“I’ve got more money than I can spend,” Mr. Cothran continued, “I’ll hire the best damn legal team to make sure you get the death penalty!”

The livestream chat was blowing up too.

[Why the hell should a psycho get away with murder just ‘cause they’re “mentally ill”? Put that criminal on death row?!]

[Death penalty all the way!]

[Kill him!]

I was pissed off and totally confused. I went through all this trouble, even hid out in a psych ward—how the hell did they still track me down?

“I don’t even know what I did! Why are you trying to sentence me to death?”

Mr. Cothran snapped, “You don’t know what you did?! You blew up the school’s chemistry lab! I’ve never seen a criminal this arrogant!”

Unlike my past life, this time I was ready.

“The chem lab blew up? When did that happen? First I’m hearing of it.”

Dad tried to grab me, but I slipped behind Doctor Craddock again.

He missed me, and that just made him blow up even more.

“You’re still pretending?! I raised a damn monster! You snuck into the lab after school last night and blew it up! The principal’s kid was in the next room—the roof collapsed and killed him on the spot!”

Calix jumped in too, “Bertrand, dude, just stop. I saw you creeping around the lab last night doing who-knows-what.”

The hospital’s security guy looked more fired up than me.

“Hey, kid! You better back that up with proof. I was on duty last night. You saying I was slacking off and let a patient escape on my watch?”

The school security wasn’t having it either.

“Come on, man, don’t try to pin this on me just because you failed to do your job. Good thing Mr. Warburton told me to bring the security footage.”

He pulled it up. “Here, look—isn’t this this psycho?!”

The footage showed me in school uniform, sneakily throwing something into the chemistry lab, then running off.

Right after I ran out, a huge fireball exploded on the screen, and the camera went black.

The footage was high definition. I could clearly see even the mole on my face.

When everyone in the livestream saw it, the internet really exploded.

[No wonder there are always mentally ill people out there attacking and killing. The mental hospital security sucks!]

[Dude looked all quiet and harmless—turns out he’s a straight-up killer and a liar!]

[Criminals like him deserves to die!]

The psych hospital security guard looked ready to explode, his face red and his veins popping.

If I hadn’t been reborn, I’d be freaking out too.

“Sir, I’ve been here at the psych ward this whole time. They’ve got security cams too!” I said.

My gaze shifted from the cops to the hospital security. “Sir, can we check the hospital’s security footage? That should clear it up.”

Turned out, I was in luck. First day I got here, I asked the guard if the cameras worked.

“Of course they do!” he told me. “They were all busted the day before you came in, but we replaced them all. Brand new.”

He pulled the footage. Now we had a face-off.

Their footage showed I’d been in the hospital the whole time. During the explosion, I was on camera talking to a nonverbal kid.

The scene looked a little weird, but it was definitely me.

Suddenly, everyone was looking at each other, speechless.

Even the internet was confused.

[How can the same person be in two places at once?]

[Must be twins—one in the psych ward, one blowing up the school lab!]

[If not twins, then it’s gotta be something supernatural!]

[Wait wait, even twins don’t have the same mole in the exact same spot… right?]

After reading the flood of online comments, even the cops started to get suspicious—maybe I really did have a twin brother.

Officer Tannehill turned to Dad. “Sir, when your wife gave birth, was it just one child?”

Dad shot back, “She gave birth to this little bastard and that’s it.

“I’m his father—don’t you think I’d know? I don’t care what trick he pulled or what lies he’s spinning. I know he’s the one who blew up that lab!

“Officer, quit wasting time. Arrest him. Give him the death penalty already!”

Doctor Craddock frowned, clearly holding back. “What kind of father talks like that? He’s your own son. How can you say that about him?”

Dad looked her up and down, sneered, and laughed.

“Oh, I see now. No wonder he slipped out under your nose—you’re probably sleeping with him. You’re in on it. You helped him blow up the lab, didn’t you?”

Doctor Craddock, young and sharp, was so furious she couldn’t even speak.

The hospital director stepped in, voice steady.

“Mr. Warburton, you’re an educator, yet you’re throwing out baseless accusations like that? Where’s your judgment?”

Dad didn’t flinch. “Trash is trash. Doesn’t matter what I say—he’s still garbage.”

Even the cops were starting to side-eye him. That wasn’t the way any decent father would act.

One of them quietly pulled someone aside to look into my mom’s delivery records.

Dad noticed and snapped. “What the hell are you people doing?! What else do you need to check? I’m his father! You think I don’t know how many damn kids my own wife gave birth to?!”

The whole crowd was uneasy now—no one knew what to believe.

But Dad kept running his mouth, trying to rile up Mr. Cothran.

The principal wasn’t buying it. He could tell this wasn’t as simple as it looked. He wanted to wait for the cops to finish their investigation.

So did I.

A few minutes later, a young cop rushed back, looking fired up.

“Forensics just pulled a fingerprint from the blast site—it’s a perfect match for the suspect.”

And just like that, everyone turned on me again.

My stomach dropped. I had no idea how they pulled that off.

The looks I got said it all—like everyone there wanted to see me strung up. Even Doctor Craddock stepped back, disappointment written all over her face.

“No wonder even your own father disowns you. I really thought you were different… but I guess I fell for the act.”

Calix looked smug as hell.

“Dude, better come clean once you’re inside. If you’re lucky, maybe the judge won’t fry you.”

Suddenly, Mr. Cothran’s stare could’ve burned a hole through me.

“Let him off? How about my son?! Who the hell’s gonna bring my son back?!”

Just as everything was about to fall apart, a black Maybach rolled up slow and smooth.

I nearly lost it. “Seriously? Now’s not the time for a grand entrance. I’m about to get torn apart here!”