I wanted to know but the way my mother was looking at me made me want to keep the ignorance I had about my past life.

I hoped that I wasn't a bad person but I truly wasn't sure. My mother crossed her arms as she waited for my response.

When I remained quiet she took it as an opportunity to speak again. "I love you Aaliyah, but you weren't perfect."

"Tell me," I said softly.

She gently grabbed my hand and led me to the bench swing in front of the house. We both sat down and she took a deep breath and turned to me.

"Since you were young, you loved making up stories. If you had become a writer when you got older you would've been amazing. But the stories you told could not be written on paper." She said.

I removed my hand from hers and wrapped my arms around myself to prepare for the worse. It already sounded horrible and we just started.

"On one occasion you stayed out all night and Lizzie and I were home worried and blowing up your phone. You answered our call finally and began screaming and ranting about how you had been kidnapped so we called the police. They came to the house and ended up tracking your phone just to find you at some party."

"So I made it all up?" I asked in disbelief.

"You did. But it wasn't the first or last time you did it. It wasn't even the worst, to be honest with you."

"What was the worst?" I asked.

"You don't want to know," she muttered as she wrapped her arms around herself.

I nodded as I slowly stood up from the bench. I understood what she was saying but it was hard. I wasn't the innocent girl who was killed like I believed I was. I was a liar, a manipulator that ruptured the trust within my family so much so that when I was telling the truth, I wasn't believed.

I wasn't angry at my mother but I needed a bit of distance to get my thoughts together. I looked back over at the ambulance truck to see John and Carter still sitting together.

I walked over to them and saw John's puffy red eyes and tear-stained cheeks as I got closer.

Carter held his shoulder soothingly as they both stared off into the ground.

"I shouldn't have left," John said as a tear rolled down his cheek. My mother came to stand next to me and we watched them together.

"You couldn't have known," Carter said. "People are just psychos, it's not your fault."

I looked at Carter who seemed to look distressed as well. He and my mother seemed to know another well so I wasn't surprised that he was upset as well.

"You didn't hear screams or anything? John asked desperately. "You're next door."

"If I had I would've run straight over." He replied.

My mother moved to sit next to John and she cried softly as she looked at him.

"Aaliyah and Evelyn are now gone. I'm afraid the person will come for Lizzie." John admitted.

"But Lizzie is safe at her grandmother's right?" He asked.

John raised his head to look up at Carter and shook his head. "How did you know about that? I didn't think she said bye to anyone."

"She came to my house before she left and gave me a teddy bear that I gave Aaliyah's a while back." He said with a sad smile.

My brows furrowed as I tried to think of a reason why she would've given the bear to Carter instead of keeping it herself. That only meant that before I died Carter had to have been important. Especially if I kept a gift he gave me, on my bed.

"She loved you," John said.

I did?

"I doubt that. But I did love her." He said quietly.

At those words, my mother and I glanced at one another. I furrowed my brows, completely confused and shocked by what was going on.

"Mom, did Carter and I date?" I asked.

She sniffled as she wiped her tears and shrugged. "If you did, it was never mentioned to me."

"When did Elijah and I break up?" I asked.

I remembered getting a memory where my mother was consoling me after a break-up and I wondered if that could be it.

"Maybe a few days before you died?" She said in uncertainty. "I remember you came into the kitchen while-"

"While you were making cinnamon buns, right?"

"Yes." She said slowly.

The pieces in my mind began clicking as I realized that the memory was the one I thought it was. Just a few days before I died, Elijah and I had broken up.

The timeline still didn't make sense though. How could I have dated Carter if Elijah and I broke up then? Pieces weren't adding together. Unless...

Unless I cheated on Elijah.