Chapter 1

My three college roommates tricked me into sending them my photos under the pretense of editing them for me.

I never imagined they'd use my pictures to catfish three rich guys online and scam them out of money.

A month later, those wealthy guys filed fraud charges against me, claiming damages of up to a million dollars.

I tried to explain, but none of them believed me.

My three roommates even stepped forward to accuse me, calling me a gold digger and falsely claiming I had seduced at least thirty men.

In their rage, the rich guys hired some gang thugs who tortured me to death.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the first day of school.

"Margaret, send us your selfies from today. We'll edit them for you."

My roommate Mira leaned over, her finger tapping my screen. "The angle's good, just a bit dark."

Mary immediately chimed in, "Your skin is already flawless. These photos don't show your beauty at all. Send them to us, please."

She reached for my phone, but I took a step back.

Sara laughed beside them. "Don't be so stingy. We're roommates—we're not going to steal your photos or anything."

I stared at all three of them. In my past life, they'd said the same thing.

Then they turned around and sent my photos to different rich guys, which ended with me being labeled a scammer.

To pay back that ridiculous million-dollar debt, I worked three jobs every day.

But the rich guys weren't satisfied. They hired gang thugs who tortured me to death.

"No need. I can edit them myself." I kept my head down, scrolling through the photos on my phone.

Mira got anxious. "Margaret, why are you being like this? We're just trying to help you!"

Mary quickly agreed. "Exactly! We're offering to edit your photos for free. Isn't that great?"

Sara directly grabbed my arm. "Just post them in our group chat. We promise not to share them anywhere else!"

I looked at their fake smiles, remembering how they'd grabbed me the same way in my past life, only to identify me to the police as a gold digger who specialized in scamming men.

"Fine."

I opened Instagram and sent the original photos to our dorm group chat.

The three of them immediately huddled together, their fingers rapidly swiping through the pictures.

"Margaret, you're so gorgeous! After I finish editing, I'll send them back for you to see the results!"

They were as excited as if they'd found treasure. I kept my head down and quietly opened Instagram, quickly registering a new account.

I found their three accounts and blocked them with one click.

"Margaret, how does my edit look?" Mary handed me her phone. In the photo, I'd been AI-edited to look like a Barbie doll.

"Pretty good." I smiled perfunctorily.

Mira suddenly looked up. "What are you doing? You keep staring at your phone."

"Just replying to a message." I didn't look up as I uploaded both the original photos and their heavily edited versions, typing a caption: [Reject appearance anxiety].

Sara leaned over. "Who are you chatting with? A boyfriend? Let me tell you, if you're looking for a boyfriend, you need to be careful. Better let us vet him for you."

She was probably worried that if I got a boyfriend, all my photos would be couple shots, making it harder for her to use my pictures to scam people.