Reborn Felon? Watch Me Ruin Their Plan

I'm Roxanne Parker, and I'm currently smashing fire hydrants in a mall while a crowd of onlookers live-streams my rampage online. In less than ten minutes, the news of what I've done skyrockets up the trending topics. The incident catches everyone off guard, and before anyone can intervene, I've already destroyed the fire hydrants on three entire floors within the span of an hour. Once I'm done, I head up to the mall's rooftop to clear my head. When the police surround me, people online and onlookers cheer loudly. I also let out a breath of relief. "You're finally here. I've been waiting for you for a long time." I'm only doing this because, in my previous life, I took the fall for my coworker, Jasmine Powell, and my boyfriend, Callum Fisher. Both of them reported me for stealing gold bars from the bank on the day I was on duty, landing me behind bars. I spent my entire life working myself to the bone, only to have the person closest to me stab me in the back. My parents, Robert Parker and Margot Spencer, had lived their entire lives as law-abiding citizens. Yet, in their twilight years, they were branded as the parents of a criminal, dying with their names dragged through the mud. When the news of their death reached me in prison, I cried until I went blind. The moment I was released, Jasmine and Callum ran me over with a car and took my life. When I open my eyes again, I'm back on the very day they accuse me of transferring the bank's gold bars. Since they're capable of fabricating evidence to frame me for theft, I'll create an alibi that will rock the entire city. Chapter 1 The wind on the rooftop howled around me. There was a 330-foot drop staring back at my shoes, and behind me was a welcoming committee of a dozen distressed police officers and firefighters. Beyond them, a literal sea of people was holding up their phones, recording the scene. Right in the heart of the mall, a giant billboard was broadcasting my feat in real time. At 2:30 pm on July 5, 2024, a woman in a bank uniform—that would be me—was running amok, smashing fire hydrants. Glass shattered, water geysered from the ruptured hydrants, and everything from the first to the third floors was a complete mess. The stream's live chat was fast-paced. "Is she out of her mind? Bro is literally trashing the mall in broad daylight." "@RPD hurry up and arrest her! She's about to jump!" "Hold up, I know her! She's Roxanne Parker, an executive at Continuum Bank. She's been on the financial news before!" "She's an executive? Did she snap from the stress?" The female police captain leading the team raised a megaphone. Her voice rang out, firm and measured, "Calm down, Ms. Parker! Please step back from the edge. I'm sure we can talk about this. Whatever it is, we'll help you resolve it!" Ignoring her, I pulled out my phone to check the time. There were 30 minutes left before they made their move. "If you take one more step forward, I'll jump." My voice was incredibly calm, yet it made all the police officers freeze in their tracks. None of them dared to take the risk. Just then, a young reporter squeezed his way to the front and yelled, "Why are you doing this, Ms. Parker? Are you trying to punish society?" I glanced at him and raised my voice to the microphone he held out to me. "I want to go viral. The more eyes on me, the better." The crowd erupted. "She's a lunatic! She's willing to risk her life just to go viral!" "People like her belong behind bars! She should rot in prison!" Scorn, curses, and bewildered looks washed over me like a tidal wave, but I couldn't care less. Right then, a commotion broke out beyond the police cordon. My parents, Robert Parker and Margot Spencer, were being supported by a few officers as they stumbled through the crowd. "Rox!" Mom choked out. "What on earth are you doing? Get down from there right this instant!" Dad's lips quivered, his graying hair whipped into a mess by the wind. His clouded eyes were filled with anguish and disbelief. "Have you lost your mind, Roxanne? How can you do this to us?" Looking at their weathered faces, my heart felt as though it was being crushed by an invisible hand, squeezing until I couldn't breathe. In my previous life, because of me, Mom and Dad went to their graves branded as the "parents of a criminal", hounded by the neighbors' gossip until they died of misery. This time around, I had to use this method to protect them. I closed my eyes, forcing back the tears that threatened to spill over. "Go home." When I opened my eyes, my voice was devoid of emotion. "I want the world to know who I am. I want all eyes on me." The female police captain frowned and chided, "You're being incredibly selfish, Roxanne! Look at your parents!" At that moment, my phone rang. I answered it, and my boyfriend, Callum Fisher's, pretentious voice came through the receiver. However, in the background, I could hear a woman's muffled, suppressed giggle. "Are you still working at the bank, Roxie? I'm