My Mother-in-Law's Pregnant Scam

Just as the braised spare ribs were placed on the dinner table, my mother-in-law Brandy suddenly put down her chopsticks. She held her belly and looked up at me and my husband Mike Smith. "I'm pregnant." Mike's bowl crashed onto the table with a clatter, soup spilling all over half the surface. "Mom, you're already sixty-five, how could—" His voice trembled and broke off. Brandy patted Mike's hand and glanced at me. "Mike has an immunodeficiency. This child's umbilical cord blood can save him." My hand holding the chopsticks paused, but my heart didn't move at all. In my previous life, it was that excuse that allowed them to scam my parents' retirement money—and in the end, they even pushed me down from the seventeenth floor. I suppressed the rising hatred and took a sip from my glass. "Something this serious requires a thorough check-up at the hospital." Brandy nodded immediately. "We'll go tomorrow. The doctor will explain everything clearly to you then." After dinner, Mike used the excuse of working late to hide away in the study. I took out the old phone hidden deep in the wardrobe and dialed private investigator Nicholas. "Miss Woods, Mike Smith owes 1.8 million dollars in usury loans. The debt collectors showed up last week." Nicholas's voice came through the receiver. I looked at the light leaking through the study door crack and sneered, "Is he still gambling?" "Still gambling. Lost 30,000 bucks last night. I've already sent you the IOU on Twitter." After hanging up, I opened the photo Nicholas sent—a usury IOU signed by Mike, dated just last week. So the so-called immunodeficiency was fake; the real reason was to scam money to pay off debts. What I didn't expect was that Brandy would use a real pregnancy to cover up the lie. I touched the voice recorder in my pocket—the one I secretly hid before I died in my last life. It contained their conversation about forging medical records. This time, it's time to pay back the debt.