Reborn After the Explosion Unmasking My Family's Betrayal

I went home for the holidays. My e-bike exploded.

It torched a neighbor's Maybach and killed a grandmother and her grandson who happened to be walking by.

My family burned through every penny they had to cover the damages, then sank into millions of dollars of debt on my behalf.

The victims' relatives cursed my name for twenty years. I worked eight jobs a day to pay it all back.

The night I finally cleared the last of the debt, I dropped dead from exhaustion.

But just before my eyes closed for good, I heard my parents laughing outside the door:

"The Maybach was never actually damaged. That old woman and her grandson faked their deaths. And this idiot actually believed it—worked herself to the bone for nothing!"

"Well, what else was she good for? Phil needs money for a house and a car. A worthless daughter like her—this was the only use she'd ever have."

Twenty years of my life. All of it a lie.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the explosion.

This time, I rode the e-bike out early and sank it in the hillside pond.

No bike, no explosion. Let's see you pull that off now.

But at three o'clock that afternoon, the explosion happened anyway.

...

Sunflower seeds scattered from my hand across the floor. I stood frozen in place.

Impossible. I sank that e-bike to the bottom of the pond myself. How could there still be an explosion?

I bolted out the door. Thick black smoke billowed from the direction of the village entrance, flames clawing at the sky.

Neighbors screamed and ran toward it. I ran too.

My legs were jelly. My heart hammered so hard I could hear it in my skull.

The scene was worse than last time.

The Maybach was engulfed in flames, metal popping and cracking in the heat. Beside the wreckage, two charred bodies lay on the ground—burned beyond recognition.

"Call the police!"

"Whose e-bike is that? Why was it plugged in here?"

"Looks like it belongs to that James girl—I saw her pushing it around this morning!"

Every head swiveled toward me.

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

This wasn't possible. My e-bike was at the bottom of the pond. How could it be here? How could it have exploded?

"Doreen James!" Derek Lambert crawled out of the car, blood streaming down his face, a bandage already half-soaked through. He screamed at me, voice cracking with rage: "I'll kill you! That Maybach was brand new—three million dollars! You owe me three million dollars!"

I stumbled backward, my mind a blank white wall.

Last time, the explosion was staged. So why was it real this time?

And my e-bike—I sank it myself. Why was it here?

"It wasn't me..." I mumbled. "My e-bike isn't here..."

"Still trying to weasel out of it!" Pamela Lawrence jabbed a finger in my face. "I saw you with my own eyes this morning, pushing that e-bike out of your yard! If it wasn't you, then who?"

"Exactly! Who else around here has a red e-bike?"

"Murderer! You owe them your life!"

The crowd closed in, shoving me, voices piling on top of each other until the noise was a wall of sound crushing me from every side. It was worse than last time.

But last time, at least I knew it was fake.

Now, two people were dead—truly dead—right in front of me, and the Maybach was truly burning.

"Doreen, what happened?" My parents and brother pushed through the crowd.

My father, Ernest James, looked like a storm cloud—face dark, jaw clenched. My mother, Jasmine Finch, dropped straight to the ground, slapping her thighs and wailing at the top of her lungs.

"Lord have mercy! What are we gonna do? We'll lose everything! Every last cent!"

My brother, Phil James, stood off to the side with his girlfriend, eyes darting everywhere but at me.

The exact same scene as my previous life.

But this time, the explosion was real. The deaths were real. Did they not know that?

"Sis, was it really your e-bike?" Phil walked over and lowered his voice. "Didn't you take it into town this morning to get it fixed? How'd it end up here?"

I stared hard into his eyes, searching for some crack, some tell—but all I saw was panic.