Chapter 2

2

As I was standing there, I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me. I saw a stylish young man in his mid-twenties walk out of the art studio across the street.

He saw me swaying and rushed over, shoving his drink into his pocket to catch me before I hit the ground.

"What's wrong?" It was Leo, Lily's art teacher.

He frowned, looking concerned. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog, but a strange heat began to spread through my body.

I felt weaker by the second. I could hear Lily crying out for me, and then everything went black.

When I woke up, the smell of disinfectant filled my nose. Lily was huddled by my bed, her eyes red from crying.

"Mommy, you just collapsed! Thank God Mr. Leo brought you here. You scared me so much."

Leo walked in a moment later. He patted Lily's head and handed her a phone to play with so we could talk privately.

"Lily's mom, someone drugged you," he said, scratching his head awkwardly.

"A parent told me you were looking for me, so I rushed out to find you. Don't worry, I've already called the police."

The police took a bottle of water Leo had been carrying to the lab. When the results came back, the room went cold.

Someone had tampered with his water, too. They probably thought a young guy like him wouldn't notice an unsealed cap. We had both been targeted.

"Who would do this?" Leo asked, his brow furrowed as he tried to think of anyone who held a grudge against him.

I, however, had a very strong suspicion.

By the time I got Lily home, it was dark. Before I even opened the door, I could hear laughter coming from inside.

It was Nadia. I would know that voice anywhere. It was a sound I loathed with every fiber of my being.

"Ugh, look who finally decided to show up," Martha sneered, spitting out sunflower seed shells as she glared at us.

Silas was trembling with rage. He threw a stack of photos at me, and they scattered across the floor.

"Look at what you've been doing! Cheating on me while you're out with our daughter? Have you no shame?"

"I want a divorce. You're clearly a bad influence on Lily, so you can take her and leave. I don't want her."

He spat the words out, but I didn't flinch. I stared at the photos. They were all of Leo holding me after I had been drugged.

The angles were calculated to make us look intimate. Leo had been a victim of their scheme just to give Silas a reason to dump me.

"Sleeping with your daughter's teacher... if these get out, he'll lose his job," a sharp voice said.

Nadia stood up from the sofa and walked toward me. In my last life, she didn't appear until after I had paid the money and divorced. She was getting desperate this time.

She wanted to ruin me so Silas could be hers without any legal trouble. I felt a cold smile tugging at my lips.

"No! Mommy was sick! She wasn't doing anything wrong!" Lily screamed, trying to defend me.

I quickly covered her mouth. I didn't want her saying too much yet; I wasn't done playing with them.

I put Lily in her room and came back to sit on the sofa. I picked up the divorce papers Silas had prepared and read them carefully.

It was a masterpiece of greed. He wanted me to leave with nothing but the kid. He wanted my inheritance, the house I paid to renovate, and the car my parents bought me.

"Why are you looking at it? You cheated. You don't deserve a penny," Martha barked, standing over me.

"A woman like you... who even knows if Lily is a Silas's kid? We don't want her anyway."

Silas put on his 'suffering' face again. "After all these years, let's just end this quietly."

They were certain they had me trapped. I glanced at the date on my phone. June 15th. The redevelopment announcement was only a month away.

Silas had an inside source. He knew his family's old property was about to be worth millions, and he wanted to keep it all for himself and Nadia.

Nadia looked at me with pure contempt. "Exactly. Just sign the papers. You're still young; maybe you can find a new sucker to pay for that brat."

Just then, there was a knock at the door. It was the police officers from the hospital, looking very stern.

When they saw me, they nodded, then their eyes shifted to Nadia. "Is there a Miss Nadia here?"

Nadia flinched and tried to hide behind Silas. I pointed directly at her. "That's her. My husband's mistress."

Nadia exploded. "Don't you dare lie! I'm not married! I'll sue you for slander!"