They Turned Me Into a Criminal in My First Life—This Time I Fight Back Chapter 07

The second everyone’s guard dropped, I spun around and yanked a fistful of Clara’s hair right off her head.

She screamed instantly, baring her teeth in pain. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Chaos exploded across the room.

The officers lunged at me and slammed me face-first onto the table. The hair I’d ripped from Clara’s scalp

scattered across the floor beside me.

“Ms. Rhodes, calm down!” one of the cops barked while another hurried over to check on Clara.

But neither Clara nor Ethan looked normal anymore.

Their faces had gone pale gray, and both of them were trembling uncontrollably.

Detective Burke immediately noticed something was off. Without another word, he ordered all three of us

taken back to the station.

The second we entered the interrogation room, Detective Burke threw the clump of hair onto the metal table

in front of me.

“Ms. Rhodes,” he snapped, “care to explain why you just assaulted her?”

My eyes landed on the hair.

Then I looked up at him.

“Because that hair belongs to me.”

The entire room fell silent.

Detective Burke frowned. “Excuse me?”

I slowly closed my eyes before speaking again.

“That’s not her real hair. Those are extensions. Every strand came from me.” My voice turned cold. “My

husband, Ethan Caldwell, gave them to her.”

A strange look crossed Detective Burke’s face.

I let out a bitter laugh.

“When Ethan and I got engaged, he suddenly insisted I cut my hair short for our wedding photos.”

I swallowed hard.

“Of course I refused. What woman spends five years growing out her hair just to chop it off on someone

else’s whim?”

Back then, I had loved my long hair.

And honestly, I’d loved Ethan even more.

“But after I said no, he completely changed overnight.”

The memory still made my chest ache.

“He got down on his knees and begged me.” My lips curled into a self-mocking smile. “Baby, you’d look

sexier with short hair. More mature. More feminine.”

I laughed softly, though there was no humor in it.

“Then he told me his ex had long hair too. Said every time he looked at me, he couldn’t stop thinking about

her.”

Detective Burke’s expression darkened.

“It was the dumbest excuse imaginable,” I whispered. “But I believed him anyway.”

Completely.

Everyone around me tried to stop me at the time.

My friends.

My family.

Even coworkers told me I was losing myself.

But none of it mattered.

Back then, my entire world revolved around Ethan.

If he told me to jump, I jumped.

If he told me to sacrifice something, I did it without hesitation.

People used to say he controlled me.

The terrifying part?

They were right.

I had been completely consumed by him. Obsessed. Brainwashed into treating him like he was the center of

my universe.

So in the end, I cut off the beautiful waist-length hair I’d spent five years growing.

Afterward, Ethan took it home like he’d won some kind of prize.

And then he handed it to Clara.

Not only that, he even used my own money to pay for her extensions.

By the time I finished speaking, my eyes had already turned red.

Detective Burke stared at me for a long moment before finally asking, “Even if that’s true… what exactly does

it prove?”

Before I could answer, Clara exploded.

“She’s lying!” Clara shrieked. “She’s jealous because Ethan loves me! That’s all this is! She’s making up insane

stories to frame me!”

She pointed at me hysterically.

“You already saw the evidence! The surveillance footage showed her face! Her fingerprints were all over the

car! What are you waiting for?! Lock her up already!”

I wiped away the tears gathering in my eyes.

Only five minutes left.

Then I looked directly at Clara.

“You keep talking about motive,” I said quietly. “So tell me something.”

“What motive would I possibly have?”

Clara froze.

For a second, she couldn’t answer.

Then Ethan suddenly spoke up from beside her.

“You wanted that baby.”

I turned toward him slowly.

“And why would I want someone else’s child?”

His jaw tightened.

“Because you can’t have children.”

There it was.

The exact sentence I had been waiting for.

A burst of excitement surged through me so violently I nearly smiled.

Instead, I calmly looked at Detective Burke.

“There’s something in my pocket,” I said. “Take it out. It’ll prove I’m innocent.”

Detective Burke hesitated before reaching into my pocket.

He pulled out a folded tissue.

The second he opened it and saw what was inside, his face changed completely.