The Mirror Never Lies Death by Lottery

The mirror in my living room suddenly gained the ability to see the future. Last night, it revealed tomorrow's winning lottery broadcast. Half-doubting, I bought a single ticket. To my utter shock, I actually hit the jackpot! Overnight, I became a multi-millionaire! But right after that, another vision flashed across the glass—my boyfriend brutally murdering me for the ticket. Terrified, I immediately blocked his number, grabbed the mirror, and moved out that very night. Yet in my newly rented place, a burglar broke in, eyeing me with disgusting, violent intent. At the critical moment, my boyfriend suddenly burst through the door. The very man who had slaughtered me in the mirror threw himself forward to protect me. A blade drove straight through his heart. In his final dying breath, he choked out: "Run... Chloe, run!" His sacrifice scared the intruder away, leaving me shattered and sobbing on the floor. Did the mirror lie to me? How could a man who took a knife to the heart for me ever bear to murder me? While I was still reeling in disbelief, the mirror rippled once more, showing tomorrow's scene— I was on my knees, crying hysterically: "Dad! Mom! How could you fake an illness just to steal every dime of my money?!" The next second, my phone buzzed. It was my mom calling: "Chloe, your dad got into a horrible car crash! He's in the ICU! Go cash that lottery ticket right now and wire us the money for his surgery!" Seeing Liam's bloodied body earlier made me doubt the mirror completely. I rushed to claim the prize money as fast as I could and transferred every single cent to my mom's account. Right after the transfer went through, both my parents vanished into thin air. The death of the love of my life, followed by my own family's ruthless betrayal, pushed me over the edge. My chronic heart condition flared up violently. Surrounded by suffocating despair and agony, my heart gave out, and I died on the cold floor. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the very day the mirror showed its first vision. This time... should I believe it? After hesitating for barely two seconds, I made my choice. The mirror hadn't lied. The winning numbers were real. And my parents really had faked an emergency to rob me blind! In my previous life, the moment I saw the winning numbers, my first instinct had been to share the news with my boyfriend, Liam. Immediately after that, the mirror showed him choking the life out of me. Later, when I hid the news and blocked him, he didn't know about the fortune—which was why he had risked his life to save me from the burglar. It proved Liam only turned into a monster when blinded by greed. In this life, as long as I kept the lottery prize an absolute secret, I could survive. With that thought in mind, I hurriedly scribbled down the winning numbers and began packing my bags. I had to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. The next day, everything went according to plan. I bought the ticket, and once again, I hit the multi-million dollar jackpot. This time, I stayed completely calm. I quietly tucked the ticket away without telling a single soul. Then, I instinctively turned toward the mirror. What I saw sent chills crawling all the way down my spine! In the reflection, I was sitting on the couch scrolling through my phone. Liam was creeping up behind me with a heavy leather belt in his hands. Suddenly, he lunged forward and pulled it tight around my neck! "Don't blame me, Chloe." "Blame your rotten luck for winning that damn lottery!" "I love you, but I don't have a choice. I'm drowning in debt!" His face twisted into a demonic sneer as he strangled the breath out of me. Once my body went limp, he rummaged through my pockets, snatched the winning ticket, and bolted with pure glee. It was almost the exact same scene from my past life. My breath hitched in horror. I hadn't even thought about telling him this time. How on earth did he find out, and why was he still planning to kill me? In a blind panic, my eyes darted around the room—and froze. Up in the corner of the ceiling, a tiny security camera was blinking with a piercing red light!It hit me! Last year, when my heart disease flared up, I had to stay home on bed rest for an entire month. Liam acted like the most devoted boyfriend ever. Pretending to worry sick about me fainting alone, he installed that camera in the living room. Did he see my lottery ticket through the live feed?! Wait, the camera was there in my past life too! Why didn't he murder me back then? Why did he take a knife for me instead? Staring at my cold corpse in the mirror, my head felt like it was going to split open. I bit down hard on my tongue until the metallic taste of blood brought me back to my senses. I had to figure out what was different between the two timelines. In my past life, the second I learned he was going to kill me, I blocked him everywhere. In this life, terrified of tipping him off, I hadn't blocked him yet. I had only planned to pack up, move away, and cut ties once I was safe. "Could it be that because I blocked him instantly in the past life, he panicked