Back to the 80s, I Stopped Saving My Fiancé

The factory beauty stole a watch and paraded it around town, and the owner caught her red-handed.

Just as the security office was about to haul her away, her fianc rushed forward to take the fall.

I stole the watch and gave it to Josephine. She didn't know. She's innocent.

I was furious that he'd pick this moment to play the hero.

But I didn't want to watch him throw away a hard-won college acceptance letter to become a criminal either.

So I still spoke up and swore that on the day the watch went missing, he and I had been in town buying study guides.

With my testimony, the factory beauty was branded a thief.

To escape paying restitution and taking responsibility, she fled in the middle of the night, lost her footing off a cliff, and died...

My fianc kept his face calm.

But on the day we set off for college together, he deliberately shoved me toward an oncoming train.

"If you hadn't stuck your nose in and stopped me from saving her, Josephine wouldn't have died!"

"I worked to test into college for her. You got her killed, so you deserve to die too."

There was nothing I could do.

I could only struggle to drag him down with me, watching the train bear closer and closer...

This time around,

I didn't stick my nose in and stop him from playing the hero.

He just didn't know.

Stealing a watch was theft for the factory beauty. For him, it was a capital crime that would cost him his head.

"Fine, I admit stealing the watch was wrong. But if you didn't flaunt that cheap watch of yours every single day, why would I ever have stolen it?"

"Don't you know you're not supposed to show off what you've got?"

"I was doing you a favor, giving you a heads-up. That way you won't strut around like this in the future, and next time what gets stolen won't be a watch, it'll be your head."

My fianc, Harry Matthews, flung my hand away. Right there at the factory gate, in front of all the workers coming and going, he made no attempt to hide anything as he pulled Josephine Lambert into his arms and jabbed a finger at the owner, Louisa Donaldson, cursing her out.

Anyone who understood would say Harry was confessing to the theft. Anyone who didn't would think he was the one who'd been robbed.

I was shaking with rage.

The crowd around me looked at me with pity, feeling sorry for me because I'd caught my childhood-sweetheart fianc fawning over another woman and had been driven half out of my mind with anger.

I hadn't been.

I was this worked up because I'd realized I'd been reborn.

In my last life it went exactly like this.

Josephine got caught stealing and showing it off, and she was so humiliated and enraged that she cried until she couldn't catch her breath.

And when Harry saw the woman he cherished being called a shameless thief to her face, he decided on the spot that here was his chance to make Josephine think more highly of him. So he rushed forward to take the blame for her.

And even though I was angry, I still cleared him of the thief's name.

But he wasn't grateful. He only thought I was jealous and couldn't stand to see Josephine do well, so he handed over every bit of his savings to her, telling her to pay the owner back.

Josephine took the money and vanished without a trace. Half a month later, word came that she was dead.

Harry was heartbroken. He apologized to me again and again, and for the sake of all our years together, I forgave him. Like a fool, I paid for his train ticket to college. I never imagined that the train ticket I paid for would keep me on those tracks forever...

Two:

That was when I made up my mind.

I wasn't going to be the fool I'd been in my past life, rushing to prove him innocent. I turned to go, acting like none of it had anything to do with me.

But the second I turned around,

Harry, who a moment ago had been buried in the crowd, was suddenly right behind me, gripping my arm so hard it hurt.

His eyes fixed on me, cold and dark, and he ground the words out against my ear.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I froze. In my past life he'd been too busy shielding Josephine to notice me slipping away. For him to act like this now, he'd probably been reborn along with me.

I kept it off my face and just pretended to be angry.

"I'm leaving, obviously. So I don't have to watch the two of you!"

Harry stared into my eyes, and once he saw nothing there but "jealousy" and temper, nothing else, he let out a breath.

He didn't say much more, just told me to stop meddling.

"Paula, why do you always have to make trouble?"

"You think if you dig up some false witness to hurt Josephine, I'll be grateful and go marry you?"

"I'll be honest with you. If it weren't for your help all these years, I'd have broken off the engagement long ago. Every time I have to walk beside you, it makes me sick."

"If you insist on sticking your nose in,"

"I don't mind dragging you down with me!"

Harry said it loud, and even pinned a "false witness" label on me, which set the whole crowd murmuring.

I let a wounded, heartbroken look cross my face, but still "couldn't stop myself" from backing him up.

"Harry, what's gotten into you?"

"I know that watch wasn't stolen by you. Why would you take the blame for her? Would you would you really give up college for her sake?"

"Even if you want to throw yourself away, I can't just stand here and watch. Don't stop me. I'm going to find proof and clear your name!"

