Living Again, I Sent My Husband and His Childhood Sweetheart to Hell

On Thanksgiving weekend, the child of Theodore's childhood sweetheart fell down the stairs and broke both legs.

His sweetheart swore up and down that my daughter had pushed her son down.

She kept shrieking that she wanted my daughter to lose a leg for a leg.

When it happened, my daughter was with me in the little garden, picking flowers.

There was no way she could have pushed his son down the stairs.

But no matter how I explained, no one believed me.

My sister-in-law insisted she had seen my daughter at the top of the stairs.

"Sister-in-law, just stop lying! I saw Tammy push Leo down the stairs with my own eyes!"

My mother-in-law's tone was strangely certain too.

"Exactly! You say Tammy was in the little garden, but I only saw you out there, no one else!"

Faced with their bald-faced accusations,

I pinned all my hopes on Theodore.

"Theodore, you know your daughter. She's been sweet since she was little. She's not a child who causes trouble..."

"Enough!"

Theodore gritted his teeth and cut me off.

"If she can push Leo down the stairs today, tomorrow she'll dare to kill someone! Today I'm going to teach her a real lesson!"

Theodore grabbed Tammy by the collar, paying no mind at all to her cries of "Daddy" as she begged him.

Without hesitation, he shoved Tammy down the stairs.

Tammy's head struck the person-height vase at the bottom of the stairs, and she died on the spot.

Afterward, my sister-in-law and mother-in-law swore that Tammy's death was an accident.

The whole thing shook me badly, and three days after Tammy died, I threw myself off the rooftop.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on Thanksgiving weekend.

This time, I took my daughter ahead of time to the police station near my mother-in-law's house.

An hour later,

Theodore's childhood sweetheart pointed at Leo, who had fallen at the bottom of the stairs, and broke into tears.

"Theodore, Tammy pushed Leo down the stairs..."

Section 1

Leo cowered in the corner at the bottom of the stairs.

The pale, bluish leg bone had actually punched right through the flesh.

Blood ran down the bend of his knee like a stream, quickly spreading into a large pool beneath him.

"Theodore, I told you today was your family dinner. I shouldn't have come, or I'd only make Myrtle angry! And if Myrtle gets angry, my boy and I are the ones who suffer!"

"Look! Tammy pushed Leo down the stairs right in front of me!"

More and more blood was pooling under Leo's body.

In the span of just those few sentences,

the crimson blood had already run into a little stream at the bottom of the stairs.

In my last life, it was a scene exactly like this that terrified me.

I'm a mother too, and I can't stand to see a child suffer.

So faced with everyone's accusations, I lost my composure at once,

and that was what led to my daughter's horrific death.

Ten years of marriage, and Theodore never worked a single day.

The day after I died,

Theodore used the money I'd earned to marry Dora in grand, lavish style.

They lived in the villa I bought.

Dora enjoyed her life on the money I'd worked so hard for.

Leo got the best education money could buymy money.

And my daughter didn't even get a funeral or a burial plot.

The wretched memories of my last life left my face rather grim,

and that subtle flicker was quickly caught by Dora.

She lunged forward two steps, pointed at my nose, and screamed shrilly,

"Myrtle! Your face has gone pale with guilt! Tammy is the fine daughter you raised, and no matter what, today you're going to give me an explanation!"

As if worried Theodore might really take my side,

Dora spun around at once, wrapping her arms around Theodore's waist and pressing herself against him.

"Theodore, look how badly Leo is hurt. You wouldn't let my boy and me be wronged like this, would you...?"

The faint hesitation that had been in Theodore's eyes turned instantly ice-cold.

"Myrtle Winfield..."

"You're telling me you saw Tammy push Leo down the stairs with your own eyes?!"

I cut Theodore off in a cold voice,

turned to Dora, and demanded through gritted teeth.

In my last life, I was so worried about Leo's injuries that I panicked completely.

One wrong step, and every step after it went wrong.

To keep today from playing out the way it had,

the moment I brought Tammy to my in-laws' area, I'd taken her to the police station nearby,

and told the officers to make sure she didn't wander off.

So this time, my heart was absolutely steady.

"I'm asking you a question!"

I closed in on Dora again,

and just like she had pointed at me a moment ago, I pointed at her nose, my voice utterly resolute as I demanded loudly,

"When did you see Tammy push Leo down the stairs?! Answer me!"

"Just now!"

There was none of the panic I'd expected.

Dora's eyes were dead certain too.

She looked at Leo slumped in the pool of blood, and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

"Just five minutes ago, right where you're standing, Tammy said she wanted to play hide-and-seek with Leo, but the second Leo covered his eyes, Tammy shoved him down the stairs..."

"You're lying!"

I shot back through gritted teeth.

"Myrtle, what are you getting at? Are you saying I'm framing Tammy on purpose?"

"Leo is hurt this badly. What kind of mother would I be to have the heart for something like that...?"

