The Quiet Conspiracy

My sister's best friend borrowed 20 thousand from me, saying it was for her mother's medical bills. As a cop, I lent it to her. I figured if I could help, I should. When it was time to pay me back, she didn't return a cent. Instead, she showed up at my precinct holding a baby and accused me of indecent assaults. After a paternity test, the baby turned out to be mine. She went on livestreams, crying about how I broke the law despite being a police officer. She used the scandal to make herself famous. The force treated me like a disgrace and fired me. I tried to explain, but no one believed me. I went from a model officer to a criminal overnight. My parents were cyberbullied; with nowhere left to turn, they both drowned themselves. My wife was also beaten in the street. She suffered a miscarriage from the attack and died from massive blood loss. As for my sister, guilt drove her insane; she was hospitalized before vanishing from the public eye. After my family fell apart, I hanged myself one night. Then I opened my eyes again. I'd been reborn. Facing my sister's evil friend, I vowed to fight back. Chapter 1 "Mom, Dad, this is my friend, Fiona. Her staff dorm is being renovated, so she's gonna stay with us for a few days." My sister, Judy Floyd's, voice crashed over the room like thunder. I looked up. Judy was bouncing with excitement as she introduced her friend, Fiona Shepard, to my parents. Fiona was a young woman with a cool, slightly embarrassed face. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd. I'm Fiona. Thank you so much for having me. I honestly didn't know where I'd go." Right then, I realized I'd been given a second chance. I'd been sent back to the day Fiona moved into my parents' house. I still hadn't had time to change out of my uniform, and Fiona kept glancing at me. "Judy, who's this?" Judy ran over and hugged my neck, her voice bright. "This is my brother. He's cute, right?" Fiona finally looked me over properly, a little shy. "Yeah, he's handsome. You're pretty, too. Your parents have really good genes." My parents and Judy burst out laughing at that. Just like before, Fiona knew exactly how to charm people. In her first week in our house, everyone was saying what a thoughtful, sweet girl she was. Judy even pushed past my wife, Lara Floyd's, objections and urged Fiona to work for us as a nanny. Seeing Fiona again now made my skin crawl. In my last life, she had destroyed my family. This time, I vowed to make her pay. Judy led Fiona into her room. Not long after, Fiona came out wearing an apron and went into the kitchen. "No, you're our guest. We can't let you cook for us," my parents protested. "I didn't graduate from college, and I do housekeeping work. I can't afford rent, but I can at least cook," Fiona said. "Please, just sit and try some of my cooking." She quickly won the elderly couple over and dove into making dinner. "Judy, you should treat Fiona well. Look at her—she might not be well-off, but she's got pride and carries herself with dignity. She's a good kid," my father said. He was a regular retired civil servant, and he admired Fiona's attitude. But I started asking questions. "Judy, how did you meet Fiona? You're a lawyer, and she's not the kind of person you'll come across usually." "Oh, FIona's old boss accused her of stealing, so her company hired me as her defense lawyer. That's how I met her. She's really great. She even brings me food at the firm." In my last life, I never understood how Judy and Fiona became so close. Was Fiona's friendship planned from the start? At dinner, Fiona kept the mood light with jokes here and there. "Nelson, I saw your wedding ring. Where's your wife?" she asked casually. I swallowed the food in my mouth. "She's pregnant. I told her to stay home and rest." Judy suddenly set her utensils down. "Nelson, why don't you hire Fiona as your nanny? Lara's really sick from the pregnancy, and Peter needs looking after. We know Fiona—she's reliable. Wouldn't she be perfect for your house?" My parents agreed right away. I was about to refuse, but then I thought, if I pushed Fiona away, who knew what kind of foul trick a schemer like her might pull? It was better to keep her where I could see her. "You're right. It actually sounds like a good fit." Fiona looked thrilled. "Really? You'll hire me? That's amazing. I promise I'll do my best!" Chapter 2 Hearing that I agreed to let Fiona work at our house as a nanny, Lara threw a little fit. After all, Fiona was young and easy on the eyes. I comforted Lara and told her it was just temporary and that Fiona wouldn't be staying more than a few months. At the same time, I secretly installed cameras around the house to make sure there were no blind spots. After a week of getting ready, Fiona showed up at our place with Judy, dragging her suitcases and big bags along. She stood in the living room, a little excited while looking the place