Chapter 3
Sarah panicked when she saw me glaring at them. “That’s right, Anton. Lena was home with us the whole time taking care of Anna. How could she possibly do such a thing?”
“Then how do you explain this?” Anton was about to charge over and beat me up again.
At that moment, the police finally stepped in to stop him. “Enough! Saving lives is what matters. Wasting time arguing isn’t worth it.”
The officer’s words helped Anton calm down slightly, but he still glared at me with hatred.
The police then motioned for me to use my phone to call the kidnappers again so they could track their location.
But just then, something Sarah said suddenly put me on high alert.
I thought to myself: “Where did she learn to say those things? Could she really be reborn too?”
My heart skipped a beat. If Anna truly was reborn and had been confronting me for so long, wouldn’t she have noticed that I was reborn too?
So who was really behind Anna’s lies?
I paused briefly, then said firmly: “No need to make the call. I know where the kidnappers will arrange to meet me.”
The police looked at me with confusion. To prevent Anton from losing control, I specifically asked the officers to go to a separate room where I told them the exact location.
Initially, the police didn’t believe me, until my phone received a text message from the kidnappers with the transaction details. The location mentioned was exactly the same as what I had told them.
Though shocked, the police had no choice but to temporarily follow my arrangements in order to rescue the victim as quickly as possible.
I made a further request: deploy only a small police force at the designated location for the arrest, while strengthening vehicle checkpoints on the main roads leading to the hospital.
The lead officer said: “This is too risky, too dangerous. I have to be responsible for the hostage and my team members.”
“But what if these kidnappers are just ordinary people being used? The real mastermind might be waiting on the road to ambush us!” I said emotionally. “I don’t want to watch them die.”
The officer sensed something unusual about me and eventually
agreed to my request, but also made it clear that they would immediately adjust their strategy if the situation changed.
Actually, I dared to make this suggestion for a reason.
In my previous life, after the police successfully rescued Anna, interrogation revealed that the kidnappers were actually a group of college students looking for part–time work.
They claimed someone had hired them to stage a kidnapping, not knowing it would be real.
This time, I arrived at the location agreed upon with the kidnappers right on time with the ransom money.
Just like in my previous life, the police operation went very smoothly, and Anna was safely rescued.
Due to her severe injuries, Anna was immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Throughout the journey, I stayed by her side. She looked to be in terrible pain, with the wounds around both eye sockets already infected.
She was only five years old, my most beloved daughter. Seeing her in this condition broke my heart.
This time, I didn’t wait for her to speak first. Instead, I asked the question that had been weighing on my mind: “Anna, tell me,
did Daddy tell you to do this?”
However, the moment I finished speaking, Anna suddenly started screaming: “Ahhhhh, Mommy, please don’t kill me! I was wrong! I’ll never speak out of turn again!”
While she was crying and shouting, she secretly slipped a watch into my hand.
BANG! A thunderous crash erupted as a fully loaded truck came barreling toward us without warning.
The vehicle Anna and I were in flipped over instantly.
What was meant to happen had finally come to pass.
I crawled out through the ambulance’s side window again, overwhelmed by intense dizziness that made me nauseous.
I watched Anton, Elliot, and Sarah jump out of their police car and rush over to help.
When Anna was pulled from the wreckage, she had completely lost consciousness and couldn’t say a word.
Nearly half the ambulance had been crushed, and one
paramedic died on the spot.
Police dragged the truck driver, Russell Hart, from his seat and quickly restrained him.
(
pierced my ears.
I turned to see him holding Anna’s lifeless body, sobbing in despair. His pain was real and profound–definitely not an act.
Sarah screamed, “It’s you! You killed my granddaughter! I heard it–she begged you not to kill her!”
“Give me back my granddaughter, give her back…”
Sarah ran over and slapped me hard across the face, then collapsed to the ground, weeping uncontrollably.
The pain helped clear my head slightly. I stared at Russell, struggling to accept what I was seeing.
I mumbled, “No, impossible. How could Anna be dead? She was supposed to be saved.”
“What went wrong? What the hell went wrong?”
The outcome had changed, but I had too many questions.
Before I could figure it out, Anton suddenly pulled out a knife and lunged at me. Caught off guard, I was stabbed multiple times.
His eyes were bloodshot, as if he wanted to tear me apart alive.
He roared, “Why? Why did you kidnap Anna? Wasn’t beating her enough for you?”
“She’s just a child! Even if she knew about your business,
so what? Why did you have to kill her to keep her quiet?
You monster! You don’t deserve to be her mother, you don’t
deserve…”
Anton kept saying things I couldn’t understand. I wanted to ask what he meant, but suddenly my body felt weightless.
I collapsed. Anton was also subdued by arriving officers. The
crash scene descended into chaos.
I had so many unanswered questions, but there was no one left to provide answers.
At my hospital bedside, a lawyer said, “Ms. Reed, your daughter is dead, and police are investigating whether you’re involved in her murder.”
“This is something your husband asked me to give you. Please review it.”
He handed me a document: “This divorce agreement has already been signed by Mr. Lewis. He asked me to tell you he’s willing to give you all the family assets.”
“However, he will also file a lawsuit against you, charging you
with murdering your own daughter. We’ll notify you separately about the court date.”
The lawyer left after speaking. I stared at the divorce papers in my hands, gripping them tightly.
“Why me?” I whispered to myself.
Though this life was different from the last, the result was the
same.
I didn’t understand what I’d done wrong or where things had gone off track.
I’d suspected Anton, but judging by his current behavior, he seemed to have no reason to manipulate Anna into doing those things.
So why had Anna become like that, constantly saying I would hurt her?
What could a five–year–old child have experienced to make her act that way?
After thinking long and hard, I suddenly remembered what Anton had said when he stabbed me. He must know some truth I didn’t.
But given the current situation, there was no way he’d communicate with me calmly.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.
After being discharged, I went straight to the police station.
Since my case was still under investigation, I was a key person of
interest.
After hearing my request, the police agreed to let me see Anna’s body in the morgue, but with time restrictions.
When I saw the dark purple bruises covering Anna’s body, I froze completely.
The medical examiner told me these marks could only result from prolonged, severe abuse.
He also said, “And her injuries show old wounds that hadn’t healed before new ones were added. If you didn’t hurt Anna, then someone else definitely did.”
The police also told me Russell wasn’t a suspect–the accident was caused by vehicle malfunction.
Combined with Anna’s statements before her death, all evidence seemed to point to me again.
The officer continued, “However, we discovered your daughter was missing something. Your husband said it was a digital watch. Have you seen it?”
His words hit me like thunder. I didn’t immediately turn over the watch, instead pretending ignorance and quickly leaving the
station.
Only after confirming I was safe did I open the watch. A memo popped up on the tiny screen.
As I read those lines of text, tears instantly streamed down my face. I finally understood why Anna had become the way she
was.
