When my best friend, Tricia Tate, finds out I have secretly switched my husband's used rubber with her father-in-law's, she has a full-on meltdown right then and there.

In my last life.

Tricia had been abused by her husband and asked to stay at my place for a while.

I felt sorry for her and agreed to let her stay temporarily.

But just two weeks later, she unexpectedly found out she was pregnant.

I was about to ask her what had happened when her husband suddenly showed up and broke my husband's leg before dragging my whole family into court.

In court, Tricia sobbed uncontrollably, accusing my husband, Jayden Lowe, of being a predator and claiming he had assaulted her while she was living with us. She said I didn't just ignore it but helped him carry it out.

Jayden and I denied everything in court, but she pulled out an amniocentesis report, proving that the baby was indeed Jayden's.

The internet exploded with hate against us, and the court sentenced both of us to prison, ordering us to pay her ten million in emotional damages.

In the end, Jayden and I went to jail, while Tricia took that ten million, aborted the baby, and lived happily ever after with her husband.

When I open my eyes again, I am back to the very day Tricia came to stay at my house.

I was experiencing a splitting headache.

I opened my eyes and looked around at my familiar home. It wasn't the street where I'd been beaten and cursed at, nor the damp, filthy prison I'd been scorned in. It was my home!

"Simone, you're such a good person. If it weren't for you, I would've been beaten to death by Luke."

That familiar fake voice rang out. I turned around to look, and there was Tricia Tate, standing in front of me with tears in her eyes. It was only then that I realized I had been reborn.

I was back to the very day my so-called best friend Tricia came to me crying after being abused, begging me to take her in. I had foolishly agreed to let her stay at my place.

"Simone, your house is so spacious. A high-rise unit like this must be worth a few million, right?"

Before I could respond, she was already inside, her eyes greedily scanning every corner of the place.

Just then, my husband, Jayden Lowe, came home from work.

The moment she saw him, Tricia quickly fixed her hair and even pulled out a compact to pat her face before walking over and saying in a gentle voice, "This must be your husband, Jayden, right? I think I only saw him once at your wedding. What an outstanding man."

As she spoke, she took a step forward, her posture all delicate and coy.

Jayden frowned slightly and stepped back. "You're too kind."

I knew from his reaction that he was already wary of Tricia.

Jayden's family was in business, and he was basically a trust fund kid with a bit of money. He was no stranger to women throwing themselves at him with ulterior motives, so he could always see right through their games.

In my last life, he had awkwardly tried to warn me about Tricia, saying she wasn't as innocent as she looked. But I had thought he was just being judgmental about my friend. Looking back now, I must've been completely out of my mind.

Just like in my previous life, Tricia suddenly started crying upon seeing that Jayden didn't respond. "Simone, you're so lucky to find such a good man. Unlike me… I have to work all day to support the family, only to end up getting abused…"

While she spoke, she kept sneaking glances at Jayden, playing the pitiful card and fishing for his reaction.

As expected, he frowned at her words. "Abuse? My company has lawyers. If you need help, talk to Sim."

"Really, Jayden? I'd appreciate it—"

"Dear, don't bring lawyers into it. They're just having a little marital spat!" I cut Tricia off, completely shifting from how I'd begged her to divorce in the past.

I added, "As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Tricia, did it ever occur to you that maybe you're partly to blame for your situation?

"Take my advice. Go home and apologize to Luke. Patch things up. Married couples fight, but they don't hold grudges overnight.

"Who knows? You two might make up tomorrow!"

Jayden gave me a surprised look. He knew I was never the type to talk people out of divorce.

Tricia was just as stunned. She blinked at me and asked in confusion, "Simone, how can you say that? I'm the victim here."

"Victim?" I raised a brow at her.

"If you say that, it changes everything. If you're really the victim, then Luke will be guilty of assault, and that's a criminal offense. Are you really ready to send him to jail?"

"I…" She froze, speechless.

I sneered to myself. Of course, she wasn't!

If Luke ended up in jail, who would help her pull off the grand performance she had planned?

Jayden sensed something was off and made an excuse to head to the study for a meeting, leaving just me and Tricia alone in the living room.

The moment he was out of sight, Tricia's expression turned sour. "Simone, what the hell was that in front of Jayden just now? Did you not want him to help me?"

I fought hard to keep the hatred out of my voice and replied with a light smile, "Of course not. I just don't want you to lose a man who clearly loves you.

"After all, it might be an act of affection. Your husband beating you like that must be all that deep, unspoken love he just doesn't know how to show!"

"You—"

She choked on her words, glared at me, then threw out a sharp, "I'm going to shower." Then she stormed off.

I watched her back with a cold smirk, every detail from my past life flashing through my mind.

