At 3:00 p.m., Rose Jenkins, the new hire who had barely been here a few days, suddenly tagged me in the company group chat with a few hundred people in it.

[Hi, can you stop hammering your keyboard? The noise is making my stomach hurt! The baby I'm carrying is sleeping. If you shake it into a concussion, I swear I'll make your whole family pay for it!]

I rushed to explain. I was racing to finish a proposal that was due soon, and I was using a silent keyboard. But she wouldn't believe me, no matter what I said.

I kept my patience and explained it over and over. To avoid any more trouble, I even asked if I could move out to the hallway to work.

What I didn't expect was that a week later, she would storm into the break room with a kettle of freshly boiled water and dump it straight over my head.

I collapsed in a pool of scalding water, my skin blistering and tearing open. She kept screaming as if she had lost her mind and smashed my head with her high heels, over and over.

"It's all your fault! I lost the baby! Your keyboard noise shook my son to death!!"

My vision blurred.

By the time everything went black, I still couldn't understand how a silent keyboard could possibly kill someone.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she first went off on me in the group chat.

This time, faced with the same insults, I didn't back down. I went straight into the chat and fired back.

[Stop pretending you're pregnant. You've got more going on down there than your dad does!]

The moment my message hit the chat, the group that had been buzzing with hundreds of people discussing work went dead silent.

A few seconds later, Rose Jenkins' messages exploded across the screen.

[Stella, what the hell are you talking about? I'm three months pregnant! I've got the ultrasound right here. How dare you make stuff up about me!

[Everyone, come look! Stella can't have kids herself, so she can't stand seeing anyone else pregnant!

[@HR @Philip Look at the kind of person you hired. I'm calling the police! This is defamation! This is harassment!]

She started making a scene, and people jumped in to back her up. Every finger pointed straight at me.

Paisley Gill from the design department wrote: [Stella, that's way too far. How can you say something like that to a pregnant woman? That's seriously messed up.]

Someone else tried to calm Rose down.

[Rose, take it easy. Don't get upset for the baby's sake. Stella was just joking.]

But Rose wasn't letting it go.

[Joking? Who jokes like that? We're not even that close. She's just jealous I married well, and I'm carrying my husband's baby!

[My pregnancy's already unstable. The doctor told me over and over that I need to be careful. And this woman's out here, pounding her keyboard like a construction drill! If anything happens to my baby, she's the first one I'm coming after!]

People from other departments started chiming in, too.

[Exactly. She already said she's not feeling well. Can't you keep it down a little?]

[It's already afternoon. Can't your proposal wait until tomorrow? Why are you picking on a pregnant woman?]

Reading all of that, I actually laughed.

In my last life, this was exactly how they cornered me, step by step, until there was nowhere left to go.

I explained again and again that I was using a silent keyboard. I even carried my laptop out into the hallway just so I wouldn't bother her.

And what did I get in return?

A kettle of boiling water poured over me from head to toe.

By the time I died, my skin had been burned raw, my skull cracked under the heel of her shoe. The last thing I saw in this world was Rose's twisted, hysterical face.

I closed my eyes. I could still feel the searing heat of that water, as if it had burned itself into my soul. Anger and hatred surged in my chest, crashing into each other.

Rose kept tagging me in the chat, as if she had gone completely off the rails.

[What, cat got your tongue? Why aren't you saying anything now? Feeling guilty?

[Did you do it on purpose? You just don't want me to have a good life, right? I finally got pregnant, and you had to ruin it, didn't you?]

[If anything happens to my baby, can you afford to pay for it? Are you going to pay with your life?]

I stared at her text, and whatever restraint I had left finally snapped. I hit record and sent a voice message into the group, my tone cold and steady.

"Pay with my life? Pay you back for what, the crap you're carrying?"

"Fine! Come over right now. If you've got the nerve to drop your pants in front of the whole company, I'll jump off this building on the spot and pay for your so-called son with my life!"

The voice message I sent blew up the entire office.

The group chat went dead silent for a full minute. Then, a commotion broke out in my direction.

I looked up and saw Rose clutching her stomach, being helped along by a few women from the office. Her eyes were red, like she had been crying the whole way over.

"Stella!"

Her voice came out sharp and shaky, as if she had been wronged in the worst way possible.

"How can you be this cruel? What did I ever do to you? Why are you humiliating me like this? I'm carrying a boy! My family's only ever had one son in each generation. You really can't stand the thought of him being born?"

The women around her immediately jumped in.

"Stella, what's wrong with you? She just started here, and you're already bullying her?"

"Seriously! What about when you have kids someday? Would you want someone talking about your child like that?"

"Picking on an unborn baby? Aren't you scared of karma?"

Rose bent over like she was about to throw up, playing it up perfectly. Tears came the second she wanted them to. She leaned weakly against someone beside her.

"I'll kill you… You ruined my reputation… I'll kill you…"

Her voice was shrill, grating against my ears, dragging old memories back up with it.

Just thinking about how this cross-dressing maniac had tortured me to death in my last life made my whole body shake.

And when Rose said she was going to kill me, something inside me snapped.

I shot to my feet, shoved the women around her aside, and grabbed her by the collar.

