“Oh heavens, what misery my life has been! I lost my husband while I was still young, raised two sons all by myself, and just when I finally saw them grown and married, I hadn’t even held a grandchild yet before I was angered to death!”

Penny staggered back half a step, startled by my sudden outburst.

But in the very next second, I climbed out of the coffin and nimbly locked my arms around her legs.

“God pitied me and let me come back to life, yet my own daughter-in-law clearly never wanted me to live!”

The people who had fled earlier heard the commotion and returned to the hall, whispering among themselves.

Penny endured the pain in her leg and struggled in panic.

“Mom, what are you saying? I never wished for you to die!”

Martin, the eldest son of the Rembrandts, snapped out of his daze.

He shoved Penny aside and helped me up.

“What the hell, Penny? You were hoping Mom would die, weren’t you? Apologize to her now!”

Penny froze in place.

After a long moment, she bit her lip and forced out the words.

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

At her words, Christopher, or Chris, the younger brother, who had remained silent all along, finally spoke.

But instead of defending Felicity, or more like me, he spoke for Penny.

“Mom, you’re already pretty old… Why are you arguing with someone like Penny?

“You know how she just speaks her mind. She didn’t mean any harm.

“Stop crying already. It’s embarrassing.”

At his cruel words, I wailed even louder as I pounded the ground with all my strength.

“So now I’m an embarrassment to you, is that it? Fine! If I’m dead, I won’t shame you anymore. I’ll go ahead and die right now!

“It’s perfect. When I get to heaven, I’ll have a proper talk with your dad about how his son forgot his mother the moment he got himself a wife!”

I shook free of Martin and hurled myself toward a wooden post in the distance.

Before I could reach it, Martin grabbed me and turned to Chris in fury.

“Have you lost your mind? Do you think it was easy for Mom to raise the two of us? How could you side with an outsider?”

The color drained completely from Penny’s face.

Martin had always been Felicity’s favorite and so never spared Penny a single glance as he focused entirely on calming me down.

Chris, by contrast, looked conflicted.

Looking at him—my ex-boyfriend from my previous life—my heart filled with bitter irony.

In my past life, Penny had posted photos of me online wearing nothing but my lingerie.

The caption read: [Starting the bid at one dollar.]

When I confronted her in rage, she brushed it off with a careless remark.

“Only sluts change clothes in front of windows. If you weren’t trying to sell yourself, then what were you doing?”

Chris had not only failed to defend me but even excused Penny’s behavior.

“Penny was just trying to teach you a lesson.

“She’s always blunt. If you cut ties over something like this, people will think you’re very petty.”

In the end, Penny deleted the post.

But every day, tens of thousands of insults and obscene jokes still flooded my inbox.

At that thought, I smiled coldly and rose unhurriedly, before making my way to Chris.

Then, gathering all my strength into my palm, I slapped him across the face.

“This,” I said, “is the price you pay for siding with outsiders.”

Chris staggered back from the blow, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with shock.

Penny and Martin looked as though they, too, had been slapped, their faces frozen in disbelief.

Penny reached out to gently cup Chris’s swollen cheek, her heart aching for him.

“What right do you have to hit him? Have you lost your mind?”

Martin stepped in front of me and spoke with righteous certainty.

“Chris is still Mom’s son. If she hits him, she must have had her reasons.”

I patted Martin on the shoulder and replied with a cold smile.

“What right? Because I’m his mother.

“Let me give you some advice, Penny. When a mother hits her son, it’s not madness; it’s discipline.

“If I don’t teach him now, society will teach him later.”

Just then, a memory from Felicity’s past surfaced in my mind.

It turned out only Martin had been raised by Felicity.

When Chris was born, her husband, Noah Rembrandt, tragically passed away.

To keep the Rembrandts from falling apart, Felicity had no choice but to leave Chris in the care of a nanny.

Chris had always believed that Felicity favored Martin and neglected him.

He even made it difficult for Felicity to remarry, claiming that she must always mourn for Noah, and that if she remarried, he would make sure she was never welcome in the Rembrandt home.

