The people attending Winona's funeral crowded forward upon hearing my words. Seeing that the coffin was empty, all of them were shocked. Could Winona really have come back to life?

Mom spoiled and doted on Winona excessively. So, of course, she couldn't bear to let Winona suffer by stuffing her inside a coffin for hours.

In my previous life, Mom rushed to hold Winona's funeral the day after she died.

I had always been suspicious about her sudden death. Those thugs didn't want money, nor did they want her body. What were they after?

But Mom claimed she wanted Winona to be laid to rest as soon as possible. So, she stopped me from investigating further.

After Kenneth and I held our wedding, she wouldn't let us register our marriage, saying it was to honor Winona's memory. She didn't want me to take the official title after I had already taken her husband physically in real life.

I had been suspicious. But Sonny's incessant crying wore me down, and I slowly let down my guard on this issue. In the end, it was all just a ploy to let Winona inherit Kenneth's assets.

Seeing that her lies were about to unravel, Mom panicked. Then, she suddenly teared up and wailed, "I didn't want the crying and sobbing sounds to disturb Winona, so I put an empty coffin here."

The expressions of the relatives and friends present soured considerably. They had come to attend Winona's funeral out of sympathy for her unexpected death. Yet now, Mom was complaining that they were too noisy.

On the other hand, Kenneth wasn't buying any of it. He grabbed Mom by the collar and roared, "Is Winona dead or not, you old hag? Don't tell me you teamed up with that bitch to put on a show. I spent so much money on you two all these years, and all I got was a brat who's all screwed up in the head!

"Even if that bitch is dead, your younger one has to pay me back by giving me a son with a proper head on his shoulders!"

Mom trembled at his words and quickly promised she would give him a satisfactory explanation in a few days. Kenneth was unhappy with her answer, but he nodded reluctantly anyway.

Before he left, he ran his lewd gaze up and down my body. He then warned Mom to hand me over to him intact and not pull any tricks.

Once he walked off, Mom lifted her hand to slap me. But upon remembering Kenneth's words, she froze mid-swing and glared at me viciously.

I clasped my hands around hers and asked tearfully, "Mom, could what Kenneth said be true? Winona isn't dead, right?"

Mom laughed scornfully and sneered. "So, you still remember that I'm your mother, huh? Is this how you repay me?"

Her glare toward me grew even more hostile.

I smiled back and wondered what scene they planned to stage next.

Kenneth left Sonny behind at the funeral, and Mom used that as an excuse to push him onto me. I didn't want to take him, but he cried and clung to me, insisting that he wanted to go with me.

Soon, everyone started guilt-tripping me and said I should take him in since he had nowhere to go. In the end, I had no choice but to bring him home.

Sonny certainly knew who would treat him well. But I learned from the painful experience in my past life that no matter how much I sacrificed myself for him, all I would get in return was a thankless ingrate.

Upon reaching home, I put Sonny in the guest room.

That night, I fell into a deep sleep. When I stirred in the middle of the night, I caught a steely glint through my half-opened eyes. It startled me so much that I jolted awake.

Under the moonlight, I saw a small figure holding a kitchen knife and brandishing it. A chill went down my spine.

When I realized it was Sonny, I let out the breath I'd been holding in relief. Then, I sat up and turned on the lamp, asking him why he wasn't asleep at this hour.

But he just smiled and asked me back, "Aunt Stella, do you want to steal my daddy?"

I was puzzled as to why a seven-year-old would ask something like that. But upon remembering how things ended in my last life, I wanted nothing to do with this family anymore. I shook my head and sent Sonny back to bed.

As I thought about his words, my hand trembled as I locked my bedroom door.

He had said, "It was so hard for Mommy to run away. Do you want to be my new mommy now, Aunt Stella?"

This meant Sonny knew everything. In his eyes, all I had done in my previous life had been nothing but a foolish and one-sided self-sacrifice.

I closed my eyes and forced myself not to think.

The next time I opened them, it was the morning of the cremation. Mom was standing beside the cart and crying loudly.

Because of the ludicrous scene yesterday, the people attending kept silent. Upon realizing that no one was buying into her act, Mom gradually stopped crying. She dabbed at her eyes and asked the staff to wheel the cart away.

I reached out to stop them and said, "Wait, Mom. Let me see Winona one last time."

Mom glared and demanded to know what I was playing at now.

With a choked sob, I said, "Winona and I were twins. I have a feeling that… she's back."

"What nonsense are you spouting now, you stupid brat?" Mom scolded.

She raised her hand to slap me again, but Kenneth grabbed her wrist. As he looked down at her with a menacing smirk, she wimped out and smiled awkwardly in an obsequious way.

With him stepping forward, our relatives and friends joined in and urged her to let me have a look.

So, I yanked the white sheet off the body. A face caked in powder came into view. The makeup was so heavy that the body lying there was completely unrecognizable.

"This isn't Winona at all!" I exclaimed.

I picked up the identity tag lying nearby.

Mom tried to lunge forward and grab it, but I dodged. She fell straight to the floor.

I stared into the cremation operator's eyes and asked in a stern voice, "Where did you put Winona's body? She died from a stab wound. If her corpse is missing, then you're an accomplice to murder!"

The long-haired woman pretending to be a cremation operator trembled upon hearing my words.

From the moment I walked in, I could tell she didn't work for the crematorium. Under the pressure from my firm gaze, she led us to another room.

Right away, I noticed Winona's slightly trembling eyelashes. It was a clear sign that she had just hurried over and lay down.

I smiled in satisfaction. After the mourning came the cremation, after all.

Mom opened her mouth to protest again.

But Kenneth said coldly, "Since Winona was my wife, I want to watch her cremation with my own eyes. No one leaves today."

From the moment Mom started acting strange after Winona's alleged death, he had already grown suspicious that this was all a stunt they were pulling for her to escape him. Today, he wasn't going anywhere until he saw her corpse being burned to ashes right in front of him.

Sonny stood beside him, tugging at his sleeve with a mischievous and meaningful smile. Meanwhile, everyone else was waiting for the drama to unfold.

Kenneth pinned Mom to the ground. She could only watch helplessly as the long-haired woman posing as a cremation operator pushed Winona toward the furnace.

The wheels rolled closer, and the front end was about to go in.

The blazing heat made Winona's fingers twitch.

I stared for a moment and screamed, "Wait, look! Winona's hand moved! Perhaps she did come back to life!"

I quickly pulled the cart back out.

Seeing how calm Mom looked, I knew Winona wanted to pretend that she had just been in shock and unconscious before, and now she was waking up due to the stimulus of heat.

This time, I wasn't going to let her get away with her act.

I threw myself over Winona and burst into loud sobs. "Did you come back to see us, Winona? I knew you wouldn't just leave us!"

I clutched her clothes tightly and pinched her hard where no one could see.

Her body trembled, and her brow twitched.

I shouted in excitement, "Look! She's responding to me! If we talk to her more, she'll really come back from the dead!"

No one paid attention to my words. They assumed I was delirious because of my overwhelming grief at her untimely death.

Wiping away tears, I started reminiscing aloud. "Hey, Winona. Do you remember when we were little, we used to see who could hold her breath underwater the longest? You said I could hold my breath longer by pinching my nose like this."

Right as my words fell, I pinched her nose. I would like to see how long she could endure it!

"You're so impressive, Winona. You've held out for so long, and you still aren't waking up," I remarked with awe.

As her face gradually reddened, I pinched even harder.

Finally, Winona couldn't stand it anymore. She sat up and slapped my hand away, gasping for air desperately.

I cried out joyfully, "You really woke up, Winona!"