My roommate and her boyfriend had a major breakup, but I was the one who got kidnapped. In my previous life, Chloe told me her boyfriend, Ryan, was probably cheating and asked me to test his loyalty. I never imagined Ryan wasn’t cheating at all. Instead, he was obsessively in love with her. After Chloe broke up with him, he kidnapped me and forced an entire bottle of bleach down my throat, leading to my agonizing death. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day Chloe pulled the same old trick. Knowing the truth this time, I dialed 911: “Hello, Officer, I suspect someone just drugged me…” “Cassie, what are you spacing out for? Are you even listening to me?” Chloe’s sweet, yet oddly demanding voice, drifted into my ear through the phone. Familiar memories flooded back, and I felt a jolt, instinctively touching my throat. No burning sting. No numb sensation of chemical corrosion. I had been reborn?! In my last life, it was exactly today. Chloe had pleaded and pestered me on the phone, begging me to help her test if her boyfriend, Ryan, was really cheating. “Cassie, we’re best friends, you know? Only you can help me with this.” She sighed dramatically on the other end, her voice filled with such grievance, as if she’d suffered the greatest injustice. “I just have this gut feeling. Could you just go feel him out for me? Just chat with him a bit, see how he acts around other girls.” “You know Ryan. He seems aloof, but he totally falls for your straightforward type. If you test him, he won’t be on guard.” “If he really has changed, I can at least get over him, right? Please, help me out?” Back then, I had just graduated. I was naive and easily swayed. I couldn’t resist her repeated pleas and agreed. I never imagined my roommate, with whom I lived day in and day out, harbored such a venomous heart. In my past life, I followed Chloe’s script. At a party she’d conveniently arranged, I casually brought up relationship topics. I even said a few ambiguous things as she instructed. Ryan, already upset by Chloe’s recent coldness, blew up on the spot after my interference. Soon after, Chloe broke up with him. But then Chloe, sobbing dramatically with tears streaming down her face, told Ryan that I had been interested in him all along and deliberately stirred up trouble between them. “I knew she liked you for ages. Her eyes always looked at you weirdly. I thought she’d give up eventually, but I never expected…” “Cassie’s my best friend, I don’t want to hurt her, Ryan, let’s just break up!” All the words I had said, following her instructions, became “proof” of me “seducing” Ryan. Looking back now, Chloe wasn’t trying to test Ryan at all. She clearly wanted to break up but didn’t want to be blamed for cheating, so she staged this whole act. Ryan, with his extreme personality, was blinded by rage. He kidnapped me. “I wondered why she suddenly dumped me! So it was you messing things up behind her back!” I desperately explained that it was all Chloe’s setup, but he didn’t believe me. During our struggle, he pulled out a bottle of bleach from somewhere and forced it into my mouth. “She thought you were her best friend, but you secretly tried to steal her boyfriend!” “Chloe loves me so much, why would she break up with me?! It’s all because of you! Even now, Chloe refuses to get back with me.” “Since you like me so much, then just die!” I writhed on the floor in agony. Before losing consciousness, I only saw Ryan’s twisted, desperate face. By the time the police arrived, I was already dead, from acute chemical poisoning. Ryan was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. His entire life was utterly ruined. His decent, hardworking parents turned white-haired overnight, nearly fainting from grief in the courtroom. And Chloe? At my funeral, she wept profusely, playing the part of a poor soul who had lost her dearest friend, but her eyes were full of triumph. “Cassie, don’t blame me. Blame yourself for being too trusting. I just said a few ambiguous words, and you actually believed them.” “I didn’t want to hurt you, and I wanted to break up with Ryan peacefully. But that lunatic Ryan would just smash things and get violent every time I mentioned breaking up.” “Besides, it was that lunatic Ryan who did it himself. It has nothing to do with me.” It turned out she had calculated everything from the start. She wanted to get rid of Ryan but was afraid of his extreme personality and what he might do, so she designed this whole thing to implicate me. She even posted tributes to me on social media, subtly implying that I had a crush on Ryan and was accidentally harmed when my advances were rejected. She cleaned her hands completely, winning widespread sympathy. My parents, having to bury their own child, had all the life drained from them overnight. They eventually withered away from grief and sorrow. Perhaps Heaven itself couldn’t stand such injustice, and miraculously gave me a chance to come back. This time, I would make Chloe pay back every single debt, down to the last penny!
