Every pair of eyes in the yard locked onto me.
Carmen scrambled to her feet and lunged at me, hands outstretched, but a few relatives caught her arms and held her back.
She glared at me, eyes bloodshot. "It was you. I know it was you!"
"We said a few words to you and you held a grudge, so you poisoned the food and killed my son and his wife!"
Alden's voice followed right behind hers, a raw, broken roar. "You vicious woman! This family never wronged you. Why would you do something so evil? You're paying for this with your life today!"
Andrew rushed to my side and reached for my arm. I flinched away before he could touch me.
His face was a mask of worry as he turned to the crowd.
"Everyone, please, calm down. Catherine isn't that kind of person. She was upset and went for a walk, that's all. Why would she poison anyone?"
"If not her, then who?" Chester's mother-in-law shoved through the crowd, tears streaming down her face. "We pushed her too far and she stormed out. She even threw the spatula before she left. That's when she made up her mind to kill them!"
"That's right, it was her!" The Finch relatives echoed in unison. "We all saw it. She threw things and walked out, and when she came back, they were dead. If she didn't poison them, who did?"
More and more people filled the yard, villagers drawn by the commotion. They circled around us, pointing, whispering.
"She looks so proper, a girl from the city. How could she be so heartless?"
"Poisoning people on Memorial Day. That's a whole other level of wicked."
"I heard she ran off earlier and left everyone waiting. She must've been furious."
Andrew put on a pained, conflicted expression and clasped his hands toward the crowd.
"Neighbors, I know everyone's upset. Catherine can be a little blunt sometimes, but she would never do something this horrific."
"She was probably just exhausted today, and Mom and Dad pushed her buttons, so she ran off. Please, just give her a chance to explain."
His words sounded like a plea on my behalf, but every sentence steered the crowd toward the same conclusion: that I'd been scolded, held a grudge, and snapped.
I stared at his face, that tender, concerned mask, and my stomach turned.
In my last life, I'd been fooled by that exact look for an entire lifetime. I didn't learn the truth until the moment I died.
Someone carried Chester's two children over. They were so young. The boy was barely five, the girl only three. The chaos had them wailing, their small bodies trembling.
Carmen crouched beside them and hissed in their ears. "Go on, tell everyone. Who killed your mommy and daddy? It was this woman!"
The little boy shook from head to toe, but through his sobs he screamed, "Murderer! You're a murderer!"
The little girl cried after him, her words slurred and broken. "I want Mommy and Daddy! Kill her!"
These children. In my last life, I'd nearly destroyed myself raising them. And they'd grown up to become trophies paraded around by the very people who ruined me.
Now they were still so small, and already being used as weapons.
I opened my mouth to explain, but the words died before they left my lips. No one was listening.
Carmen and Alden kept howling for my life. The relatives egged them on. The villagers' murmuring swelled into a roar, every voice certain I was the poisoner.
"Call the police! Let the cops investigate. They'll prove she did it!"
The shout came from somewhere deep in the crowd.
Andrew stepped forward immediately, blocking the man who'd spoken. "No. Don't call the police."
Pain twisted across his face. "This is a family matter. Chester is already gone. If we get the police involved and blow this up, what happens to the children? How will they ever live this down?"
He turned to me.
"Catherine, I know you didn't mean it. You just lost your head for a moment, right?"
"Just admit it. We'll find a way to handle this quietly. The children are so young. They need someone to depend on."