grabbing dinner with some friends tonight, so I won't be coming home. You'll have to figure out dinner on your own, okay?" I could distinctly hear the subtle noises Jasmine Powell was intentionally making on the other end of the line, and it made my stomach twist with visceral disgust. In my previous life, these were the two people I trusted the most—and together, they had sent me straight to hell. Suppressing the emotions churning inside me, I kept my tone deadpan. "Okay." After hanging up the phone, I looked at the time displayed on the mall's giant screen. There were only five minutes left. Callum and Jasmine had successfully completed the transfer. Chapter 2 "Look at that, Ms. Parker. Your boyfriend cares about you so much he's even calling to check in on you." The young police officer who had been attempting to talk me out of this flashed me a faint, relieved smile, genuinely believing he had just found a breakthrough. "Your parents are also waiting for you to come home, and you're a bank executive with a promising future and a comfortable life. Why would you even consider throwing that all away? "Please just tell us about whatever you're going through. We can all help you get through this!" His voice was earnest, carrying the passion and kindness that belonged to someone young. Unfortunately, he didn't know a damn thing. I spun around and looked into his eyes. My gaze carried a plethora of emotions he could never comprehend. Then, I started counting down, "Ten, nine, eight…" The gale on the rooftop completely died down at that moment. Everyone's eyes were locked on me, assuming that I was about to jump. The blood drained from the young police officer's face, and he instinctively tried to sprint toward me. "Three, two, one." It was time. To everyone's utter bewilderment, I didn't leap off. On the contrary, I turned on my heel and slowly raised both hands toward the police. "Cuff me. I'll tell you the reason I did this." The police looked at each other, completely caught off guard. I even took two steps forward, extending my wrists toward them. With a click, the handcuffs locked around my wrists. I lowered my head and looked at them, a relieved smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. "This is the most comforting piece of jewelry I've ever worn in my life." Everyone looked at me as if I were a total lunatic. The live stream chat exploded yet again. "Holy crap, what a plot twist! Is this some kind of performance art?" "I don't get it, but consider me blown away!" "Is she actually nuts? First, she wrecks the place. Then, she threatens to jump off a building. Now, she's asking to be handcuffed?" Just then, a barrage of urgent sirens wailed from below, and several black sedans screeched to a halt right at the entrance of the mall. The doors swung open, and a group of sharp, stern-faced people in tailored suits stepped out. I recognized the woman leading them—Scarlett Thornton, the CEO of Continuum Bank, a middle-aged woman with an imposing presence. Several special agents in uniforms were trailing right behind her, though their demeanor was noticeably different. The badges on their chests bore the words, "IRS Criminal Investigation". They were here. Sure enough, it happened at the exact same moment as it had in my previous life. Ms. Thornton, accompanied by several special agents, took the private elevator straight up to the rooftop. The moment she saw me in handcuffs, her expression hardened. Her eyes were filled with anger and disappointment. "You've let me down, Roxanne!" Elio Woods, the supervisory special agent of the Criminal Investigation unit, walked up to me. He flashed his badge and said coldly, "Roxanne, we received a report that between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm this afternoon, the central vault of Continuum Bank had 300 million dollars worth of gold reserves stolen, and 500 million dollars in funds were illegally transferred. "Based on our preliminary investigation, all the transaction permissions point to your personal master key." The moment his words fell, the crowd erupted into another earth-shattering uproar. Gold theft? Massive wire fraud? Those two accusations were far more explosive than jumping off a building to commit suicide. In an instant, all the camera lenses turned toward me. The flashes were so blinding that I couldn't keep my eyes open. "That's impossible! My daughter would never do such a thing!" Mom screamed and tried to rush forward, but Dad held her back with all his might. The color had drained from Dad's face. Looking at me, the heartache in his eyes shifted into absolute despair and utter disbelief. "You ungrateful wretch… How could you…" He couldn't finish his sentence as his entire body trembled with anger. Just then, two familiar figures emerged from behind Ms. Thornton. Chapter 3 Callum's face was painted with just the right amount of worry, his expression one of deep anguish. "How could you do something like this, Roxie? Didn't we agree that we would