“Cassie? Are you listening or not? Just help me this once, please? I’ll treat you to dinner tonight!” Chloe’s voice on the other end of the phone continued to nag. I took a deep breath, suppressing the rising hatred. “Okay.” Chloe’s voice instantly brightened, full of undisguised eagerness. “I knew you were the best! You wouldn’t just stand by and let me be fooled.” I clutched my phone. “Well, he is your boyfriend. You need to know the truth. Tell me, what should I do?” “Just find a chance to ask Ryan out for dinner.” Chloe lowered her voice, a calculated excitement in her tone. “Just say… say that I’ve been complaining to you lately about him not being attentive enough, and you’re sticking up for me, wanting to talk some sense into him.” “Then you can subtly ask if he has something on his mind, or… if he’s met any girls who caught his eye.” She paused, then added, “Remember, don’t be too direct. Act like it’s just casual conversation.” “If he avoids eye contact or speaks vaguely, then something’s definitely wrong! Make sure to tell me right away so I can make my plans.” I intentionally dragged out my words, pretending to hesitate. “Is that really okay? What if he finds out you put me up to it? Won’t he get mad?” Chloe scoffed, her voice confident. “Don’t worry, he trusts you so much, why would he suspect anything?” “Besides, even if he found out, he’d only blame me for being nosy. At most, we’d have an argument, which would be a perfect chance to see his true colors.” I “reluctantly” agreed. After hanging up, the smile on my face instantly vanished. Chloe wasn’t looking for the truth at all. She clearly wanted to use me to plant a seed of doubt in Ryan’s mind, paving the way for her future “victim” persona. In my past life, she taught me the exact same way, step by step, leading me into the trap she had dug. But this time, the hunter and the hunted were about to swap places. After hanging up, I immediately opened Amazon and ordered a tiny voice recorder and a few miniature pinhole cameras. Then I contacted a realtor, giving “roommate’s incompatible schedule” as my reason for urgently seeking a new apartment. I didn’t want to spend another day in that place. Soon, I arranged to meet Ryan, following Chloe’s “script.” The location was a nice Western restaurant. I specifically booked a private room, making it easy to set up the equipment. Arriving half an hour early, I skillfully hid the cameras in a potted plant in the corner of the room and behind a framed painting. I also placed the voice recorder in the side pocket of my canvas bag, ensuring it could clearly pick up sound. As expected, after only a few minutes of chatting, Chloe “surprisingly” appeared with a few mutual friends. “Oh, Cassie, what a coincidence!” She beamed, intimately linking her arm through mine, her eyes quickly scanning the private room as if checking for something. “My friends and I were just shopping, and we happened to pass by here. We just came to say hello, hope we’re not interrupting?” I scoffed inwardly but kept my face neutral. “Of course not, the more the merrier.” Ryan was clearly a bit surprised but still stood up and greeted them with a smile. He had indeed been troubled lately by Chloe’s hot-and-cold attitude, and a hint of subtle fatigue was etched on his brows. During the meal, Chloe acted incredibly dependent on Ryan, showing him much care and concern, as if their relationship was perfect. But I noticed that when she lowered her head to play on her phone, her sweet smile would vanish instantly. Her eyes even held a hint of subtle distortion and annoyance. Mid-meal, the private room door opened. A waiter entered, pushing a beautiful cake, singing “Happy Birthday.” Ryan stood up, holding a bouquet of Chloe’s favorite white roses. He awkwardly scratched his head. “Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I meant to surprise you tonight, but I didn’t expect everyone to be here.” Everyone immediately started cheering and clapping, exclaiming, “How romantic!” and “Ryan’s so thoughtful!” Chloe’s smile froze for a second. Then it became exaggerated, and with reddened eyes, she threw herself into Ryan’s arms. “You scared me! I thought you forgot!” But I was sitting diagonally across from her and saw it clearly. When her face was buried in Ryan’s chest, her lips were turned downwards, and her eyes were filled with a grim, hateful look. I picked up my water glass, hiding the coldness in my eyes. While everyone’s attention was on them, I casually leaned towards Ryan and said: “Ryan, you’re so good to Chloe.” “Honestly, girls love these kinds of surprises, especially when you feel she’s been a little distant lately. Maybe a surprise like this can cheer her up.” Ryan paused, then thoughtfully glanced at Chloe. “You’re right. Maybe I’ve been neglecting her too much lately.”
After the dinner, back at our shared apartment. Chloe immediately dropped her facade. She closed the door, then turned around and questioned me, “Cassie, what did you say to Ryan? He was looking at me weirdly today.” I feigned a troubled expression and pulled out my pre-prepared explanation. “I didn’t say anything… just chatted about how you two have been lately.” “He said he felt you hadn’t been very happy recently and asked me if you had something on your mind.” I deliberately showed a confused expression. “Speaking of which, Ryan is quite considerate towards you, sending flowers and preparing a cake. How come you don’t seem very happy? Did you misunderstand something?” Chloe’s face instantly became unnatural, her eyes darting away. She probably hadn’t expected me to not only fail to sow discord as she’d planned but also to mention her “having something on her mind” to Ryan. This uncertainty made her a bit flustered. “No… nothing,” She forced a smile, her tone a little stiff. “Maybe I was overthinking it… Anyway, it’s getting late. I’m going back to my room.” Watching her flee, I knew she wouldn’t dare make any rash moves for now. In the following days, Chloe’s attitude towards me became noticeably colder. She no longer clung to me like before, but her eyes held a new wariness and scrutiny. I enjoyed the peace and quiet, dealing with her while speeding up my apartment search. Soon, I found a satisfactory apartment from the listings my realtor sent me. While Chloe was at work, I arranged for a moving company, ready to pack up and leave. Just as I was directing the movers to secure the boxes, hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway. Chloe stepped out of the elevator and froze instantly at the sight of my packed luggage at the door. “Cassie? What are you doing?” She rushed over and grabbed my arm, her panic barely concealed. “Why are you suddenly moving? Did I do something to upset you?” I gently pulled my arm free and took a step back. “You’re overthinking it. It’s just that this place is too far from my office, and the commute isn’t convenient.” I frowned. “By the way, why are you back? Isn’t it your work hours?” “I left some files at home, so I came back for them.” As she spoke, she tried to get closer to me again. “Are you still mad at me? Just because I asked you to help me test Ryan?” “My tone was bad last time, I apologize. Please don’t be like this.” Her fake concern, in my past life, would have gone unnoticed. I might even have softened. But now, I just felt disgusted. I ignored her, stepped aside for the movers, and followed them out. At my new place, I pulled out my phone and opened the live feed from the camera app. Sure enough, a leopard can’t change its spots. Just like in my past life, Chloe was on the phone with Ryan, feigning tears.
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