Chapter 1

We were on the company bus, riding back from the island team-building trip.

Jessica Swanson slid over to me, tugging at her skirt, and whispered a plea. She said she'd gotten her underwear soaked playing in the water, and asked to borrow one of my disposable pairs.

I gave a cold laugh. Not only did I refuse her, I grabbed the tour guide's bullhorn and shouted to the whole bus full of executives:

"Everyone! Jessica says she's soaked through down there and has nothing to change into! Does anyone have a clean pair in their bag she can borrow in a pinch?"

The words had barely left my mouth before several male executives up front went white.

Because at that exact moment, a company team-building live stream was running from the front of the bus, and tens of thousands of viewers, plus the executives' wives, were watching!

In my last life, I'd worried about sparing her dignity and quietly slipped her a pair.

But a month later, right in the middle of the crucial sales director selection, she was diagnosed with a serious infectious disease.

To bury the scandal and steal my director position, she wept in front of everyone that the underwear I'd given her had come in torn packaging and carried the virus.

The company executives went along with it and branded me the "source of infection," then fired me.

My fiancé called off our engagement. Funeral wreaths showed up at my door every day. In the end I couldn't take the online abuse, and I jumped off a rooftop.

It was only after I died that I learned the truth. She'd been sleeping with several of the bosses up front all along, and she wanted me as her scapegoat!

This life, in front of tens of thousands of viewers and the wives of the men in charge, I ripped her cover story wide open.

Let's see. Without me as her shield, exactly who was she going to pin it on now!

......

The bus erupted.

The bullhorn had amplified my voice tenfold, and it bounced back and forth inside the sealed cabin.

Several male executives up front turned around at the same time.

Their faces were greener than the water outside the window.

Because they'd just remembered something.

Beside the windshield at the front of the bus, a phone was propped up, streaming live.

The company's official account. A team-building outdoor special.

The viewer count in the top left corner: 47,832.

Jessica froze where she stood, her skirt still hiked up on one side.

"P-Pamela Fox!"

Her lips had gone pale.

"Are you insane?"

I handed the bullhorn back to the tour guide.

He was stunned too, nearly fumbling it as he took it.

The comments were already scrolling like mad.

【Hahahaha soaked through?】

【What kind of variety show is this?】

【The faces on those guys up front are priceless.】

【Wait, is this a company team-building stream?】

Jessica rushed up to me and dropped her voice as low as it would go.

"Are you sick in the head? I just asked to borrow a pair of underwear. Was that really necessary?"

I looked at her.

"I didn't say anything out of line. Getting your clothes wet playing in the water is totally normal."

"The whole bus is coworkers. I asked around for you. What's the problem?"

That shut her up.

Up front, marketing director Victor Whitney was the first to react.

He snatched the streaming phone and jammed the screen dark.

"Who started this stream? Kill it!"

Roger Coleman from admin raised his hand weakly.

"Mr. Whitney, you're the one who told us to... you said it would grow followers for the company account."

Victor's hand twitched.

He shot one last glance at the live chat and saw a comment.

【Victor Whitney? Isn't that my husband? His company runs this kind of program on team-building trips?】

He slapped the phone face-down on the seat.

The bus went silent all at once.

Forty-some people, and no one said a word.

Jessica stood in the middle of the aisle, red to the base of her neck.

She took a deep breath and suddenly burst into tears.

"Pamela, I know you can't stand the sight of me, but you didn't have to humiliate me in front of this many people."

"Do you have any idea how many people are in that stream?"

She covered her face and shrank down into her seat.

The coworkers beside her rushed to hand her tissues.

"Don't cry, Jessie. She went way too far."

"Right, whether you lend it or not is one thing, but shouting it out like that? What was that?"

I didn't explain.

I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes.

The memories of my last life came flooding in like a floodgate had opened.

On the bus, I'd quietly slipped her a disposable pair.

A month later, she was diagnosed with a serious infection and cried that the underwear I'd given her had come in torn packaging.

The executives she'd been sleeping with were all too glad to find a scapegoat and bury the whole thing.

HR made me hand in my resignation that same day.

My fiancé said on the phone, "Don't contact me again."

Funeral wreaths piled up outside my rented apartment.

The online abuse lasted thirty-seven days.

On the thirty-eighth day, I jumped from the rooftop.

It was only afterward that I learned the whole truth.

Jessica's disease hadn't come from me at all.

She'd been involved with Victor Whitney, with the vice president Anthony, and with old Merlin over in HR, all at the same time.

After it blew up, afraid of being dragged into it, the several of them put their heads together and shoved me out front as their shield.

And Jessica, riding that whole scheme, took the director position that should have been mine.

She climbed up over my corpse.

This life.

I tore the opening wide in front of tens of thousands of people in that stream.

Let's see.

Victor Whitney's wife was already blowing up in the live chat.

Jessica, who else can you throw the dirty water on now?

My phone buzzed.

A message popped up in the team-building group chat.

It was from Victor.

【Pamela, write up a formal apology when you're back.】

I typed back three words.

【For what?】

He didn't reply.

But I knew the real show was only just beginning.