Chapter 3

Garry saw the screenshots from a friend. That was how he learned what Stacy's life had become.

He came to my house, his voice heavy with reluctance.

"Godmother, Stacy's having a really hard time…"

I raised an eyebrow. "She's enjoying every minute of it."

"Garry, do you know anything about this Ryder?"

He nodded. "A small-time thug. Did a year for a gang brawl."

"That's not what I mean," I said.

"That Ryder sleeps around. There's always some new girl hanging off him, and he's a regular at those seedy foot-massage places."

"I don't like thinking the worst of people, but a man like that would be lucky not to have picked up something, wouldn't he?"

"Stacy's with him now. Doesn't that turn your stomach? Some diseases, once you have them, you carry for life."

Garry listened, and something complicated crossed his face.

Then I pulled up a video.

Stacy was with Ryder and his crowd, guys and girls drenched in beer foam, passing drinks mouth to mouth.

One boy with thick yellow scum on his teeth fed a mouthful to Stacy, and she leaned in laughing to take it.

Stacy still had some shred of shame left. She hadn't posted this one herself.

But if she didn't, someone else would.

I'd come across it on TikTok.

Whatever pity had been in Garry's eyes hardened into disgust.

He lifted a hand to his mouth like he might be sick.

I understood. Anyone who realized the chocolate they'd once eaten was actually a lump of filth would react the same way.

The doorbell rang. It was Sally.

"Godmother, I've been craving your spicy fish stew today."

She spotted Garry on the couch, and her face went red in an instant.

I laughed and patted her shoulder. "Keep my godson company for me. I'll go get the groceries."

Two weeks later, a message came from Stacy.

【Why did you only ship me my clothes? The family money is partly mine too. Split it in half and give me my share!】

I let out a cold laugh.

There it was.

Ryder wasn't with her because she'd cut ties with her family.

He was with her because she could give him money.

I wrote back. 【We've already severed all ties. The family's money has nothing to do with you now.】

Stacy wouldn't let it go. She took me straight to court.

At the pre-trial mediation, she looked utterly sure of herself.

"My dad died when I was ten. Even if Naomi Fox cut off our mother-daughter relationship, I still have a right to inherit his estate!"

After the officials went through the accounts, it came out that when Stacy's father died, the family had a hundred thousand dollars in savings.

I agreed to give Stacy fifty thousand, and we'd be square.

But Stacy wasn't having it.

"What about the house? I have a share in that too!"

I produced the property records.

"The house is my premarital property. We've cut all ties, so you have no right to any part of it."

Stacy pressed the officials, refusing to give up, and when she got her answer she glared at me with pure hatred.

"It's just a run-down house worth a million bucks. I don't want it anyway. Call it the price of your life!"

She snatched up the pen and signed the mediation agreement.

Ryder's eyes were practically glowing beside her.

As Stacy left, she curled up one corner of her mouth at me.

"What good is money? When you're old and stuck in a hospital, the aides go out of their way to abuse people like you, the ones with no kids."

"When you die and there's no one to claim your body, don't you dare regret today's decision!"

I almost said, at least the aides won't pull out my oxygen tube.

I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut.

I didn't want her to know I'd been reborn too.

At least, not yet.