Why My Daughter Wanted Us Dead

I had always thought that once my daughter Willow Gilbert finished the SAT, we could finally breathe again.Preparing for that test had taken over our family's lives.Willow focused on studying, while the rest of us handled everything else.I worked. My mother-in-law, Katherine Bates, got up at 5 a.m. every morning to cook Willow breakfast. My wife, Naomi Gilbert, drove her to school every day, no matter the weather. Even my son, Caleb Gilbert, knew not to interrupt her.For 12 years, everything we did revolved around Willow. We were all waiting for it to be over so we could finally relax, maybe take a trip together.I never imagined that the night the test ended, our sweet, obedient daughter would suddenly turn into a monster and slaughter our entire family."You were too good to me, so you have to die!"The words were etched so deeply into my mind that even after being reborn, I still couldn't shake them.The terror still clung to me. I couldn't understand how Willow had beco

"You had me worried for nothing. Willow was just stabbing a stuffed doll."I looked at Naomi, not sure I had heard her right. "What do you mean, 'just stabbing a stuffed doll'? Doesn't that tell you something's wrong? That kind of aggression doesn't come out of nowhere. It's a doll now. Next time, it could be us!"Naomi rubbed her temples and took my hand. "Mom has already said Willow wouldn't hurt a fly. How could she kill her own family? You're reading too much into this. She's probably just stressed about the SAT and needs a way to vent."Could she be right?After thinking it over, I couldn't dismiss the possibility that the pressure of the SAT had been what drove Willow to murder our family.So, the next morning, I called the school to excuse Willow and took the whole family to an amusement park. She used to love it when she was younger, back before school took over her life. Maybe a day to unwind would help her let go of some of the pressure she was carrying and chang

On the screen, Willow sat at her desk. In front of her, arranged with careful precision, were three items: a fruit knife, a can of gasoline, and a lighter. The same tools she had used to kill our entire family in my last life. In that instant, I knew. The night my family died, my rebirth... None of it had been a hallucination.My hands shook as I grabbed Naomi and yanked her upright. She started to snap at me, but the moment she saw the feed, she went still. There was no room left for doubt. Everything I had told her about Willow was real.We didn't say anything to Katherine or Caleb. Caleb was too young, and there was no reason to frighten either of them. Naomi and I sat down and tried to work through it, searching for any reason Willow might have done something like this.Naomi spoke first. "Could it be Caleb? Maybe she resents us for having him."I shook my head. "That doesn't track. Caleb's not a newborn. If she had an issue, we would've seen it years ago. Why would i

After explaining, I took the box down and opened it for the officers. The moment the lid came off, I froze. Every piece of gold jewelry Katherine had given Willow was blackened and rusted. It wasn't gold at all, just cheap metal sprayed with a gold finish. All those gifts had been fake.A memory surfaced. It was the day Katherine had given Willow the jewelry."Every woman should have a little jewelry of her own. You never know when it'll come in handy."It was old-fashioned advice, but I had never doubted how much she loved Willow.And yet, every piece she had given Willow was fake.If that was true, then…Something clicked. I grabbed my phone and pulled up the surveillance footage from the past two days. Willow had been in such a good mood that I assumed she had given up on harming us, so I hadn't checked the feed. What I saw made my stomach drop.On the screen, Katherine walked into Willow's room with a warm, gentle smile, carrying a healthy snack. The door closed, a

Naomi let out a light laugh. "Mom saw all the other parents waiting outside the test center and insisted we stay, too. She wants us to be the first people Willow sees when she comes out. We probably won't be home for a while."I almost laughed. Before, I would have taken that at face value. Now, I realized most of what I knew about Katherine "spoiling" Willow had come through Naomi. If I didn't know the truth, I would have believed her without hesitation. I might have even been touched by it. But now that I knew it was all a lie, I didn't bother saying anything else. I gave Naomi a few absent-minded replies and ended the call.The moment the line went dead, I looked at the officers. "My daughter might be in danger."If Naomi and Katherine knew Willow was planning to harm them, they wouldn't just sit around. Besides, Katherine had already said she intended to marry Willow off after the SAT for money. Naomi's story about waiting outside the test center didn't hold up. They