over. I knew exactly what she wanted. Same as last time, she wanted to move right in. "Which room will I stay in?" she asked. I pretended to be clueless. "Stay? Who said anything about you staying here?" Fiona went bright red because she still had her luggage with her. Lara struggled to get up from the couch with her bump, and I rushed to help her. I said to Judy, "Show Fiona around the house. We only need daytime help; nine to six will do." Judy's face fell. Her pride was a little hurt, and she sounded annoyed. "Your place is a big three-bedroom. Don’t you have a spot for Fiona?" Before, I had felt sorry for Judy. But now I only felt annoyed. Even Lara rolled her eyes at her a couple of times. "Yeah," I said. "As you said, it's a three-bedroom: one for Lara, one for me, and one for Peter. There's no room for an extra person. "Besides, I don't need a live-in nanny. I can take care of Lara and Peter after work. Fiona's staff dorm should be fixed up soon. She can just live there." Judy was about to argue when Fiona stopped her. "It's fine, Judy. I can manage. I'm already grateful that you got me such an amazing gig. I'll go back to the dorm and start tomorrow." Fiona was ready to leave when I shoved a stack of printed pages into her hands. "Take these home and read them carefully. They're our house rules—how we like our meals, food preferences, and other daily stuff." Fiona froze, with hurt and confusion written all over her face. Judy stared at me, baffled as to why I was being so strict with Fiona. After Fiona left, Judy plopped down on the couch and confronted me. But I shot back, "Come on! Lara's pregnant, and you bring home some 20-something to be our nanny. Did you even consider our feelings?" Judy paused, realizing maybe she'd been thoughtless. "Maybe I should tell her not to come to your house—" I cut her off. "No. She should definitely come. Besides, she won't be here long." And anyway, if she stayed away, how would I get my revenge? After Judy left, I put Lara to bed and went back to my room. I lay down and quietly replayed the last life in my head. Chapter 3 Fiona moved into my house. At first, she was super hardworking and sweet-talking, and she slowly won over Lara. She said her family was poor, and she'd dropped out in her junior year because they couldn't pay tuition. In my past life, Lara and I admired her grit and optimism, so we felt comfortable having her stay with us. That was until three months later, Fiona found a used rubber in the trash that I'd thrown away. A little later, she told me her mother was seriously ill and borrowed 20 thousand from me. She took the money and went to a fertility clinic. Using my sperm for IVF, she got pregnant quickly. I had no idea. I even gave her two months off so she could go home and take care of her mother. After she went back, she disappeared without a trace. A year later, she showed up at my precinct with a baby in her arms. She accused me of rape to my chief. She cried and wailed on camera, claiming Lara had drugged her, and that she'd been taken to my bedroom to satisfy my desires. She also said I'd abused and assaulted her during the time she worked as our nanny. Fiona went live and publicly named me, broadcasting the whole story. "No woman jokes about her honor," she told viewers. "I just want justice and to get this scum out of the police force." Because of her, I was officially investigated and stripped of my badge. I protested and demanded a paternity test. But when the lab presented the results, Fiona smiled as if she'd won. Her child was actually mine. Overnight, I fell from a respected officer to a criminal. My parents emptied their savings to pay Fiona a massive settlement for emotional damages. But the online attacks kept coming. People smeared my parents' house with filth, sent them death threats, and even followed them with weapons. They couldn't bear the pressure and drowned themselves. Meanwhile, Lara was labeled an "evil witch" online and was beaten in the street. She suffered a miscarriage from the attack and died from massive blood loss. As for my sister, guilt drove her insane; she was hospitalized before vanishing from the public eye. I ended up in jail as a rapist and suffered all kinds of abuse. Fiona visited me there, gloating as she revealed the whole truth. I couldn't take it anymore. One night, I hanged myself with a towel in my cell. Chapter 4 I thought about it all night and realized I didn't really know Fiona. Everything I knew about her came straight from her own mouth, and none of it held up. The next morning, Fiona showed up right on time. Just like before, she was hardworking, capable, and knew exactly how to say the right things. In just two days, Lara's opinion of her completely flipped. What Lara didn't know was that Fiona was a two-faced snake: sweet on the surface, but rotten underneath. When Lara was around, Fiona would gush about her beauty and good taste. But