Chapter 3

"I never thought a woman who was already engaged to me could be this shameless. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed you were this kind of person."

"Since you've got something going with a man like that, then we're done. I'm calling off the engagement."

In my last life, when this happened, he said the exact same thing. He wanted to break it off, and I was so terrified I couldn't get out a single word to explain myself.

Later he married someone else, and I spent the rest of that life drowning in regret.

This time I was going to make it clear. My eyes stung and reddened. "Jasper, listen to me. This is all his setup, he's framing me."

"He's wanted to get close to me at the mill for a while. This time he broke my lock and got into my room, then pretended there was an earthquake so he could drag me out while I was napping and make it look bad in front of everyone."

"I exposed him, and when that shamed him he got angry and started making up lies about me."

"And this letter, you know perfectly well I never wrote it to him."

I took the letter and held it out right in front of him, my eyes locked on his. "I wrote this letter to you back then. Now tell everyone the truth. It's nothing like what he's saying."

Something guilty flickered through Jasper's eyes, and he looked away.

My stomach dropped. A bad feeling rose up in me all at once.

Sure enough, his next words denied the letter outright. "Melissa, I have no idea what you're talking about. When did you ever write me a letter like this? I've never seen it before."

Sure enough, he denied it.

I'd been puzzling over how this letter, which I'd clearly written to Jasper, something that private, could ever have ended up in Maxwell's hands.

So Jasper had a hand in this too. He'd been part of everything today.

I'd been such a fool. It took living a whole life over again to see this shameless, contemptible side of him.

Maxwell's mouth curved into a cold sneer. "I already said I just got the date wrong."

"You keep claiming it was written for Jasper, and now he's denied it himself. You've got nothing left to say, do you?"

"Melissa, stop struggling. You'll only humiliate yourself more."

The crowd was giving me that same look from my last life, the one they'd give something filthy, muttering among themselves.

"I actually half believed Melissa before, but now that Jasper's denied it outright, it really does look like there's something between her and this Maxwell."

"Right. If she were being wronged, why would Jasper come storming in to break off the engagement?"

"Guess she's all innocence on the surface and running wild behind everyone's backs."

One ugly comment after another.

Even Timothy Lambert, who'd been speaking up for me, took a step back.

I watched all of it without any expression, then fixed my eyes on Jasper and didn't let go.

"You're the one who handed this letter to Maxwell, aren't you? When did the two of you start working together?"

"What did I ever do to you, for you to ruin my name like this?"

Guilt flickered through Jasper's eyes. "What are you talking about? Just because I won't lie for you, now you're slandering me too?"

"You did the dirty thing, so own it yourself. Don't try to drag me down with you. I don't even know Maxwell, so how could I possibly be working with him?"

I'd known he would refuse to admit it. My mouth curved. "If you're not working with him, then why won't you admit this letter was the one I wrote to you back then?"

I pointed at the letter and went on. "This letter is an acrostic. Read the last line of each verse down the side, and you'll know exactly who it was written for."

Jasper went white in an instant, staggering so badly he nearly lost his footing.