Tricia was my college classmate. She was always surrounded by admirers because of her looks. In the end, she chose Luke Zimmer as her husband purely for money. But just months after they got married, Luke went bankrupt after an accident.

They went from being lovey-dovey to constant fighting. Her social media turned into a place for public whining and insults. Back then, we weren't even that close until I married Jayden.

She suddenly became very interested in his wealthy background and started getting chummy with me, eventually calling herself my best friend.

When she got hit by Luke, she showed up at my place crying in the middle of the night. I pitied her and couldn't bring myself to turn her away, so I let her crash at my place for a while.

And then? She moved in and immediately started parading around Jayden in low-cut tops and spaghetti straps, constantly playing the victim in front of him. She even "accidentally" walked into his study late at night, pretending she got the rooms mixed up.

Jayden caught on quickly and left town on a "business trip", staying away for half a month. But right after he returned, Tricia claimed she was pregnant.

Before I could even ask her what was going on, Luke stormed in, broke Jayden's leg, and dragged my whole family to court.

In the courtroom, Tricia cried her eyes out, accusing Jayden of being a predator who assaulted her while she was staying at our house. She also claimed I turned a blind eye and even helped him do it.

Jayden and I denied everything, but then she pulled out an amniocentesis report proving the baby she was carrying was Jayden's.

In front of the press cameras, she sobbed like the world's biggest victim as she said, "I always treated Simone as my best friend, but I never imagined she'd be the one to throw me into hell. Her husband's a monster!"

Because of that one sentence, the internet tore us apart. Once the police got involved, we were arrested, sentenced, and ordered to pay Tricia and her husband ten million dollars for emotional damages.

Jayden and I died miserably in prison.

Meanwhile, Tricia aborted the baby, pocketed the ten million, and lived happily ever after with Luke.

Thinking about all this made my blood boil.

This time, I was determined to expose her for who she really was.

The next morning, after secretly installing surveillance cameras all around the house, I waited until Jayden left for work, then found an excuse to leave as well. I headed to a nearby café, opened the app on my phone, and started monitoring everything Tricia was doing.

I watched her walk straight into my bedroom, wearing one of my expensive silk nightgowns and spraying on my perfume. She gave a cold snort and muttered to herself, "How could a rich man like that be into someone as boring as Simone?

"She's all dried up like a wrinkled potato. How could she even begin to compete with my body?"

As she spoke, she pulled out my limited-edition Hermès handbag and tried it on in front of the mirror, practically glowing with vanity.

Just then, Luke called.

"What now?" she snapped, clearly annoyed.

"So? Any progress? Did Jayden finally pounce on you last night or what?"

Luke's voice came through the speaker, full of impatience.

"Pounce on me? He's like a damn block of wood. I practically threw myself at him, and he didn't even flinch. For all I know, he's gay!"

That made Luke even more anxious. "Useless! You've never had trouble getting men before. Why are you flopping now when I actually need you to deliver?"

"Ugh, screw you!" Tricia said.

"You've got some nerve blaming me. If you hadn't racked up all that debt and nearly gotten hacked to death by loan sharks, would I even be doing this crap, seducing another man? And besides, it's not like I can force him to sleep with me!"

"Idiot! You don't need to sleep with him to get pregnant!"

Hearing that, Tricia thought of something, and her eyes lit up with a spark of excitement.

"You're right. With how advanced things are nowadays, all I need is to get my hands on one of Jayden's used rubbers. Then getting pregnant with his kid will be a piece of cake!"

After that, she and Luke kept whispering back and forth. The audio from the surveillance wasn't perfect, so I couldn't make out the rest, but I had a pretty good idea what they were plotting.

That night, when I returned home and walked through the door, I saw Jayden stumbling out of our bedroom, looking panicked, with a disheveled Tricia following behind him, half-dressed.

The second he saw me, his face changed, and he rushed over to grab me.

"Honey, it's not what it looks like! Tricia said her clothes tore and asked me to help. Just as I was about to refuse, she suddenly started taking her clothes off—"

"How could I ever misunderstand you, dear?" I cut him off quickly, not wanting him to say anything he shouldn't.

Then I walked up and linked my arm through his with a smile. I pretended nothing was wrong and turned to look at Tricia. "Tricia, are you okay?"

"I... I'll just go back to the guest room," she mumbled, covering her mouth and hurrying off.

She did the exact same thing in the previous life. Back then, the whole "shocked and humiliated" act was part of her setup. She had secretly turned on her phone beforehand and recorded the whole scene, faking evidence that Jayden had assaulted her.

That so-called "proof" ended up going viral. The netizens had called it "Hammer of Thor", smashing our reputation completely.

But this time, I'd like to see what kind of game she thought she could play with my surveillance cameras rolling.