I had just dropped my daughter off at kindergarten when I received a call from her homeroom teacher.

"Mrs. Adams, is everything all right? Clara didn’t come to school today. Is she feeling unwell?"

I responded in confusion, "Ms. Hannah, I just dropped her off. Didn’t I hand her over to you this morning?"

But the teacher replied firmly, "Mrs. Adams, this isn’t funny. I haven’t seen you at all today."

Stunned, I rushed back to the kindergarten, only to find that my daughter was indeed missing.

I demanded to see the surveillance footage. But to my horror, the cameras showed that I never brought my daughter to school.

Even the security guards and other parents claimed they had not seen either of us that morning.

Strange, because I remembered it clearly that I walked her to the gate and handed her over to the teacher.

To find my daughter, I called the police.

Eventually, they found her lifeless body floating in a pond near our home.

The surrounding CCTV footage showed something even more horrifying. It showed me pushing my daughter into the water with my own hands, drowning her.

My mother-in-law collapsed, clutching my daughter’s body as she sobbed and screamed, "What did my granddaughter ever do wrong? Why would you kill her?"

My husband slapped me across the face, his voice shaking with fury as he snapped, "How could you do that to your own daughter? She was only five! Are you even human?"

I had no way to defend myself. I was labeled a heartless mother, a monster. Everyone hated me.

My parents were harassed and doxxed online. The stress and shame drove them to their deaths at home.

I was thrown into prison, beaten mercilessly and eventually died behind bars.

Until the moment I took my last breath, I could not understand any of it.

I knew I took my daughter to kindergarten. So why did everyone say they never saw us?

I had never even gone near that pond. So how could the surveillance footage show me drowning her with my own hands?

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day I took my daughter to kindergarten.

——

"Dear, my mother’s not feeling well. I’m taking her to the hospital. Could you take our daughter to school today?"

Kelvin Adams, my husband, gently supported my mother-in-law and spoke to me in his usual soft tone.

Those all-too-familiar words struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I turned to look at Kelvin and suddenly realized I had been reborn.

In my previous life, I had agreed to take my daughter to kindergarten that morning after Kelvin asked me to.

And then, strange things began to happen, bizarre, inexplicable events that led to my daughter’s drowning.

I was falsely accused of murdering her and beaten to death in prison.

As I stood there, silent and overwhelmed, Kelvin approached, concern etched on his face.

"What’s wrong, honey? Are you too busy?"

He spoke with such tenderness as if afraid of troubling me.

Looking at his gentle expression…

…my heart sank.

In our previous life, I was often tied up with work, so he and my mother-in-law usually handled the school drop-offs.

But why did everything go so horribly wrong that one time, they asked me to do it?

Could it really have been just a coincidence?

After a brief hesitation, I looked him in the eyes and said in a serious tone.

"I don’t think Clara looks very well today. Maybe she shouldn’t go to school."

Kelvin turned to check on our daughter, his expression full of concern. Then he nodded.

"All right. We’ll do as you say."

"Don’t forget to let the homeroom teacher know she’ll be absent."

My mother-in-law also chimed in with a kind smile. "Then I’ll leave Clara in your care today."

Their reactions were calm. Natural. Not a hint of anything suspicious.

And yet, the more normal they seemed, the more unsettled I felt.

After Kelvin left with my mother-in-law, I turned my gaze toward my daughter.

She was sitting at the table, quietly eating her breakfast, so obedient and sweet.

My eyes grew red with tears.

I could not help but remember the tragic sight of her lifeless body in the pond from my previous life.

How terrified must my little girl have been in that final moment of her life?

I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat, sat beside her and gently asked, "Clara, how have your dad and grandma been treating you lately?"

She gave me a sweet smile as she answered, "They’ve been really nice to me."

I paused, then continued softly, "What about your homeroom teacher? Is she kind to you?"

"She’s very nice. She takes good care of me at school," she replied naturally, her innocent face glowing with happiness.

Then, she blinked her big, watery eyes and looked at me in confusion. "But Mommy, I’m not sick today, so why can’t I go to school?"

I stroked her soft little cheek and said sincerely, "Because Mommy just can’t bear to be apart from you."

In my past life, taking her to kindergarten led to her sudden, senseless death.

In this life, I would never let anything happen to her, no matter what.

After breakfast, Clara settled on the couch in the living room to watch TV. I gathered the dishes and went into the kitchen to clean up.

Halfway through, my phone rang. It was her homeroom teacher.

"Mrs. Adams, is everything all right? Clara didn’t come to school today. Is she not feeling well?"

The exact same question I had heard in my previous life.

My heart tightened.

As I walked toward the living room, I spoke politely into the phone, "I’m sorry, Ms. Hannah. Clara isn’t feeling well today. I was just about to inform you…"

However, before I could finish the sentence, my voice caught in my throat.

Because just moments ago, my daughter had been sitting quietly on the sofa watching TV…

Now she was gone.

A surge of panic flooded my chest.

I immediately hung up the phone and began frantically searching the house.

I called her name over and over, but no matter how loud I shouted, the house remained silent.

There was no sign of her.

Terror gripped me.

