I took a day off to take my son, Garrett Rayne, to see a psychologist. However, on our way back, he trashed the 4S store because I refused to buy him a car. I was faced with an astronomical compensation fee, and yet Jenna Rayne, my late husband’s mother, lied about the status of my husband’s death compensation, claiming it hadn’t come through yet. Helpless, I was forced to take on a massive loan. To pay off the debt, I worked eight jobs a day. My fingers were so bent with exhaustion that they could hardly straighten. But Garrett, for only tens of thousands of dollars, secretly took my ID and forced me to marry some old man in a remote village. Later, I ended up being tortured to death by the wicked and backward people there. When I opened my eyes again, I saw my son smashing up the 4S store. I patted the security guard on the shoulder and said, “He’s an adult. You can report him.” It wasn’t until a shard of glass flew at me, slicing my cheek and making me gasp in pain, that I realized this wasn’t a dream. I had returned before everything happened. In my past life, I had taken leave to take Garrett to see a psychologist. On the way back, he spotted an expensive sports car and demanded I buy it for him. When I refused, he grabbed a roadside barrier and charged into the store, smashing everything he saw. I screamed from the outside in desperation, “Stop! Please, stop! I can’t afford this!” However, instead of stopping, he became even more defiant, sitting in every car with a swagger and mocking me with a grin. When the police arrived, he wasn’t the least bit afraid. He pointed at me with a smug look and said, “That old woman outside is my mom. She’s got money, so you should talk to her.” I didn’t have that kind of money. My husband had passed away early, and I had raised Garrett alone while Jenna hoarded my late husband’s compensation money. Desperate, I took on a huge loan and worked eight jobs a day. In the morning, I would work at a bun shop. Midday, I’d be in the office. In the evenings, I’d deliver food, and late at night, I’d drive as a substitute chauffeur. I was so exhausted that my fingers couldn’t even bend naturally. I was squeezing every last drop of life out of myself to make money. Sometimes, I would go back to my parents’ house, begging them for help. In the end, I spent all my savings, taking more than five years to finally pay off the loan. But Garrett’s attitude to me only worsened. He looked down on me, calling me old and poor. “You’re embarrassing me in front of my classmates with your shabby look. “Are you really bargaining over fifty cents? Don’t you have any shame? I really don’t get why my dad ever married you!” I looked down at my faded, washed-out jacket and then at him, decked out in expensive brands from head to toe. At that moment, all I felt was sadness. Soon, he started pretending to be sweet again. Every day, he called me “Mom” with such warmth that I nearly cried. I had never experienced such tenderness between us, and I obeyed him completely. But a few days later, he threw a marriage certificate in front of me. “Since you’re just a burden at home, my grandma and I found you a husband. You can marry him and bring me some money so I can get married.” I struggled to ask him why, and he kicked me to the ground. Then, he covered my mouth and nose with a handkerchief. When I woke up, I was already in a village. The man I married was much older than me. To make money, he pushed me onto other men, using me as a tool for their desires. I kept getting pregnant and losing my baby; it felt like I was draining my very life force. Finally, on the coldest day of winter, I died in the basement, wrapped only in a thin shirt. The noise from the shop snapped me back to reality. I patted the security guard on the shoulder and said, “He’s an adult. You can report him.” Then, without looking back, I walked away. I thought, “Since you never take me like your mother, this time, I will take back the life I had given you.”
As soon as I stepped through the door, Jenna’s shrill voice pierced the air. “My precious grandson is back! I missed you so much!” Seeing that I was alone, her face immediately turned cold and mean. “Where’s my grandson? Why are you coming back alone?” I thought, “You claim to love your grandson so much, but in my past life, I never saw you spend a penny to help him.” Jenna wasn’t a kind person. In my past life, my bad relationship with Garrett was partly her doing. I had taken out a huge loan to bail Garrett out of the juvenile detention center, and she quickly rushed over, wiping away tears. “If it weren’t for your mother dawdling the paperwork at the bank, you wouldn’t have had to stay in that godforsaken place for so long.” At that moment, Garrett looked at me with burning hatred in his eyes. From then on, he grew colder toward me, accusing me of not saving my own son. He thought I was heartless and wished me dead. Meanwhile, his relationship with Jenna became closer. I thought, “Fine, this time, I won’t be there to clean up your mess. Let’s see what kind of ‘family warmth’ you two will have.” I pinched myself hard and pretended to cry bitterly. “Jenna, Garrett’s in trouble! He’s been arrested! What should we do?” Upon listening to my exaggerated account, Jenna reeled, clutched my arm, and hurried me off to the police station. I stopped her. “Wait, Jenna. I need to get some money. Let’s bail Garrett out first.” In the interrogation room, Garrett sat there, appearing arrogant, impatiently answering the officer’s questions. “I just wanted to teach my mom a lesson for not buying me the car. She thinks she’s too good for me! “According to my grandma, women like her deserve a beating. My grandmother told me that if I give her a lesson, she’ll know her place.” Upon hearing the conversation inside, my heart didn’t even stir. I helped Jenna walk in. Garrett kicked his chair aside and charged at me. “You bitch, how dare you leave me behind? Don’t you want to stay in our house anymore?” The nearby police quickly restrained him, slamming him to the ground. Jenna cried in distress, constantly slapping the police officers. “Let go of my grandson! Let him go, you