The holidays are almost here, and yet I've chosen to burn down the mushroom greenhouse, which has generated millions of profits that can sustain my family's livelihood.

As I stare at the blazing inferno, my heart is as calm as a still lake.

In my previous life, I had a grand haul of mushrooms after devoting my blood, sweat, and tears into cultivating throughout the year. When I was about to sell them, Sarah Clarkson, my husband's childhood friend, came knocking on my doorstep. Apparently, she wanted to get about 30 pounds' worth of mushrooms so that she could give them away as holiday gifts.

Having taken her relationship with my husband, Dominic Kane, into consideration, I didn't hesitate to pack up the mushrooms and give them to Sarah. Little did I know that I'd receive the news of her getting poisoned the next day.

Not only that, but Sarah even started a live stream and started berating me for selling the mushrooms.

"I've already consulted the fungi experts, Hazel! Apparently, the mushrooms you've given me contain lethal poison!

"Thank goodness I'm the one who found out about this! If not, I can't imagine just how many people would've been poisoned by your mushrooms once they got out!"

I tried to defend myself, but Dominic was quick to produce the so-called solid evidence.

"I thought you were just joking about wanting to plant cheap, poisonous mushrooms. I didn't think you'd stick to your word!"

At that moment, the viewers lashed out at me so much that I went viral. Later on, I got forcibly taken away by the police so that they could proceed with the investigation. The results completely stunned me.

It turned out that the mushrooms I had spent so long cultivating were actually poisonous!

After leaving the police department, I found out that all of my savings were already siphoned by Dominic, who then used it to pay off Sarah's medical bills. He also filed for a divorce, stating that I was a woman with poor character.

Left with nothing under my name, I was completely dazed and delirious. In the end, I collapsed and died on the street.

When I open my eyes, I've returned to the day before the grand mushroom haul. That's when I decide to torch all the mushrooms.

But this time, Sarah still gets poisoned for some reason.

By the time I finished cleaning up the mess, it was already noon the next day.

Exhausted, I dragged myself home, only to hear Sarah Clarkson's pained screams when I reached the door. She and my husband, Dominic Kane, were childhood sweethearts.

"God, my head is spinning! My stomach hurts so bad! I'm in so much pain! Please, help me! Do something!"

Mixed in with her cries was Dominic's panicked voice. "What happened, Sarah? You were fine just minutes ago!"

A bad feeling instantly crept up on me. My heart skipped a beat as I shoved the door open and rushed inside.

Sarah's face was deathly pale, and she was leaning weakly against Dominic.

He had an arm around her and looked utterly concerned for her well-being. The second he saw me, he exploded. "Look what you've done, Hazel Brown!"

Sarah was breathing hard, her eyes full of resentment. "Hazel, why would you do this to me?"

I was confused—stunned, even. The next second, I caught sight of the plate of fried mushrooms on the table. "What did I do?"

"Quit pretending!" Dominic barked, sweeping the mushrooms off the table in one violent motion.

The plate shattered on impact, breaking into pieces. Fragments splashed against the top of my foot, and the sharp sting made me realize I had truly been reborn—and my mushroom greenhouse had already been burned to the ground.

"What does any of this have to do with me?" I asked, confused.

Sarah forced herself to speak between ragged breaths. "Hazel, it's just the three of us here. Can you stop playing innocent? I know you haven't always been a fan of my friendship with Dom, but how could you poison me with those mushrooms?"

As if to prove her point, a thick, white foam even seeped from the corner of her mouth. That sight made Dominic's heart ache, but his concern quickly turned into anger toward me.

"After all these years of being your husband, I never knew you could be this vicious!"

I almost found the way they coordinated their performance ridiculous. "Are you sure I was the one who grew those mushrooms?"

The second I asked that, Sarah suddenly gagged and dry-heaved. "Well, who else could it be?"

Dominic flew into a rage, his voice nearly cracking. "You complained about how close Sarah and I are! You even said that if we kept in touch, you'd poison her to death!

"You said you found some cheap mushrooms. Were they poisonous all along? I thought you were just saying it out of anger! I never thought you'd actually do it, Hazel!"

