My brother-in-law, Dan had racked up a mountain of debt from shady loan sharks. As a result, his entire family turned on me, through my mother-in-law's directions, pressuring me to hand over my dowry to bail him out.

I refused. So Dorothy—my mother-in-law—threw a hysterical fit, threatening my husband, Nelson, with death if he didn’t do something.

He didn't resist his mother's plea. So, he took money from my bank account behind my back.

When I found out, I confronted the Reeds in a screaming match that ended with me going into early labor. When things got critical, they refused to pay for the emergency surgery that could have saved me.

Why?

Because they’d just learned I was carrying a girl.

Dorothy and her family begged my husband not to waste money on me.

“It’s just a girl,” she’d said. “Even if she survives, it’s a waste. That money should go toward paying off your brother’s debt.”

“And let’s face it—giving birth is always risky. Her parents are gone. If she dies, everything she owns becomes yours.”

On New Year’s Eve, I died on that operating table. Me and my unborn daughter, gone—just like that.

But then I woke up. Back in my living room. On the couch. Drenched in cold sweat.

I looked down—and there it was. My belly, eight months pregnant, round and heavy.

I’d come back. I’d been reborn.

I glanced at my phone. Three days left until the loan sharks came on Dorothy’s door.

——

The faces from my past life—their cruelty, their indifference—flashed through my mind. I forced myself to breathe, to stay calm.

I rested a hand on my belly. “It’s okay, baby girl,” I whispered. “This time, I won’t let anyone hurt us.”

Then I heard the door open. Nelson was home.

Nelson strolled in, smiling brightly and holding a shopping bag, a picture of cheerful domesticity.

Such a stark contrast from the cold, distant man I remembered from before.

I turned my eyes toward him, letting a serious expression settle on my face as I slowly put down my phone.

As expected, Nelson noticed something was off right away. He quickly asked, “What’s wrong? You don’t look happy.”

I gave a tired sigh. “Something’s gone wrong at the company. One of our projects hit a funding issue. Since I’m the legal representative, I might be held personally responsible.”

Nelson’s face fell. He dropped onto the couch beside me in shock.

I explained that if I could just plug the funding gap, we’d probably be fine. But all of my money had already been invested upfront. I didn’t have anything left to cover it.

He went silent. His jaw tightened. His expression grew serious. Then, he promised he’d find a way to help me.

I pretended to be touched. But in truth, I felt nothing but cold disappointment.

If I hadn’t seen his true colors in my previous life, I might have fallen for that performance all over again. He wore that mask of concern so well.

That evening, we went to see his family.

The moment we walked in the door, Dorothy’s cheerful face dropped like a stone.

With a sneer in her voice, she snapped, “I told you, women have no business running companies. Now look! You’ve dragged the whole family down with you.”

I lowered my head, pretending to feel embarrassed and gave Nelson a small tug on his sleeve.

He opened his mouth to defend me, but Dan jumped in before he could get a word out. “Come on, bro. We all know what happened. That’s a ton of money. What are you guys planning to do about it?”

“Don’t even think about asking me for help. I’ve got nothing—I’m still single, remember?”

Nelson gave me a troubled look.

“If I can’t fill that hole, I might actually go to jail.” I spoke quietly, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “And I’m still pregnant—with Nelson’s baby…”

Dorothy cut me off with a scoff. “You don’t even know if it’s a boy or girl yet, so don’t start using that baby as an excuse.”

“Alisha,” she continued, folding her arms, “After we heard what happened, our whole family talked it over. We’re just a regular middle-class family. We can’t take on that kind of burden. You’ll have to figure it out yourself.”

In my past life, Dorothy had sworn she’d do anything—even threaten suicide—to convince me to hand over my dowry to cover Dan’s debts. She also said that if I were ever in danger, they’d spare no effort to help me.

When it really came down to it, all those promises turned out to be nothing but lies—just bait to manipulate me.

