The night before my daughter and I were supposed to leave on a road trip, my sister-in-law suddenly showed up with my nephew. “Maya, Dylan heard you and Chloe are going on a road trip, and he really wants to go. Just take Dylan with you. It’ll be great, Chloe will have a playmate!” “I’m really sorry, Sarah, but I just don’t have the energy to manage two kids by myself on a road trip.” I honestly thought that after I explicitly said no, the issue was settled. Who could have possibly predicted that when I stopped at a rest stop the next day, my nephew, Dylan, would crawl out of my trunk? I had no choice. I was forced to take him with me. On the trip, my nephew demanded the most expensive hotels and the priciest meals. His parents—my brother-in-law and sister-in-law—didn’t contribute a single dime, and instead rallied the entire family to text me, insisting I “not be cheap” when it came to spending money on Dylan. Just because I refused to buy him a ridiculously overpriced theme-park ice cream—knowing he had a sensitive stomach and would get sick—he snapped. He literally pushed me and my daughter into a raging river, and stood on the bank watching as we drowned. When I opened my eyes again, I was back in my living room, the day before the trip. I immediately canceled the road trip, booked two Amtrak train tickets for me and my daughter to our destination, and casually loaned my car to my incredibly irresponsible, flaky brother-in-law. 1 “Maya, just take Dylan with you tomorrow. You’re already watching one kid, what’s one more? It’s the exact same amount of work.” My husband, Mark’s voice snapped me back to reality. I realized I had been reborn. In my past life, I exhausted myself trying to reasonably explain to Mark why it was a bad idea. In this life? I couldn’t even be bothered to waste my breath. I just looked at him and said two words. “I’m not.” Mark immediately caught an attitude. “You know, sometimes you are just incredibly cold and unreasonable!” I ignored him, pulled out my phone, and booked two train tickets for the next morning. Early the next day, I grabbed our bags, ordered an Uber, and took my daughter straight to the train station. Chloe looked up at me, confused but innocent. “Mommy, didn’t you say we were going to drive the car for our vacation?” I gently stroked her soft hair. “You’ve never been on a train before, right? Mommy thought it would be fun to give you a new experience.” “Yay! A train!” Looking at Chloe’s bright, excited little face, I swore to myself that in this life, I would protect her at all costs. In my previous life, after we were pushed into the river by Dylan, I actually managed to fight the current long enough to push Chloe up onto the rocky bank. But Dylan… I have no idea where he found it, but he picked up a massive, heavy rock, and slammed it directly into my daughter’s head. Her head split open, blood pouring down her face, and she fell backward, plunging back into the raging rapids. Since my sister-in-law loved the idea of her son hiding in trunks to hitch free rides so much, let’s see how much he enjoys hiding in this one! Once Chloe and I were safely seated on the train, I sent a text to my brother-in-law, Jason. “Hey, I decided not to use my car for the trip. If you still need it, the keys are on the counter. Take it.” Jason replied instantly: “Thanks, Maya! You’re a lifesaver, I’m heading over to grab it right now!” Right before the trip, Jason had aggressively asked to borrow my car. Because I was planning the road trip, I obviously said no, which caused him to throw a massive, petty tantrum. Well, the car is yours now, Jason. Have fun taking Dylan on a joyride. Two hours later, Chloe and I arrived at our destination. We had barely stepped out of the train station when my sister-in-law, Sarah, called. “Maya, the weather is getting a little chilly up there today, make sure you put a jacket on Dylan. Oh, and he didn’t eat breakfast before he left. When you hit the rest stop, buy him some milk and a sandwich or something.” I played completely dumb. “Sarah, are you feeling okay? I took Chloe on vacation. Dylan isn’t with me.” I heard Sarah let out a smug, self-satisfied laugh on the other end of the line. “Dylan really, really wanted to go with you guys. I knew you were going to be difficult and say no, so I just told him to hide in the trunk of your car. Seriously, that kid, he’s just playing hide-and-seek and won’t come out.” “Just pop the trunk and check right now. He’s in there.” The corners of my mouth curled into a slow smile. “But Sarah, I didn’t drive my car today. Chloe and I took the Amtrak.” 2 Sarah chuckled again, clearly not believing me. “Maya, stop joking around. I literally stood in my driveway and watched you drive your car down the street this morning.” “Is Dylan sitting right next to you? Put him on speaker, let me talk to him.” “I’m not joking, Sarah. Chloe and I really took the train. If you saw my car driving away, it was probably Jason. I loaned the car to him last night.” “If you don’t believe me, just call him and ask.” “Oh, wait! Now that I think about it… didn’t Jason say he was taking his new girlfriend on a long, scenic drive down the coast today? I really hope he realizes Dylan is in the trunk. It gets incredibly hot back there… I’d hate for the poor kid to suffocate.” I almost burst out laughing as I delivered that line. On the other end of the phone, it finally clicked for Sarah. The smugness vanished instantly. “You’re telling me Jason took the car this morning?!” “Yeah.” “Maya, I swear to God, if anything happens to my son, I will fucking kill you!” Before I could even reply, Sarah panicked and hung up the phone. I knew she would be calling back immediately. Sure