Sarah lowered her head in resignation and began to apologize to me in shaky voice. "Hazel, I know my friendship with Dom makes you uncomfortable, but there's nothing between us! I just don't get why you keep doubting us!"

I stared at them in disbelief. Then, I noticed a camera in the corner, its tiny red light blinking faintly as it recorded everything. Immediately, it all clicked.

In my previous life, Sarah was poisoned after eating the mushrooms she got from me. Without my knowledge, she uploaded the whole incident online.

She was a somewhat popular online influencer to begin with. Since the situation involved agricultural products, the story exploded almost instantly and became a viral topic.

I broke down back then. I went to Sarah, hoping she would help clear my name. Instead, she turned on me without hesitation.

"No, you deliberately fed me poisonous mushrooms to harm me. Now, you want me to clear your name? In your dreams, Hazel!"

Every explanation I made became an excuse in her mouth.

"You grew poisonous mushrooms just to save money! People like you deserve to rot! Good thing I was the one who ate them first. What if you'd sold them to other people instead?"

With that, Sarah pinned the accusation on me.

When the police came to arrest me, I placed my last bit of hope in Dominic. Yet when he showed up, it was to testify against me.

"Officer, my wife's just a poor woman who's always trying to save a buck. She mentioned growing poisonous mushrooms before when she was farming mushrooms.

"I thought she was joking, but I didn't expect she'd actually do it! And not only that, but she also gave Sarah about 30 pounds of poisonous mushrooms! That's attempted murder, isn't it?"

With Sarah's statement and Dominic's accusation, as well as the toxic substances found in the mushrooms, none of my explanations mattered anymore. No matter what I said, nobody believed me.

Thankfully, with help from a friend later on, I was released on bail pending trial. The moment I got out, I went straight to find Dominic and Sarah.

What I got in return was a slammed door in my face. Not only was I thrown out, but he even informed me that he wanted a divorce. Even the savings I had spent years building up had been drained.

Those memories sent a tidal wave of hatred through me.

The most ironic part of all was that I had already destroyed every single mushroom I had grown. So, where exactly did the mushrooms that poisoned Sarah come from?

"Well, if she's poisoned, just take her to the hospital already," I said, pulling out my phone, ready to call an ambulance.

Dominic suddenly rushed over and snatched it from my hand. "Drop the act! I want you to apologize to Sarah right now!"

Sarah's complexion was worsening by the second, yet she still lifted her chin and looked at me with superiority and arrogance. "Please apologize to me, Hazel. Otherwise, I will call the police!"

Seeing that I wasn't reacting, she simply doubled down. "It's just the three of us here, so I'll allow us to handle this privately. As long as you apologize and promise you'll never sell poisonous mushrooms to the public, I'll let this go.

"But if you won't, I'll report you to the police. Feeding someone poisonous mushrooms is attempted murder, by the way!"

Although she was already curled up in pain, her attitude was still just as sharp.

I merely smiled indifferently. "I never fed you any mushrooms, so why should I apologize?"

Having lived through this once, I already knew Dominic and Sarah like the back of my hand. If this had been in my previous life, I would've scrambled to apologize on the spot.

This time, I understood that an apology was the same as a confession. The second I admitted fault, it would basically be the same as admitting I had grown poisonous mushrooms myself.

"You—"

Sarah suddenly gagged again, unable to hold it back anymore. Panting heavily, she leaned weakly against Dominic's arm. When she spoke again, her voice was noticeably weaker.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Hazel. What you did can land you in prison!"

From the side, Dominic kept pressuring me. "Sarah's being nice by not making a big deal out of this. Why are you still acting so stubborn? Just apologize to her and promise never to sell those mushrooms again!

"We'll let this whole thing go, so you'd better not push this and make it worse than it needs to be!"

Compared to how anxious they were, I remained perfectly calm. "If Sarah's actually been poisoned, then there's obviously a problem here. In that case, let's call the police and let them handle it."

Dominic visibly panicked. He shot Sarah a quick look before pulling me aside into the living room. "Honey, I don't want you getting dragged into a lawsuit."

