The poor student I'd been sponsoring got into a college near my house, and he wanted to come stay a few days early to settle in.
In my last life, I'd said yes without a second thought. I bought him everything he'd need to live on, and I even threw in a whole set of Apple products as a reward.
But the moment he saw them, his face went dark.
"Uncle, I always thought your family was just ordinary working folks, so I was pretty grateful to you."
"I had no idea you were this rich. Giving me only this little seems kind of off, doesn't it?"
"That two thousand a month you promised me is way too little. It has to go up to at least twenty thousand."
I refused on the spot, and told him if it wasn't enough he could find someone else to sponsor him.
He apologized right away, said he was only joking.
I thought he'd learned his lesson.
Instead, that very night, while I was working late, he fed my three-year-old daughter a large dose of sleeping pills, then climbed into my wife's bed.
By the time I found out, my daughter was already dead from the overdose.
I was beside myself with rage, and while we were fighting, he shoved me off the balcony and I died on impact.
Then, with his sweet talk, he coaxed my wife into carrying his child.
He didn't just win her forgiveness. He worked his way in and took every last piece of my estate.
When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the poor student made that call.
Faced with his request to come stay at my house early, my face stayed calm.
"Sorry, it's not convenient for us to have outsiders staying over."
"And since you're an adult now, from here on your tuition and living expenses are your own problem."
"..."
Before I could hang up, my wife, Leah Swanson, reached over and snatched the phone from me, softening her voice for the person on the other end.
"Roland Fox, sweetie, your uncle's just worn out from work today and in a bad mood. Don't take it to heart."
"It's only staying a few days early, right? Auntie says yes. I'll come pick you up at the station tomorrow."
Then she turned to me, full of reproach.
"Honey, what's gotten into you?"
"You've sponsored him for ten whole years. What's a few more through college? If you're going to help someone, help them all the way."
"The boy's come all this way for school, doesn't know a soul here. What's the harm in a few days?"
I snatched the phone back and looked at her coldly.
"When I say no, I mean no."
"It's my money. I give it to whoever I want, and if I don't want to, no one gets a single cent out of me."
Roland's aggrieved voice came through the phone at once.
"Uncle, Auntie, please stop fighting."
"This is all my fault, I didn't think it through. I never meant to disrupt your family's life."
"I just won't come, all right? Uncle, don't be angry with Auntie."
"Please don't cut off my tuition and living money. I really do want to go to college."
I let out a cold laugh.
"Save the act. I'm not changing my mind."
And I hung up.
Leah's face darkened in an instant.
"Did you take the wrong pills today? Since when are you this cold-blooded?"
"Roland's such a good, thoughtful kid. Why are you pushing him like this?"
I stared at Leah's face, and all I could see was the ugly mask she'd worn on the witness stand in my last life, giving her false testimony.
Roland was the one who killed me and my daughter.
Yet to protect him and the bastard child in her belly, she flat-out painted me as a madman, a depressed man who'd poisoned his own daughter to death and then jumped to his suicide.
A hatred I couldn't hold down surged up from somewhere deep inside me.
I pointed at the door.
"Leah, I'm laying it out for you right now."
"If you dare contact Roland again, we're getting divorced."
