Chapter 1

My three sons once proudly announced that they were setting up a "Family Care Fund" for me, promising to each deposit three thousand dollars every month.

"Mom, you sacrificed everything to raise us," they said. "Now it is our turn to take care of you!"

In my past life, tears streamed down my face. I genuinely believed that decades of hardship had finally earned me their love and devotion.

Eight years later, I was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease. When I tried to pay the initial hospital deposit for dialysis, the card was declined.

Right then, my oldest son, Logan, FaceTimed me. He said he wanted to buy a home in an elite school district, but he was short a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the down payment.

Next, my second son, Howard, brought his wife and daughter to my hospital room. He bragged about how Maisie had won a youth piano competition, dropping heavy hints that he needed fifty thousand dollars for an elite international conservatory program.

My youngest son, Pierce, was even more shameless. He sent me pictures of limited-edition designer sneakers, demanding thirty thousand dollars as an early birthday gift.

When I told them there was no money left in the account, their expressions turned vicious in an instant.

"We each put in three thousand a month!" they yelled. "Over eight years, that is nearly eight hundred thousand dollars! Where the hell did you hide our money?"

To force me into handing over my nonexistent fortune, they took turns harassing me. They even told all our relatives that I had developed dementia and lost everything to a scammer.

Broken by their relentless cruelty, I ripped the IV out of my arm in the dead of night and stumbled out of the hospital. Dazed and disoriented, I walked directly into the path of an oncoming truck and died on the spot.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sitting in the hospital hallway on the very day of my initial diagnosis.

There was no floating sensation of dying, and no chaotic sirens ringing in my ears.

I shivered violently as I looked around, realizing the sterile white lights and the bleached corridor were sickeningly familiar.

This was the exact day everything fell apart in my previous life.

I had actually come back.

Suddenly, a loud and impatient voice barked through the phone pressed against my ear.

"Mom! Are you even listening to me? That house in the school district is going to sell fast. If we do not put down the earnest deposit today, someone else will grab it!"

"I just need a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Spot me the cash, and I will pay you back later."

His arrogant tone was identical to the day he hounded me to death eight years ago.

I gripped the phone tightly as memories flooded my mind.

In my previous life, I had just received my test results when Logan called. Heartbroken and overwhelmed, I honestly told him there was barely any money in the fund.

His reaction had been explosive.

"Not enough money? Are you kidding me, Mom?"

I could still vividly picture his bulging eyes on the screen.

"The three of us put in three grand every month! That is over eight hundred grand! You must be losing your mind, letting some crook swindle all our hard-earned cash!"

"Think, Mom! Where did the money go? Did you secretly give it to that deadbeat cousin of yours? I knew he was up to no good!"

"It is a hundred and fifty grand, Mom! Go to the bank right now, or your grandson loses his future!"

Those words had pierced my chest like poisoned daggers.

I had lived frugally my entire life, wearing the same winter coat for a decade and clipping grocery coupons just to save a few pennies. How could I have squandered hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Yet none of them believed me.

Soon after, Howard had brought Maisie to my room, holding her shiny little trophy with a fake smile plastered across his face.

"Mom, look how talented Maisie is! Her instructor said fifty grand for the masterclass will set her up for life. That money in your account is just sitting there anyway."

Then Pierce had texted me the shoes.

"Mom, it is only thirty grand. Just pull a tiny fraction from the family fund for my birthday."

When I insisted the account was empty, they turned into wild beasts.

"She has dementia!"

"We busted our backs saving for her, and she blew it all!"

"Make her cough up the money, or we will tell the whole family what a reckless old fool she is!"

They dragged my name through the mud, painting me as a senile woman who gambled away her sons' filial love.

Suffocating under the humiliation, I had fled into the dark streets, only to be crushed under the wheels of a speeding vehicle.

"Mom! Hello? Did you hear a single word I said?"

Logan's voice snapped me back to reality, dripping with irritation.

"Wire me that hundred and fifty thousand today. Right now!"

I took a deep, steadying breath. My heart thudded against my ribs, and cold sweat covered my palms.