His tone softened drastically, even carrying a trace of pleading. "I mean, what am I supposed to do if you end up in jail? Didn't we agree we were going to start trying for a baby later this year?

"Sarah agreed not to pursue this after I spent ages talking her into it. Just listen to me and apologize to her. Okay?"

I still had a smile on my face, but deep down, it felt like knives were stabbing into my heart.

In my previous life, I had trusted Dominic more than anyone else in the world. I loved him, so I listened to everything he said.

Everyone around me thought there was something inappropriate going on between him and Sarah. Back then, I had questioned him about it, too.

Instead of explaining, he turned it back on me. "Who told you we have something going on? Are you stupid? Can't you tell that they were just jealous of our marriage and trying to drive a wedge between us?"

Since then, not only did I stop doubting him and Sarah, but I also felt guilty for suspecting them in the first place. Because of that guilt, I often brought her gifts and good stuff whenever I could.

In return, all I got was a stab in the back.

I would never forget the expression on Dominic's face when he accused me at the police station. There was a mix of excitement and relief in his eyes.

"Honey, don't you think I'm right?"

I looked up and shoved his face away in disgust. "Dominic, are you really sure the mushrooms she ate came from me? Or were you two working together to set me up from the very beginning?"

Dominic instinctively stepped back from me, his voice wavering. "What the heck are you talking about? I'm doing this for the sake of our future!"

A wry smile tugged at my lips. "For our future, huh? Let's call the police, then."

The moment the words left my mouth, sirens grew louder outside. Dominic's eyes widened in disbelief. He was so flustered that cold sweat instantly broke out across his body.

"You called the police? Are you out of your mind?" he hissed.

I ignored him and went outside to meet the officers. Thankfully, I had been cautious enough. The moment I sensed something was wrong, I had already called the police before entering the house.

"Who made the report?"

"I did," I replied. "Someone here has been poisoned, and I suspect attempted murder."

Before I could even say more, Dominic hurried over to the officers with a forced smile.

"It's a misunderstanding! Yeah, just a misunderstanding! My wife's talking nonsense. Nobody's been poisoned—I can assure you of that, officers."

The second he finished speaking, Sarah suddenly let out a shrill scream from inside the house. "Gosh, it's killing me! My head feels like it's about to be split open!"

Hearing that, the officers shoved Dominic aside and rushed into the room.

At that moment, Sarah was coughing up blood, her eyes bloodshot. Even her lips and skin had turned a dark bluish-black—classic signs of poisoning.

The police didn't dare waste another second and immediately moved to take her to the hospital.

Sarah resisted weakly, waving her hand. "I'm fine, officer… Even though Hazel fed me poisonous mushrooms, I'm willing to forgive her… So long as she apologizes… We can let this go…"

In an instant, every pair of eyes turned toward me. I raised a brow and pointed at Sarah, who looked half-dead on the bed.

"Officer, do you really think the words of someone who's been poisoned are reliable? If I really poisoned her, why would I call the police?"

Sarah painfully opened and closed her mouth, her breathing growing weaker. She pointed a trembling finger at me before her arm dropped limply to the side.

Dominic instantly panicked. "Sarah! Sarah, hang in there!"

The officers immediately realized something was seriously wrong. They started emergency first aid on the spot and called for an ambulance.

On the way to the hospital, Dominic grabbed my wrist forcefully and lowered his voice in warning. "You've blown this whole thing up, Hazel. It's not too late to turn back now. Apologize to Sarah, and she'll forgive you! You don't want to waste the best years of your life behind bars, do you?"

I yanked my hand free in disgust. "Maybe you should spend more time worrying about Sarah instead. She looks like she's about to die! Also, I'm more than willing to cooperate with the investigation. But if it turns out that someone else poisoned her…"

All I could say was that things were about to get pretty interesting if everything was exactly as I suspected.

"Officer!"

Dominic cut me off nervously. Guardedly, he stepped in front of me, his voice firm and resolute. "I want to report a crime! The person responsible for poisoning Sarah is my wife, Hazel. I have proof."