enough, less than five minutes later, my screen lit up with her name again. “Maya! Jason’s phone is going straight to voicemail! I am ordering you to track him down right now! My son is in that car!” “Sarah, if you can’t reach him, how am I supposed to? We’re calling the exact same number. Just keep trying, maybe he’ll pick up when he gets cell service again.” Sarah was absolutely hysterical. “If anything happens to my son, you are taking full legal responsibility for this!” “I’m sorry, did I tell your son to crawl into my trunk like a rat? However you want to spin this, you absolutely cannot pin this on me.” “How is it not your fault?! If you had just been a decent person and agreed to take Dylan in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to tell him to hide in the trunk! It’s your car! If you don’t take responsibility, who will?!” “I’m sorry, but that sounds like a ‘you’ problem.” This time, I was the one who hung up. I immediately blocked Sarah’s number. A few seconds later, my husband, Mark, called. He came out swinging, his voice aggressive and accusatory. “What the hell is wrong with you?! Because of you, Dylan is missing, and you actually have the nerve to ignore Sarah’s calls?!” I let out a harsh, cynical laugh. “Did I force Dylan to climb into my trunk? And the person who drove the car away, who currently has his phone turned off, is your brother!” “Mark, I have been way too nice to you for way too long. You clearly think I’m a pushover, and you think you can just dump every single problem your toxic family creates directly onto my lap!” “Dylan is just unreachable right now. Even if he’s actually dead in that trunk, it has absolutely nothing to do with me!” “Stop talking and bring Chloe home right now!” “We just got here. Why would we go back?” Mark was roaring through the phone. “Dylan is missing and you’re actually in the mood to go sightseeing?! Get your ass back here immediately!” “If I come back, does that magically locate him? If you can’t find him, call 911. Screaming at me doesn’t solve anything!” I hung up, went into my settings, and blocked every single phone number associated with Mark’s family. Knowing Mark would probably try to use a stranger’s phone to harass me, I just powered my phone completely off. “Come on, Chloe, let’s go have some fun.” I held my daughter’s hand, walking toward the pier to rent a paddleboat. Suddenly, the Apple Watch on Chloe’s wrist erupted with Mark’s furious, booming voice. “Chloe! Tell your mother to get her ass home right now!” 3 Chloe’s smartwatch was set to auto-answer calls from approved contacts. The sudden, violent screaming echoing from her wrist absolutely terrified her. She burst into tears. I quickly unbuckled the watch from her wrist. “Mark, are you a literal psychopath?! Why are you screaming at a child?!” “You forced my hand! Maya, I am telling you, you need to be home by tonight! If I don’t see your face in this house tonight, we are getting a divorce!” “Great! Let’s get a divorce!” Mark’s voice was shaking with pure, unadulterated rage. “Maya, you have completely lost your fucking mind!” I powered off Chloe’s smartwatch. Finally, absolute peace and quiet. I took Chloe around the city, and we had an incredible day. That night, after we got back to the hotel, I finally turned my phone back on. The notifications flooded in like an avalanche. Sarah had sent me over eighty messages on iMessage, all of them massive audio recordings. I couldn’t even be bothered to listen to a single one. I just muted the conversation. Let her scream into the void. My best friend had also sent me several frantic texts. “Maya, where the hell are you?! You’re not answering your phone and you’re not replying to texts! Your sister-in-law is literally doing a TikTok live stream dragging your name through the mud! I screen-recorded it, you need to watch this right now!” I clicked on the video file my friend sent. There was Sarah, her eyes bloodshot, sobbing directly into her front-facing camera. “Guys, I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore, that’s why I’m turning to the internet for help.” “My son… he was tricked by his aunt, Maya, into hiding in the trunk of her car. And then, Maya intentionally loaned that car to my younger brother, Jason, and told him to drive away.” “Jason had absolutely no idea my son was in the trunk. We can’t reach Jason, and my son’s life is in extreme danger.” “Maya is refusing to help us find him, and she blocked the entire family’s phone numbers. She took her own daughter on a luxury vacation, and none of us can reach her.” “I’m begging the internet to help me find her. This is her photo. If anyone sees her, please tell her that our family is dying of anxiety. Please, I’m begging her to spare my son, just give my son back to me!” “Maya, if you have a problem with me, take it out on me! You can kill me, you can torture me, I don’t care! Just please don’t hurt my baby!” Sarah held up a printed photo of my face, sobbing hysterically, snot and tears running down her face. The internet comment section was an absolute bloodbath directed at me. “What kind of demonic, evil bitch does this?! That is her own nephew!” “Even if she hates her sister-in-law, you don’t use a child as a weapon!” “She tricked someone else’s kid into a trunk where he could literally die, and then took her own kid on vacation?! How is this woman not in prison?!” “Why wasn’t her own daughter locked in the trunk? A monster like this probably raised a little monster anyway!” “I hope the big psycho and the little psycho both die!” “If I see this bitch and her kid on the street, I swear to God I’m throwing them both in a trunk and locking them in there for a week!” … The comments were becoming increasingly violent and unhinged. I calmly screen-recorded the video and the comment section, saving everything. Then, I sent a single text message to Sarah. “Expect a letter from my lawyer.” 