and never checked the camera feed?" That was the only logical explanation! Without wasting another second, I repeated what I did before. I blocked his number on everything, grabbed the mirror, and moved out into the night. This time, I rented a unit in a luxury, high-security downtown high-rise. I also bought a heavy-duty stun gun for self-defense. By the time I finished setting everything up, night had fallen. In my previous life, tonight was the night Liam died protecting me from a burglar. In this fortress of a building, no thief could possibly slip in. I was safe. The thought had barely crossed my mind when frantic knocking rattled my front door. "Chloe! It's me! Open the door!" "I know you're in there!" Goosebumps exploded across my arms. It was Liam's voice! How did he track me down here?! Before I could react, he began pounding on the door with fury: "What is wrong with you?! You hit the jackpot and immediately block me? Are you terrified I'll ask for a dime? Is our relationship that worthless to you?" "Chloe, don't you dare forget who paid for your heart surgery last year! Without my money, you'd be six feet under right now!" My mind spun completely out of control. I had done the exact same thing as my past life—blocked him at virtually the same time. How did he still find out about the lottery? Did some tiny butterfly effect make him check the surveillance footage anyway? I forced my racing heart to slow down. No matter what he said, I could not open that door. Gripping the stun gun tightly, I pulled out my phone with trembling fingers and dialed 911. Outside, his pounding grew frantic. "Chloe, please, I'm begging you! Open up!" "The building's on fire! If you don't get out right now, we're both going to burn alive!" He was lying. He had to be! How could there suddenly be a fire? I stayed dead silent, refusing to swallow his bait. Thirty seconds later, my phone chimed. The building management blasted an emergency fire alert in the resident WhatsApp group! Thick, suffocating black smoke began creeping under the doorframe. The crisp, air-conditioned room turned sweltering in seconds. There really was a fire?! *BAM!* With a thunderous crash, the front door was kicked off its latch. Billowing smoke rolled in like a tidal wave. Liam limped into the room, his leg twisted at an awkward angle as if fractured, grimacing through agonizing pain as he dragged himself toward me. Shaking uncontrollably, I tried to switch on the stun gun, but my clammy fingers wouldn't cooperate. "Stay back!" "I swear to God, don't come near me—" Before I could finish, Liam grabbed my wrist and yanked me toward the hall. "Run! If we don't move now, we're dead!" He didn't make a single move to hurt me. He just dragged me straight toward the emergency stairs. Out in the hall, flames were licking the walls. Thick, blinding smoke burned my eyes and clawed down my throat, making it impossible to breathe. All around us were the terrifying screams of panicked residents. "The 19th floor is way too high! Fire truck ladders won't reach! Head down!" Liam roared over the chaos, shielding my head with his arms as we pushed through the mob. The stairwell was completely jammed with terrified people. Nobody could move. To shove me ahead into an opening, Liam poured every ounce of strength into one final push. The momentum carried me forward, but he lost his balance, got swallowed by the frantic crowd, and fell under dozens of trampling feet. In the end, I barely made it out alive. Liam died inside that burning tower. Why? He clearly knew about the lottery ticket this time. Why did he still throw his life away just to save mine?If Liam really wanted to steal my ticket, all he had to do was leave me inside to burn! He could have taken the ticket while I was reduced to ashes. No witnesses. No evidence. Why on earth would he rescue me? Was the mirror lying to me? Was its warning completely fabricated? *Ring—ring—ring—* The sudden blare of my ringtone shattered my frantic thoughts. Just like my past life, it was my mom calling. I swiped to answer. Her shrill voice cried out the exact same words: "Chloe, your dad got into a horrible car crash! He's in the ICU! Go cash that lottery ticket right now and wire us the money for his surgery!" I clutched my aching chest, forcing words through my tight throat: "How do you even know I won the lottery?" In my past life, I was the one who told them. In this life, I hadn't uttered a single syllable to anyone! "Liam told me! He couldn't reach you, so he called me in a panic, saying you vanished right after hitting the jackpot!" "Chloe, your dad is in critical condition! You have to wire that money right this second—" A photo dinged onto my screen via SnapChat. My dad was lying on a blood-soaked gurney, unconscious, wrapped in bandages. My temples throbbed violently. Who was I supposed to believe? My own mother, or that supernatural mirror? Liam had died twice to protect me. That practically screamed that the mirror's prophecy of him killing me was a lie! Yet in my past life, my parents really did take every penny and disappear off the face of the earth. "Chloe? Why aren't you answering