Chapter 2

When I got home that afternoon, Frieda Smith was standing at the door to welcome me, the way she always did.

She saw how pale I was, and yet there I stood, walking into the house on my own two feet. Confusion filled her face, and she couldn't help asking.

“Minnie, are you all right?”

I sighed, but before I could say anything.

Kevin Donaldson shoved the door open in a fury, the boxed lunch Frieda had handed me that morning in his hand, shaking all over with rage.

“What the hell did you put in this?”

“Do you have any idea what happened to me after I ate it?”

“Do you have any idea how badly it humiliated me right in the middle of a contract negotiation?”

“If that contract had gone through, I'd have gotten a promotion and a raise, my bonus would've doubled. But because of that boxed lunch, I had to sit there and watch the coworker I hate most walk off with the prize!”

Frieda stared at the box, her face blank for a second.

Then her head snapped around toward me.

“How did that box end up in Kevin's hands? How did he end up eating it?”

“I made that for you.”

“What exactly did you do?”

I laughed to myself. That was right. I knew there was no upside to exposing Frieda. Kevin was a mama's boy through and through. How could he ever believe his precious mother would hurt anyone?

So I'd simply given the good mother's boxed lunch to her good son.

And Kevin never suspected a thing. Just like me in my last life, he'd nearly died on the toilet.

I frowned, letting Frieda's tone slide, and said, sounding a little puzzled.

“After you gave it to me this morning, I suddenly remembered I probably wouldn't have time to eat at the office at lunch since I had to sit with a client. It seemed like a waste to let it go uneaten, so I gave it to Kevin!”

As I said it, my eyes moved back and forth between the box and Kevin, several times over.

“Was there something in that boxed lunch?”

Kevin had assumed there was something foul in the box. But from the way Frieda reacted, it was obvious she'd known all along that the food couldn't be eaten.

Which only made him angrier.

“Explain yourself. What is going on with this box?”

“Were you trying to use this to hurt Minnie?”

Frieda panicked.

Of course she couldn't admit she'd deliberately put laxative in the food.

So she rushed to explain.

“No, no, how could I ever hurt Minnie?”

“The moment Minnie got pregnant, I came all the way from the country to look after the two of you, doing everything I could.”

“It's because I, I spaced out while I was cooking this morning, so I accidentally grabbed the laxative instead of the seasoning and put it in. I've been scared out of my mind all day, and only when I saw Minnie was fine did I finally breathe again.”

“But now I understand. It was her. She must have known, she knew there was something wrong with that food, so she gave it to you on purpose!”

“Minnie, I know I shouldn't have made such a stupid mistake, but you can't just go along with it and use Kevin's body to get back at me for my slip-up!”

Frieda wept as if her heart were being torn out. She never explained why the laxative was in the kitchen in the first place, or why, knowing it was in the boxed lunch, she'd said nothing to warn me.

Instead she skirted the real questions and launched into her sob story, and the more she cast herself as the victim, the more wronged she sounded.

“Everyone back home told me not to come take care of you. They said city daughters-in-law are impossible to please.”

“But I never thought about any of that. I just figured, treat her as I'd want to be treated, and surely she'd accept me. What I never expected was that you'd know I'd made a mistake and, instead of covering for me, you'd blow the whole thing up.”

“Do you want me sent back home that badly?”

“What did I ever do to deserve this? I've been so good to you. Why would you scheme against me?”

“Tell me the truth. That laxative in the kitchen, did you put it there? All of this, did you plan it out ahead of time?”