When Penny repeatedly targeted Felicity, Chris saw it all clearly yet never once stopped her.

When I had been with Chris in my previous life, I had pitied him.

Now I saw him for what he truly was: an ungrateful wretch.

Since I had taken over Felicity’s body, I decided it would be my turn to teach Chris how to be a filial son.

After the chaos in the hall spiraled out of control, Penny struck first, deliberately revealing the bruises on her arm.

“Ever since I married into the Rembrandts, Mom has found fault with me every single day.

“If she wasn’t accusing me of dressing too provocatively, she was saying I was too close to Martin.

“When Chris spoke up for me, she even hit him. Is that really my fault?”

She cried with tears clinging to her lashes, stirring waves of sympathy online.

[You disgusting old hag! At your age, you’re still competing for male attention.]

[You’re making all women our age look bad!]

[Her husband hasn’t even been dead that long, and she’s already been cycling through men.]

[Now that she’s old and can’t pull anyone, she’s set her sights on her own sons. Is she trying to commit incest? How vile!]

[Don’t cry, Penny. You did nothing wrong. The one at fault is that hag!]

One unbearable comment after another flooded my vision.

When I thought about how Felicity had endured such abuse every single day while she was still alive, I was reminded of the cyberbullying I had suffered in my past life.

Even though ‘Rose Denning’ was already dead, these people still refused to let me go.

I shoved the video at Penny’s face.

“Either you come forward and clear things up,” I said coldly, “or you walk away.”

Penny immediately collapsed into Martin’s arms.

“I love Martin. I’m begging you! Please don’t take him away from me. I can’t live without him.”

Martin rubbed her shoulder gently as he tried to soothe her.

“Mom isn’t that kind of person. There must have been some misunderstanding.”

In the past, Felicity had repeatedly endured everything because she didn’t want Martin to be caught in the middle—until that forbearance cost her life.

But times had changed.

I had no intention of holding back.

“I think Penny just doesn’t want me around. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gone online saying I hit her.

“I might as well just die and be with your dad.”

At my words, Martin immediately turned on Penny.

“When did Mom ever hit you? Delete that video right now!”

Penny looked utterly aggrieved.

In a place Martin couldn’t see, she shot me a vicious glare.

Just as she was about to delete the video, Chris stopped her.

“Mom, you were the one at fault for embarrassing everyone in public.

“Penny only wanted to teach you a lesson. There’s no need for you to blow things out of proportion.”

I laughed in anger.

Penny immediately found her confidence and began fanning the flames beside Martin.

“That’s right, Martin. I did it for Mom’s own good.

“Don’t you think she’s been acting like a completely different person since she suddenly came back to life?

“Situations like this usually mean she needs a man, or, like Rose, she’s just jealous of my good fortune, and so she’s deliberately targeting me.

“If it really comes to it, we should just send Mom to a psychiatric hospital.”

At that point, I could no longer endure it and violently overturned the coffee table.

Everything on it clattered to the floor.

Water spilled everywhere as all three of them sprang to their feet, faces filled with terror.

I was just about to slap Penny across the face when she suddenly thrust out her stomach and screamed.

“Go on—hit me right here! I’m carrying the Rembrandts’ legitimate heir.

“If you’ve got the guts, then hit me!”

I froze in place.

Penny grew even more brazen, nearly pressing her stomach into my face.

“You’d better think carefully.

“If this baby doesn’t make it, you’ll be the greatest sinner among the Rembrandts. And when you die, maybe your own father-in-law will have something to say about it!”

Martin sprang to his feet, his voice full of excitement.

“Are you really pregnant, Penny?”

“Yes, Martin,” she cooed.

“Our first child. We have to protect our baby.

“Girl or boy, I’ll love them all the same,” Martin said proudly.

Penny froze as his words settled on her.

Sure enough, the moment Martin left, she sneaked off to a private hospital to determine the child’s sex.

I secretly bribed the doctor so that no matter the actual gender, the report had to say it was a girl.

