Chapter 2

There was no panic in Dora's eyes, none of what I'd expected.

"Impossible!"

She stomped her feet like a child who had truly been wronged, and spoke in a trembling voice.

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Theodore, do you believe me...?"

Theodore frowned, his gaze shifting between me and Dora.

After everything I'd been through in my past life, I no longer had any faith in Theodore.

Sure enough, his gaze finally settled on me.

His eyes slowly turned fierce.

"Myrtle Winfield, bring Tammy over here right now!"

The scene of Theodore shoving Tammy down the stairs in my past life rose up right before my eyes.

Rage suppressed across two lifetimes surged into my chest.

I glared at Theodore with bloodshot eyes, gritting my teeth as I snarled.

"I already told you!"

"I dropped Tammy off at a classmate's house to play an hour ago!"

"She wasn't even here! How could she possibly push Leo down the stairs?! What is wrong with your brain?!"

I'm gentle by nature.

Before I got married, my mother reminded me again and again that I had to be gentle with men.

So in ten years of marriage, the number of times Theodore and I had raised our voices at each other could be counted on one hand.

Let alone the sheer hysteria of today.

Theodore was taken aback.

He looked me over again and again, as if he saw something unshakeable in my eyes.

Then he slowly turned to Dora, his tone softening in an instant.

"Dora, did you maybe misread things in the heat of the moment? Tammy isn't home..."

"Impossible! How could I be wrong about something like this?"

"Theodore, you're just playing favorites! You promised me before that you wouldn't let anyone bully my boy and me, and I knew all along you'd never actually do it..."

There wasn't a trace of pretense in Dora's eyes.

It was all the unwillingness and anger of a mother wanting to get justice for her child.

As a woman myself, as a mother myself, I understood it all too well.

Doubt began to flicker through my mind.

If Dora had a guilty conscience, there was no way she'd leave not a single trace.

But what if...

I didn't dare think any further.

"You've just got it wrong!"

Even with the doubt in my mind, I held tight to the lesson of my past life.

I could never, ever show weakness in the standoff.

I took out my phone and pulled up the only security camera, the one at my in-laws' front gate.

Partly to set my own mind at ease.

Partly to shut Dora up for good.

I shoved the surveillance video straight into Theodore's arms.

"Look! Didn't I take Tammy away just now?"

Theodore snatched the phone, gently pulled Dora into his arms, and started watching.

The video recorded it all, clear as day.

An hour ago, I'd left my in-laws' with Tammy.

But my heart stayed lodged in my throat.

The video played on, frame by frame.

Finally, when I saw that Tammy never appeared at the gate again, I let out a breath at last.

It definitely couldn't be Tammy.

"Is that enough?!"

I pointed at Tammy's retreating figure leaving the gate on the footage and looked at Dora.

"Quit using that filthy mouth of yours to frame Tammy! Leo falling has absolutely nothing to do with her!"

"And you!"

I pointed at Theodore and spoke sharply.

"Get your position straight. You'd better be clear about exactly whose father you are, and whose husband!"

Theodore froze for a moment.

The next second, he abruptly yanked his hand back off Dora's shoulder.

I couldn't be bothered with him.

I lifted my foot to walk out.

But the second I turned around,

Dora dropped to her knees behind me with a thud.

She looked at me, tears streaming down her face, and spoke in a trembling voice.

"Myrtle, please, please give Leo and me justice..."

"I don't know which pro you hired to fake that surveillance video, but let me just say this: you can fool Theodore, but you can't fool me, and you can't fool Heaven..."

"If Tammy really didn't push Leo down the stairs, then explain this. Why is Leo clutching the hair tie Tammy was wearing today?"

My eyes snapped down to Leo.

Then my whole body went rigid.

What Leo was clutching in his hand right at that moment,

was none other than the Elsa-princess hair tie I had tied into Tammy's hair with my own hands this morning...