I had just dropped my daughter off at kindergarten when I received a call from her homeroom teacher.
"Mrs. Adams, is everything all right? Clara didn’t come to school today. Is she feeling unwell?"
I responded in confusion, "Ms. Hannah, I just dropped her off. Didn’t I hand her over to you this morning?"
But the teacher replied firmly, "Mrs. Adams, this isn’t funny. I haven’t seen you at all today."
Stunned, I rushed back to the kindergarten, only to find that my daughter was indeed missing.
I demanded to see the surveillance footage. But to my horror, the cameras showed that I never brought my daughter to school.
Even the security guards and other parents claimed they had not seen either of us that morning.
Strange, because I remembered it clearly that I walked her to the gate and handed her over to the teacher.
To find my daughter, I called the police.
Eventually, they found her lifeless body floating in a pond near our home.
The surrounding CCTV footage showed something even more horrifying. It showed me pushing my daughter into the water with my own hands, drowning her.
My mother-in-law collapsed, clutching my daughter’s body as she sobbed and screamed, "What did my granddaughter ever do wrong? Why would you kill her?"
My husband slapped me across the face, his voice shaking with fury as he snapped, "How could you do that to your own daughter? She was only five! Are you even human?"
I had no way to defend myself. I was labeled a heartless mother, a monster. Everyone hated me.
My parents were harassed and doxxed online. The stress and shame drove them to their deaths at home.
I was thrown into prison, beaten mercilessly and eventually died behind bars.
Until the moment I took my last breath, I could not understand any of it.
I knew I took my daughter to kindergarten. So why did everyone say they never saw us?
I had never even gone near that pond. So how could the surveillance footage show me drowning her with my own hands?
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day I took my daughter to kindergarten.
——
"Dear, my mother’s not feeling well. I’m taking her to the hospital. Could you take our daughter to school today?"
Kelvin Adams, my husband, gently supported my mother-in-law and spoke to me in his usual soft tone.
Those all-too-familiar words struck me like a bolt of lightning.
I turned to look at Kelvin and suddenly realized I had been reborn.
In my previous life, I had agreed to take my daughter to kindergarten that morning after Kelvin asked me to.
And then, strange things began to happen, bizarre, inexplicable events that led to my daughter’s drowning.
I was falsely accused of murdering her and beaten to death in prison.
As I stood there, silent and overwhelmed, Kelvin approached, concern etched on his face.
"What’s wrong, honey? Are you too busy?"
He spoke with such tenderness as if afraid of troubling me.
Looking at his gentle expression…
…my heart sank.
In our previous life, I was often tied up with work, so he and my mother-in-law usually handled the school drop-offs.
But why did everything go so horribly wrong that one time, they asked me to do it?
Could it really have been just a coincidence?
After a brief hesitation, I looked him in the eyes and said in a serious tone.
"I don’t think Clara looks very well today. Maybe she shouldn’t go to school."
Kelvin turned to check on our daughter, his expression full of concern. Then he nodded.
"All right. We’ll do as you say."
"Don’t forget to let the homeroom teacher know she’ll be absent."
My mother-in-law also chimed in with a kind smile. "Then I’ll leave Clara in your care today."
Their reactions were calm. Natural. Not a hint of anything suspicious.
And yet, the more normal they seemed, the more unsettled I felt.
After Kelvin left with my mother-in-law, I turned my gaze toward my daughter.
She was sitting at the table, quietly eating her breakfast, so obedient and sweet.
My eyes grew red with tears.
I could not help but remember the tragic sight of her lifeless body in the pond from my previous life.
