Chapter 1

"Cleo, what do you think you're doing?" Florence Myers stepped in front of the door. "I only left the window unlatched. Are you really moving out because of that?

"If you pack up and leave on the very first day, everyone will assume I've been picking on you! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you're putting me in?"

I stared at her face. The memory of her strangling me to death in my previous life felt as though it happened just moments ago.

"Move!" I spat.

Realizing I wasn't going to back down, she deliberately raised her voice. "I know what this is about… You're just jealous of me, aren't you? That's why you're giving me attitude before orientation has even begun!"

Florence seemed certain of herself. "I bet you know Cora AI matched me with the wealthiest man's long-lost son. So, you're green with envy!"

Several people gathered outside our dorm room to watch the drama unfold.

Drinking in her brazen demeanor, I couldn't help but recall my previous life.

After choking the life out of me, she had staged my murder to look like a suicide. Then, she spread rumors everywhere, claiming I had been sneaking around with men, gotten pregnant, and taken my own life out of fear and shame.

Leveraging the incident, she became a sensation on campus. Meanwhile, to silence her, the college even granted her a guaranteed spot in graduate school ahead of time.

When my parents realized something was wrong and tried to look into it, she paid someone to throw them into a mental asylum, where they met an untimely death.

At the thought of that, I suppressed the turbulent emotions inside me, a faint smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "My body's sensitive to the cold, so I can't stand the night draft. Since you're set on keeping the window open, I wouldn't want to stand between you and your fortune."

I shoved her aside and squeezed through the narrow gap at the doorframe.

Florence's expression darkened, stung by my rebuttal. "You'll regret this, Cleo! Even if you come back crawling on your knees to beg me in the future, I won't give you the time of day!"

I didn't look back. Florence refused to lock the window because she wanted to meet her true love, didn't she? This time around, I'd make sure she got exactly what she wished for.

After leaving the dorm building, I went straight to the counselor's office and transferred to a new room and class. In the three months that followed, I didn't see Florence again. I thought I was finally in the clear until she came looking for me herself.

…

At lunchtime, I had just sat down with my food tray when Florence plopped into the seat across from me and slapped a piece of paper onto the table. I froze, looked down, and realized it was a pregnancy test report.

Her name and the date were printed at the top of the ultrasound report. Counting backward, the timing lined up perfectly with the night she claimed her true love would break through the window.