Seeing Theodore's expression turn grimmer and grimmer,

his bloodshot eyes already fixed on me as he charged over,

I abruptly took a step back and spoke in a cold voice,

"I took Tammy to a classmate's house to play an hour ago! How could she have pushed Leo down the stairs five minutes ago?!"

There was no panic in Dora's eyes, none of what I'd expected.

"Impossible!"

She stomped her feet like a child who had truly been wronged, and spoke in a trembling voice.

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Theodore, do you believe me...?"

Theodore frowned, his gaze shifting between me and Dora.

After everything I'd been through in my past life, I no longer had any faith in Theodore.

Sure enough, his gaze finally settled on me.

His eyes slowly turned fierce.

"Myrtle Winfield, bring Tammy over here right now!"

The scene of Theodore shoving Tammy down the stairs in my past life rose up right before my eyes.

Rage suppressed across two lifetimes surged into my chest.

I glared at Theodore with bloodshot eyes, gritting my teeth as I snarled.

"I already told you!"

"I dropped Tammy off at a classmate's house to play an hour ago!"

"She wasn't even here! How could she possibly push Leo down the stairs?! What is wrong with your brain?!"

I'm gentle by nature.

Before I got married, my mother reminded me again and again that I had to be gentle with men.

So in ten years of marriage, the number of times Theodore and I had raised our voices at each other could be counted on one hand.

Let alone the sheer hysteria of today.

Theodore was taken aback.

He looked me over again and again, as if he saw something unshakeable in my eyes.

Then he slowly turned to Dora, his tone softening in an instant.

"Dora, did you maybe misread things in the heat of the moment? Tammy isn't home..."

"Impossible! How could I be wrong about something like this?"

"Theodore, you're just playing favorites! You promised me before that you wouldn't let anyone bully my boy and me, and I knew all along you'd never actually do it..."

There wasn't a trace of pretense in Dora's eyes.

It was all the unwillingness and anger of a mother wanting to get justice for her child.

As a woman myself, as a mother myself, I understood it all too well.

Doubt began to flicker through my mind.

If Dora had a guilty conscience, there was no way she'd leave not a single trace.

But what if...

I didn't dare think any further.

"You've just got it wrong!"

Even with the doubt in my mind, I held tight to the lesson of my past life.

I could never, ever show weakness in the standoff.

I took out my phone and pulled up the only security camera, the one at my in-laws' front gate.

Partly to set my own mind at ease.

Partly to shut Dora up for good.

I shoved the surveillance video straight into Theodore's arms.

"Look! Didn't I take Tammy away just now?"

Theodore snatched the phone, gently pulled Dora into his arms, and started watching.

The video recorded it all, clear as day.

An hour ago, I'd left my in-laws' with Tammy.

But my heart stayed lodged in my throat.

The video played on, frame by frame.

Finally, when I saw that Tammy never appeared at the gate again, I let out a breath at last.

It definitely couldn't be Tammy.

"Is that enough?!"

I pointed at Tammy's retreating figure leaving the gate on the footage and looked at Dora.

"Quit using that filthy mouth of yours to frame Tammy! Leo falling has absolutely nothing to do with her!"

"And you!"

I pointed at Theodore and spoke sharply.

"Get your position straight. You'd better be clear about exactly whose father you are, and whose husband!"

Theodore froze for a moment.

The next second, he abruptly yanked his hand back off Dora's shoulder.

I couldn't be bothered with him.

I lifted my foot to walk out.

But the second I turned around,

Dora dropped to her knees behind me with a thud.

She looked at me, tears streaming down her face, and spoke in a trembling voice.

"Myrtle, please, please give Leo and me justice..."

"I don't know which pro you hired to fake that surveillance video, but let me just say this: you can fool Theodore, but you can't fool me, and you can't fool Heaven..."

"If Tammy really didn't push Leo down the stairs, then explain this. Why is Leo clutching the hair tie Tammy was wearing today?"

My eyes snapped down to Leo.

Then my whole body went rigid.

What Leo was clutching in his hand right at that moment,

was none other than the Elsa-princess hair tie I had tied into Tammy's hair with my own hands this morning...

Memories exploded in my mind.

Tammy loved buying all kinds of hair ties.

Every one of them was different.

This Elsa-princess hair tie was the one I'd bought her last night when she came home from school.

The owner of the accessories shop had told me himself

that it was new stock that had just come in yesterday afternoon, a limited-edition collab.

Their shop was the only one in the whole city that sold them, and there was only one of each color.

In other words,

Dora and her son had absolutely no chance to get this hair tie beforehand.

I immediately took out my phone and pulled up the surveillance footage from earlier.

The footage recorded it clearly:

as I was leading Tammy out of my in-laws' house,

Tammy had this very hair tie on her head.

And now,

this same hair tie was clutched in Leo's hand...

A huge wave of unease flashed through me.

Just as I was trying to calm the turmoil inside me,

my mother-in-law's shrill, piercing voice suddenly came from behind.

"Theodore, Dora's right! On my way back from grocery shopping just now, I saw Tammy run out of the house with my own eyes, looking panicked!"

