Chapter 1

I was a gifted musician. After graduation, I got into the elite Crestview Conservatory with honors. At the same time, I gained a small following online for my song covers.

But when I posted my first original song, the comments were filled with accusations of plagiarism. Even my classmates looked at me with judging eyes, telling me I should apologize.

When I listened to the song they mentioned, my heart dropped. The melody was exactly the same as mine, but it had been posted just one day earlier.

The creator was from the same school as me. The only difference was that she was a dance major.

I tried to prove I didn't steal it, but I couldn't explain why the sheet music was identical.

Furious fans reported me to the school. Even my kindest professors looked at me with nothing but disappointment.

1

They even tracked down my home address. They sent funeral wreaths to my parents, which gave my father a heart attack. He ended up in the ICU.

My phone was constantly blowing up with hateful calls.

In a state of mental exhaustion, I lost my footing and fell into the river. The cold water filled my lungs until I took my last breath.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day before I posted the song.

The river had been stealing my breath. Right before the feeling of suffocation took me, I gasped, sucking in a huge lungful of air. I snapped my eyes open in terror.

The dorm was quiet. There was no sound except for the hum of the AC.

I raised my hand and slapped myself hard. It stung. This wasn't a dream.

I had been reborn.

My roommate in the next bed heard the noise and looked over. Seeing the red mark on my face, she frowned. "Lia? Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare or something?"

I opened my mouth, my voice sounding hollow. "Just a mosquito."

She shrugged and went back to her reality show. "By the way, didn't you say you were dropping a new song? When is it going live? Your girl is ready to hype it up!"

The song!

I looked at my phone on the nightstand with shaking hands. The produced track was saved there, but I hadn't finalized the lyrics yet.

In my past life, it was today that I had a burst of inspiration. I finished the lyrics and excitedly posted the demo online.

I thought it was the start of my career.

I didn't know it was the start of a living hell.

Within an hour, the hashtag about my plagiarism hit the trending page.

The gossip blogs swarmed like vultures. They tore apart my music and my sheet music. Every comparison chart made me look like a thief.

For every person praising Kenna Quinn, there were a thousand people flooding my account with insults.

I posted a video trying to explain. I showed my entire production process, but people called it a staged performance.

Kenna's teary eyes and soft smiles on camera made everyone see me as the villain. They photoshopped my face onto headstones. They sent obituaries to my parents.

When I went outside, Kenna's fans threw lattes and rotten trash at me. Someone even threw a rock that left me bleeding and bruised.

The photo of me covered in blood went viral. It was the climax of the cyberbullying.

After days of non-stop harassment, I lost my mind. I slipped into that water.

Just thinking about the pain of dying made me tremble uncontrollably.

I opened Kenna's social media. She had posted a new video an hour ago.

She was sitting at a piano, looking elegant and high-class while playing a short melody. Her caption read: "Surprise countdown."

Kenna was a dancer. During freshman orientation, her performance in a traditional outfit made her the school's goddess.

Even my childhood best friend, Silas Shaw, was obsessed with her. Every time I mentioned Kenna, his eyes would stay glued to her.

I had suppressed my feelings for him and tried to just be a good friend.

Online, her dance videos had millions of fans. Every post got hundreds of thousands of saves.

This piano video was a huge surprise to her fans. They were screaming about how their goddess was multi-talented.

But my brows shot up. That was a specific bridge from the song I wrote!

I did everything for this song, from the sheet music to the production. Even when I let people hear snippets, it was only in pieces. How did she get the full score?

And the lyrics in her caption were identical to what I had planned...

I gripped my phone. As the video looped, my racing heart finally slowed down.

Whatever the cost, I had to find the truth this time. I wasn't going to die a nameless death again.

I went to the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I sat at my desk and listened to my track, searching for any clues from my past life.

I replayed every memory like a knife to my heart.

Anxiety and rage threatened to take over. But suddenly, a new spark of inspiration hit me.