The police, sensing things might spiral out of control, quickly put up a barricade and stepped in.
One officer looked at me sharply and said, “We’ve just reviewed the surveillance footage from the city’s street cams. What we saw matches the accounts given by eyewitnesses.”
“All the evidence points directly to you. We need your full cooperation. Be honest and give us the name and contact information of the man who was in the car with you. We’ll need to investigate him too," he added.
Even if I asked them to check for fingerprints inside the car, it would be useless. Whoever set this up came fully prepared.
I knew then that at this moment I was reliving the nightmare of my past life. The same crushing sense of despair and helplessness of not being able to defend myself surrounded me.
However, I forced myself to stand tall and with steel determination, I said, “I’ve been at home all day and never left. I don’t even know the man in that video.”
“Officer, please … look this case deeper. I don’t care if you arrest me, but if you stop here, the real criminal will walk free. That family of three … they’ll have died for nothing.”
The way he looked at me changed instantly … his eyes filled with judgment, like he was staring at a remorseless killer.
“There are multiple eyewitnesses, physical evidence and the footage from your car’s dashcam." He added, "Everything clearly shows you were there. In such a short time, who do you think could fake all of that? If it wasn’t you behind the wheel, who was it? You have a long-lost twin or something?”
I also wondered who it was. If I had a twin sister, this whole thing would be easily resolved.
However, I knew for sure that I was the only child. My mother almost died giving birth to me and after that, my father had a vasectomy. There was no chance of some secret sibling showing up … much less one who looked and sounded exactly like me.
So, who was this woman pretending to be me? How could her voice be identical to me? To this day, I still do not have the answer.
I shook my head slowly in resignation. This made the crowd start throwing insults again.
"Even after the evidence is so clear, you're still trying to lie your way out of it. I think she is worse than those old-time femme fatales!”
“God knows what kind of parents raised someone like her! If I were her father, I’d have sat on her at birth and saved the world the trouble!”