Chapter 5
583words
My eyes darted around, and the cramped space inside the elevator was making it hard to breathe.
Maxwell's smile turned creepy.
The second the doors on the ground floor opened, I bolted.
While lying in bed that night, I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said. I wondered if he also had been reborn.
I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. Standing at the floor-to-ceiling windows in my office, I spotted Maxwell chatting with a female employee at the coffee shop downstairs. Even from behind, I recognized her immediately—Angelica.
She'd applied to Zachary's company for a receptionist position. With her looks, she was perfect front desk material.
"What are you looking at?" Zachary asked, standing beside me and following my gaze. "Isn't that the new admin intern, Angel Lockwood? She seems pretty friendly with Mr. Sutton."
"Angel Lockwood? Pull her resume for me," I said, keeping my voice calm. "I want to see her educational background and work experience."
Zachary gave me a sharp look, and he asked, "Are you worried about something?"
"Let's just say I've learned to be cautious the hard way," I said.
I headed back to my office before he could see the coldness in my eyes.
In my previous life, Angelica had slowly crept into my world and taken everything from me.
Half an hour later, Zachary knocked on my door with a grim expression.
"You were right. Her resume is fake, and her actual name is Angelica Xavier. She graduated from Elmshore University, and she was Maxwell's classmate."
My hand trembled slightly as I held the pen. It felt like the path of my previous life was still playing out on autopilot. No matter how hard I tried to avoid Maxwell, I still couldn't escape the same tragic ending.
"There's something else," Zachary said, sliding another document across my desk. "Maxwell signs her job recommendation letter, but the handwriting analysis suggests she wrote it herself."
"He knows exactly who she is," I replied, letting out a bitter laugh. "They're putting on an act."
Then, I added, "Zachary, I need you to help me with something."
He nodded without hesitation. "I'll do anything."
I'd caught them scheming, but I still didn't know what they were planning. Maybe if I played along, I could figure out what really made me sick so young in my previous life.
I had hidden cameras installed in my office, focused on the filing cabinet where we kept our proprietary designs. Then I had Yvonne "accidentally" mention to Angelica that we were about to land a major deal with a foreign client.
"She took the bait."
Three days later, Yvonne burst into my office excitedly.
"I caught her going through your desk," she said.
The security footage was crystal clear. During lunch break, Angelica had snuck into my office and photographed the design blueprints in my filing cabinet. But what made my blood run cold was watching her open the pill organizer on my desk and slip several white tablets into my vitamin bottle.
"Is she… poisoning you?" Zachary asked, his face turning pale. "We need to call the police."
"No. Not yet," I said, staring at the screen. "We still don't know if Maxwell is involved."
In my previous life, I'd been diagnosed with liver cancer at 30. The doctors suspected long-term exposure to toxins. But now I was starting to think it hadn't been an accident at all.
