Burden of Blood

Maeve kept calling and nagging, saying the whole family was waiting for me to have dinner.

I took my time and bought a baked potato, and I paid double.

As expected, the vendor chased after me. "Miss, you paid extra, and you dropped your plane ticket!"

"It's okay. I don't have change. And that ticket's from my recent business trip. It's useless now."

I remembered the owner of this baked-potato stand very clearly. He was the one who had dealt the fatal blow to me in my last life.

He was the victim's second brother, Charles Fleming.

He was burly, as if he'd been in the military. Since he had chased me down to give me extra change, it showed his character wasn't all bad.

I showed him my round-trip ticket, mainly to let him know I wasn't actually in Pentaston these past few days.

"Here's your change. I'm closing up soon. I have an emergency up in Northgate Alley," he said.

I acted surprised. "What a coincidence. I live there, too. It's hard to get a cab now, and my family's waiting. How about I pay you 40 dollars, and you give me a lift?"

Charles hesitated for a second. "Alright. Hurry up and get in. I've got something urgent to deal with."

He would be foolish to turn away money. And he really did have something urgent. He wanted to kill me.

All through the ride, Maeve kept texting me, pushing me to hurry, and my father called to ask if something was wrong.

I told him to stay home and rest. I wasn't going to let him risk himself this time.

On the security cameras, I saw the iron gate at my in-laws' place being forced open, and a group of burly men rushing in.

"Which one of you is the Lincoln Enterprise heiress? Bring her out!" they shouted.

Maeve had changed into a plain look, with no makeup and her sunglasses gone. When she saw the crowd, her smile vanished.

She probably didn't expect me to get home so late.

The leader grabbed her and said something I couldn't hear, and Maeve crouched down, shaking her head as if she was terrified.

Because there was no audio, I couldn't tell what they were saying.

When we got to the doorway, Charles saw me getting off and froze.

"Y-you live here?" he asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for the ride," I said.

He tried to stop me from going in. "Hey, maybe you should just go for a walk first. There's—"

"Maeve? What's going on?" I didn't give him a chance to finish; I pushed past and ran inside.

By then, many neighbors had come out to watch. My in-laws' place was a three-story house with a yard, so whatever happened in the yard was visible to the street.

Maeve stood up and grabbed my hand. "She's Lydia! Lydia, how could you do something so cruel? You're on your own this time!"

The neighbors started whispering to each other.

"So it was Lydia who hit those people a few days ago!"

"She seemed so quiet before. How could she be so vicious? That baby was only a month old, and she ran over them twice!"

Their words triggered the grieving family. One of the men shoved me to the ground. "You little tramp! So it's you. Don't bother denying it. Your outfit gives it away!"

Remembering the last life, I trembled. "It wasn't me. I didn't do it. Please, look carefully. Are you sure it was me?"

The man snorted. "What's wrong? You were so cocky when you were bragging about being the Lincoln Enterprise heiress. Now you're scared?"

I shook my head and looked at Maeve. "Haven't you been using my car these past few days?"

Before Maeve could reply, the man barked, "Shut up! It's definitely you! You can't run now!"

He raised a knife to kill me, but Charles stepped forward and hugged him from behind. "Freddie, stop! I think something's off. This girl just got off a plane, and I drove her here. I saw her ticket—she wasn't in Pentaston these past few days. I don't think she's the one."