Chapter 1

Growing up, my parents only had eyes for my twin sister, Maya.

When she wanted piano lessons, I starved myself and saved every penny to help pay her tuition.

Whenever she messed up, I was the one who had to apologize.

Even when she went abroad, got into a relationship, and ended up pregnant, their first instinct was to make me clean up her mess.

Maya was about to marry into a wealthy family. The scandal of having a baby out of wedlock would ruin her chances.

So, they dumped her newborn baby right outside my lecture hall, holding up a forged DNA test.

"Chloe, this is your biological daughter! How can you be so heartless and abandon her?"

Instantly, I became the most hated person on campus. The cyberbullying was relentless.

Eventually, they cornered me on the balcony of the science building. In the chaos, I fell to my death.

After I died, my parents sued the school, got a massive settlement, and Maya happily married her billionaire.

But then, I opened my eyes. I was reborn, back to the exact day my parents came to destroy my reputation.

This time, before they could even pull out their forged DNA test, I beat them to the punch.

Holding the baby, my mom sobbed, "Chloe, we cannot let you abandon this poor child."

My dad glared at me. "Drop out of college today! You're going home to raise your daughter!"

But I didn't panic. I calmly pulled a paper out of my bag.

"First of all, this baby isn't mine. Second, you have no right to force me to do anything. If you don't leave, I'm calling the cops."

My dad flew into a rage. "We raised you for twenty years, and now you're disowning us?!"

The crowd of students around us started whispering.

"So cold-blooded. How can she disown her own parents?"

"Getting pregnant in college isn't even that big of a deal. Why can't she just talk to them?"

"Wait, if she's willing to call the cops, maybe those two are scammers?"

"Who would be stupid enough to fake being someone's parents? She's definitely the one abandoning her baby."

In my past life, I was too terrified of a scene. I kept quiet and tried to defuse things privately.

That hesitation led to them cornering me and pushing me off that balcony.

Now, I just watched them put on their little show. When they paused, I spoke up. "If you're really my parents, what's my major?"

The two of them exchanged a panicked look, instantly tongue-tied.

The crowd leaned in, waiting.

My mom swallowed hard. "Your... your major has such a complicated name. I can't think of it right now."

My dad forced a chuckle. "Yeah, we aren't good with those fancy college terms."

"Okay, but surely you know what I actually study?"

The crowd stared at them again.

They stared at each other for a long time. Finally, my dad blurted out, "Math?"

I stayed silent.

My dad nudged my mom. She stammered, "Physics?"

Still, I didn't react.

"Accounting, then!"

"Yes, exactly! One of those finance-y things!"

They were still guessing wildly.

The crowd fell dead silent.

Before I could even speak, the campus security officer standing nearby couldn't take it anymore.

"She's a Finance major! Even I know she's Chloe Miller, one of our top students. You claim to be her parents, but you don't even know what she studies?"

Someone in the crowd gasped. "Oh, she's the girl who wins the top department scholarship every year!"

My parents tried to stammer out an excuse.

But the looks on the surrounding students' faces had completely shifted.

I looked at the security guard. "Please, call the police."

Angry, the guard whipped out his phone and started dialing.

My mom's face turned white. She grabbed my dad's arm and began stepping back. "You... you guys..."

Muttering curses under their breath, they clutched the baby and squeezed through the crowd, running off without looking back.

That night, I was doing my homework when my roommates kept glancing at me, hesitating to speak.

Confused, I looked up. One of them tossed her phone onto my desk. "See for yourself."

It was a TikTok Live stream hosted by a popular campus influencer, "Red Hood" (Amber). My parents were on screen, sobbing as they accused their daughter of abandoning her newborn.

"We hate to air our dirty laundry," my mom cried, "but we have no choice. She's the mother! What are we supposed to do if she won't take responsibility?"

They didn't name me directly, but they kept showing hospital photos and clips of a girl who looked exactly like me in the maternity ward.

It was Maya. Since she was supposed to be studying in the UK, nobody would ever suspect her.

Amber yelled into the camera, "To this straight-A student mom out there: you abandoned your own baby. How do you sleep at night?"

The viewer count had already hit 100,000.

I handed the phone back, giving a careless shrug. "It's just someone who looks like me. They didn't say my name."

Right then, a text popped up on my phone: Chloe, if you just cooperate, we'll clear your name.

I ignored it and locked my screen.

Before I slept, another text arrived: You can run, but you can't hide forever.

I knew they wouldn't give up. Fortunately, I was ready.