Scenes from my past life flashed through my mind like a waking nightmare. My legs buckled and spots danced before my eyes.

With trembling hands, I called the police, my voice shaking with fear.

Unfortunately, just like in my previous life, the police soon delivered devastating news. They found my daughter’s body in a pond near our home.

I ran there like a madwoman and arrived just in time to see them pull her tiny, lifeless form from the water.

Just moments ago, she had been full of life, smiling sweetly at me, warm in my arms.

Now, she was pale and cold, her fragile body soaked and still.

It felt like I had fallen into a frozen abyss. I could not breathe.

My legs gave out as I stumbled forward, collapsing beside her and pulling her into my embrace.

I clutched her tightly, trying to warm her with my body, sobbing her name over and over.

However, no matter how desperately I cried or how tightly I held her, she never opened her eyes again.

My heart shattered into pieces when I realized that my daughter had left me once again.

Why?

Why, even after changing what happened in my previous life, after doing everything I could to keep her close…

Why did the outcome remain the same?

Why couldn’t I save my daughter?

The pain hit me like a tidal wave. I could not even find the strength to cry.

When my mother-in-law and Kelvin heard the news, they rushed to the scene.

Seeing my daughter’s lifeless body in my arms, my mother-in-law let out a scream of grief.

Then, as if in a trance, she pushed me aside and wrapped her arms tightly around her granddaughter.

"Clara… my precious girl… how could you die just because Grandma went to the hospital?"

Kelvin fell to his knees, his tears streaming as he reached out to her tremblingly.

"Clara… please get up. Don’t scare Daddy like this."

"Are you mad because Daddy didn’t take you to kindergarten today? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please… come back. You can ask me for anything, anything at all. Just open your eyes…"

As Kelvin spoke, he slapped himself hard across the face, his expression filled with deep regret and pain.

The onlookers around us could not help but sigh and whisper among themselves.

"Everyone in the neighborhood knows what a well-behaved and sensible little girl she was. Clara was always so polite and sweet. Everyone liked her."

"Yes, the whole family adored her. Now that she’s gone… how are they supposed to go on?"

"What a tragedy. How could such a healthy child suddenly drown like that?"

While the crowd murmured, a police officer approached me, holding a surveillance tablet in his hands.

"We reviewed the footage from nearby cameras. It shows you bringing the deceased child to this pond, pushing her in and holding her underwater until she drowned."

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

As he spoke, he tapped the screen and began to play the footage for everyone to see.

The video clearly showed me leading my daughter to the pond, dragging her into the water and forcing her down until she stopped moving.

Gasps instantly rose from the crowd.

All eyes turned to me.

Shocked. Furious. Disgusted.

I stood frozen, staring at the footage of a version of myself doing something I had never done.

Everyone stared at me as if they wished to cut me apart right there.

This was exactly like the previous life.

That same crushing despair returned, wrapping itself around my chest like chains.

Before I could speak a word in my own defense, Kelvin stormed forward.

He slapped me across the face hard, his voice trembling with rage.

"Laura Kyle, are you even human?!"

"Clara was your daughter, your own flesh and blood! She was only five years old! How could you bring yourself to hurt her like that?!"

He was trembling with fury.

That slap stung more than just my skin.

His eyes, red and filled with pain, looked at me as if he could tear me apart on the spot.

Staring at this painfully familiar scene, I felt my heart shatter all over again.

The agony was unbearable.

Just like in my previous life, Kelvin did not give me a chance to explain. One slap without a single question was enough for him to sentence me. That one strike crushed any hope I had left.

My mother-in-law, cradling Clara’s lifeless body, turned to glare at me with a look of bitter hatred.

"What did Clara ever do to deserve this? What made you so unhappy that you had to kill her? Are you even human?"

She grew more emotional as she spoke, clutching her chest like she could not breathe.

Around us, the crowd boiled with righteous fury. People pointed fingers at me and cursed loudly.

"This woman is worse than an animal. She murdered her own child!"

"I almost believed she was heartbroken earlier… crying like a devoted mother. Who would’ve thought she was the one who killed the child all along!"

"She’s disgusting. A woman like this doesn’t deserve to be a mother. She doesn’t even deserve to live in this world at all!"

As they said that, their anger quickly turned physical. Garbage was thrown at me and spit landed on my clothes.

Some took out their phones, recording videos and live-streaming the scene, publicly condemning me.

The live stream’s viewership exploded.

Comments flooded in, mourning my daughter, cursing me, calling me evil and praying for me to die a painful death.

As the chaos escalated, the police finally stepped in to restore order.

One of the officers gave me a hard look, his voice sharp and serious. "This case has stirred serious public outrage. The nature of this incident is extremely severe."

"We have clear, undeniable evidence. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I did not even hesitate to reply, "I didn’t kill her. I would never hurt my own daughter. Officer, I beg you, please investigate this thoroughly. If you don’t, the real murderer will never be brought to justice!"

"I’m not afraid to die, but I can’t let my daughter’s death go unanswered."

Hearing this, the officer’s brows furrowed. His gaze turned colder, sharper like he was looking at a hopeless criminal clinging to lies.