Rebirth: Are the Mushrooms Really Poisonous?

By the time I finished cleaning up the mess, it was already noon the next day.

Exhausted, I dragged myself home, only to hear Sarah Clarkson's pained screams when I reached the door. She and my husband, Dominic Kane, were childhood sweethearts.

"God, my head is spinning! My stomach hurts so bad! I'm in so much pain! Please, help me! Do something!"

Mixed in with her cries was Dominic's panicked voice. "What happened, Sarah? You were fine just minutes ago!"

A bad feeling instantly crept up on me. My heart skipped a beat as I shoved the door open and rushed inside.

Sarah's face was deathly pale, and she was leaning weakly against Dominic.

He had an arm around her and looked utterly concerned for her well-being. The second he saw me, he exploded. "Look what you've done, Hazel Brown!"

Sarah was breathing hard, her eyes full of resentment. "Hazel, why would you do this to me?"

I was confused—stunned, even. The next second, I caught sight of the plate of fried mushrooms on the table. "What did I do?"

"Quit pretending!" Dominic barked, sweeping the mushrooms off the table in one violent motion.

The plate shattered on impact, breaking into pieces. Fragments splashed against the top of my foot, and the sharp sting made me realize I had truly been reborn—and my mushroom greenhouse had already been burned to the ground.

"What does any of this have to do with me?" I asked, confused.

Sarah forced herself to speak between ragged breaths. "Hazel, it's just the three of us here. Can you stop playing innocent? I know you haven't always been a fan of my friendship with Dom, but how could you poison me with those mushrooms?"

As if to prove her point, a thick, white foam even seeped from the corner of her mouth. That sight made Dominic's heart ache, but his concern quickly turned into anger toward me.

"After all these years of being your husband, I never knew you could be this vicious!"

I almost found the way they coordinated their performance ridiculous. "Are you sure I was the one who grew those mushrooms?"

The second I asked that, Sarah suddenly gagged and dry-heaved. "Well, who else could it be?"

Dominic flew into a rage, his voice nearly cracking. "You complained about how close Sarah and I are! You even said that if we kept in touch, you'd poison her to death!

"You said you found some cheap mushrooms. Were they poisonous all along? I thought you were just saying it out of anger! I never thought you'd actually do it, Hazel!"

Sarah lowered her head in resignation and began to apologize to me in shaky voice. "Hazel, I know my friendship with Dom makes you uncomfortable, but there's nothing between us! I just don't get why you keep doubting us!"

I stared at them in disbelief. Then, I noticed a camera in the corner, its tiny red light blinking faintly as it recorded everything. Immediately, it all clicked.

In my previous life, Sarah was poisoned after eating the mushrooms she got from me. Without my knowledge, she uploaded the whole incident online.

She was a somewhat popular online influencer to begin with. Since the situation involved agricultural products, the story exploded almost instantly and became a viral topic.

I broke down back then. I went to Sarah, hoping she would help clear my name. Instead, she turned on me without hesitation.

"No, you deliberately fed me poisonous mushrooms to harm me. Now, you want me to clear your name? In your dreams, Hazel!"

Every explanation I made became an excuse in her mouth.

"You grew poisonous mushrooms just to save money! People like you deserve to rot! Good thing I was the one who ate them first. What if you'd sold them to other people instead?"

With that, Sarah pinned the accusation on me.

When the police came to arrest me, I placed my last bit of hope in Dominic. Yet when he showed up, it was to testify against me.

"Officer, my wife's just a poor woman who's always trying to save a buck. She mentioned growing poisonous mushrooms before when she was farming mushrooms.

"I thought she was joking, but I didn't expect she'd actually do it! And not only that, but she also gave Sarah about 30 pounds of poisonous mushrooms! That's attempted murder, isn't it?"

With Sarah's statement and Dominic's accusation, as well as the toxic substances found in the mushrooms, none of my explanations mattered anymore. No matter what I said, nobody believed me.

Thankfully, with help from a friend later on, I was released on bail pending trial. The moment I got out, I went straight to find Dominic and Sarah.

What I got in return was a slammed door in my face. Not only was I thrown out, but he even informed me that he wanted a divorce. Even the savings I had spent years building up had been drained.

Those memories sent a tidal wave of hatred through me.

The most ironic part of all was that I had already destroyed every single mushroom I had grown. So, where exactly did the mushrooms that poisoned Sarah come from?