Chapter 1

My sister-in-law's daughter had severe pneumonia. Instead of taking her to the hospital, she dumped the kid at my house.

I fought against it with everything I had. But my mother-in-law waited until I was gone and sneaked her in anyway.

My twin toddlers were infected almost immediately. They were vomiting, shaking, and crying because their throats hurt so bad.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law didn't give a damn. They were too busy binge-watching their favorite shows while my babies suffered.

I lost it. I demanded they pay for what they did. Instead, they teamed up and murdered me in cold blood.

As my soul drifted above my own corpse, I saw my sister-in-law sneering at me.

"Who do you think you are, winning the lottery? That ten million dollars belongs to the Lewis family, not some outsider like you!"

Then, the world went white. When I opened my eyes again, I heard my mother-in-law on the phone.

1.

"Just have Tilly wait. I'll go get her and bring her over as soon as that bitch leaves for work."

I stared at the ceiling, my heart hammering against my ribs. I had actually been reborn!

In my last life, my mother-in-law waited until I was at the clinic to bring her sick granddaughter into my home.

She didn't just bring her over. She refused to keep her in a separate room and insisted on leaving all the doors wide open.

"Kids need to be together. If you isolate her, she'll feel left out and get depressed. Are you going to pay for her therapy if she has a mental breakdown?"

I remembered how helpless I felt. "Mom, Tilly has viral pneumonia. It's highly contagious. If we don't quarantine her, Hope and Leo will get sick too!"

The old woman pointed a finger right in my face. "Aren't you supposed to be a medical professional? You're telling me fresh air is bad? You're just being a heartless bitch."

Before I could even defend myself, she dragged my husband, Liam, into the room.

"Look at this woman you married! Your niece is sick, and she wants to lock her in a cage like an animal!"

Liam, being the spineless coward he was, just patted her shoulder. "Zoey, Mom is getting older. Don't upset her. Just go along with what she wants."

I felt like I was screaming into a void. "I'll take care of Tilly myself," my mother-in-law added. "I don't know why you're making such a fuss. It's not like I'm asking you to lift a finger."

I told them straight up: either the kid goes, or I do. But I was running late for my shift at the hospital.

I demanded she take the girl home before I left. But when I got back that evening after picking up the twins from daycare, the house was a disaster.

Tilly had gone through my children's closets. She had tried on every single outfit, leaving germs everywhere.

She used Hope's favorite princess dress to wipe her snotty nose. She used Leo's Sunday shirt to clean her greasy hands.

Every single toy in the twins' playroom had teeth marks on it. She claimed she was "marking" them so they would belong to her now.

The worst part? My mother-in-law had given her a bath and put her, completely naked, right into my children's bed.

Tilly was coughing and sneezing all over their pillows. Snot and saliva were smeared across their blankets.

I told my twins to wait in my bedroom while I dressed Tilly.

"Tilly, Auntie Zoey is taking you home right now," I said, pulling her toward the door.

My mother-in-law blocked the exit, her face turning purple. "Zoey Sterling, if you take her out of this house, I'm jumping off the balcony!"