Margaret’s touch made my skin crawl. The scent of her perfume filled my nose, making me gag as I recalled the vile words she had hurled at me and Lily during the crash.
“You mother and daughter are nothing but dead weight. Eight years of marriage and no son to show for it, no contribution whatsoever. Don’t hog this spot—my son is excellent, and plenty of women are willing to bear him children. Who do you think you are?”
Clutching my chest, I forced myself to calm down, carefully adjusting my tone.
“How did the crash happen? Is my mom okay? What about Lily and her mom?”
Margaret sneered.
“Oh, my sweet grandson, even after getting hurt in the accident, you’re still thinking about those two? If they hadn’t blocked our car, would the pickup have rear-ended us? It’s all her fault!”
“Lily is fine. But her mom, Emily Carter, shielded her with her own body. She suffered a severe head injury and still hasn’t woken up. The doctors say she might end up in a vegetative state. If she doesn’t wake in three months, they’ll recommend pulling the plug.”
“Which is good, really. In those three months, we’ll file for divorce using this as an excuse. Then you and your mom can officially join the Brooks family. You’ll attend the top downtown elementary school and live in a house in a wealthy school district. Grandma has it all arranged for you. Don’t worry, sweetheart.”
Three months?
I bet they’d rather I didn’t survive even three more days.
They wished I had died outright in that crash—problem solved, leaving Chloe Miller free to enter the family.
But they didn’t know that I had entered Ethan Brooks’s body.
Since fate had handed me this, I had no choice but to play along.
After a week of observation in the hospital, I was discharged. During that time, I secretly visited my real body. It looked like a walking corpse—tubes in the head, a heavy respirator covering the mouth.
When they heard about the crash, my parents rushed to my side. The doctor had already suggested giving up, but they refused, insisting on keeping me alive, believing I would wake someday.
They spent their days crying at the glass window, their grief stabbing at my heart until I cried again and again.
Thankfully, Lily had been well protected. My parents had sent her to stay with relatives. She was safe, but not happy. Daniel, that heartless man, hadn’t visited her once—as if he never even had a daughter.