me?!" "We raised you! We gave you life! Now that your father is dying, are you just going to stand there and watch him bleed out?!" My mom's voice cracked with hysterical sobs. The hesitation in my eyes slowly hardened into cold resolve. "I'll pay for Dad's treatment. But only after I see him with my own eyes at the hospital and verify his injuries." I didn't know if the mirror was playing tricks on me, but my own memories couldn't lie. I remembered every agonizing second of dying from cardiac arrest in my past life. It happened because my parents drained me dry and left me to rot! This time, I would only trust what I saw with my own two eyes. Over the line, my mom exploded into furious shrieks: "You heartless, ungrateful little monster! You think I'd make up a lie about your father dying?!" "It takes time to cash that ticket! It takes hours to drive all the way back from the city! Does your father have that kind of time?!" "You're putting his life on the line over money?! How did I raise such a selfish, evil bitch?!" I didn't give her another breath. I hung up. Now I was almost certain she was trying to scam me. People only blow up like that when their con falls apart. I was not going to let history repeat itself.The moment the state lottery headquarters opened, I was the first person in line to claim my payout. By then, my mom had left over a hundred missed calls. I ignored every single one. She had also bombarded my phone with dozens of gruesome photos of my dad in the hospital bed. Photos could easily be staged or photoshopped. My lived experience and my memories were real. After rushing back to the local hospital in my hometown, I finally returned her call and asked for their location. She told me to head to the end of the 7th-floor corridor. When I arrived, I saw my mom standing by an open window, her eyes bloodshot, clutching a heavy metal wrench in her hand. I stopped several feet away, keeping my guard up. "Mom, what are you doing over there? You said Dad was in critical condition. Why aren't you by his bedside?" She slowly turned her head, looking at me with dead, hollow eyes. "Your father is gone. We didn't have the cash up front to authorize the life-support machine. He passed away an hour ago." I froze. A bitter scoff almost slipped past my lips. To trick me out of the cash, she was truly willing to invent anything. In my previous life, the second they got the transfer, they vanished into thin air to live like royalty. How could my dad possibly be dead? Before I could call her bluff, she suddenly swung the wrench and smashed the corridor windowpane. The violent crash made me jump. "Mom! What the hell are you doing?!" She stared at me quietly, a twisted, heartbroken smile pulling at her cracked lips. "Chloe... your father and I only ever had you. We lived our entire lives for you." "And when it mattered most, you chose green paper over his life." "Now he's dead. And in my heart, my daughter died with him." "There's nothing left for me here." Without another word, she stepped onto the ledge and threw herself out of the seventh-floor window. My mind went completely blank. A wave of suffocating shock pinned me to the floor. She... she jumped? She killed herself right in front of me?! They were supposed to be lying! My dad wasn't really sick! Why would she commit suicide?! My brain shut down completely. Like an empty shell, I stumbled down the stairs and walked out onto the pavement. There she was. My mother's mangled body lay in a pool of fresh blood. Moments later, the morgue staff brought me in. My father was really there. Cold. Lifeless. He really had been in a fatal car accident. The horrifying truth slammed into me like a freight train: my parents hadn't lied to me. The mirror had. Yet the lottery numbers in the mirror were one hundred percent real! Why were the visions about Liam and my parents twisted into lethal deceptions? In less than forty-eight hours, the three most important people in my life were dead. Even with millions sitting in my bank account, the agony squeezed my lungs so hard I couldn't breathe. How did everything go so terribly wrong?! When our extended relatives arrived and learned that I had won millions but refused to pay for my dad's surgery, causing both my parents' deaths, they went berserk. "You selfish parasite!" "You murdered your own parents for cash!" They swarmed me, screaming curses, shoving and clawing at me. In the violent scuffle, someone shoved me hard. I fell backward, my head slamming against the sharp edge of a concrete planter. Warm blood gushed from my skull. My vision blurred as excruciating pain washed over me. The familiar, chilling sensation of my heart failing began creeping into my chest, just like in my previous life. Endless confusion and bitter resentment drowned my dying thoughts. Why? Even after a second chance at life, why was I still doomed to die in a pool of my own blood? As my eyes drifted shut, ready to surrender to the darkness, a blinding thought struck my mind like lightning! I finally figured out [Paywall] what was wrong with that damn mirror! I finally understood the sickening truth behind this entire nightmare!