Thank God, I wasn’t that naïve idiot anymore.

“Nelson’s my husband,” I said, playing the part of the desperate wife. “If something happens to me, it’ll affect him too.”

I faked a sense of urgency—and just like I expected, it only made them more annoyed.

Dorothy slammed her hand on the table and widened her eyes in theatrical outrage. “Do you even have a conscience? That’s your husband you’re talking about! You’d drag him down with you?”

“I don’t want that to happen,” I replied meekly. “But if you could just help me out…”

“Then get a divorce,” My quiet father-in-law, Jose, finally spoke.

I held back my smile.

There it is. The words I’d been waiting for.

“Divorce?” I gasped, turning to Nelson with a wounded look. Sure enough, his eyes shifted—thoughtful, calculating. His father’s suggestion had clearly landed.

“But Nelson and I love each other,” I said, my voice trembling. “And I’m carrying his baby. There's no way we'd get divorced?”

I clutched Nelson’s arm like I was begging for a lifeline. In turn, his eyes wavered. He looked torn.

Dorothy jumped in. “Alisha, it’s not that we’re being cruel. It’s just… we really can’t help you. And Nelson—he can’t be dragged down by this. He’s worked for years to build his reputation at work. If you go down, he goes down too. His whole future would be ruined.”

Dorothy's words hit home. I could see it in Nelson’s face—because they were true. He had worked himself half to death just to secure his position. Getting promoted as a public employee was no small feat. He’d spent years clawing his way up.

Now, I could see he was wavering. He was almost convinced.

So, I let a few tears slip down my cheeks. “Nelson… is that how you truly feel?”

Nelson pressed his lips together, clearly about to say something—until Dorothy pulled him aside.

“Don’t be stupid,” she hissed. “I told you from the start, a woman who stirs up trouble is dead weight. If you don’t divorce her and she ends up in prison, that debt becomes yours!”

“But… she’s pregnant,” Nelson murmured.

Dorothy scoffed. “We don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl. If it’s a boy, fine—but if it’s a girl, then we’ve really gotten the short end of the stick!”

“You’re young, good-looking and your career’s on the rise. You could have any woman you want. Why chain yourself to this jinx?”

They thought they were whispering. They didn’t know I could hear every word, loud and clear.

After a long pause, Nelson walked back to me with a serious look on his face.

“Ali,” he said, “let’s go to the hospital and find out the baby’s gender. If it’s a boy, I’m sure my parents will be more willing to help. Don’t you think that’s fair?”

I stared at him, pretending to be stunned.

Dan jumped in without missing a beat. “I never said I’d help! If this baby isn’t a boy, well, our family still has me to count on. Worst case, my brother can just find a woman who can give him a son. Simple.”

Now I understood why Nelson was hesitating. It wasn’t out of love—not for me, not for the baby.

He was weighing the odds. If I somehow got through this crisis, he’d still have a legal claim to half my company’s profits. He and his family had already benefited plenty from my business over the years.

He was a deeply selfish man. That had never changed.

Of course, I knew full well the baby I carried was a girl. That also meant: the moment they found that out, the Reeds would toss me aside like yesterday’s trash.

“Nelson,” I asked quietly, “if our baby turns out girl, would you really divorce me?”

He replied, “When disaster strikes, it’s every man for himself, Alisha. You grew up alone—you should understand that.”

***

The next day, we met at the maternity hospital.

Normally, doctors here would never reveal a baby’s gender before birth—it was against their peculiarw policy. But this time, the Reeds had pulled strings. They found some distant cousin who worked at the hospital.

“It’s a girl,” the doctor said.

“But you two are still young,” the doctor tried to lift the mood. “You’ve got plenty of time to try again for a second or even third child. No rush.”

The moment the words left the doctor’s mouth, I saw Nelson physically relax. He even let out a visible sigh of relief.

Just like that, everything changed.

