Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 9

"Elena, what the hell are you talking about? We were together that day. There's no way you stole anything!"On the other side of the visitation window, my husband, Gavin Pratt, slammed his fist on the table and shot to his feet."Officer, she's lost her mind. Don't listen to a single word she says. I can prove it. She didn't steal that perfume!"Watching him scramble, I was laughing on the inside, but the expression I wore was all tearful remorse.I said, "Honey, you don't have to cover for me anymore. I need to own what I did. I'm ready to take responsibility."I didn't spare another glance at Gavin's face, which had gone an ugly shade of red. Instead, I turned earnestly to the police officer beside me."Officer, I'm confessing. My husband is just so worried about me that he tried to get me to lie. Please don't hold that against him."The rage behind Gavin's eyes looked like it could set the room on fire. He dug through his bag in a frenzy and slapped a credit card onto the tab

My gaze drifted over to Gavin's side, where the real culprit stood looking at me with open disgust.I rolled my eyes and turned to the crowd. "If you're all so sure that it was me, you'd better have some proof. Otherwise, what are you basing this on?"The others let out a cold laugh. "We knew you'd say that. If we hadn't checked the surveillance footage, we really would've let scum like you walk free."One of them held up a phone and shoved a video right in my face. I stared at the footage, and sure enough, the person on screen was me. I honestly hadn't expected them to still have it this time around.The person then held the video up to the livestream, and the comment section erupted immediately."She was so calm just now, I actually thought they had the wrong person. But they've actually got the footage. This woman's probably a serial thief!""Got slapped in the face with evidence, huh? Let's hear what excuse she's got now.""Call the police! Get her arrested! Society doesn't

The elderly couple was the only exception. They stared at the man for a long moment, then burst into tears."Son, you're okay?"They rushed forward and threw their arms around him, checking him over from head to toe. Apart from a twisted ankle, he didn't have a scratch on him."Mom, Dad, I'm fine. The person who hit me wasn't Elena Chambers. Remember the coworker I told you about, the one who always had my back at the company? That's her."In my previous life, I had no idea the person Brooke had hit with her car was Kevin Hull, a colleague who'd started at the company the same time as me. Back then, I hadn't founded the company yet and was a complete nobody. By the time I found out, it was already too late.So while I was still sitting in my cell, I'd called Kevin and warned him to be careful, that a car was going to run a red light and hit him.Kevin took me at my word. When the moment came, he'd nearly been struck by a car blowing through the intersection. But because he dodged

Gavin and Brooke saw the tide turning and immediately doubled down.Brooke said, "Fine. So it wasn't her. Then find the real person who did it. Why are you dragging us into this?"Gavin clapped his hands. "Exactly. All this proves is that she wasn't the one who trashed the bar. But she admitted to stealing the perfume herself. The officer can confirm that."The store clerk nodded eagerly. "That's right! You got locked up for it. The perfume theft is a done deal. Pay up!"I'd been waiting for exactly that, because I knew Gavin wasn't done trying to pin things on me.I turned to the store clerk and the bar owner. "I know you're both desperate to find the person responsible. But take a good look at my face. Am I really the person you remember?"The store clerk rolled her eyes. "I get hundreds of customers a day. How am I supposed to remember who's who? Don't even try to weasel out of this!"The bar owner shook his head, too. "My place is way too dark. I couldn't make out who was ca

Gavin's phone was synced with his digital tablet. If there were evidence on his phone, the device would have it too.I grabbed it and started going through it immediately.The digital tablet did share his photo library, but the only videos in there were the face-swapped versions. The originals were gone. He'd already deleted them.After searching for a while with nothing to show for it, I was starting to feel deflated. Then it hit me. The device could log into his messaging app, and there might be something useful in his conversations.I waited until the middle of the night and opened the app. I knew it would show as an active login on his end, but it was late enough that he was probably asleep.I scrolled through his contacts until I found a group chat I'd never seen before. I tapped in and found it strange. There were only two people in the whole chat, which made no sense for a normal group.After thinking it over, I typed out a message. "Hey, you around?"The reply came fast.