They All Said I Did It

"What? Are you saying that you're going to kill someone on this cruise?"

I glanced at my watch, my voice tight. "It's 5:05 p.m. right now. In 20 minutes, I'll push my wife off this cruise ship. You need to arrest me, now."

The air seemed to freeze.

The security guard stared at me like I had lost my mind. "I've never seen anyone confess before the crime. What's wrong with you? Are you sick or something?

"I'm not lying. Just arrest me. You'll know in 20 minutes if I'm telling the truth."

He frowned, irritation clear on his face. "If you and your wife are into weird roleplay, that's your business, but don't waste our time."

He turned to leave.

Panic hit me. I grabbed a vase nearby and smashed it hard against the floor. The crash echoed through the lobby, sharp and loud, drawing everyone's attention.

"Are you out of your mind?" a younger guard shouted. He stepped toward me to stop me, but I hurled something else, forcing him to jump back.

"What are you guys even doing?" someone yelled at the guard. "Grab him already! We paid for this cruise to relax, not to watch some lunatic lose it!"

Voices of frustration rose from the crowd.

I kept going, smashing anything I could get my hands on like a man possessed.

The head of security rushed over with his team. They swarmed me, pinned me to the ground, and snapped handcuffs onto my wrists.

"I've never seen anything like this," the younger guard was still explaining breathlessly. "He walked up saying he was about to kill someone and wanted to be arrested. When I didn't, he just went crazy."

The cold metal around my wrists steadied me.

"Take him to the security office. Keep him there and don't let him cause any more trouble."

The security room was wide and empty. I closed my eyes and started counting down the moment my wife, Cheryl Craig, would fall into the sea.

In my last life, we took this same cruise as a family trip.

My wife's old flame, Harry Baxter, had insisted on coming along.

I didn't want him there, but Cheryl said he was getting married soon and would be moving overseas, that this would be the last time he would ever bother us. Thus, I gave in.

I never expected things to spiral out of control.

While watching the sunset on the deck, Cheryl and Harry got into an argument, and he pushed her off the ship.

I called for help right away, but the sun had already set, and the ocean was rough. There was nothing they could do until morning.

By the next day, she was gone; no body, no trace. She was declared dead after falling into the ocean, and her body was never recovered.

Before I could even finish dealing with her death, the police showed up.

"We believe you're connected to Cheryl Craig's fall. You need to come with us."

They showed me the footage, which clearly captured me pushing Cheryl into the ocean.

I knew it had to be tampered with.

Right before it happened, my father hadn't been feeling well. I stayed in the room with him the whole time. There was no way I could've been on the deck.

I looked at my father, hoping he would speak up for me.

Instead, he glared at me with anger. "His company's collapsing. He's been planning this for a while, killing his wife for the insurance payout. I should've stopped him. I failed as a father. Son, just admit it. People on the deck saw you push Cheryl."

He was lying.

I saw it with my own eyes. Harry was the one who killed Cheryl.

I couldn't believe my father would lie through his teeth.

If it had only been him, I could have argued my way out.

However, there were so many witnesses on the deck. There was no way they were all lying. There was also the surveillance footage from the time it happened.

I couldn't explain any of it. All I could do was insist I was innocent.

In the end, I was sentenced to death for refusing to confess.

Even as I died, I still couldn't understand why everyone insisted I had killed Cheryl with my own hands.