Chapter 1

“Ms. Stefani, there’s a gas station up ahead. Would you like to stop there for a rest?”

The driver’s voice jolted me awake. I stared blankly at the highway ahead.

The road sign by the greenery told me I was on the way to Asteria.

I picked up my phone and checked the time. Somehow, I had returned to the hour before Billy’s suicide attempt.

I snapped fully awake. “Don’t pull into the gas station. Turn around. Take me back right now.”

My driver, James Lapman, did not question me. He simply found a path and made the turn.

He pressed the accelerator to the floor and sped back as fast as the car would go.

In another hour, my son, Billy Smith, would livestream his suicide attempt online.

The last time around, he had been wailing in the livestream with such raw anguish that anyone watching would have believed I had been abusing him behind closed doors. However, only I knew the truth. I had nearly bled to death giving birth to him. Since then, he had been the center of my world. I gave him everything he wanted and never once raised my voice at him.

In the car, I contacted my secretary, Penny Bell, and sent her to my house.

Penny moved quickly. When she arrived, Billy was still playing a game on his phone.

I had instructed Penny to say that she had come to pick up some documents if Billy questioned her.

Just as I expected, Billy was surprised to see Penny. He asked what she was doing there.

After Penny explained herself, he impatiently told her to grab whatever she needed and leave.

I knew why he wanted her to leave immediately. In a little while, his father, Greg Smith, and my younger sister, Lori Chaney, would arrive.

They were my husband, my sister, and my son.

The three people closest to me in the entire world had worked together to weave an elaborate trap for me.

When Penny texted me to say that everything was in place, I opened the security camera app on my phone.

Penny had not been gone long when Greg and Lori arrived together, hand in hand.

When Billy heard them, he put down his phone and threw himself into Lori’s arms.

“Mom, I missed you so much.”

I snorted when I heard Billy call my sister Mom.

Lori hugged him. Then, she pulled a large bag of makeup from her purse. Her voice was gentle as she said, “Is everything ready? I’ll make you look battered and miserable later. Just remember to act convincingly.”

Billy nodded eagerly.

Greg kissed Lori on the cheek and said, “Thanks for doing this.”

They looked so close on my screen that they could have been a picture-perfect family. I pushed the thought aside and quickly took screenshots to save as evidence.

I put down my phone and looked outside the window.

I told James to take me to the mall. After getting out of the car, I put on a face mask and a baseball cap before walking into a toy store.

While I was filling my cart with toys, Lori called.

“Stefani, what kind of mother are you? You’ve actually pushed Billy to the point where he wants to jump off the roof!”