I was crouched outside my parents' hotpot place, feeding the stray cat, when a few lines of text suddenly floated up above its head:
【Human, I don't eat your food for free. Tonight at eight, your best friend Freya Harding will come find you and say she wants your family's ultra-spicy hotpot.】
【She's pregnant. There's something wrong with the baby in her belly. After she eats the hotpot she'll miscarry, and she'll insist you were jealous she was carrying a son, that you used the spicy broth to hurt her on purpose. The truth is she swallowed abortion pills ahead of time and is pinning it on you!】
【Your family's hotpot place gets forced to close, your parents end up buried under a massive payout, and your job and your engagement both fall through. Human, I don't want to watch you end up like you did last life, breaking down, finally getting killed by a car. So I'm warning you out of kindness!】
I rubbed my eyes, sure I was so exhausted I'd started seeing things.
But the next second, my phone rang.
Freya's sugary voice came through the speaker: "Cora Perry, I'm craving your family's ultra-spicy hotpot. Will you keep me company tonight?"
A chill ran down my back. I looked at the stray cat again, and another line had appeared above its head:
【Human, Freya's terrified her husband will find out something's wrong with the baby, so she's deliberately lined up a scapegoat. Her husband looks decent enough, but he's actually drowning in online gambling debt and beats her. In the end he gets your parents killed and lands himself in jail. This whole thing, start to finish, is a trap Freya set. Cut her off, now!】
I gripped the phone, my fingertips going white, and decided to rattle her: "Freya, haven't you been trying to get pregnant this whole time? What if you've already conceived? If you eat ultra-spicy hotpot and miscarry, then what?"
……
The other end went quiet for two seconds.
Then Freya let out a little snort of laughter. "Cora, what are you talking about? My period just ended. How could I possibly be pregnant?"
She paused, and her voice suddenly took on a wounded edge. "Is it because you're getting married soon, and now you think a best friend like me is just in the way? You won't even sit down for one meal with me…"
Before I could answer, my mom heard Freya's voice and immediately poked her head out of the shop, calling out warmly:
"Is that Freya? Come have some hotpot! It's on me! You and Cora grew up together. She's just been swamped lately, don't read into it."
My dad chimed in with a grin. "That's right. Cora even wants you as a bridesmaid at her wedding. We'll have a big envelope waiting for you!"
Watching my parents pour their hearts out for Freya, something turned sour and tight in my chest.
Freya's parents had spent years working away from home, so she'd grown up mooching meals at our place.
My mom and dad doted on her like their own daughter.
Toys, clothes, whatever I had, she had too.
I'd always assumed she was grateful. But those few lines above the stray cat's head were how I finally learned the truth.
Last life, she hadn't been grateful at all. She'd come to hate every bit of it.
She hated that I did well in school, that my career went smoothly, that my parents adored me, that I'd found myself a rich heir for a boyfriend.
While she had married a man who beat her.
So she'd used the deformed baby in her belly to set a trap, destroyed everything I had, and used it to escape her abusive husband.
A muffled retch came over the line.
My professional instincts kicked in, and my ears pricked up.
"Freya, what's wrong?"
Her voice came out a little shaky. "Nothing. I just ate some bad fruit, already threw it up."
I sneered to myself.
Three years as a nurse, and there was no sound I knew better than morning sickness.
That was textbook early pregnancy nausea.
So she really was pregnant. But I didn't call her out.
If a stray cat could warn me about something like this, it meant even heaven was on my side.
I couldn't waste the blessing my parents had earned, all those years of feeding strays.
Now that I knew her scheme, I'd play along, and let everyone see her true face!
