Chapter 1

"Ms. Zendaya Lyons, breakfast is ready. You should eat it while it's hot."

The housekeeper, Lily Hall, smiled gently as she did every day, bringing my favorite breakfast to the table just like always.

She called me to eat in her usual soft voice, but my whole body suddenly tensed.

Lily just turned 20 this year, with a pretty face and a gentle demeanor.

After Jayden Sanders and I got married, we were both busy with work and often came home late at night. So, we hired a housekeeper through an agency to cook our meals and keep the house in order.

I wanted to hire an older woman, but Lily begged us through tears, saying she came from a poor rural town. She said that if she could not find work, her father would marry her off to a mentally challenged man in her village.

She begged us for a chance, saying she would take less pay and was willing to learn.

Jayden and I felt sorry for her. Since we needed someone anyway, we decided to hire her.

Lily was hardworking and easygoing, with that simple, honest quality you found in country folks. In over a year of working for us, she never made a single mistake.

I found it impossible to connect her with the bloated corpse I had seen pulled from the river in my past life.

Just a short while ago, Lily excitedly told me she was pregnant with her boyfriend's baby and would be quitting soon to focus on the pregnancy.

"Ms. Lyons, what are you thinking about? Is something wrong with breakfast? I can make you something else."

As she spoke, Lily reached to take my plate away. I shook my head, forcing myself to calm down.

"It's fine. I was just thinking about work. Breakfast is as delicious as always."

Lily let out a relieved breath and turned back to wipe down the living room table. I chewed the toast in my mouth, but it tasted like nothing.

I could not help but wonder where exactly things went wrong.

Just then, Jayden walked out of the bedroom. Lily immediately set down her cleaning cloth and greeted him.

Jayden barely glanced at her and just responded with a faint hum. He walked over to me, took the half-eaten dry toast from my hand, and thoughtfully spread some blueberry jam on it.

He said, "Honey, what are you thinking about? You even forgot to put jam on your toast."

If it were not for my past life, where he furiously called me a monster in front of everyone, I might have actually been fooled by his Mr. Nice Guy act.

In my previous life, everyone believed I drove Lily to her death. I pinned all my hopes on Jayden since he knew exactly how I treated Lily every day.

But instead, he became the final nail in my coffin.

He held Lily's lifeless body, his eyes red as he screamed accusations at me. "You bully me and beat me up every day, but fine, I'm your husband, I can take it no matter what! But Lily was innocent! She worked her heart out for us, and now you've driven her to jump off a bridge! She was carrying a baby!"

Jayden roared himself hoarse, like a man possessed. He even showed everyone the purple and blue bruises covering his body, proving to them all that I was a violent monster.

I could not defend myself and just sat there numbly while people pointed and whispered around me.

"How could this woman be so heartless? She even beats her own husband."

Another chimed in, "I know her. We live in the same neighborhood. Their housekeeper did great work for low pay, but I had no idea she was being abused like that at home."

"Exactly, and she was pregnant too. That's two lives gone. This is just evil."

The insults stabbed into me like knives, and I had no way to fight back.

Later, the police took me away.

In court, there was the suicide note, the video, and witness testimony. Every piece of evidence was damning.

I became the "cruel employer" and "abusive monster" that everyone online wanted destroyed. Even on the short drive from the courthouse to prison, countless "concerned citizens" threw rotten eggs at my head.

My parents were exposed as the parents of a vicious monster. They spent their entire lives as teacher, only to be publicly shamed for failing to raise me properly.

They both died of heart attacks at home, and their bodies were only found when the smell became unbearable.

But even as I was bullied to death in prison, I could not understand why Lily suddenly killed herself.

Why was Jayden's body covered in bruises?

In this second life, I was determined to find out what really happened.