work hard together and get married at the end of the year?" Jasmine, on the other hand, grasped my arm with a sorrowful expression and let out a sigh. "We're the best of friends, Roxanne. If you were strapped for cash, you could've just told me. How could you go down this path? What were you thinking?" Playing off one another flawlessly, they put on a seamless performance. In my previous life, I had been deceived by their deceitful facades. I only realized the truth after I died. "T-That's impossible!" Looking at Agent Woods, my voice trembled slightly from shock. "Agent Woods, you must've made a mistake. My personal key… How could it be mine?" Agent Woods eyed me coldly. "Roxanne, your colleague and your boyfriend provided us with an important lead." Jasmine immediately handed him a document. "Agent Woods, we found this by accident. It contains communication records between Roxanne and several overseas gambling websites. It looks like she owes them a large amount of money." Callum also pulled out his phone with a pained expression and played an audio recording. "This… This is what Roxie told me in a drunken stupor a few days ago. She said she wanted to pull off one big heist so she'd never have to answer to anyone ever again…" I could no longer maintain my composure. I thrashed around frantically, the handcuffs clanking loudly against my wrists. "You're lying!" I roared at them. "This evidence is fabricated! Callum, Jasmine, why are you framing me?" I shifted my gaze toward Ms. Thornton and pleaded, "Ms. Thornton, you have to believe me! I've worked diligently all these years. How could I possibly do something like this?" Mr. Thornton lamented, "The highest-level access at headquarters is restricted to only three people—me, Roxanne, and Jasmine. However, Roxanne's the one on duty today, and the code used to open the vault does indeed belong exclusively to her!" All the evidence fit together into a flawless, airtight loop, condemning me and nailing me firmly to the role of the criminal. My actions—smashing the fire hydrant and climbing onto the rooftop—were twisted into nothing more than a staged act after the successful theft, designed to distract the public and cover up the truth. "First, she commits theft. Then, she stages a suicide attempt. Once the dust settles, she plans to flee with the money. What a brilliant scheme!" "Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing! Who would have thought someone who looked so polished and successful could actually be this kind of person?" "Her parents are so pitiful. They raised such an ungrateful child!" The condemnation online came like a tidal wave. In an instant, I went from being labeled a "mentally unstable lunatic" to a "mastermind behind a carefully planned financial crime". After listening to the voices around them and looking at that ironclad evidence, Mom and Dad could no longer hold themselves together. Mom's eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot. Dad held her tightly, tears streaming down his weathered face. Yet, he still used his raspy voice to plead on my behalf, saying, "Agent Woods, she must've lost her mind for a moment. I beg you, please show some leniency…" Gazing at me, a sadistic glint of triumph flashed through Callum's eyes before he hastily masked it with that familiar expression of utter disappointment. "Let's go our separate ways, Roxanne. I never expected you to be this kind of person." Jasmine also shook her head, her face filled with regret. Agent Woods waved his hand, and two special agents flanked me, restraining me. "Let's go. You can save your testimony for the judge." I had heard those cold words and seen this familiar scene before. Instinctively, I looked down at my handcuffed hands. Having been given a second chance at life, was I still destined to walk the same path and repeat the same tragic mistake? Just as everyone assumed it was a done deal, I abruptly stopped in my tracks. "Hold on." My words instantly brought all the clamor to a sudden halt. The two special agents restraining me instinctively tightened their grip. Agent Woods turned around impatiently. "What kind of stunt are you trying to pull now?" Slowly, I turned around, my gaze landing squarely on Agent Woods' face. "I just want to clarify a few things, Agent Woods." His brows knitted, but he still gestured for me to proceed. I cleared my throat. "Here's my first question. Are you positive that the theft and the wire transfers took place between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm?" Agent Woods snorted. "The evidence's ironclad. The bank system's timestamps are accurate down to the second. During that specific timeframe, only your personal key was used." "Very well." I nodded, a grin spreading across my face. "In that case, I'd like you to answer a question for me." I paused before scanning the room and drawing everyone's attention to me. "Where was I during that period of time?" The air instantly froze, and everyone at the scene went dead silent.