I was the murderer Sarah.
I couldn’t prove my innocence. My fingerprints
were on the weapon. My neck had bruises
from him choking me. I couldn’t talk, and the
く
things I wrote were tossed out as lies.
I died hating her.
“Don’t be sad, Ashley. We know what Sarah’s
like. We’ll go to the headmaster together.”
I came back to myself.
Lynn and some other student council
members were standing around me.
They thought I was upset about not becoming
president.
“I’m okay, guys,” I said with a sad smile. “It’s
fine. Being president is too stressful, anyway.
I want to focus on my classes.”
I looked at Sarah, who was laughing like she
had won the lottery.
Some weird things from my last life were
starting to make sense.
く
The boyfriend had five stab wounds. The fatal
wound was to the heart.
But when I got home, he only had three
places where he was bleeding.
The police had found five wounds.
That meant they’d stabbed him a couple more
times while I was out of it.
They used my hands.
Then they poured acid down my throat.
The thought sent a shiver down my spine.
If I was right, this had all been a setup since
day one.
Sarah was studying something science–y.
Getting her hands on acid would have been
easy.
Maybe she planned to lure the boyfriend over
and accidentally kill him.
く
“Ashley, are you okay?” Lynn looked worried.
“I’m fine.”
I’d barely finished when Sarah came over.
I tried to hide my shaking hands.
“Sis, you’re not mad that I’m president, right?”
Sarah said, all innocent. “I didn’t want to take
it from you, but Greg said I had what it takes.
You’re not mad, are you?”
“Of course not,” I smiled. “We’re sisters.”
I really didn’t care about being president.
But I didn’t expect Sarah to start getting
complaints about being a tyrant and forcing
people to pay illegal fees.
Lynn told me that the whistleblower was
Rachel, the girl who had been locked in the
bathroom.
I became president again.
Sarah went down the path she’d been on
before.
Skipping class, failing, fighting.
The school kicked her out.
Everything seemed to be going back to how it
was supposed to be.
I thought about finding that boyfriend.
But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t
find any trace of him.
It was like he didn’t exist.
In my senior year, I found out I was getting
accepted to graduate school.
I told Mom right away.
I also pouyil a stun yum unine.
There might not be a boyfriend, but Sarah
would find someone else.
Like I’d guessed when I was reborn, she was
just plain evil.
Not long after, Mom sent me a text.
She and her husband made a fancy dinner to
celebrate my acceptance to grad school.
When I saw a sliver of pink fabric in the
picture, I felt like my blood had turned to ice.
This time, she’d still chosen Sarah.
My hands were shaking as I shoved the stun
gun in my pocket.
I was heading straight to hell.
Then Dad called.
“Ashley, don’t go anywhere today. Can we
bove dinner together?“!
く
Dad was yelling. It sounded like he was at the
airport.
“Sure,” I said with a smile. “We can have
dinner tonight. I’m going to Mom’s first, though. She and her husband made dinner.”
Dad paused.
“Okay,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I
understand.”
I got to Mom’s pretty fast.
Mom looked really nervous when she opened
the door.
I noticed things I hadn’t seen before.
Her hair was a mess, and she looked jumpy.
There were a few drops of blood on her
slippers, and she was shaking when she
opened the door.
Г
Before, I’d been too innocent to notice.
“Come in, Ashley,” Mom said, trying to smile.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and took a
step back.
The stun gun was in my right pocket.
The cell phone was in my left. Lynn was still
on the phone.
