Chapter 1

I crossed my arms over my chest and stared coldly at Karen Swift, my mother-in-law, as she piled bags and luggage at the doorway.

Behind her stood a dainty woman she had brought along.

"Johnny, let me introduce you. This is Lily White from our hometown. She's looking for work, and I brought her with me since I was already planning to visit. I figured you two could help take care of her," Karen said as she brushed past me and addressed Johnny Lane, who was behind me.

Lily kept her head down but glanced up just in time to catch me rolling my eyes at her. She froze, visibly shocked that I didn't bother to hide my disdain toward someone I'd just met.

"Who says we're willing to take care of her?" I said to Karen, my tone calm but my words sharp.

Karen finally turned to face me and reprimanded disapprovingly, "Why are you so rude? Lily's standing right there! Do you know how bad you're making us look?"

I retorted, "And did you think about how I would feel before bringing her here unannounced?"

"Alright, alright," Johnny interjected to defuse the tension. "Mom meant well. We're from the same hometown, and since we have a spare room, it's no big deal…"

His meaning was obvious, so I didn't refuse outright.

"Fine. Then let's rent her the room. The market rate is 1,500 dollars a month, but considering she's an acquaintance, I'll give her a discount. 1,000 dollars a month should be fair enough."

In their dreams I would let them exploit me under the guise of kindness.

Karen started shouting that I was money-hungry while Johnny tried to calm her down and pull her aside.

I didn't care who ended up footing the rent. They weren't getting to take advantage of me.

In the end, Johnny transferred the money to me as he didn't want to offend either party.

I scoffed and retreated to the bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind me. Once I was sure Johnny wouldn't come in, I called my best friend, Rosie Rivera.

"Karen actually brought that woman to my house," I said.

"Ugh, just as we expected," Rosie replied with disdain. "You set up the cameras, right?"

"Of course. Johnny didn't notice a thing."

A few days ago, while scrolling through my social media feed, I had stumbled upon Karen's latest update. It was a selfie of her and a young woman taken on a bus leaving their hometown.

Lily had both hands draped affectionately over Karen's shoulders, and the caption read, "Bringing Lily to stay at my son's house for a few days."

Johnny mentioned last week that Karen would be visiting, and it appeared she had company in mind.

I'd tapped into the comments section and mainly saw emojis of flowers and kisses from Karen's friends. One comment in particular caught my eye.

"Let's hope your son has an adorable baby this time!"

Karen had replied, "I'll take your blessing."

The moment I saw this exchange, everything clicked in my mind.

Johnny and I had been married for a year without any kids, and Karen had fussed about it nonstop. She'd even spread rumors back in her hometown that I was barren.

After that, I cut all ties with Johnny's relatives and never visited them again.

But gossiping behind my back was one thing. I wasn't about to let it slide when Karen blatantly brought the problem to my doorstep.

One of her nosy friends must have cooked up this scheme.

Afterward, I clicked on Karen's following list and browsed around but found no clues. So, I checked the following of one of her friends who had commented.

Scrolling to the fourth page, I spotted a profile with a young woman's silhouette as the profile picture and clicked into her feed.

Her most recent post displayed a view of the countryside from a bus window, identical to Karen's earlier post. The picture was captioned, "Moving to the city for a better life. The future is bright!"

How bold. I would like to see how exactly she would live her so-called better life.

After ending the phone call with Rosie, I listened to the sounds outside the bedroom while pulling up the feed from the spare room's hidden camera on my tablet.

Karen's hushed voice came through clearly as she whispered to Lily.

"I already spoke to Johnny before coming. Don't worry, he will take good care of you. Focus on connecting with him, and ignore that rude woman."

Lily shyly nodded and replied, "I'm not afraid of her. You and Johnny are so kind to me. Once I have a child with him, I'll be sure to repay your kindness."

Karen beamed with satisfaction, then lowered her voice even more to say, "Remember, whoever has a child gets to be the rightful wife. Once you've had the baby, I doubt she can keep being smug. Johnny's a manager at a trading company. As long as you stay with him, you're guaranteed a good life."

I'd already suspected that Karen had looped Johnny into her plan. When he saw the two of them earlier, he hadn't seemed surprised at all.

Their scheming was practically written on their faces, and I wasn't about to let them have their way.