4 I locked my phone, tucked Chloe in, and we both drifted off to sleep. Suddenly, someone began violently pounding on our hotel room door. “Police! Open the door!” Chloe and I both jolted awake in terror. “Police? Is there a problem?” “We suspect you are involved in a homicide. Please open the door and cooperate with our investigation immediately, or we will breach the door!” I backed away from the door, assuming it was some lunatic who saw the TikTok video and was trying to impersonate a cop. “What homicide?! Get away from my door, or I’m calling 911!” Just as I grabbed my phone to dial, the heavy hotel door was violently kicked open. Officers swarmed into the room, instantly pinning my arms behind my back and forcing me face-down onto the bed. Chloe was screaming and crying in absolute terror. An officer shoved a printed photo of Dylan directly into my face. “Do you recognize this individual?” “That’s my nephew.” “The boy’s mother filed a police report stating that you lured her son into the trunk of a vehicle, resulting in his death by asphyxiation.” “Dylan is dead?!” “I didn’t do it! I had absolutely no idea he was in there!” “You need to come down to the precinct for questioning.” “Officer, I will absolutely cooperate, but please, do not terrify my daughter.” Chloe ran over, wrapping her arms around my legs, sobbing hysterically. “Don’t take my mommy away!” My heart broke looking at her tear-streaked, terrified little face. “It’s okay, Chloe. The police officers are just playing a game with Mommy. It’s okay.” Chloe and I were both escorted to the local police precinct. To my absolute shock, Mark’s entire family was already there. The second Sarah saw me, her eyes practically popped out of her skull. She lunged at me like a rabid animal, her hands curled into claws. “Maya! I’m going to fucking kill you! You murdered my son!” An officer quickly intercepted her, physically restraining her. “Ma’am, you need to calm down.” “Dylan is actually dead?” I didn’t feel a single ounce of grief. Honestly, I felt a deep, overwhelming sense of karmic justice. “My son died because of you! If you hadn’t tricked him into the trunk, he wouldn’t have suffocated to death in that oven!” An officer turned to me. “Maya, how do you respond to the allegations made by the deceased’s family? They claim you lured Dylan into the trunk and knowingly abandoned him, resulting in fatal heatstroke and asphyxiation.” “I completely deny it! I didn’t do it, Sarah did!” Before I could even finish my sentence, Mark aggressively cut me off. “Maya, I literally watched you coax Dylan into the trunk with my own two eyes. Stop lying.” “I know you didn’t intentionally mean to kill him. We are all family here. If you agree to pay my brother and Sarah financial compensation, they are willing to sign a non-prosecution agreement and drop the charges.” I stared at Mark in absolute disgust and betrayal. “Do you know that committing perjury is a felony?” “What perjury?! I saw it happen! I am your husband, do you think I would just make up a lie to frame my own wife?!” “If you refuse to pay them, my brother and Sarah are going to press charges, and I won’t be able to stop them!” “If you go to prison, what happens to Chloe?! She’s so young, she can’t survive without her mother!” “I spent hours begging them, and they finally agreed that if you pay them two million dollars, they won’t pursue criminal charges.” “Just pay the money, and we can all leave the police out of this.” “Two million dollars? Where the hell am I supposed to get two million dollars?” “Sell the house your parents gave you! You own it free and clear. Don’t worry about finding a buyer, I already have a real estate agent lined up.” I let out a cold, sharp laugh. “Dylan is literally lying dead in a morgue. Your entire family isn’t taking a single second to reflect on your own actions or grieve. You’re using his corpse to try and extort my pre-marital real estate. You people are absolute monsters.” Sarah exploded in rage. “Maya, if you don’t pay us, I will make sure you get the death penalty! You’re going to face a firing squad!” Mark leaned in close to me. “Maya, you can solve this with money. Are you really willing to risk the death penalty?!” “I didn’t kill him. Even if someone gets the death penalty, it won’t be me.” I looked directly at Sarah. For a split second, a flash of genuine guilt and panic crossed her face. “Officers, arrest her! Give her the death penalty right now! My son died in her car, and my brother-in-law literally witnessed her lure my son into the trunk! She is a murderer!” Chloe was crying so hard she was hyperventilating. “Don’t arrest my mommy!” Sarah stepped forward and violently slapped my six-year-old daughter across the face. “You little bitch! Why does my son have to die while you get to live?! You should be dead too!” An officer stepped forward, pulling out a pair of handcuffs, preparing to detain me. Mark was still standing next to me, whispering his toxic advice. “Just sell the house and pay them. Do you actually want to go to prison? Do you want to die?!” “Maya, prison is a living hell. You wouldn’t survive a week in there. Just tell me where the deed to the house is, and I will handle the sale for you right now.” I completely ignored them. I calmly pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Officers. I have definitive proof of my innocence.”
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “570813”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel
Leave a Reply