when Lara wasn't there, she'd show her real self. "Lara sure has a lot of makeup," Fiona said once. "I don't usually wear any." "She wears makeup to highlight her beauty," I shot back. "You wearing makeup is just a waste of product." "Why is Lara still working while pregnant? If it were me, I'd stay home and focus on the family," she said another time. "She's a modern woman," I replied, "not some relic stuck in the past with an outdated mindset." "Wow, these fruits Lara bought are so expensive. She should really be more thrifty," Fiona muttered once. "I love it when she spends my money. If you think buying fruit is too much, then you might as well stay single forever," I told her. - Eventually, Fiona realized her plan didn't work on me, so she stopped throwing shade at Lara. I kept working at the precinct, and whenever I had a break, I'd pull up the cameras I'd set up at home. It was summer break for Peter, our four-year-old boy. Fiona was supposed to be looking after him. But what I saw in the recordings made my blood boil. Peter, usually so mischievous, was timid and scared around Fiona. He broke a glass once, and Fiona screamed at him, even kicking him twice. I nearly picked up the phone right then to fire her. When we weren't home, she acted as if she owned the place. She slipped into Lara's silk pajamas and sprawled on the couch. At lunchtime, she didn't cook. She just ordered two takeout meals, one for herself and one small box for Peter. Two-thirds of the grocery money I gave her went straight into her own pocket. And that wasn't even the worst of it. I caught her sneaking into Lara's walk-in closet, taking jewelry and purses Lara hadn't used in a while. She sold them off and replaced them with cheap knockoffs. She even helped herself to the expensive supplements I had bought for Lara. I downloaded all the footage and stored it on my work computer for future use. After that, I used Fiona's ID info to ask a buddy at a local precinct for help. He pulled up her real records. I took a work trip to her hometown and went with him to the small town where she lived. That was when I found out Fiona had never gone to college at all. She had dropped out of high school after getting pregnant out of wedlock. Later, she married a man who was a hopeless gambler and beat her constantly. We visited her home in our capacity as local officers. While no one was looking, I planted a tiny hidden camera in her house. When I got back, Lara told me Fiona had taken two days off to visit her parents. I almost laughed. What parents? Her file clearly listed her as an orphan. Chapter 5 But I didn't mind Fiona going back. It gave me a chance to see what kind of person she was at home. The next day, I watched the footage from Fiona's place. Her husband, Don Shepard, was whipping her with a belt. "Why the hell did you come back? And empty-handed, too?" he snarled. "If those loan sharks don't get paid, I'll hand you over to them to cover the debt!" Fiona collapsed on the floor and wailed, "Please stop hitting me! I'm really trying, but the guy who hired me this time is a cop! How could I pull anything off?" Don paused and narrowed his eyes. "Are they rich?" he asked. Fiona drew a breath and whispered, "Not really, but his parents have savings. They're retired officials, and they get a decent pension." Don plopped down on the sofa. Seeing that, Fiona tried to stand, but Don snapped, "Did I tell you to stand up? Get back down!" She immediately shrank back. "If his family is loaded, then we can work with that. His wife's pregnant, right?" Don said as he laid out a plan. "Men are easiest to trap during this period. You're young and pretty. If you get pregnant with his kid, you can get a couple hundred thousand bucks from him, easy." Hearing that, Fiona gave a helpless, bitter laugh. "You think I haven't tried? He'd never go for me. I almost stripped and crawled into his bed." As soon as she said that, Don slapped her hard. "You idiot. Who says you need to sleep with him? You could just steal one of his used rubbers and do IVF. That way, when the baby comes, he can't deny it." Watching the two of them on the screen, plotting to bleed my family dry, I felt a cold chill through me. So that was how we were slowly lured into Fiona's trap in my past life. After Fiona came back, she acted extra diligently. Our usual agreement was for her to work from 9 AM to 6 PM, but lately, she'd been arriving before 7 AM, claiming she had nothing better to do. Her first task each day was to go through the trash. Lara was nearly five months pregnant at this point, and sometimes, we'd still get intimate. Fiona found out about it and tried to find a used rubber. This time, I was prepared. After Lara and I were done, I always wrapped the rubber and put it in a separate bag to throw out. That was when a nasty little idea took shape in my head. I arranged to get a used rubber from a registered offender in town.