Shaking my head, I squatted and negotiated with Cecelia.

“This utility knife is too sharp. I’ll ask if there’s anything similar.”

Cecelia looked at me with a pure gaze, which melted my heart instantly.

With the staff’s help, I bought a similar toy utility knife.

Cecelia happily held her new toy and smiled sweetly at me.

“Thank you, Mom. You love me the most.”

In my previous life, she had probably behaved that way because she did not get what she wanted.

Since I had granted her wish, she would certainly grow closer to me.

When I saw her acting normally, I heaved a sigh of relief.

But I did not expect her to break free of my hand and yell when we reached a crowded place.

“Help! She’s a human trafficker. She’s going to take me away!”

My heart sank.

I had been left wondering endlessly if Cecelia had been overwhelmed with anger when she labeled me as a human trafficker in my previous life.

Besides, she had remained in the countryside with my mother-in-law since young. My mother-in-law may have used such a method to frighten her into compliance. Cecelia could simply be imitating what she knew worked.

But getting her what she wanted still did not seem to work.

Everyone looked at us when they heard her cries about a human trafficker.

Soon, someone vigilantly came over and asked about the issue.

“She’s a human trafficker. She wants to take me away. Save me!” Before I could answer, Cecelia sat on the floor and cried out loudly.

Since she was so young, many people believed her.

“She can’t be lying, given her age. What are you doing?”

“Stay here. We’ve called the cops. You’ll get arrested when they’re here.”

A few men rushed over to subdue me. At that moment, a particular face showed in the crowd. My eyes brightened as I screamed, “Darling, hurry up and explain it to everybody!”

Everyone quickly turned to Eric.

When Cecelia was picking up her stationeries, I had texted Eric, asking him to get us a cup of coffee.

Everyone assumed that Eric was my accomplice and gradually surrounded him.

At the sight of that, Cecelia suddenly stopped crying loudly and appeared helpless.

Eric appeared more anxious than I. It took him some time to explain to everyone that we were a family.

In the end, the cops asked us to go to the police station to take our statements.

Eric’s expression remained sullen from the moment we exited the police station. When we reached home, he raised his hand to hit Cecelia.

“Are you dumb? How could you tell others that we were human traffickers?”

Eric wore a hideous expression and slapped Cecelia’s hips, making her cry in pain.

That scene filled me with joy. I wondered why he would do that, since he had disapproved of how I scolded Cecelia.

But that fact escaped him when he was in my shoes.

I hurriedly pulled Cecelia into my arms and touched her head as a form of consolation.

“Darling, she’s just mischievous. Don’t be mad at her. What if you hurt her?”

Eric’s hands shook as he pointed a finger at Cecelia and said, “Do you know why I’m so mad? When she was spouting her lies, one of my important clients happened to be there. He wanted to cut ties with me when he saw that scene. How would I explain that to my boss?! But you defended her. Maybe she’ll do something bad again!”

No wonder he was so mad when he came home. It turned out that his work had been affected.

I interrupted him calmly, “It’s just a client. We finally got Cecelia home to us. Be nice to her. And watch your tongue. She’s just an ignorant kid. Stop making a fuss.”

While talking, I hugged Cecelia and looked at Eric with disdain.

“Are you trying to blame her when you failed to do your job well?”

Eric never once believed a five-year-old child could lie. Before I could explain it to him during my previous life, he had pushed the blame on me. I remembered everything he had said to me and echoed the same words back to him. I wondered how he felt to be wrongly accused.

Anger swept over Eric. Eventually, he left in a huff. “Yeah, go ahead and spoil her!”

I touched Cecelia’s head and tried to comfort her. “There, there. I’ll drive you to the kindergarten tomorrow.”

Cecelia looked at me with horror. She seemed to be afraid of me.

Confusion gripped me. I had done nothing out of the ordinary and could not understand why she was afraid of me.

Eric did not come home that night. He was probably infuriated.

After putting Cecelia to bed, I started searching around the house.

When I drove Cecelia to the kindergarten in my previous life, the teacher found those photos in my bag.

Naturally, someone must have taken those photos and kept them in the house.

I searched all the rooms and finally found a locked iron box under Cecelia’s bed.

I tried unlocking it using her birthday, but it was wrong.

Then, I tried using Eric’s birthday. It was unlocked. I was struck dumb when I opened the box. At that moment, I finally solved the puzzling mystery. I finally understood why my daughter had tried all means to get me killed.