2:
Of course I remembered.
Faith Walker rarely had her episodes. When she wasn't having one, she was the finest mother-in-law in the world. But the moment an episode hit, we all had to play along with whatever she demanded, or she turned into a monster who wouldn't listen to reason.
That was exactly why.
In my last life, I'd had no choice but to agree to the shaming placard, the filthy shoe, the walk of public disgrace. And afterward, Faith really had seemed full of regret, showering me with kindness.
It wasn't until I lay dying that I finally understood. There was no dementia. She faked it to keep me under her thumb, and Phil Harding had known all along. The two of them were after everything I had. They meant to strip me of my entire fortune.
While I was still turning it over, Faith started working herself up into another fit.
Phil panicked.
"My mom raised me all on her own. That's why she ended up like this. Just think of it as doing a good deed, please, help her out."
I looked at him.
I didn't expose him, didn't lose my temper. I just said, evenly,
"Today is our wedding. Are you really sure you want to help your mother put on this show?"
Phil knew me. He knew how soft-hearted I was.
And a question like that clearly meant I was already wavering.
So he nodded, again and again.
"Of course."
"My mom's had it so hard. As her children, we owe it to her to be understanding."
"If it were your parents having an episode, forget a placard and a shoe, if they told me to kneel on the ground and bark like a dog, I wouldn't say a word against it. Not a second's hesitation."
"But you won't do this, won't do that. Is it because my mom's from the country? Because she's a widow, is that it?"
One label after another, until he'd painted me as the most heartless creature alive.
I had no family here, so the guests were all Phil's relatives and friends. Naturally, they took his side.
I nodded slowly, as if thinking it over, and turned to Faith with a troubled look.
"Mom, so what you mean is that it's the year 1970, and because I got pregnant before marriage, I have to be paraded in disgrace at my own wedding. Is that right?"
3:
Faith stopped raving at once.
"You crawled into his bed before there was any wedding. If I hadn't begged the head of the farming collective, they'd have dragged you off for a forced abortion."
"You have to do this. It sets a good example for the child in your belly, so she doesn't grow up loose like you!"
I smiled. Not only was I not angry, my whole face filled with gratitude.
"So that's how it is."
"I didn't know that was the rule before. I never meant to break it."
"So where is the head of the collective? I'll go find him right now and get it in writing, then I'll go to the hospital for the abortion. That way I won't have gotten pregnant before marriage and dirtied the Harding family's ground. We can hold the wedding next time. How does that sound?"
Faith froze. She was faking madness, not actually mad, so she panicked on the spot.
"It's just a formality, going through the motions. Who said anything about an abortion?"
"If you kill my grandchild, I won't go on living either."
I sighed.
"This child came out of me being loose, by your own words. Even if you can accept him, he's still a bastard. Better to end it early than bring him into the world for everyone to laugh at."
Faith couldn't come up with a word to argue back, and Phil quickly grabbed my hand, terrified that if he let go I really would go through with it.
"Millicent, stop this, all right?"
"If you actually get rid of the baby, and my mom comes back to her senses and realizes she caused her own grandchild's death, how is she supposed to keep living?"
Seeing that I had no intention of backing down, Faith snatched up a table knife and pressed it to her own throat.
"Sir, please, stop humiliating my daughter-in-law."
"I'll die right here at this wedding. Call it a life for a life. Let this old life of mine buy back the life of the child in my daughter-in-law's belly!"
As she spoke,
she cast one reluctant glance at Phil, closed her eyes, and drove the knife toward her own throat.
