The next day, Dad flew overseas for business. I checked myself out of the hospital alone and went back to the estate.
I barely stepped through the door when Linda grabbed me at the edge of the ground-floor pool.
The challenge in her eyes wasn't even hidden:
"Guess. If we both fall in, who do you think they'd save?"
I looked at the pool, three meters deep, and a chill moved through me.
In my previous life, she pushed me in. I nearly drowned, saved at the last second by a maid coming out to use the bathroom. I was left with fluid in my lungs and a cough that never went away.
Not this time.
She shoved me into the pool with everything she had. I dove straight to the bottom and swam to the far end underwater.
Linda was expecting to watch me thrash. One blink, and I was gone.
She craned her neck over the edge to look, and slipped right in, because I'd smeared the pool edge with lubricant beforehand.
I lay on the tile and watched her flail. What an idiot. I'd learned to swim.
Then Jason came sprinting from the side, screaming her name, desperate to get her out.
I narrowed my eyes. So it was a setup from the start.
It took them ten full minutes to haul Linda out.
She was shaking, terrified, and then suddenly dropped into a deep bow in front of me, eyes glistening.
"Sis, I was wrong. I'm so sorry. I'll make it right, I swear—"
I was bored. I wanted to walk away.
But Jason was staring at me, rage building behind his eyes like a wildfire.
"You—actually—tried—to—kill—her."
He grabbed a fistful of my hair from behind with one hand and wrenched me off my feet, hanging me in the air.
Then he forced my head underwater and held it there.
I stayed calm, held my breath, and played along.
Go ahead, the harder the better.
What felt like a century later, he pulled me back out.
He dumped me in front of Linda's hospital bed and kicked me.
"On your knees."
I curled up on the floor. Mom was right beside Linda's bed, looking at me like she hated me.
"The doctor said Linda nearly died. Severe suffocation. Pulmonary edema."
