Chapter 1

In my past life, Ethan's mom found a pair of sexy underwear in his room.

Faced with Ethan's pleading eyes, I accepted by default that the underwear was mine.

From that day on, I became a thorn in his mother's side.

Later, after the SAT, Ethan—who should have gotten into an Ivy League school—only made it into community college.

Ethan's mom lost her mind.

She set fire to my house and burned my entire family alive.

Reborn into this life, back to the day the lingerie was discovered.

This time, I'm not taking the fall.

"You little slut! So young and already seducing my son into sleeping with you? Have you no shame!"

Victoria Lane's shrill voice exploded through the apartment complex courtyard. A pink piece of lingerie landed on my face, reeking of an indescribable fishy smell.

My whole body trembled. In an instant, I remembered the bone-searing pain of being burned alive in my past life.

In my past life, it was also today. Mrs. Lane publicly accused me of seducing her son. I was about to open my mouth to refute when I caught Ethan's slightly pleading gaze.

The rebuttal on the tip of my tongue was swallowed back down.

I promised Mrs. Lane over and over that I would keep my distance from Ethan, never imagining that was just the beginning of a nightmare.

From that day on, whenever Ethan's grades showed the slightest fluctuation, Mrs. Lane would show up at our door crying and making a scene.

My parents were tormented beyond endurance and even lost their jobs.

I originally thought that after the SAT ended, things would gradually calm down.

I never expected that Ethan—whose grades should have been good enough for MIT—dropped a bombshell on SAT score release day.

He only scored just over 300 points.

Mrs. Lane went crazy. In the middle of the night, she doused our house with gasoline and burned our entire family alive.

My parents and I were trapped inside. The agony of flames licking my body and the smell of burning flesh intertwined.

The heart-wrenching screams of my parents are something I'll never forget in this lifetime.

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms.

Ethan ran over and grabbed his mother. "Mom! Stop embarrassing yourself here!"

Mrs. Lane thought her son was protecting me and plopped down on the ground, wailing, "I worked so hard to raise my son. Ethan is my only hope. If you wanted a man, go find those delinquent punks who don't study. Why target my son? Are you trying to destroy me?"

Mrs. Lane knelt toward me. "Lily Thompson, I'm begging you, please leave our Ethan alone. I've never wronged you all these years. Just let me live, okay?"

With such a big scene, neighbors gathered around, pointing and whispering about me.

"This Lily seems so proper though..."

"You can't judge a book by its cover."

"And pink lingerie too. Young people these days really know how to have fun."

I took a deep breath, my eyes uncontrollably drifting toward Ethan.

Ethan's eyes were full of pleading, just like in my past life.

In my past life, I was soft-hearted and nodded, then carried the reputation of being frivolous and promiscuous from then on.

Mrs. Lane went around saying I was young but already knew how to seduce people. Our whole family couldn't hold our heads up in the complex.

And Ethan, the actual culprit, never once stood up to say a word in my defense from beginning to end.

I took a deep breath.

"This underwear isn't mine."