When our teacher caught my desk mate, Avery Collins, and me stealing mock exam papers just before the college entrance exam, he shouted, "The college entrance exam is right around the corner! What was the point of stealing the mock exam papers? Tell me, who was the mastermind?"

In my previous life, I took the blame without hesitation. My father nearly beat me to death for it.

Avery and I attended the same university, got married after graduation, and raised a daughter, spending thirty years together.

I believed I had the perfect life.

Then, on the day of my daughter, Emma's wedding, I was thrown out of the venue.

Emma told me, "You have no right to be here. Caleb Morgan is my real father."

Avery looked at me coldly. "After you got drunk, you already signed the divorce papers. The company, the house, and all the assets belong to me now. You're leaving with nothing. From this day forward, we're strangers."

Lost in a daze, I wandered into the street and was crushed beneath a speeding truck.

When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the day everything began.

This time, I told the teacher directly, "Avery was the one behind it. I gave her the papers, but I never looked at them. My score belongs to me."

Perhaps Avery Collins had always been certain I would take the fall for her. She'd probably rehearsed her lines in advance.

The moment Mr. Dorian Whitaker started questioning us, she blurted out instinctively, "Sir, please don't blame Logan Bennett—"

Her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at me. "What? You said I'm the mastermind?"

I answered firmly, "That's right. She was the one who asked me to steal the exam papers. My mom promised to pay for her college tuition if she finished in the top three this year."

Avery came from a rough background. Back when she still lived with her father, he'd come home drunk and beat both her and her mother.

Eventually, her parents divorced. Her mother brought her to Westbridge, which was why she'd transferred into our school during senior year.

On the very first day we became desk mates, she'd told me her entire story through tear-filled eyes.

At the time, I was deeply moved. Beneath that delicate, heart-wrenching face was a life filled with suffering. Every heroic fantasy in my teenage heart came rushing to the surface.

I swore I would protect her for the rest of my life. I brought her home for dinner regularly and spent nearly all my allowance on her.

After hearing about Avery's circumstances, my mother had felt sorry for her as well. That's what led to her making that promise.

The truth was, I knew my mother never intended it as a condition. She simply wanted to motivate Avery to work hard. Whether Avery finished first or last, my mother would have helped her attend college.

But Avery had taken the promise seriously. She was an excellent student, but not quite good enough to guarantee a top-three ranking, so she persuaded me to help her steal the exam papers.

Back then, I foolishly treated every word she said like gospel.

What I never expected was that the moment I got the papers, before I'd even had a chance to look at them, she took them straight to Caleb Morgan from the class next door.

I didn't think much of it because Avery had told me Caleb was an old classmate from middle school. According to her, his father used to beat him whenever he performed poorly on exams, and she only wanted to help him.

Because of Avery, I'd transformed from a carefree slacker into someone who actually studied. I'd worked harder than I ever had in my life, hoping to surprise her with my grades.

In the end, the two of them had treated me like a complete sucker.

This time, I wasn't going to keep indulging them.

While Avery was still standing there in shock, I continued, "And she wasn't the only one who saw the paper. Caleb Morgan from the class next door saw it too. If you don't believe me, give the three of us a different test right now and compare the results."

The instant the words left my mouth, tears began streaming down Avery's face. She trembled as she sobbed.

"Forget it, Mr. Whitaker. If Logan says I'm guilty, then I must be guilty. I'm just a transfer student with no money and no connections. Nobody was ever going to believe me anyway."

Then she turned and ran from the classroom in tears.

The classroom instantly erupted.

"Logan, you've gone too far! You've been dead last on practically every exam for years. Now you're suddenly ranked tenth in the class? Who would believe that? You're obviously the one who stole the exam papers!"

"Exactly! Avery's kind and sweet. How could you hurt her like this? I'm ashamed to have a classmate like you."

"And could your lie be any more ridiculous? Avery's already a top student. Why would she need to steal just to make the top three? Do you think we're all idiots?"

I ignored their accusations and looked at Mr. Whitaker. "Sir, do you believe me?"

Mr. Whitaker's face immediately darkened. Without warning, he snatched up a book and threw it at me.

"Logan! Call your parents!

"Not only are you trying to frame an innocent girl, but you're even dragging students from other classes into this. At your age, you're already trying to get away with things. If you keep going down this road, you'll end up a criminal when you grow up!

"I can't let you continue like this. I need to have a serious talk with your father and make sure he teaches you properly!"

This time, I was the one whose eyes widened in disbelief.

Setting aside the fact that he hadn't even bothered to investigate before throwing a book at me, my family had given him plenty of gifts over the years. No matter what, he shouldn't have treated me like this.

Could something be going on between him and Avery?

Before I could think it through, he took me to the office and called my father.

No matter how hard I tried to explain, Mr. Whitaker refused to believe me. Even the other teachers in the office took his side, lecturing me one after another.

Eventually, I stopped talking altogether and stood there waiting for my father to arrive.

I knew there was no way I was escaping a beating.

