Chapter 3

3: 3

3

When the officer finished speaking, it hit me like a bolt of lightning.

The exact same script as my last life.

I turned to my husband, urgent.

"Did you go out last night?"

My voice was loud, still edged with that urgency.

Jerome shook his head. "Didn't I go straight to bed last night?"

"You watched me fall asleep!"

The moment he said it, I let out a breath.

As long as he hadn't left the apartment, I had nothing to worry about.

"Officer, you heard him!"

"My husband never went out at all yesterday!"

I said it fast, looking right at the officer.

At that, the two officers turned in unison to look at Winona behind them.

And in that instant, Winona cried even louder.

Her voice cracking, she said, "Officer, he really did assault me!"

"Last night, yes, I did ask Jerome over to catch a mouse for me!"

"And he came, but the second he was inside, he started pawing at me!"

"I'm just a girl, how was I supposed to fight him off!"

As she said it, she pointed straight at my husband.

"And Kay came to my place last night too, telling me to keep quiet about it!"

"She threatened me!"

"A girl like me, all alone here, of course I was scared!"

Winona said it, trembling all over.

Then she pointed at me. "Kay told me she's a big livestreamer, and her husband's a manager at some big company!"

"I just moved here from out of town. Of course I'd be terrified!"

As Winona sobbed through all of it, the two officers kept their eyes fixed on me.

Before I could get a word out, the property manager and a crowd had already appeared behind us.

The property manager came hurrying over.

He looked at us and asked what on earth had happened.

"Ms. Dickerson, first thing this morning, Ms. Gilbert posted in the group chat that your husband assaulted her last night!"

"It's already spread all through the chat!"

"The whole building knows now!"

The property manager said it looking at the two of us.

Jerome's face was grim. He started to argue, but I gave his arm a tug.

Then I pulled out my phone, and sure enough, the building's group chat was nothing but people cursing.

A whole crowd of them, swearing at me and my husband.

"Never would've guessed it. Jerome Rowe looks like a decent guy, and behind everyone's back he does something like this!"

"That Kay's no better. Her own husband pulls a stunt like that, and she covers for him!"

"Exactly, absolute garbage!"

"That poor girl!"

I watched the crowd going back and forth in the chat, then turned to look at Winona and said flatly, "Winona, this is slander!"

"My husband and I never left the apartment yesterday!"

"Kay, you two had your story straight ages ago, of course you'd say that!"

"I'm just a girl. I've got no grudge against either of you, so why would I slander you for no reason?"

"And on top of that, I'd be staking my own good name to slander you. Do you really think that's likely?"

The moment she finished, the neighbors crowding behind her to watch buzzed even louder.

Quite a few of them pointed at the two of us. "These two are absolute trash!"

"Right, they have to go to jail. And someone needs to find a way to get this couple thrown out of our building!"