My close friend Avery, every time she had an affair, would lie to her husband Egbert that she was out shopping with me.

As a result, Egbert would call me every other day, interrogating me about our whereabouts.

In my past life, considering the decades-long friendship between Avery and me, I had repeatedly covered for her in front of Egbert, lying that she was with me.

I always earnestly advised her to return to her family soon.

She always dismissed my words and soon went on a date with another man.

This time, around one in the morning, while I was in a deep sleep, my ringing phone woke me. I sleepily answered it, only to hear a roar through the phone.

"Lucia, can you stop ruining other people's families?"

Who? Me? Whose family was I ruining?

Startled and confused, I became somewhat more alert and glanced at the caller ID.

The caller ID displayed Egbert's name.

It was him again.

I took a deep breath, ready to retort, but he spoke first, "Play around all you want since you can't get married, but can you stop dragging my wife into your mess? What time is it now, and you still won't let her come home? Does destroying other people's families give you a sense of achievement?"

"Just going out is one thing, but why does she not reply to me? Taking advantage of your long friendship with her and her soft-heartedness, are you manipulating her?"

His voice was muffled, evidently struggling to contain his anger.

Just then, my phone pinged several times in succession.

It was messages from Avery.

"Lucia, I told my husband we're out eating, so don't slip up, okay?"

"If he asks, just say we're at a restaurant near your home. There are so many around your area. He can't possibly go door to door looking for us."

"If you can't handle him, just block him. Love you."

My consciousness began to clear, and memories of my past life became vivid.

I had been reborn.

In my previous life, my last moments were of being framed by Avery and sent to prison, with Egbert, who was unaware of the truth but full of resentment towards me, hiring a hitman to stab me repeatedly in the prison.

It was painful, each stab very painful.

Having lost too much blood, I was already too weak to resist and could only plead with Avery with my eyes.

But Avery just covered her eyes and screamed on the side, and after my death, they continued to live a happy life together.

Thankfully, fate gave me a chance to start over.

Seeing that I had been silent for a long time, Egbert became even more agitated. "Did you not hear me? Are you deaf or dumb?"

"What the hell are you guys doing? Avery said you're eating. What are you eating that takes so long?"

I laughed angrily and snorted coldly.

"She probably didn't get enough to eat at home, that's why she had to go out for so long."

The couple had been married for three years but had no children yet. There had always been speculation about whether Egbert had some deficiency, and as the jokes increased, he became more sensitive about it.

"Fuck you! Lucia, you just wait!"

The call was hung up.

I quickly went to the living room, locked the front door, and barricaded it with a table to secure the door, then saved our chat records to the cloud to ensure evidence remained in case my device was destroyed.

After doing all this, I set my phone to silent and put it aside.

About twenty minutes later, a violent kicking at the door began.