Three:

Seeing how stubbornly I insisted on testifying for him,

Harry was even more certain I hadn't been reborn, and his expression eased.

He shrieked at me to shut up and swung the back of his hand at my face. Because I'd been ready for it, the blow didn't land, but I let the motion carry me down and dropped straight to the ground.

Harry didn't so much as think of helping me up. Under the crowd's disgusted stares, he held up the watch and started proving his own guilt.

"I already told you, I stole the watch. There's even Louisa's birthday engraved inside it."

"And there's a tiny scratch on the band. That's from when I dropped it by accident after I took it, and it hit the ground."

"If I hadn't stolen it, how could I possibly know all these details?"

Louisa took the watch and looked it over carefully.

"He's right. That scratch wasn't there when it was taken."

Then she stopped.

Her face went red, and her voice shook.

"I really never thought a college student would stoop to something this low. It's shameless."

Harry didn't notice anything off about Louisa. He looked at her, self-righteous.

"Now you see. I'm the one who stole it, not Josephine."

Josephine obligingly squeezed out two tears.

"Louisa, I know you were upset over losing your things, but being upset doesn't give you the right to falsely accuse me. At the very least, at least you should've given me a chance to explain."

"You called me a thief in front of all these people. How is a girl like me supposed to live that down!"

Hearing it, Harry ached for her, of course.

"I can give you the watch back, and I'll pay you for the damage."

"You accused Josephine just now without knowing the facts, so you have to apologize. Otherwise we'll take this all the way."

Louisa was a kind woman. All she'd meant to do was get her watch back and an apology.

But now the watch was ruined, and somehow she'd become the villain.

She couldn't let it go, and any thought of smoothing it over was gone for good, so she shouted,

"Why isn't the factory security office here yet?"

"I want the director. I'm getting an answer for myself."

But the things Harry had just said were too ugly to take back.

So Louisa wouldn't let it drop, and Harry was hauled off by the factory security office just the same.

Before they took him away, though, he shot me one last threatening look, a signal to keep out of it, or he'd kill me.

I hadn't planned on getting involved anyway. That whole act I'd just put on was only to make Harry think I hadn't been reborn, so nothing else would go sideways.

Now that he'd walked himself onto a dead-end road, I certainly wasn't going to mix in. I just covered my face, playing the part of a woman crushed to the bone, and went home.

I washed my face at home and had barely told my parents I was fine.

Then Harry's mother, Margery Hansen, came wailing and dropped to her knees outside our door.

"Paula, Harry's a good boy. He's your fianc, your whole future, your sky. How could you stand there and watch the factory security office drag him off?"

"Those men in security are nothing but big dumb brutes. What do they know about looking after an educated young man?"

"Fine, so you tested into college yourself, and now you look down on how poor my family is, look down on my Harry. You can break off the engagement. But you can't ruin Harry like this."

"Is your heart really that vicious?"

Margery's words were loaded with insinuation, and plenty of people in the courtyard genuinely had no idea what had happened.

So they actually believed it was my fault, that I'd thrown him over the second I had money, used and abandoned him, and schemed to destroy Harry.

My parents spun in helpless circles. Honest, simple people, they had no idea how to explain any of it.

All they could do was keep begging Margery to get up.

None of this surprised me. Last time, after Harry pushed me onto the train tracks, she'd twisted the truth exactly like this, claiming I'd fallen on my own and gotten Harry killed in the process.

They'd forced my parents to kowtow and apologize to Harry, let the whole crowd curse them as murderers. My parents had been honest their whole lives, and they never came back from it. They chose to drink poison and follow me...

5:

At that thought, I pinched my own thigh, hard.

Forcing myself calm.

Then I rushed out the door, threw myself into Margery's arms, and cried until I could barely catch my breath.

"Aunt Margery, Harry's already in this state, and you're still here blaming me?"

"Harry's my fianc, but he was hanging all over Josephine right in front of me, and he took the blame for her. And now you stand here calling me the one who used and abandoned him!"

Margery knew perfectly well who her son had feelings for. Being called out like that flustered her, but she still puffed up and snapped.

"He was right to hit you."

"Harry's young and hot-headed. As his fiance, you should be helping him!"

I rolled my eyes on the inside.

Harry was two years older than me. Since when was he the young one?

But I only cried harder.

"You don't know. I just wanted to say one word for Harry, and in front of all those people he cursed me for meddling and slapped me across the face, hard."

