My gaze darkened. The milk carton I had just been holding slipped from my hands and splashed into the egg wash.

I quickly fished the carton out.

To my surprise, Laurel completely flipped her lid over the minor slip-up. She raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face, with her eyes bulging wide.

"Why are you adding so much milk?"

As I clutched my burning cheek, my mind went blank for a second before I shot back, "How am I supposed to make a cake without adding milk?"

She seemed to choke on my response before bursting into tears.

"Did you seriously forget? This smol bean breaks out in a severe allergy if she has more than 4.5 fluid ounces of milk! How could you add so much for her?"

I stared dead at her pathetic, aggrieved act without feeling a single shred of emotion. "Do you really think I'd forget?"

When Laurel met my scrutinizing gaze, her eyes darted over to the kitchen counter, where the milk carton sat on top with its sealed spout completely intact.

Only then did she realize she had overreacted and violently slapped me. She immediately grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand over to tap her chest lightly a couple of times, her tears flowing right on cue.

She sniveled, and her voice was thick with a heavy nasal whine. "Cassie, please don't be mad at me.

"I just couldn't control my emotions for a second. I thought you met new friends after moving abroad and forgot about those details, which is why I panicked."

I looked down at her hand gripping my wrist and found it utterly laughable.

When I stayed silent, she sniffled, her eyes darting over to the milk in the cup every few seconds as if to confirm just how much milk I had poured.

Once she saw that it was exactly 4.5 fluid ounces, she added, "I'm going to stem the strawberries in the living room. Hurry up and stop dawdling."

I simply focused on baking the cake.

Moments later, she came in holding a small bowl of strawberry chunks, a smile playing on her lips. "Cassie, I have all the strawberries ready."

As she spoke, she looked over at the milk carton before picking it up to give it a shake and bringing it close to her nose to sniff it.

After confirming that I hadn't secretly added more milk, she shot me another suspicious look.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught everything she did. It seemed like she didn't just want to harm me, but she was on guard against me, too.

After the cake was baked, I suddenly asked her, "Did you pay for the strawberries already?"

She found and finally got a little annoyed. "Of course, I did. Would I ever lie to you?"

I didn't press further.

Laurel took a massive, satisfied bite of the cake before carrying the plate over to slump onto the couch. Every now and then, she would mumble a complaint at me.

"Cassie, if you'd made this for me from the start, none of this would've happened. I wouldn't have had to slap you, too. Now my hand still hurts."

I said nothing. All I did was eerily watch as she ate the whole cake, until her voice was so soft it was barely audible, and her eyelids began to droop uncontrollably.

"Cassie, why am I suddenly so sleepy?"

Deep down, my heart was terrifyingly calm. "We've been running around all day. You're probably exhausted."

She mumbled an agreement and collapsed onto the couch, her breathing instantly smoothing out.

I stared at her.

Of course, I hadn't forgotten that Laurel suffered from a milk allergy if she consumed more than 4.5 fluid ounces. Furthermore, her allergic reaction was falling into a comatose state.

So, while she was busy prepping the strawberries, I had secretly poured nine ounces of milk and topped the carton back up with water.

After all, she was the one who refused to let me go in this life. And now, I wasn't going to run away anyway.

I looked down and fished for her phone out of her hand.

Just like in my past life, Laurel hadn't intended to pay for the order at all. The username on the shopping app and the shipping recipient for the strawberries had been changed to my name at some point.

My expression turned cold.

It hit me that Laurel was using my name to make things tough for the strawberry seller, Dave Hoffman.

That explained why, in my past life, Dave had completely broken down and stabbed me the moment he heard Laurel call my name.

I tapped into Laurel's chat log with Dave. As my fingers flicked through page after page, my expression grew darker with every swipe.

Dave had a polite tone the whole time.

"Hello, please complete payment for the strawberries. I've shipped all ten cartons to you, and you can't just use AI to fake rotten fruit images to force a platform refund.

"You said you needed them to make desserts, so I went out of my way to pick the ripest ones for you. I already gave you every discount I could manage. This really isn't a small sum of money for me."

But Laurel acted as if she couldn't understand basic human speech. Operating under my name, she started spouting utter garbage.

From the log, I saw Dave explaining his situation over and over again. He even took the initiative to tell her that, due to medical reasons, he was unmarried and childless. However, he had spent the last few years sponsoring three students, which added to his heavy financial strain.

One of the students had just finished their SAT and got into a prestigious college, while the other two were already in college. He was carrying their entire tuition and living expenses entirely on his own.

Every line he wrote was a desperate plea for Laurel to show him mercy, but her reply made my vision go momentarily dark with rage.

"If you don't have the financial ability to sponsor students, that's your own problem. People only end up childless because they've done immoral things in life. Are you just trying to build up good karma now?

"If you want to play the saint, stop asking for money, or it won't just stop at being childless."

Dave fell into a long silence after that, before replying with a single line. "Don't push me."

I locked the screen and shoved the phone back into Laurel's hand. She was dead asleep with a faint smile hanging on her lips.

The anger I had been suppressing exploded. The strawberries averaged about 20 dollars per carton, which meant the total bill was 200 dollars.

I had sent Laurel the money, yet not only did she refuse to pay, but she also used my name to humiliate Dave relentlessly. No wonder he had been driven to his breaking point.

In the end, she dumped all the blame on me and had me killed.

The truth behind the trap Laurel had set up for me was likely uglier than I had imagined.

My expression turned cold as I lunged forward and slapped her right across her face. But to my surprise, the slap immediately woke her up.

Her eyes weren't fully open yet, and she looked utterly dazed.

"What the hell are you doing?" she snapped.

Before she could say another word, the doorbell rang.

Judging by the timeline, this was the time Dave had broken in and stabbed me to death in my past life.

Laurel went rigid all over, and all traces of sleepiness vanished from her face.

As the doorbell rang with increasing frantic urgency, she leaped off the couch and raced to the door before I could, forcing her usual soft whine into her voice.

"Coming! Coming! Stop buzzing!"

When the door opened, a man in his forties stood outside. Pure rage was written all over his face, and he clenched a fruit knife in his hands.

"You bought my strawberries and stiffed me on the bill. I think you know why I'm here, don't you?"

Colors completely drained from Laurel's face when she saw the knife in his hand. Just like in my past life, she scurried behind me and immediately shifted all the blame to me.

"Dave, it was Laurel! She was the one who wanted to make strawberry mousse glacee and refused to pay you!"

Then, she turned on and roared, "Laurel! I told you not to make things difficult for him, but you just had to use AI to fake photos of rotten fruit to force a refund from the app's customer service!

"Now that he's right here at our door, deal with your own mess and don't you dare blame me! I know absolutely nothing!"

With a sudden, violent shove, she pushed me toward Dave's knife. What she didn't realize, however, was that she was the one who should panic right now.