Reborn I Refuse to Be the Family's Cash Cow AgainChapter 1
After my husband died, my mother-in-law was so devastated that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She held my hands and begged me to stay. She said that seeing me and our child made her feel like her son was still alive.
Thinking of the nearly twenty years of love I'd shared with my husband, I agreed.
I used his accident compensation to pay for her treatment. I cared for her day and night, treated her like my own mother, and looked after her until the day she died of old age.
The day her funeral ended, my brother-in-law and his wife showed up with a lawyer—and my mother-in-law's will.
Every house, every storefront the family owned, she'd left to him.
Even the house my husband and I had bought together—she claimed half of it was hers and left that to him too.
I stared at the video will the lawyer held up, and the ground dropped out from under me.
Twenty years of devotion. A joke. Every last day of it.
My sister-in-law looked at me with a smirk that could curdle milk. "Time to pack up, Jeanette Harding. We're giving you one hour to get out."
This was the house my husband and I had bought after we got married. It was my home—mine and my daughter's. Why should I be the one to leave?
I refused. So they shoved me down the stairs and killed me.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back at my husband's funeral, the service barely over.
Kay Perry was crying, clutching my hands, begging me to stay. Matthew Gray and his wife stood nearby, nodding along. Relatives and friends crowded around, all of them urging me to give in.
……
A pair of weathered hands gripped mine tight.
"Jeanette, I know I shouldn't force you to stay. I'm old and sick—I'd only be a burden."
Her voice cracked. "But I still hope you and Caroline will stay. When I see you two, I feel like my son is still here."
I lifted my gaze to the woman holding my hands.
Kay Perry. My mother-in-law.
Matthew Gray stepped forward to back her up.
"Jeanette, Mom just lost my brother. If you and Caroline leave too, it'll destroy her."
"Stay and take care of her, and we'll pay you a salary every month. A fair one."
"Medical bills too—we'll cover everything. Just stay. Please?"
"Exactly," Leila Lawrence chimed in, her voice dripping with warmth. "Mom needs someone by her side right now."