"See for yourself, the mark's still on my cheek. He wanted to play the hero and take the blame. What was I supposed to do?"

Margery looked at the cheek I'd rubbed red myself.

And it only stoked her fury.

"So you already know my son was taking the blame for someone else. Then as his fiance, why didn't you take the blame for him?"

That stopped me for a second.

But then a few people who knew the truth came back and couldn't stand it, one after another stepping in to shield me and turning on Margery. Margery didn't disappoint, cursing them out one by one, and only after she'd offended every last one of them did I sigh and pull her into the house.

"Aunt Margery, no one knows my heart for Harry better than you do!"

"Even after Harry treated me like that, I still care about him. That's why I came back, to work out a plan with you."

"So here's what I was thinking. You go find the woman whose watch it was, I'll go find proof that Harry wasn't there the day the watch went missing, and then Harry can walk free."

Six:

Because the factory director also knew Harry had taken the fall for Josephine, he couldn't stand to watch Harry ruin himself over a girl and a moment's rashness, so for the time being he had Harry locked up in the security office.

I spent two days handling my own business and Margery Hansen's, and it wasn't until the third day that I went to the security office to see Harry.

The last two days hadn't been kind to him. He looked worn thin, and yet oddly full of spirit.

When I arrived, he was reaching through the iron bars, holding the hand of Josephine, who'd come to bring him food.

"Josephine, don't cry."

"Doing all this for you, I do it gladly."

"Never mind a theft charge. Even if you'd killed someone, I wouldn't blink before taking the blame for you."

"Because I know you did nothing wrong. Taking that watch was only human. Everyone wants nice things. This is my fault, for being useless. If I'd bought you a good watch long ago, why would you ever have needed to take someone else's?"

I curled my fingers into a fist and swallowed a laugh, only pretending to dab at the corner of my eye where there were no tears, and let out a sigh.

Only then did Harry see me.

"Why are you here again?"

"You're a girl too. How can you be so shameless, always throwing yourself at me?"

"Our engagement was only a verbal one. It doesn't count for anything. Stop treating yourself like my other half. It's pathetic, the way you keep chasing me!"

I wasn't angry.

I only looked at him with regret.

"Harry, Louisa's already called the police. Are you really so willing to go to prison over a girl?"

At the word police, Harry froze.

"The police?"

"Not a chance. Don't try to scare me."

"Louisa Donaldson just wants money, and the director's been putting in good words for me the whole time. Who would go to the police?"

"Quit standing there spouting nonsense to frighten people!"

I shook my head.

"I'm not making it up."

With that, I walked straight into the security office, clearing the doorway, and the moment I stepped aside, a few officers came in.

"You're Harry Matthews?"

Seven:

Harry went blank. He nodded, but still couldn't believe it. Which made sense. In the last life Louisa had been kind. She hadn't wanted to see Josephine ruin her own life over one foolish moment, so she'd only asked for some compensation and never called the police.

So Harry panicked. He grabbed my arm and pulled me over, lowering his voice.

"Paula Pruitt, what did you do? Why would Louisa call the police?"

I covered my eyes and pretended to cry.

"Louisa knew you were taking the blame, so she only wanted an apology and compensation."

"But your mother went and made a scene with her, insisting that the watch was a gift from Louisa's lover."

"She even went on and on about Louisa being a loose woman."

"Louisa passed out from the anger right there. Her husband believes in her, and he couldn't let it go, so he went straight to the police. Everyone's calling your mother vicious. She's scared now, hiding at home, too afraid to come out."

"So stop this, please, and just tell the truth!"

Josephine had gone white with fear, clutching Harry for dear life.

"Harry, save me, I don't want to go to prison. You're a college student, they're bound to go easy on you!"

Harry had wavered for a moment.

But seeing Josephine like this, he set his jaw, repeated everything he'd said before in front of the officers, gave a statement, and signed the written confession.

Plenty of people around them shook their heads and cursed Harry for being a fool.

Harry didn't see it that way. If anything, he said it with complete confidence.

"I'm nothing like the rest of you. I'm a college student. I'm somebody with talent!"

"That watch isn't worth much anyway. Even if I own up to it, the worst is getting fired and paying for it. I can still go to college. I'll still be somebody!"

"Paula Pruitt, quit playing dead. Go home and take good care of my mother, or I'll make you regret it when I get out."

I lowered my hand, stared at his handsome face, and let out a sigh, pretending to be heartbroken.

"Harry, you're not getting out."

"The place Louisa's watch was stolen was the women's bathhouse."

"So your charge isn't just theft. It's... an indecency charge!"