The moment we left the exam room, Nelson's demeanor did a complete 180. The man who used to be overly cautious, always holding my arm and watching every step I took, now walked ahead of me like I was a stranger.

I watched as he leaned in close to whisper something into his mother’s ear. Dorothy’s face lit up, her grin stretching nearly ear to ear.

Dorothy gave me a long, judgmental once-over, then scoffed. “I knew it the day I met you,” she sneered. “You’ve always had that cursed look about you. A total jinx.”

“You killed your own parents and now you’re trying to drag our whole family down with you. Just do the decent thing and divorce my son. We don’t need your bad luck hanging over our heads.”

I’d known better than to expect anything kind from Dorothy, but hearing her throw my parents’ deaths in my face still struck a nerve.

I had long come to terms with their passing—but in everyone else’s eyes, they died in that car crash because I had begged them to take me to an amusement park that day.

Nelson’s family, especially his parents, never let me forget that. They held onto it like ammunition, ready to fire the moment I stepped out of line.

Out of guilt, I had always tried to be patient with them. I told myself I owed them that much.

All of that and for what? So they could keep pushing me further into a corner?

“Mother…” I murmured.

“Don’t call me that,” Dorothy snapped. “I’m no longer your mother. Not ever.”

Dorothy’s face twisted with disgust as she raised her voice, drawing the attention of every passerby in the hospital hallway.

She pointed at me, shouting for everyone to hear. Telling them I was drowning in debt, probably heading to jail—and worst of all, refusing to divorce her son and set their family free.

I wiped at my tears, playing along with her little show.

There were still good people in this world. Some of the bystanders began murmuring, shaking their heads at the scene. Many told me gently that I deserved better—that I should walk away from a family like this while I still could.

Just as I was wondering how to respond, a passerby voiced the very thought I was holding back,

“If they’re getting divorced, they’d better put everything in writing—who’s getting custody, how the child support will work, how the assets are being divided. Otherwise, it’ll just be a mess even after they split.”

Dorothy’s expression twisted into something unreadable. That single comment must’ve struck a nerve.

She went quiet for a while, clearly stewing over something and then—probably thinking she’d had a stroke of genius—she sprang into action.

***

That same day, after confirming the baby was a girl, she gathered every relative she could find.

Nelson brought in a lawyer to “keep things professional.”

So there I was, eight months pregnant, sitting alone at the end of a long table, facing a crowd that looked more like a tribunal than a family.

“Alisha, now don’t say we’re ganging up on you,” Dorothy began, her tone saccharine and self-righteous. “We’re just here to lay everything out clearly, fair and square.”

The Reeds made their position painfully clear here.

Once the divorce was finalized, Nelson would have nothing to do with my business debts. The child? They wanted no part of that either. No custody, no child support—not even a visit.

“If you want to change her last name or whatever,” Dorothy said with a dismissive wave, “that’s your business. We won’t interfere.”

The bottom line was: they were cutting all ties with both me and the baby.

“That’s it?” I asked, stunned. “No emotion, no sense of responsibility?”

“It’s not about lacking emotion,” Dorothy huffed. “You’re the one who brought this mess on yourself. Who starts a business while pregnant and nearly lands themselves in prison? Honestly, who could—or would—stick their neck out for you?”

Dan jumped in like he was auditioning for ‘Most Self-Righteous brother-in-law of the Year’, “Exactly! If I ever owed that kind of money, no way would I ask my parents for help. They worked hard to raise us—it’d be shameful to drag them into debt! Totally ungrateful.”

Then he threw in one more jab, smirking. “Oh, right. You wouldn’t know about that kind of thing. You didn’t have parents growing up.”

Nelson shot him a warning look and Dan finally shut his mouth.

I sat in silence, watching this hypocritical family try to wash their hands clean, pretending to be honorable while gutting me like it was a business negotiation.

A thick packet of legal documents was handed to me across the table. I took it and stared down at the papers in my hands.