It was the day before Christmas Eve, and I asked my roommate's boyfriend out.

I had my reasons.

In my past life, he sexually harassed me.

When I told my roommate, she accused me of trying to start drama, of trying to seduce her boyfriend.

My own boyfriend, my childhood sweetheart, even testified against me.

"No wonder you've been giving me the cold shoulder," he'd said, "trying to break up with me. You were after your roommate's boyfriend the whole time."

Just like that, I was branded a homewrecker.

I even lost the graduate school acceptance I'd worked so hard for.

But my roommate wasn't done with me.

She hired a bunch of local thugs to wait for me on the path I always took home.

She wanted them to ruin me.

And when that wasn't enough, she posted a heavily edited video of the assault on the campus social media page.

My childhood sweetheart spoke up again, confirming the lies.

With nothing left to live for, I jumped from the roof of the library.

"Christmas is just a few days away, Mia," my boyfriend, Liam, said, pulling me in for a hug.

His voice was gentle, his eyes full of what looked like love.

But my whole body went stiff.

A chill crawled up my spine from the soles of my feet.

This man, who everyone saw as the perfect, doting boyfriend, was one of the monsters who pushed me to my death.

Sensing my unease, Liam touched my forehead with a worried look.

"You feeling okay?"

He acted so caring, so in love with me.

No matter who else was around, his eyes were always locked on me.

My friends used to joke that I’d found a guy who was completely lovesick, that his world revolved around me.

But this was the same person who delivered the final, fatal blow when I was drowning in scandal.

The memory of Liam's twisted, snarling face merged with the gentle one in front of me now, and his features blurred together.

Why?

Why did you do it, Liam?

My thoughts snapped back to the present, and I took a deep breath.

"Liam, will you always be this good to me?"

He gently tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

"Of course, Mia. Who else would I be good to?"

His warm, almond-shaped eyes were so tender, as if he was truly, madly in love with me.

The sight of it gave me goosebumps.

"Have I not been spending enough time with you? Are you feeling insecure?"

"No," I lied. "I just wanted to hear you say it."

I buried my face in his chest to hide the hatred burning in my eyes.

Liam walked me to the entrance of the women's dorm.

He was reluctant to leave, turning back to wave every few steps.

I waved back, pretending like nothing was wrong.

I went back to my dorm room.

My roommate, Bella, was on a video call with her boyfriend, Ethan.

When she saw me walk in, she made a loud "tsk" sound, not bothering to hide her disdain.

"Coming back so late," she sneered. "Were you hooking up with some random guy in the bushes?"

I turned to look at her, and my eyes met Ethan's on the screen.

His gaze dropped to my legs, a raw and hungry look.

When Bella wasn't looking, he licked his lips.

In my past life, Ethan always stared at me with those same disgusting, creepy eyes.

He’d message me late at night, asking how I was, pretending to care.

After I blocked him, he just made a new account to add me.

He told me he was over Bella, that it was love at first sight with me.

When I told Bella everything, she didn't break up with him.

Instead, she started making snide remarks to me, accusing me of trying to break them up, of seducing her boyfriend.

Even when I showed her the chat logs, she claimed I faked them.

To get back at me, Bella was the one who hired those thugs to humiliate me and posted the video online, destroying my reputation.

This time, I didn't argue with her.

I just got ready for bed and climbed up into my loft bed.

The moment I lay down, a message from Ethan popped up on my phone.

It was a picture of my back as I was climbing the ladder to my bed.