Despite that, I was happy. At least, he was still healthy enough to beat me.

In my previous life, during the twentieth year of my marriage to Avery, my parents went hiking and supposedly slipped and fell to their deaths.

Back then, I kept telling the police I didn't believe it had been an accident. My father, Daniel Bennett, was a veteran, and my mother, Karen Bennett, had spent years performing in a military band. Neither of them was the type to be careless.

Still, Avery and our daughter, Emma, kept trying to convince me otherwise. They said my parents were getting older. It wasn't unusual for someone their age to get dizzy or lose their footing. They even withdrew the case with the police on my behalf and had my parents cremated right away.

At the time, I trusted them completely. I never gave it a second thought.

Now that I'd been given a second chance at life, I suddenly understood. Avery had to be behind it. She wanted me to inherit my parents' estate so she could eventually take everything the Bennetts owned for herself.

The old saying was true. A favor can become a grudge.

My mother paid for her college education, and I gave her decades of a comfortable life.

In the end, she repaid us with betrayal.

Before long, my father arrived. My mother came with him.

The moment they stepped into the office, tears started pouring down my face. I rushed over and threw my arms around my father.

"Dad. Mom. I've missed you so much."

My father awkwardly pushed me away, his face turning red. Growing up, the way we communicated was by yelling at each other. I'd never been this affectionate with him before.

My mother had no idea why I was crying, but she gently wiped away my tears anyway.

Mr. Whitaker explained the situation with the stolen exam papers.

Before my father could speak, I held out my hand.

"Dad, go ahead and hit me."

He froze, but instead of raising his hand, he frowned and asked, "Tell me exactly what happened."

So I told him everything from beginning to end.

At that moment, Avery suddenly came running in through the doorway, crying. She rushed straight over and pulled me behind her.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, please don't hit him. If anyone deserves to be punished, it should be me. I wanted to go to college so badly. I wanted Mrs. Bennett's sponsorship so badly that I lied."

My heart skipped a beat.

Why had her attitude changed so suddenly?

Just then, Caleb rushed in from outside.

Grabbing her arm, he shouted, "Avery, how can you take the blame for him? No matter how close you two are, you can't do something like this! What about your reputation?"

To my surprise, Avery kicked him hard. "Stay out of it! This has nothing to do with you!"

Then she turned back to my parents.

"I'm telling the truth, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. I was the one who told Logan to do it. Please don't punish him."

I was completely stunned.

Hadn't these two been in love for decades?

Why were they acting so differently now?

A ridiculous thought suddenly flashed through my mind. Could Avery have been reborn too after running out of the classroom?

The more I thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

Caleb hadn't lived well during the decades Avery and I were married. I'd heard he'd developed a gambling addiction and eventually sold his house, leaving himself homeless.

Even if the two of them inherited everything after my death, with Caleb's gambling habits, it probably wouldn't have taken long for him to lose it all.

Maybe life had become harder and harder for them afterward. Maybe that was why she'd finally remembered my worth.

She really was calculating.

What surprised me even more was that my father abruptly cut off their argument.

"Enough. What exactly are you making a scene about? When did I ever say I was going to hit my son? Are you trying to drive a wedge between us?"

Avery froze. "No, sir, I just—"

My father waved her silent. "That's enough. Whether you're punished or not is the school's decision. There's no reason to discuss it with me."

"Mr. Whitaker, I believe my son. If you're going to accuse him without even figuring out what actually happened, then let's take this to the principal's office or the school board. Either one works for me."

My eyes instantly reddened again as I was moved.

Mr. Whitaker clearly hadn't expected my father to be this forceful. Every single time he'd called my parents in, my father would punish me before anything else.

This sudden change caught him completely off guard, leaving him standing there speechless.

Fortunately, Ms. Eleanor Hayes, the English teacher, stepped in to smooth things over.

"This is a serious matter. The school should investigate it thoroughly before deciding who's responsible. Why don't we let the students return to class first while we continue looking into it?"

Mr. Whitaker immediately seized the opportunity to back down.

Before leaving, I turned to my father. "Dad, I don't want to go back to class today. I want to go home with you."

To my surprise, he agreed. Right there in front of the teachers, he asked for leave on my behalf and took me home.

I didn't want to stay at school because I'd only just been reborn. I needed some quiet time to sort through my thoughts.

Also, I genuinely wanted to spend time with my parents.

After we got home, Mom cooked a massive dinner. Dad even made an exception and allowed me to have a sip of alcohol with him.

I asked, "Dad, why did you believe me?"

He shot me a glare. "Because I know my own son. If you really wanted to steal exam papers, you'd have done it years ago. You wouldn't have spent all these years ranking at the bottom in class."

"You're my son. I can discipline you whenever I want. But I won't let outsiders wrongfully accuse you."

My eyes filled with tears once again.

Just as our family was enjoying a rare moment of happiness together, someone knocked on the front door. It was Avery.

The moment she walked in and saw the feast laid out on the table, she automatically pulled out a chair and sat down beside me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.