Chapter 1

My name is Sarah Miller.

This isn't the first time I've lived this day.

In my memory, a life already played out, a nightmare etched into my soul.

It started like any other Tuesday.

I took my five-year-old daughter, Emily, to Bright Beginnings Preschool.

I kissed her goodbye at the classroom door, watched her little hand wave.

Later, the school called.

"Mrs. Miller, Emily isn't here today."

Confusion.

Then panic.

I rushed back. Ms. Peterson, her teacher, looked at me with pity.

"Sarah, you didn't drop Emily off this morning."

Security footage backed her up. No record of me, no record of Emily.

It was like I'd imagined the whole morning.

Hours later, they found Emily.

In the park pond, a block from the preschool.

Drowned.

Then came the second wave of horror.

More security footage.

This time, from the park.

It showed a woman, who looked exactly like me, leading Emily to the pond.

Pushing her in.

The world turned on me.

"Monster Mom." "Child Killer."

The media, the public, even people I knew.

I was convicted.

The evidence was undeniable, they said.

I died in prison, years later, still screaming my innocence.

My parents, Linda and David Evans, couldn't bear the shame.

The public hounding, the whispers, the glares.

They withered, broken by a grief no parent should know, and then by the false accusations against their own child.

They died not long after my conviction, their hearts giving out.

That was the life I remember.

The life I thought was over.