Amelia and I traded a look.
She kept a hand on me. "Let's go home first."
The moment we were through the door, she went straight to the kitchen to make me chicken soup.
"Ending a pregnancy takes a lot out of a woman. You need to build your strength back up."
"Thank you, Mom."
Once the soup was done, she sat and watched me drink it.
"Lindsay, from now on you're my own daughter."
"Husband, son, none of it matters to me anymore!"
I lost my parents young, and after I married Joel, Amelia always treated me well. I'd always thought of her as my own mother.
"Mom, you are my mother. You always have been."
Her eyes shone with tears. "The two of us are going to make a good life together, and those two Mason bastards are going to get exactly what they deserve."
Then I saw the subtitles again.
"Years ago, the Mason men bought two big penthouses on the outskirts of New York, just to keep their women tucked away, somewhere convenient to meet that mother and daughter in secret. Right now that pair each live in one of the units, and the deeds are in their hands too!"
"There's also a trust the Mason men set up. The contract is hidden in an iron box under the bed in the master bedroom!"
The second we read that, Amelia and I rushed into the master bedroom, dropped down, and hooked the iron box out from under the bed. Sure enough, the contract was inside.
Amelia took the contract out and slid the box back under the bed exactly as it had been.
"I'll hold on to this for now. Once we've stripped those two bastards down to nothing, we'll go redeem the money in the trust."
I nodded hard.
Three days later, the Mason men showed up at the door, just as expected.
Amelia produced two divorce agreements she'd prepared in advance.
"Sign them. Once you do, we're done with each other."
Otto and Joel flipped through the pages.
Joel was clearly unhappy. "Why should my father and I walk away with nothing? I won't agree to it!"
I looked at him, calm. "You're not my husband. You've already taken over his body. Now you want his money too?"
Joel had nothing to say.
Otto's face went dark as well.
Amelia, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke.
"My husband and my son are dead, God rest them. Their property should go to us, the widow and the orphan they left behind. And on top of that, you two have taken over their bodies, and my daughter and I haven't said a word about it."
"If you insist on using my husband's and my son's bodies to fight us for their money, then I'll have no choice but to bring in a medium to scatter your souls for good!"
At that, four men dressed like Taoist priests came out from the back room, rushed forward, and pinned both Mason men down.
Otto was furious. "Amelia, have you lost your mind?!"
"So which is it going to be? Do I have the master perform his rite and scatter your souls, or do you sign these agreements yourselves and walk away with nothing?"
"Let go of us. Let me talk it over with my son!"
Amelia signaled the men to release them.
The two of them bolted into the master bedroom and shut the door.
The subtitles started drifting by.
"Otto's telling Joel to just agree to walk away with nothing. Amelia and Lindsay don't know about the penthouses or the trust anyway. As for the little bit of cash in the house, once the men come collecting on the project payments, the women will have to hand it over just the same."
"And this house, they'll let them stay in it for now, and the two of them will figure out how to get it back later."
"They've settled it. They're going to steal the trust contract!"
I looked over at Amelia, and she leaned in at once and whispered in my ear.
"Don't worry. I already put a fake contract in that iron box. They won't be able to tell."
I gave her a thumbs-up. "Mom, you're amazing!"
