Rebirth: Who Needs a Bloodsucking Family?

My heart lurched, but I forced myself to look composed as I shook my head, keeping my voice even.

"This is proof, Lauren," I said.

Lauren Hefford looked down at me. "Proof of what?"

Instead of answering, I set my phone in front of her. On the screen, Henry Hefford was tearing his own SAT admission ticket into pieces.

In our past life, he'd pinned that exact crime on me.

To make up for his ruined opportunities, my mother, Rowena Hefford, and my father, Jonathan Hefford, forced me to surrender my acceptance letter to Dreston University so I'd spend an entire year repeating senior classes alongside him.

So, when I got a second chance at life, the first thing I did was install a hidden camera in Henry's room.

I'd been certain that once my older sister, Lauren, saw the footage, she would believe me. More than that, I thought she would finally take my side.

But even after the video ended, her expression remained completely unchanged.

She held out her hand and said in a tone that brooked no argument, "Give me the phone."

I stared at her in disbelief.

"Did you not just see that? Henry tore up his own admission ticket!"

She let out a soft, mocking laugh, her tone dripping with contempt and impatience. "Do you honestly think you're the only one who got a second chance?"

Her words stopped me cold.

Had she been reborn, too?

Then, an even more terrifying possibility hit me. My voice trembled. "So, in our past life… you knew the truth the entire time?"

She knew Henry had orchestrated the whole spectacle, and she knew I was completely innocent.

Yet, she sat back and watched as Mom and Dad derailed my education, watched as I became the target of brutal high school bullying, and watched as they harvested my kidney, leaving me to die on an operating table.

Right before I died, she'd even stroked my hair, murmuring, "In your next life, don't make an enemy of Henry."

Lauren didn't bother to answer, but her silence spoke volumes. She had known all along.

Whatever tiny hope I'd still held onto that someone in this family truly cared about me disappeared for good.

While I was still reeling, Lauren suddenly reached out and snatched the phone from my hand.

"Give it back!"

I lunged for it, but she used all her strength to hurl it against the wall.

The phone hit the wall with a sharp crack and splintered into pieces, the display flashing before going black.

Just like that, the only evidence I had vanished into thin air.

I stared blankly at the pile of debris on the floor, feeling as though I were looking at the version of myself who had died just as helplessly in my previous life.