Down Five Million, Heaven Sent Me Back

After everyone rolled, they all kept one hand pressed firmly over their dice cups. Since I had won the last round, I called first.

"A thousand dollars, no cap."

The men exchanged knowing smiles.

Including Lawrence, the three of them stayed in. His grin nearly split his face as he said, "Sebastian, don't take it too hard, even if you lose. You're a rookie. There's no shame in it."

I kept my eyes locked with his and threw the words right back in his face. "There's no shame in losing. The only shame is trying to get out of paying."

He chuckled and flipped his cup open, only to freeze the next second.

"What? How is this possible? This can't be!"

I casually lifted my own cup. "Sorry. Five ones. Best roll on the table."

A wave of panic rippled through the group. They scrambled to reveal their own dice, but not one of them came close.

I scanned the table and said, "My luck really is something else tonight, isn't it? It's not much, though. Just a little over 100 thousand dollars from each of you."

Lawrence's eyes darted from my dice cup to his own. Only then did he realize that I had already switched our cups.

I had known that the problem was with the cups, but I still hadn't figured out the exact mechanism. The only explanation was that there had to be a switch somewhere that controlled every cup at the table and guaranteed Lawrence the strongest roll.

So when I was taking my penalty drink earlier, I had secretly swapped our cups.

But after getting a second chance at life, how could I possibly let him walk away after losing only a little over 100 thousand dollars?

I draped an arm over his shoulders and said, "It's fine. How about we switch to poker? You know I'm pretty new to that, too."

Lawrence stared at me, stunned, then lunged to his feet. "Sure. That's a great idea!"

Everyone knew the Gellar family used to run a poker room. He had been playing since he was a child, and no one our age could touch him.

The others started snickering, convinced that I was just digging my own grave.

What they didn't know was that I was no longer a beginner. Back in university, I had even won a poker championship.

After settling into my seat, I watched their hands and expressions closely. It didn't take long for me to figure out that they were signaling each other.

Sliding a card meant clubs. Turning a card meant diamonds. Tapping a card meant hearts.

When the wild card was chosen, the other two players would work together. The moment I wasn't looking, they would swap it for whatever card Lawrence wanted.

Under the local house rules, if Lawrence wanted the five of hearts as the wild card, they would set the indicator card as the four of hearts.

During the hand, they would keep feeding Lawrence the cards he needed according to his signals.

But they were playing the long game. They wouldn't let me bleed out too early.

As expected, immediately after I won a decent pot, one of them suggested, "It's getting late. Let's make this the last hand."

Lawrence ran his fingers over his stack of chips. "Fine by me. But since it's the final hand, why don't we raise the stakes a little?"

This time, I didn't wait for anyone else to speak before agreeing, "Sure! I'm on a roll tonight, anyway."

They clearly hadn't expected me to say yes so quickly. The player to my left flashed me a sleazy, predatory grin. "You said it yourself, okay? Then let's make it 100 thousand dollars a hand. Wild cards double the payout, and there's no cap. Are you in?"

In my previous life, a thousand-dollar buy-in had been enough to ruin me. Now, seeing that I wasn't losing enough to their liking, they'd upped the stakes to 100 thousand dollars.

I took a deep breath and confidently said, "Sure. I got five million dollars in relocation compensation. That's enough for dozens of hands, isn't it?"

The player across from me thought for a moment, then slammed his hand on the table. "Fine. Let's play. My dad owns a company, so I can afford to lose."

Lawrence arched an eyebrow, a wicked smirk playing on his lips. "Well, if everyone's game, I'd hate to be the buzzkill. I'm in."

They had no idea that the tables had turned. Now, they weren't the ones setting me up anymore.

In this hand, I was going to make every single one of them taste the suffering I had endured in my previous life.