The Quiet Conspiracy

But I didn't mind Fiona going back. It gave me a chance to see what kind of person she was at home.

The next day, I watched the footage from Fiona's place.

Her husband, Don Shepard, was whipping her with a belt.

"Why the hell did you come back? And empty-handed, too?" he snarled. "If those loan sharks don't get paid, I'll hand you over to them to cover the debt!"

Fiona collapsed on the floor and wailed, "Please stop hitting me! I'm really trying, but the guy who hired me this time is a cop! How could I pull anything off?"

Don paused and narrowed his eyes. "Are they rich?" he asked.

Fiona drew a breath and whispered, "Not really, but his parents have savings. They're retired officials, and they get a decent pension."

Don plopped down on the sofa. Seeing that, Fiona tried to stand, but Don snapped, "Did I tell you to stand up? Get back down!"

She immediately shrank back.

"If his family is loaded, then we can work with that. His wife's pregnant, right?" Don said as he laid out a plan. "Men are easiest to trap during this period. You're young and pretty. If you get pregnant with his kid, you can get much from him, easy."

Hearing that, Fiona gave a helpless, bitter laugh. "You think I haven't tried? He'd never go for me. I almost stripped and crawled into his bed."

As soon as she said that, Don slapped her hard. "You idiot. Who says you need to sleep with him? You could just steal one of his used rubbers and do IVF. That way, when the baby comes, he can't deny it."

Watching the two of them on the screen, plotting to bleed my family dry, I felt a cold chill through me.

So that was how we were slowly lured into Fiona's trap in my past life.

After Fiona came back, she acted extra diligently. Our usual agreement was for her to work from 9 AM to 6 PM, but lately, she'd been arriving before 7 AM, claiming she had nothing better to do.

Her first task each day was to go through the trash.

Lara was nearly five months pregnant at this point, and sometimes, we'd still get intimate.

Fiona found out about it and tried to find a used rubber.

This time, I was prepared. After Lara and I were done, I always wrapped the rubber and put it in a separate bag to throw out.

That was when a nasty little idea took shape in my head. I arranged to get a used rubber from a registered offender in town.