After I turned myself in to the police for my crime, my fiancé, Mark, rushed over, furious. “You didn’t steal anything,” he demanded. “Why did you confess?” I just shrugged. I was ready to do the time. In my last life, Mark’s childhood sweetheart, Stella, came back to the country and started causing trouble everywhere. First, she shoplifted from a mall. Then she dined and dashed at a restaurant. Finally, she ran a red light and killed someone with her car. When the mall manager, the restaurant owner, and the victim’s family all came to me, I was baffled. Why were they blaming me for things Stella had done? Later, when they accused me in front of the police of theft, skipping out on a bill, and a fatal hit-and-run, I finally understood. They had mistaken Stella for me. But Stella and I looked nothing alike. I demanded they review the security footage. The footage showed that the person stealing, dining and dashing, and committing the hit-and-run was, in fact, me. Words meant nothing against video evidence. The victim’s family, mad with grief, stabbed me to death on the spot. To my dying day, I never understood why, in every single piece of footage, Stella’s crimes were pinned on me. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Stella stole from the mall… 1 “Melody, what the hell are you doing? You didn’t do anything wrong! Why did you turn yourself in and say you stole something?” I looked up at the familiar, furious face of my boyfriend, Mark. Faced with his questions, I just gave him an innocent look. “Mark, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.” “You have to own up to your mistakes. It’s a good citizen’s duty to admit when they’re wrong and change for the better. How can you tell me to take back my confession?” In the interrogation room, the police officer frowned at Mark. He rapped his knuckles on the table. “Sir, your thinking is very dangerous right now.” “There is security footage proving Ms. Melody Reid took bread from the supermarket, and she has confessed to the crime. With both physical and testimonial evidence, how can you try to persuade her to evade responsibility?” The officer’s righteous words made Mark’s face twist with anger. He stared at me in disbelief, pounding on the glass partition of the room. “Melody! Are you insane?” “You have millions in your account, and you’re stealing a two-dollar loaf of bread? Are you sick?!” But no matter what he said, I just kept my head down, pretending not to hear. Mark was beside himself with rage. He yelled at me one more time, “Melody, I’m asking you one last time, are you coming out of there with me or not?” “I’m telling you now, my parents will never let a woman with a criminal record into our family!” But faced with his threat, I just shook my head, tears welling in my eyes. “Mark, even if you say that, I can’t leave.” “If your parents won’t accept me as their daughter-in-law because I had the courage to admit my mistakes, then I guess we just weren’t meant to be.” My words completely disgusted him. He had nothing left to say to me. With one last furious glare, Mark turned and stormed away. Watching him leave, I let out a sigh of relief. In my last life, Mark’s childhood sweetheart, Stella, had returned from abroad. The moment she was back, his world revolved around her. Ten years of knowing Mark, and Stella made me look like a joke. We were already talking about marriage, but seeing how devoted he was to Stella, I wasn’t one to cling. I was ready to step aside and let them be together. But right then, Stella was caught stealing, dining and dashing, and even killing someone in a hit-and-run. Trying to be reasonable, I told Mark that Stella should turn herself in to get a lighter sentence. But he just looked at me like I was crazy. “What are you talking about, Melody? You’re the one who did those things. What does it have to do with Stella?” I was about to ask him what he meant when the mall manager, the restaurant owner, and the victim’s family all found me, accusing me of theft, skipping out on a bill, and a hit-and-run. I thought they had the wrong person. Stella and I looked nothing alike. I patiently explained, but the three victims pulled out security footage. The person in the videos, committing all those crimes, was clearly me. I had no way to defend myself. The victim’s family, having lost their only son, was mentally shattered. They stabbed me over a dozen times right there. After I died, I couldn’t figure out how every single piece of security footage—from the mall, the restaurant, the street—all clearly showed me as the culprit. Faking one video might be possible, but faking so many would be incredibly difficult. So, what went wrong? Reborn into this life, I was determined to uncover the truth. I was held at the police station for three days. After three days of counseling and education, they let me go. The first thing I did with my phone was search the local news, just as I remembered from my last life. Sure enough, Mark’s sweetheart, Stella, had committed all the same crimes. But unlike the panic I felt last time, I was completely calm. I’d been locked up for three days. The person in the security footage couldn’t possibly be me this time, right? But I was wrong. I had only taken a few steps from the police station, stopping to buy a bowl of soup from a street vendor, when a group of angry people surrounded me. The man in the lead raised his hand to slap me. “Melody Reid, we finally found you!” “You ran a red light and killed my son! I want you to pay with your life!” The others chimed in. “You stole luxury goods from our store and damaged mall property! You’re not getting away with this without paying ten thousand dollars!” “You dined and dashed at our restaurant! The bill was $888.88! Pay up!” One of the victims, afraid I would deny everything, even started a livestream, pointing their camera right at me. “Everyone, take a look! This is the deadbeat, Melody Reid, who owes money and a life!” Faced with their accusations, a question flashed in my mind. Why, after I had been locked in a police station for three days, were these people still coming after me? But unlike the panicked, frantic me of my past life, I was incredibly calm. “I think you have the wrong person,” I said, unhurriedly. “The person who did those things is named Stella, not Melody Reid. If you don’t believe me, check the security footage.” “We knew you’d say that!” one of them sneered. “We came prepared so you can’t deny it when we hand you over to the police!” They all pulled out their phones and played the footage. The person in the videos, committing all those crimes, was still me. The livestream chat exploded with comments. [Wow, it takes all kinds. I’ve never seen a thief so brazenly accuse someone else.] [Not only does she refuse to admit her crimes, she tries to pin them on