"Kill me? You already did that once! Go on. Keep acting. Where's your bump? Where's the ultrasound? Show it to me!"

Rose froze, clearly thrown off by my tone. After a couple of seconds, she lunged at my face, fingers clawing.

I twisted out of the way and stuck my foot out.

Rose went down hard, face-first.

The memory of that boiling water pouring over my head came rushing back, the pain so vivid that it made my vision flash.

My anger surged. I stomped down on her back and grabbed a fistful of that smooth wig, slamming her head toward the floor.

"Keep pretending! Go on! Let's see what you really are!"

Pinned under my foot, she could only scream, high and wild.

"Help! Someone help! Stella's lost it! She's trying to kill me! My baby…"

Her shrieking pulled more people over.

Hands grabbed at me from all sides, dragging us apart.

Two guys pinned my arms before I could even catch my breath.

It had only been half an hour since I came back. Half an hour ago, I had died at the hands of this lunatic right in front of me.

How the hell was I supposed to stay calm?

But once they pulled me away, everyone started pointing fingers at me instead.

"Have you lost your mind? You started this, and now you're hitting a pregnant woman?"

"I can't believe someone like you works here. That's seriously messed up!"

"I already called security. If you try anything again, we're calling the police!"

Without me holding her down, Rose got bold again.

They helped her up. She clutched her stomach and pointed at me, crying like she had been wronged.

"Did you all see that? She's jealous of me! She wants my baby dead!"

She staggered toward me and raised her hand, aiming for my face.

I tried to fight back, but the guys holding me tightened their grip.

"You still wanna swing back? Just stay still."

When Rose saw that I couldn't move, her face twisted into a smug, ugly grin. Her words got harsher and harsher.

"You can't even have kids! You should just die already!"

The others piled on, saying I had no empathy.

Paisley stood there, comforting Rose, then shot me a cold look.

"Don't you have any sense of decency? How could you push a pregnant woman this far over a proposal? What were you even thinking? She's pregnant and still coming into work every day. That's not easy. If you keep this up, and something happens to her, are you going to take responsibility?"

I struggled against their grip and raised my voice.

"How many times do I have to say it? I'm using a silent keyboard! How exactly am I bothering her? Through quantum vibrations? Besides, she says she's pregnant, but has anyone here actually seen her checkup reports? Has anyone seen her husband pick her up?"

My words made a few people hesitate. I could see the doubt creeping into their faces.

Rose immediately dug into her bag and pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper.

"This is my ultrasound! It clearly says I'm 12 weeks pregnant!"

I let out a short, cold laugh.

"Funny. A minute ago, you said my typing sounded like construction work, and it was hurting your belly. Now, you're yelling and crying this loud, and your precious son's just fine?"

Everyone paused.

Paisley frowned, murmuring under her breath, "That's true… When I was pregnant, I couldn't even handle loud noises, let alone something like this. How is her baby this tough?"

Right then, security rushed over, taking in the tense scene.

"Everyone, calm down. Let's talk this out."

Rose, who had been acting bold just moments ago, suddenly covered her mouth and gagged.

After a long moment, she spoke weakly, "My stomach hurts… It must be from when she shoved me. Something's wrong with the baby. I need to go to the hospital. If I lose my child, Stella, I won't let you off even after I'm dead!"

There was no way I was letting her get off that easily.

"Great. Let's go to the hospital. I'll go with you. And while we're at it, I'll get you checked in the men's department, too. Might as well take a look at your prostate."

Rose instantly lost it, pointing at me and screaming.

"You're insane! You're making things up! I'm going to sue you for defamation!"

I turned to everyone else.

"You all heard that, right? One hospital visit, and we'll know the truth. If she is really pregnant, I'll apologize in front of everyone. I'll cover every cent of the medical bills."

Then I looked straight at Rose.

"You dare to go?" I grabbed her arm and started pulling her toward the door. "Come on. Let's go now. Let the whole company see what you're really carrying!"

All eyes were on her, waiting.

Rose's face kept shifting, pale one second, flushed the next.

She never imagined that the girl she used to push around so easily would come back like this, all sharp edges and no fear.

She clung to the desk, refusing to move.

Then suddenly, as if something clicked, she let out a loud cry and dropped straight to the floor.

A pool of "blood" spread quickly beneath her.

She reached out, hand trembling as she pointed at me, her eyes filled with venom.

"My baby… You killed my baby…"

An ambulance rushed her away, and the whole office fell into chaos.

Paisley pointed at me, shaking with anger.

"Are you happy now? You caused her to lose her child!"

Another coworker had already dialed the police.

"Hello? Yes, we have someone here who assaulted a pregnant woman and caused a miscarriage!"

I stood there beside the spreading "blood," watching everything with a cold, steady gaze.

That wasn't blood. It was red ink.

That liar really had planned this all out.

It didn't take long for the police to arrive.

Rose had already been taken to the hospital for "emergency treatment," and as the prime suspect, I was brought in for questioning.

The office security footage had captured everything clearly.

From the message I sent in the group chat, to Rose showing up at my desk with a crowd, to me knocking her down, and finally to her so-called miscarriage.

Every piece of evidence was stacked against me.