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.

"We reviewed the surveillance footage immediately. There is no indication of tampering or forgery."

"If you didn’t do it, then who else could the killer be?"

Exactly!

Who killed my daughter and shifted the blame onto me?

This question had haunted me through two lifetimes.

And it would remain unanswered, perhaps even until the day I died.

Seeing my silence, the crowd erupted with renewed fury. "Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you too ashamed to admit you’re the murderer?"

"You killed your own daughter and still have the audacity to play the victim? Disgusting!"

"That poor girl… She was so sweet and obedient and yet she had a mother like that!"

"Her husband and mother-in-law are truly unfortunate to have such a monster in their family."

The comment section of the live stream was just as vicious, filled with curses, condemnation and wishes for my painful death.

Amid the chaos, the officer in charge gave a cold wave of his hand.

"Take her to the station."

At his command, two officers stepped forward, snapped handcuffs onto my wrists and escorted me to the police car.

In my previous life, I could not prove my innocence. I was thrown into prison… and beaten to death.

Even my parents were not spared. Their identities were exposed online and they could no longer step outside without being humiliated. They were splashed with filth, jeered at and even had funeral wreaths tossed at their doorstep.

In the end, they died miserably in their own home. No one came to their aid and no one arranged their funeral until the stench spread through the neighborhood.

Was I doomed to the same fate again in this life?

Was my daughter destined to die in silence, with her real killer never unmasked?

My chest tightened. My mind was in turmoil.

I simply could not understand.

What went wrong?

In my previous life, I clearly dropped my daughter off at kindergarten, but everyone who had supposedly seen us insisted they had not.

And in this life, I was right at home with her and never left her side. But somehow… she vanished and her body was found in the pond.

The surveillance video even showed me committing a crime I never committed.

Why? Why was this happening?

Who killed my daughter?

Who was trying to frame me again?

One question after another swirled in my mind, each more maddening than the last, dragging me deeper into confusion.

I knew something was terribly wrong.

However, I could not figure out what had gone wrong.

Desperately, I tried to piece things together, replaying the fragments of both lives in my mind, hoping to catch even the slightest clue that could unravel this nightmare.

Then, just as I was about to be shoved into the police car, something suddenly clicked.

I spun around and shouted at the top of my lungs.

"I know who the murderer is!"