A Revenge Reborn

After my best friend, Penny Hallmark, found herself a wealthy man, she suddenly became a different person.

I had done nothing more than glance at her husband, Martin Rembrandt, yet she slapped me hard across the face.

“I treated you as my closest friend, but you dared seduce Martin right in front of me. He’s Chris’s brother! Have you no shame at all?”

Her accusation brought tears to my eyes, but Penny resorted to locking me inside a reservoir.

“What are you playing at anyway? Fine. Let me give you something to really cry about!”

I nearly drowned, and she uploaded photos of me soaked to the skin, claiming online that I was behaving indecently.

I became the target of cyberbullying, my boyfriend, Christopher Rembrandt, proposed a breakup, and in utter despair, I decided to end my life.

Yet my best friend mocked me coldly.

“Do you really think I don’t know your little tricks? You’re just pretending to be pitiful to gain sympathy, aren’t you?

“That won’t do at all, Rose. Let me give you a hand!”

She pulled out my breathing tube, and only when my life completely slipped away did she smile in satisfaction.

“Good. Now I can enjoy both Chris and Martin’s affection.”

When I opened my eyes again, I had transmigrated into the body of Chris’s mother, who had just passed away.

Given a second chance at life, I was determined to make Penny pay.

After all, the man she loved most was nothing more than a hopeless mama’s boy.

“Mom, you always loved wearing white dresses when you were alive. Now you can wear them forever.

“Don’t be hard on me, Mom.

“I didn’t mean to do it…I was just afraid you’d take Martin from me.

“Besides, people online always say widows are the most likely to treat their sons like husbands.

“I love Martin so much. You had a husband, too. Even though he died more than twenty years ago, you should be able to understand, right?”

When I heard my best friend, Penny Hallmark, spewing those twisted words, I realized I had been reborn.

Before I could even sit up, Penny walked to the front of the coffin, lowered her voice, and hissed manically into my ear.

“You old hag, you’re finally dead. I couldn’t stand watching you dress up every day, trying to seduce your two sons!

“They’re both mine. No one is allowed to take them from me!”

Just then, I opened my eyes and met her gaze.

“Who said I was dead?”

Penny’s scream pierced the silence of the wake.

Everyone turned toward the sound, only to see me sitting up inside the coffin.

In an instant, the crowd scattered in terror, screaming as they fled.

At the same time, a flood of memories that didn’t belong to me surged violently into my mind.

Only then did I understand.

I was now the mother of the Rembrandt brothers and also Penny’s mother-in-law.

A year earlier, after my death, Penny had married into the wealthy Rembrandt family.

The youthful-looking Mrs. Felicity Rembrandt became her new target of obsession and rivalry.

If Felicity wore a white dress, Penny accused her of pretending to be young and trying to attract a man to replace her husband.

And if Felicity spent some time with Martin and Christopher Rembrandt, Penny claimed that grown sons should not be so close to their mothers.

In less than half a year, under Penny’s relentless insinuations and venomous remarks, Felicity suffered a sudden heart attack and died.

With old hatred and new grievances piling together, I swore that in this life, I would make Penny pay.

Coming back to her senses, Penny immediately resorted to her old tricks and began crying.

“I know you’ve never been happy about me marrying into the family, Mom, but there’s no need to fake your death just to gain sympathy, is there?

“Dad passed away a while back, so I know you’re lonely, but both Martin and Chris are already grown men. It’s time for you to let them go.”

Every word painted me as an aging, shameless mother-in-law clinging to her sons.

My lips curved into a cold smile as I pinched my skin.

I sat upright in the coffin as tears streamed down my face and I wailed loudly.

I wanted to see who would win in the end, the grieving mother-in-law airing her sorrows, or the rivalry-obsessed daughter-in-law stirring up chaos.