I also installed hidden cameras all over the house to gather evidence.

When the report came back, and Penny learned the child was a girl, her expression turned venomous.

She pounded her belly with all her might.

“Of course, it is!

“Trying to win her father over even before she’s born!

“I can’t allow that. No one can take my place!

“You little wretch, just you wait!”

From that day on, whenever the house was empty, Penny began tormenting the baby in her tummy, hoping for a miscarriage.

She deliberately vomited the folic acid the doctor prescribed, poured all her specially prepared meals into the toilet, binged on mountains of ice cream, and even secretly drank alcohol.

“You little brat, I refuse to believe you’ll survive this. Even if you do, you’ll be so ugly no man will ever want you!”

She even ran up and down the house without restraint.

Sweat poured from her head, but she didn’t stop, growing ever more reckless with each passing day.

Yet, despite all her schemes and torment, her belly grew bigger by the day.

When a checkup confirmed the child was healthy, Penny completely lost it.

That night, through the surveillance cameras, I saw her sneak into my room, brimming with excitement as she began eating my specially prescribed medication.

Before, she had always used morning sickness or bad taste as an excuse.

But this time, the moment she downed it, she put on a performance as she clutched her belly and cried loudly.

Martin and Chris rushed her to the hospital.

After a thorough examination, she was found to be in perfect health.

She jumped up, disbelief written all over her face.

“How is this possible? I clearly took the medicine…”

“What medicine did you take?” Martin asked, his gaze sharp.

“Penny, if anything happens to my baby, I’ll hold you solely responsible!”

Meeting my gaze, Penny finally realized I had switched my medication.

She shot me a vicious glare before reluctantly swearing that she would take good care of herself.

In the blink of an eye, the due date arrived.

Martin appeared full of anticipation, while Chris looked the complete opposite.

At the same time, a memory belonging to Felicity surged into my mind.

A plan that could completely shatter Penny’s relationship with Martin began to take shape in my head.

That day, Penny had asked me to accompany her to the hospital.

As we went downstairs, she suddenly leaned close.

“You old hag—trying to make me give birth to this worthless thing so you can team up with it to steal Martin? Dream on!”

Then she tumbled down the stairs right in front of me.

When Martin and Chris rushed over, Penny’s face was deathly pale as she pointed at me.

“Why would you do this to me, Mom?”

Martin rushed her to the hospital, while Chris stayed behind to berate me.

“If anything happens to Penny or the baby, don’t blame me for showing no mercy!”

I wasn’t afraid in the slightest.

I patted his face lightly.

“It’s not even your child. Why are you making such a fuss?”

Guilt flickered briefly in his eyes before he hurried off to the hospital.

At that moment, my assistant called.

“The file is ready, Mrs. Rembrandt.”

“Good. I’m heading to the hospital now,” I said with a smile.

I wanted to see who would truly show no mercy.

Because Penny had recklessly abused her body throughout the pregnancy, the delivery was extremely difficult.

Her screams echoed through the corridor the entire night.

The moment the baby was born, she weakly demanded, “Well? It’s that little wretch, right? I suffered for so long, of course, it must be that little wretch!”

“It’s a boy…”

But the instant Martin looked at the baby’s face, his joy came to an abrupt halt.

“What the hell…Penny, what did you do?”

Penny hurried to look at the baby and nearly fainted.

“How could this happen? The doctor said it was a girl, that’s why I…”

As if a realization struck her, she suddenly pointed at me and screamed hysterically.

“It was you! You old hag, this had to be your doing!

“It was Mom! She bribed the doctor to say the baby was a girl and told me our baby would steal your love. I really didn’t mean to do it! I was just so scared—”

Before she could finish, everyone in the delivery room turned to stare at me in shock.

Martin’s face filled with disbelief and disappointment, while Chris called for the bodyguards.

“Take her to a psychiatric hospital!”

I let out a cold laugh.

“Before you make a move,” I said calmly, “you’d better figure out whose child that really is.”

Then I pulled out a diagnostic report and slammed it down in front of everyone.