Chapter 2

Gavin couldn't stomach my self-righteousness for another second. He stood up, kicked the chair aside, and jabbed a finger right in my face.

He snarled, "You can look forward to the divorce papers!"

Then he stormed out without looking back. I watched him go, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

In my previous life, everything started falling apart about a month ago. It was when Gavin's first love, Brooke Ashton, came back from overseas.

The moment she returned, it was like a switch had flipped in him. Every thought and every ounce of his attention went to her, while I was left on the sidelines, completely invisible.

We'd been planning a wedding, but because of Brooke, it got pushed back indefinitely.

I couldn't keep waiting around forever, so I made up my mind to end things with Gavin and let him be with Brooke.

But then the news broke—Brooke had gotten wasted and trashed a bar. She'd also stolen a bottle of perfume from a department store counter and run a red light.

I went to Gavin, thinking that the best thing for her would be to turn herself in and cooperate. Perhaps they'd go easy on her.

Gavin looked at me coldly. "What the hell are you talking about? Those were all things you did. Are you really that disgusting? Trying to pin your own mess on Brooke?"

I'd frozen, wanting to ask him what he meant by that. Before I could, the victims from all three incidents tracked me down together.

I tried desperately to explain, but every one of them produced surveillance footage. And the person caught on camera committing those acts had my face.

I couldn't defend myself. In the chaos that followed, the mob shoved me to the ground, and I was trampled to death.

Now that I'd been given a second chance, I needed to find out why that surveillance footage showed my face. No amount of doctoring could produce fakes that convincing. Someone had done this to me, and I was going to figure out who.

Since I'd confessed to the perfume theft and shown a cooperative attitude, the police only held me for three days before letting me go.

I walked out of the station and pulled out my phone to check the news. I wanted to see whether this life would unfold the same way—whether someone was already setting me up again.

I hadn't made it very far when I spotted a group of people up ahead, all glaring straight at me. The moment I got close, they swarmed.

"That's her! She's the one who stole the perfume from our store! I got fired because of her! You owe me money!"

"That's her! She smashed up our place and broke every bottle behind the bar. That was hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of liquor!"

The last one was the most worked up, practically shaking. He was the father of the kid who'd been hit in the red-light accident.

"You shameless little bitch, running that red light. My son is still in the hospital. If he ends up with lasting damage because of you, I will make your life hell!"

In my previous life, this was the moment I'd panicked, tripping over myself to explain. But this time, I knew none of it had anything to do with me. So why would I panic?

I kept my voice calm. "None of that was me. I never did any of those things."

The fired store clerk shoved her phone in my face. "Still trying to lie your way out of this? If it wasn't you, then who was it?"

She was livestreaming the whole confrontation. "Everyone watching, take a good look at this face. Stay far away from this woman unless you want your stuff stolen too!"

The others nodded along eagerly. "Yeah, get her on camera! Let's see her try to run from this!"

I was about to move away when I heard Gavin's voice cut through the noise. "Elena, I didn't think you were actually capable of something like this. We're done. You will never set foot in my family's home."

Right beside him, Brooke had her hand wrapped around his arm. "Elena, how could you do something like this?"