Chapter 4

Suddenly, the audio in my earpiece cut off, followed by a harsh static noise. I yanked the earpiece out and rubbed my ears. What a shame. I still didn't catch what they were whispering about in the end. But from the bits and pieces I heard, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously off about Celeste's pregnancy. Even if Stella, as Howard's student, had countless chances to get close to him, it was her mother who got pregnant instead. How did that even make sense? I stayed in that cafe for hours. When I saw Celeste and Stella casually eating lunch in my house, I suddenly realized how much time had slipped by. In my past life, Stella had never shown up—not once. Looking back now, I was certain it had been her spreading rumors at the university about Howard molesting female students. Back then, we had dismissed them as baseless gossip. That night, Howard informed me via message that he had made a reservation for a romantic candlelit dinner. I looked at the message and chuckled helplessly. He had no idea that in just three hours, both our names would be splashed across every major social media platform. We would become the top trending scandal in the country. At exactly 4:00 pm, Celeste stood against the white wall in our living room with her back straight. To make herself look more pitiful, she grabbed fistfuls of her hair and yanked at it, messing it up. Stella held up her phone and began recording. Celeste raised her ID card for the camera, dabbed peppermint extract under her eyes, and forced out a stream of tears. "My name is Celeste Quinn. I'm here to expose Mr. Howard Anderson, a professor at Clyde University, for raping me, and Wendy Larson, the marketing director of Soren Corporation, for assaulting and unlawfully detaining me." They redid the video several times, adjusting their emotions with each take. Eventually, they picked the most convincing version and posted it online. Not long after, I checked my phone. Just like in my previous life, the internet was going wild with outrage. Stella was truly efficient. Within an hour, the post had gone viral, surpassing ten thousand views. Comments were flooding in by the thousands. "My God. The world really has gone insane." "Unbelievable! How can someone like this be a professor?" "I'm Celeste's daughter. Wendy's entire account is just her showing off her wealth. I suspect her of embezzlement." Stella appeared in the comment section herself, fanning the flames. Worse, she publicly revealed my social media ID. A wave of online users followed the breadcrumb trail to find me, but they came up empty. Meanwhile, Howard had almost zero online presence, with no public accounts at all. A portion of the crowd, hungry for scandal, suddenly began to doubt the story. "Wait, Wendy doesn't even have a social media profile. Are you guys trying to frame them or something?" "You're accusing someone with zero evidence? I asked a friend in the police, and they said you never even filed a report. This sounds made up." "You can't trust anything online these days. I'm not buying it until I see solid evidence." I watched the post gain more and more traction. And with it, terrible memories of my past life surged up again. No! Absolutely not! I couldn't let them succeed again! I wouldn't let history repeat itself.