The Duke's Sassy Lady

0: Previous Life

I WAS killed in my previous life but when I opened my eyes, I suddenly became Lady Francesca Emmanuelle, the only daughter of Baron Tim Emmanuelle. And more importantly, she's the minor villain in The Duke's Adopted Daughter– the last novel I read before the head chef of a world-renowned restaurant, also my big boss, literally pushed me to my death.

But before I tell you about my dangerous but exciting life as Lady Emmanuelle, please listen to my pitiful story before I got transported inside this romantic fantasy novel.

I am Frankie Lopez. Or should I say I used to be Frankie Lopez, a young but talented sous chef in a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles.

I was born and raised in the Philippines but when I was eighteen– right after my high school graduation– our family migrated to the States. I took up a major in Business for two years before I found my calling– which is cooking. Thanks to the comfortable life my parents provided for me, I have always enjoyed good food. But I realized that I didn't want to be a mere foodie anymore– I wanted to be a chef and so I entered culinary school.

Unfortunately, during that time, my parents died in a car accident. I was left alone. I wasn't able to focus on anything so I filed an indefinite leave of absence.

A year after my parents' death, I saw an audition announcement for a famous reality cooking show in America. To distract myself from sadness, I decided to give it a try. I was confident in my skills but I was immediately humbled after I got eliminated in the third episode.

Why? Well, I served Pinoy-style sweet spaghetti to the judges– and one of them happens to be an Italian who knows his pasta (it wasn't supposed to be sweet and he loathed the pieces of hotdog in the sauce). The next thing I knew, I was kicked out of the show.

But Louis Anderson, head chef of Mushy– a lame name for a Michelin-starred restaurant– reached out to me and hired me in his kitchen. After a year of internship under his guidance, I was promoted as sous chef. He was a great mentor and I respected him.

Another year later, I have established myself as an outstanding chef. I thought my career in the culinary world was already secured– until a middle-aged woman died in our restaurant after eating a dish containing Morchella mushrooms.

Chef Louis prepared the entrée but he made me serve it to her. According to the reports, the woman developed symptoms of severe food poisoning before she died. She wasn't the only guest who ordered the dish that night but baffling enough, she was the only victim. So the authorities suspected that there was a foul play.

I was also confused. Morchella mushrooms contain toxin hydrazine that is destroyed by cooking so everyone in the kitchen is careful whenever we use it in our dish. I know Chef Louis wouldn't make that kind of mistake. During the investigation, our restaurant was shut down.

But as a curious child, I started my own investigation. That was my first mistake. I found out that the victim was Chef Louis' ex-lover who cheated on him. But apparently, they made up and he invited her to the restaurant to celebrate her engagement with another man. Right then and there, I knew the food poisoning wasn't an accident.

So I met up with my boss at the rooftop of the hotel where the restaurant is. That was my second mistake. But the most fatal one was confronting Chef Louis instead of going straight to the police. I thought I could handle it when he confessed that he secretly brought and used his own set of ingredients to prepare his ex-lover's dish. That he discreetly threw away the left over so the health authorities wouldn't find anything suspicious in our kitchen.

I hate to admit this but maybe I gave him the benefit of the doubt because deep down my heart, I still can't believe that my mentor would cook a dish that would kill a person that he was supposed to feed. As a chef, I consider that as a grave sin. And the fact that he made me serve a poisonous dish to a guest was infuriating.

But because I believed that there was still good left in the heart of the mentor I looked up to, I was convinced that I could persuade him to surrender himself to the police.

Hah, I was foolish.

And I only realized how stupid I was when I was literally falling from the rooftop after Louis Anderson pushed me. I knew I wouldn't survive the fall– the damned hotel has 55 floors. I was scared but the thought of reuniting with my parents comforted me.

But for some reason, when I opened my eyes, I have become another person in a different dimension. I recognized the name the people ar3ound me called me by ever since I came to my senses. It took me a month to accept reality– to believe that I was transported to the world of the hit online novel that I used to read during my break time.

Against my will, I've become a minor villain that would soon die by the hands of Duke Eli Grimmwulf– the cold and cruel protagonist of the novel called The Duke's Adopted Daughter.