half-brother. We had different mothers. Our relationship was the worst. I had no idea why he was in my room.

“Wow, you actually woke up? Can you move? No, guess not. Shit. You scared the crap out of me.”

He laughed to himself and slapped my cheek a few times. It was loud but not painful. Still, I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

“Here. Eat this, you fucker.”

His rough hand pressed my cheek as he shoved several pills into my mouth. Alarmed, I tried to resist, but my body wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t even scream—barely managing to weakly shake my head.

Then came the alcohol. The smell alone made it clear how strong it was as it poured into my mouth.

It took a few breaths for me to realize what it all meant. With my body in this state, if I swallowed this stuff, I’d die. If I lost consciousness, I wouldn’t wake up again.

The horrifying realization sent chills down my spine. I tried to fight him off, but my arms had no strength. All I could do was feebly twitch.

“They said Chairman Daesong promised to give us everything as long as you give birth to an alpha, right? Fucking idiot. You actually believed that? They just want your baby. You’re a damn broodmare, that’s all. I told you so many times, don’t you remember?”

Guhyeon kept mumbling as he poured more pills and alcohol into me. His grin was twisted—he looked completely unhinged.

“Fucking hell. What’s the big deal about being pregnant? You’re not even guaranteed to pop out an alpha or whatever. Could be an omega or beta, what a waste, right? And yet Dad’s all over you. Even Mom’s acting like it’s no big deal. Fuck.”

The liquor burned my throat, and his words made my ears ring. Jeong Guhyeon was trying to kill me because he was jealous of the attention I got from our parents.

He’d always gotten whatever he wanted, pampered, spoiled, shamelessly coveting and taking what wasn’t his. If things didn’t go his way, he turned violent without hesitation. But I never imagined he’d try to commit murder.

The words crazy bastard never even made it to my lips. My body was wrecked to begin with, and now the drugs and alcohol had pushed me to the edge, I could barely even breathe.

“You know Baek Mugyeong, right? That fucker had a fortune. Just his buildings in Gangnam alone are worth hundreds of billions. Fucking unlucky piece of shit. But he died before he could even touch it. And Dad put it all under your name—because you’re his wife. You just inherited hundreds of billions. And now you’re gonna die. Doesn’t that piss you off? Feel unfair? I’m gonna blow every last won of it. Oh, and get this: we get a fat insurance payout too. Apparently, even if you kill yourself, it still counts.”

I couldn’t hear a thing anymore. Alcohol kept flowing into my mouth, and my consciousness was slipping.

If I fell asleep now, it would be over. My biological father, stepmother, or one of the house staff had to be downstairs. I needed to get out of the room, down the stairs.

I poured all my strength into my limbs, flailing to grab Guhyeon’s hand.

I felt smooth leather, that’s when I realized he was wearing gloves. Cursing, I yanked his arm, trying to push myself up.

We were about the same build. If I could just engage him physically, I might be able to overpower him. I’d even learned boxing back in school. But the dizziness was overwhelming, I couldn’t move like I wanted.

“The fuck? What’s your problem?”

With just a flick of his hand, he threw mine off. The world blurred. My vision narrowed to a pinpoint as ringing filled my ears.

No. No, no…

Even my final scream couldn’t come out. The world went black and cold as I lost consciousness.