Reborn to Reclaim My Fortune from My Ungrateful Daughter

2:

The three Jameses wouldn't stop talking, and Stacy was crying so hard she could barely get her next words out.

The whole scene was a copy of my last life, when I had stormed off in a rage and left Stacy humiliated in front of all our relatives and friends, and then they'd all come crawling to make peace.

I'd been furious then too.

But one look at Stacy's tear-streaked face and I softened.

My ex-husband was scum. He cheated, and then he divorced me.

I raised Stacy on my own, from beginning to end.

Back then, a woman raising a child alone had it hard, so hard, but no matter how exhausting or bitter it got, I held on. I never remarried, and I fought and clawed for everything just so Stacy could have a good life.

Even when she went boy-crazy and stole my money to bankroll her boyfriend.

I gave in, and I forgave her. But instead of making her grateful, all that forgiveness only made her worse, until she humiliated me at her own wedding.

I figure her plan was to make a scene at the wedding, to scare me with the thought of losing her, so I'd double down and treat her even better, so I'd hand over every cent of my retirement savings.

And after my heart attack, she pretended she had no idea, and simply inherited everything I owned the moment I died...

Thinking about all that.

I didn't bother arguing with the three Jameses.

"You're right. Raising Robin can't have been easy for the two of you."

"Not like me. I never had to lift a finger raising Stacy. This girl grew up on air, didn't even need feeding."

"So I think Stacy has a point. A daughter who marries out is like water poured out of the bowl. I should know my boundaries. I shouldn't be leaning on the little bit of money I've got, trying to buy Stacy's affection with it."

"So I accept it, completely. And I'm giving Stacy to you, the James family, as a gift."

"Unless what you all mean is that I hand over my own daughter to you, and then I still have to pay you on top of it?"

3:

The three Jameses went silent, and Stacy couldn't squeeze out another tear. She just stood there holding that big cotton swab, looking like a fool.

But the relatives and friends down below had heard enough.

*We were all listening. Ms. Gilbert didn't say a single thing wrong. You served her the tea, so of course she drinks it. That's how it works.*

*The nerve, getting everything her way and still playing the victim. Does she plan to use her own mother's money to support her husband's whole family?*

*I've seen freeloaders who bleed a woman dry, but Stacy taking and grabbing like this is a first for me.*

Seeing that everyone was on my side.

Guests were already leaving before the ceremony had even started, and it didn't take much to guess that once word got around, she'd be the one branded a shameless, ungrateful snake.

Stacy panicked, and now the tears really did come, raw and genuine.

She and the three Jameses tried to block the guests from leaving, while she jabbed a finger in my face and screamed.

"Priscilla Gilbert, you did this on purpose, didn't you?"

"You couldn't keep your own husband from cheating and got dumped, so now you want to control me. You want me stuck in a miserable marriage just like you, you want everyone calling me an ungrateful snake."

"You always said Dad cheated because Dad was scum. But now I get it. With a person like you, who wouldn't cheat?"

"Today you're going to apologize. You're going to get everyone to sit back down and finish this wedding, and you're going to promise that from now on you'll still give me what's mine. Otherwise, get out."

That was exactly the line I'd been waiting for.

So I stood up at once to leave.

When Stacy saw I was actually leaving, she panicked again.

"Priscilla Gilbert, I'm telling you, if you walk out that door, don't ever come back. We're done being mother and daughter!"

I didn't slow my steps.

I even shoved Robin, who'd come to grab my arm and tell me to calm down, flat onto his face, and then, through the curses and shrieks of the whole lot of them, I walked straight out of the wedding.