bunch of heartless bastards! I’m going to sue you!” Jenna’s overindulgence of Garrett had blurred his sense of right and wrong. “It’s your fault! You took bad luck to the family. You made my son die, and now you’re ruining my grandson! You should’ve just bought him the car. If you bought that car for him, none of this would have happened! “Now hurry up and get the money to bail my grandson out?” She looked at me as if my money grew on trees. I obediently handed over my card to the store manager and bowed several times in apology. Jenna wrapped her arms around Garrett with a smug look. “You want me to let my grandson rot in jail for such a small amount of money? You are a greedy animal.” The store manager looked like he might punch her but held back at the last moment. “A professional estimate puts the compensation at 1.3 million dollars. Any objections?” “What? 1.3 million dollars? How could that be? Are your cars made of gold?” Jenna yanked my collar and demanded loudly, “How do you have so much money?” “Jenna, of course, I don’t. This is your son’s compensation money.” Jenna froze right there, and taking this opportunity, I pushed her away from Garrett. “Garrett, I’m sorry you’ve suffered. I’m going home to get the money. “If only your grandma gave me the money, you wouldn’t be in this mess.” Tears streaming down my face, I wiped away the fake tears. Jenna stared at me, shocked. She didn’t expect that I also knew how to sow discord. “Well, well. You old witch. You take my father’s money and refuse to let me spend it. You’re pure evil.” Jenna was flustered. She stammered and didn’t know how to explain. Garrett shoved her to the ground and grabbed me to drag me home. I turned, grabbed the card, and smiled at Jenna on the floor. In my mind, I said, “This is just the beginning.”
When we got home, Garrett grabbed my bag out of my hands and started rummaging through it. He was looking for that card. “Garrett, there’s barely any money left on that card.” “How could that be? That person paid my dad millions of dollars. How can there be no money left?!” “Your grandma’s been using that money to gamble, and she lost everything. She couldn’t even pay the ransom to the police. I had to cover it with my own salary. “You can check if you don’t believe me. It’s really not much left.” In the last life, Jenna tricked me into taking out a loan, then used the compensation money to buy multiple properties. She lived luxuriously and always gambled when she had time. “Garrett, your grandmother didn’t leave anything for us! “How are we supposed to live?” The hard object pressed against my waist made me feel pain, but I was overjoyed. I had swapped that card long ago. I just wanted to watch these two fight over money, turning against each other. This time, I was going to make her feel what it’s like to be burdened with debt and have to work for a living. Just then, my phone rang. The robotic voice on the other end sounded jarring in the quiet room. “Hello, do you need a loan? We offer low interest rates and discounts for large amounts.” “Sorry, we don’t…” “Wait! We want a loan!” Garrett snatched the phone from my ear and, without hesitation, rattled off a string of numbers. I knew it was Jenna’s ID number.
“Garrett, I didn’t mean it. I was saving that money for you to get married. How could I possibly do anything harmful to you?” She wore that familiar look of feigned victimhood, eyes lowered as she dabbed at the few teardrops that barely formed. In the past, Garrett would have been furious and tried to defend her. But today, he just slouched on the sofa, glued to his phone, not even bothering to look at her. The incessant noise from the game made Jenna’s plump figure look even more awkward. I tied on my apron, ready to cook, but Garrett stopped me. “Let her do it. We can’t afford to keep a freeloader.” From that moment on, Jenna and I swapped roles in this house. It used to be me doing all the housework, and now it was me watching TV while she did the chores. It used to be her and Garrett eating at the table; now, she was holding a plate in the kitchen while Garrett and I chatted and laughed at the table. Jenna’s eyes were filled with resentment as if I had stolen my place in Garrett’s heart. But I knew all of this was temporary. Whoever benefited Garrett would have a place at that table. In the past, I felt sad because Garrett wasn’t close to me, and I’d try all kinds of ways to please him. I used to dream of sitting at the table with Garrett, happily chatting about the day’s events. But now that I was really sitting there, I only felt bored. I thought, “When did a little brat get to be the one in charge of this house? Why should I have to live my life according to his whims? I wasn’t just a mother; I was myself, too.” I started to throw myself into overtime at work. I took every client file seriously, analyzing their needs, crafting plans, and then shamelessly making one call after another. One day, my manager, Victoria Branson, walked by and gave me a disgusted look, scanning me from head to toe. “Can you at least make yourself presentable? It’s a sign of respect for the clients.” Looking at the woman with big waves in her hair and bright red lipstick, I felt tears well up. In the last life, Victoria had lectured me like that too. But when I was at my lowest, she slipped me tens of thousands of dollars. “You shouldn’t just live for your son. You need to live for yourself, too.” Those were the last words she’d said to me in my last life, but at the time, I still thought Garrett was my everything. I was so happy to take that money and use it for the household, but all I got in return was being stuck in that village. I really wanted to say thank you to her. Seeing my eyes redden, she suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Why are you crying? I didn’t yell at you! “Here, here, take it. Don’t say I’m bullying you.” She shoved something into my hands. I knew it was a tube of lipstick. It didn’t take long before Jenna and Garrett made up. Jenna had a talent for manipulating relationships, and I had expected this outcome. But I didn’t care.
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