Chapter 1
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…
“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 confes-
sion?”
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 evide
nce, 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.”