"Mom, when did you get back?"

"Just half an hour ago!"

Theodore glanced at his phone, then let out a long breath of relief.

He slowly turned to look at me, his eyes full of disgust.

"Myrtle Winfield, do you have anything left to say?"

"Half an hour ago is exactly when Dora said she saw Tammy push Leo down with her own eyes."

In my last life, Tammy tumbled down the stairs,

and the bloody image of her head hitting a vase made me shudder.

I kept my unease under control and shot back,

"Then how do you explain the surveillance footage?"

"If Tammy ran out of the house, why isn't she in the camera footage?!"

"Dora says the footage is fake, but ever since Leo's accident, I've been with all of you the whole time. Tell me, when would I have had time to fake the footage?!"

Faced with my challenge,

the resolve in Theodore's eyes actually wavered, just a little.

I couldn't help thinking to myself:

sure enough, in my last life I lost on sheer force of presence.

Until there was solid proof, I would never let Tammy be connected to any of this...

"Who says you can't fake it?!"

The sound of high heels clicking against the floor came from behind me.

The moment I turned around, I met my sister-in-law's contemptuous eyes.

She planted her hands on her hips and pointed at Theodore.

"Theodore, you really are an idiot!"

"I just called the technician who installed the security cameras at our house, and he told me himself that just twenty minutes ago their customer service got a message telling them to delete a segment of our home surveillance video from the back end."

"Normally they wouldn't delete it, but he said that because your wife and their boss are good friends, they went ahead and did it without a word."

My heart, which had barely started to settle,

was thrown right back up in the air by Ellie's words.

She was right.

The company that installed the security cameras at my in-laws' house belonged to my college classmate.

He'd left school in his sophomore year to start his own business,

so the fact that we were friends was something even Theodore didn't know...

That bad feeling welled up in my heart again.

If it wasn't Tammy,

then why did every single detail point to her?

And if it was...

No, it couldn't be!

In my last life, Tammy was framed, and there was even less chance of that in this one.

I felt like I was caught in a huge whirlpool,

as if all these details, everyone around me, wanted to push Tammy and me off a cliff.

I couldn't figure out why,

but I knew one thing clearly.

At this moment, I was Tammy's only support.

Living a second life, I absolutely could not repeat the same mistakes.

Thinking of the bitter lesson from my last life, I went instantly cold and calm.

I looked at the several people who had already closed in around me,

tugged the corner of my mouth into a faint smile, and spoke evenly.

"Fine. Since everyone has their own version, then let's call the police."

The words had barely left my mouth

when Theodore flew into a rage.

"Myrtle Winfield, has your brain gone bad?!"

"We're clearly one familythis is something we can settle at home! Why would you call the police?"

"Tammy is so young. If the police come and she ends up charged with assault, how is she ever supposed to hold her head up at school again?!"

Seeing this, my mother-in-law stepped forward to talk me down too.

"Myrtle, Theodore's right. We're all family, and it's not that big a deal. Just hand Tammy over and let her apologize to Leo and Dora. Worst case, we let Leo push her down the stairs too, and that's the end of it. Why get the police involved? There's really no need..."

"Exactly."

My sister-in-law came forward to talk me out of it as well.

"Sister-in-law, I'm not trying to lecture you, but all that studying's turned you into a fool. It's obvious Tammy did this. What, you're her mother and you want to send your own daughter away? Everyone's giving you room to work withdon't lose track of right and wrong yourself!"

I let out a cold laugh inside.

They really were mother and son.

In my last life, Theodore's exact words had been,

"Apologies are useless. Do what Dora saida leg for a leg."

And then, with a look of pure resolve, he pushed Tammy down the stairs.

Facing Tammy's body,

the Sanchez family and Dora all swore in one voice that it was an accident.

Tammy died wronged, full of resentment.

In this life, I'd be the fool if I listened to them.

"Right, Myrtle, there's really no need to call the police..."

Dora stepped forward to talk me out of it too.

I flung Dora's hand off me.

Living a second life, this absolutely could not end in the same muddle as before.

Human or monster,

whatever had actually happened here,

I had to get to the bottom of it.

Even if Tammy really had hurt Leo in some reckless act,

I was willing to accept the consequences.

But I would not just let it drop, unexplained and unclear!

I quickly stepped aside and, without hesitation, dialed 911.

The police arrived fast.

Before I could get a word out, Dora rushed up and grabbed one officer's hand, sobbing as she spoke.

"Officer, please, you have to give me justice! Just an hour ago, my son was maliciously pushed down the stairs, and now both his legs are broken. Please, you have to punish whoever did this!"

The officer looked at Dora and spoke calmly.

"Who pushed your son down the stairs?"

"It was this little girl!"

Dora pulled out her phone, found a photo of her daughter, and held it up in front of the officer.

"It's her! She's a born bad seed!"

"I have proof!"

The officer took the phone.

The instant his eyes landed on the screen, his pupils shrank violently...