someone else. Why doesn't this woman just die?] Seeing this, my heart sank. Before I was taken into custody, I had considered the possibility that Mark and Stella wouldn’t give up, that they would still try to frame me. But I hadn’t expected the worst-case scenario to still happen. My silence was taken as guilt, as if their accusations had hit their mark. The restaurant owner shoved his bill in my face. “You bitch! You eat at my place, then you smash my plates and bowls! How can you be so disgusting?” “The bill is $888.88, and the damage to the tableware and lost business comes to $200. You owe me $1,088.88 in total!” The mall manager, with a salesclerk in tow, stepped forward, frowning. “You took a popular handbag from a luxury boutique. That bag alone is worth ten thousand, thirty with the required extra purchases. Add in the damage to mall property, and you owe us forty thousand dollars. Pay up!” The parents of the hit-and-run victim were the most emotional, pointing a finger at my nose and screaming curses. “The police station is right across the street! If you don’t give us an explanation, I’ll have the police arrest you and see you get the death penalty!” I took a deep breath. “I really didn’t do any of these things. The person who did is named Stella. I know her. She’s my ex-fiancé’s childhood friend. If you don’t believe me, I can have her come here for a confrontation. Also, I’ve been at the police station for the past three days. I…” Before I could finish, Mark and his darling Stella rushed over, interrupting me. The moment he saw me, Mark raised his hand and slapped me hard across the face. “Melody, I’m breaking off our engagement!” “I knew you were getting out today, and Stella was kind enough to come with me to pick you up. But you dare to slander her like this?” “You make mistakes and refuse to admit them. I don’t have a fiancée like you. You’re not worthy of our family!” Stella looked at me, her eyes red. “Melody,” she choked out, “I know you’ve never liked me because I’m Mark’s childhood friend.” “At home, you’d break a plate and say I did it. You’d pinch the neighbor’s kid and say I hit them. To keep the peace between you and Mark, I always just took the blame!” “But you can’t… you can’t accuse me of something like this! This is a matter of life and death!” With that, she pushed Mark away, taking several steps back to create distance between them. “Mark, if being your friend means I have to endure these false accusations and slander, then maybe we shouldn’t be friends anymore!” “I can’t stand being pointed at and judged all the time! I have to bow and apologize for things I didn’t do, and sometimes I even get hit! I can’t take this kind of treatment anymore!” Her words were like a spark in a tinderbox. The crowd erupted. They all turned on me, their eyes filled with condemnation and hatred. Someone even picked up a rock and threw it at me. I couldn’t dodge in time. The rock grazed my cheek, breaking the skin and drawing blood. The crowd froze for a second. The livestream chat paused. But after a brief silence, they surged forward again, fists raised, demanding an explanation. Just then, the police noticed the commotion and sent a patrol unit over to investigate. When the lead officer, Officer Davis, saw me, he paused. “Melody? You just got out. Shouldn’t you be heading home for a shower instead of standing out here?” His words silenced the crowd. Seeing Officer Davis, a dark glint appeared in my eyes. I saw the flash of panic on Mark’s face and deliberately spoke loudly. “Officer Davis, since you’re here, I’d like you to be a witness for me!” “A witness for what?” he asked, confused. Under everyone’s gaze, I lowered my head, my shoulders trembling as tears streamed down my face. My voice was filled with anguish. “I just got out of the station, and I was surrounded by this mob. They’re saying I did a lot of terrible things and that I have to pay.” “I told them it wasn’t me, but they showed me security footage, and the person in it is me.” “But they might not know, but the entire police department knows! I’ve been locked in a holding cell for the past three days! How could I possibly have been out here?!” Officer Davis paused, then confirmed my words. “That’s right. You’ve been in custody for the past three days and have been a model detainee. You never caused any trouble. We were even going to recognize you as a model prisoner.” Hearing this, the business owners were stunned. The livestream viewers were shocked. “So, after all that, they got the wrong person!” “These businesses are so irresponsible! They came here all aggressive without getting their facts straight! I saw some of them get physical. The poor girl’s forehead is bleeding!” I looked at the business owners and the victim’s family earnestly. “Now do you believe me? I really didn’t do any of the things you said, because I’ve been locked up in the police station the whole time.” They hesitated, looking from the security footage to me and back again. “But the person in the footage is you. The cameras can’t be wrong, can they?” A bystander chimed in. “Maybe they can be! She said she was at the police station, and the station’s security footage has to be real!” At everyone’s request, the police brought out their equipment and examined the footage on the spot. But when the results came in, everyone was stunned again. Even Officer Davis’s eyes widened in shock. The footage from the business owners’ phones was completely authentic, with no signs of tampering whatsoever. Now it was the online viewers’ turn to explode. “What is going on? The police have to investigate this thoroughly! We can’t let an innocent person be framed, and we can’t let a guilty person go free!” Just then, Mark, who had regained his composure after seeing the footage confirmed as real, exchanged a look with Stella and stepped forward. “The bad guy is Melody!” he shouted. “She’s a terrible person! She could sneak out of police custody to commit crimes!” “We just checked! There’s a small alley behind the police station, a blind spot for the cameras! Melody must have escaped through there!” “And her dad’s a locksmith! Who knows if she learned the trade from him? She could have easily picked the lock while the guards were asleep and snuck out to do bad things!” All eyes turned to me, filled with suspicion. Even Officer Davis began to doubt me. Mark smiled triumphantly. “Officer, you have to arrest her! She killed someone! She has to pay with her life!” The victim’s family chimed in emotionally, “Yes! I want her to pay for my son’s life!” The crowd grew rowdy again. Eyes filled with scrutiny, contempt, doubt, and disgust lingered on me. I trembled under the weight of their negativity. But I wasn’t scared. I was thrilled. Because… I had anticipated this moment.
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