Chapter 2

After Julia quit, the drama online kept snowballing. The Harris Group got hit harder than in my previous life.

I saw Rick's hair go gray in one night.

He was so swamped with work that he barely left the office anymore.

Even though there was a bit of distance between Rick and me, at least Jenny was always on my side.

When Rick hadn't come home for three days, Jenny brought me a bowl of rich chicken soup and tried to comfort me. "Iris, don't stress. This is all Rick's fault. Let me apologize for him.

"I'll call him later and give him a piece of my mind. He's such an ungrateful brat. How could he focus on his career and forget about his wife?"

Back when I decided to marry Rick, Jenny played a big role in that choice.

She was a retired music teacher, gentle, gracious, and talented. She lost her husband young and raised two kids on her own, but still managed to turn them into remarkable people.

The first time I met her, she learned my parents were divorced and felt so much sympathy for me. She slipped a family heirloom emerald bracelet onto my wrist and promised she'd treat me like her own daughter.

Three years into my marriage with Rick, she really did keep her word.

We lived under the same roof for those three years, but she always knew how to keep her distance and never meddled in our business.

Whenever Rick and I had a little spat, she was always on my side.

Most of the time, I felt like she treated me better than my own mom.

But in my previous life, I was the reason she ended up taking poison.

Right now, Jenny was comforting me while offering me the chicken soup.

Just then, I heard my unborn baby's voice in my mind again. 'Mom, Grandma is so kind, but sadly, she won't be around much longer.

'You don't know this yet, but lately Grandma met an old man at the Senior Activity Center. He's a con artist, and he's going to trick her out of all her savings.

'Grandma will be so devastated that she'll end up developing breast cancer, and she won't make it past six months.'

In my previous life, I heard my baby say the same thing. I was so freaked out that I choked on my chicken soup and nearly coughed up a lung.

But after everything that happened with the Harris Group, I thought maybe my baby's voice was messing with me. So, I decided to keep it to myself.

But after that, my baby started predicting a bunch of little things, and every single one came true.

He said I'd win the grand prize at a mall's raffle, and sure enough, I walked away with a laptop.

He said I'd find some cash at the children's park, and I really did pick up a wallet with 1000 dollars inside.

After all those little predictions came true, I started trusting my baby's voice again.

My baby told me the old man Jenny was seeing was named Eric, who claimed to be a retired university professor. But in reality, Eric was a scammer. Jenny had already sent him money several times, and the total was up to twenty thousand dollars.

In my previous life, to confirm this, I secretly went to the bank to check Jenny's credit card statements. Sure enough, she had been sending money to Eric all along.

So, I completely believed my baby. I began to persuade Jenny to leave Eric. In the end, I even kept emotionally blackmailing her to break up with him. I said if she didn't end things, I'd abort the baby.

She finally gave in to me and broke up with Eric.

But after being dumped, Eric couldn't handle it and drank poison at home to end his life.

Then I heard Eric had known Jenny for over twenty years. He'd been secretly in love with her all that time, and in his old age, he thought his dream had finally come true.

But when Jenny suddenly broke up with Eric, he was so heartbroken and lost all will to live, so he chose to drink poison.

Now, when I looked back, it was really the voice of my unborn baby that ended up causing Eric's death in my previous life.

After Eric died, I learned that Jenny kept sending money to him because he was helping underprivileged kids in poor areas, sponsoring their education.

She thought Eric was doing something meaningful, so she decided to support two girls from those areas, too. But since she couldn't figure out how the whole process worked, she always sent the money through Eric.

*****

Thanks to what I'd been through in my previous life, I was way calmer this time when I heard my baby's voice.

I quietly drank the chicken soup Jenny handed me, feeling touched, and said, "Jenny, you have no idea how thankful I am to you. We're so lucky to have you.

"Let Grace take care of the cooking from now on. You deserve to relax and enjoy your retirement. I heard you've gotten pretty close to a man lately. His name is Eric, right?"

Jenny didn't expect me to bring up Eric. When talking about romance, she blushed like a schoolgirl, despite her age. "Oh, we're just friends from the Senior Activity Center, like-minded folks, that's all.

"He's into paint, and I'm into music. We get together, do some artsy stuff, and spice up our retirement."

I jumped in to show my support right away. "Jenny, I'm really happy you have someone by your side now. I bet Rick and Haisley would totally back you up, too.

"You've had it so tough, raising two kids all on your own, playing both mom and dad. Now that they're all grown up, you deserve to enjoy your own life."

When Jenny heard this, her face lit up with relief and happiness.

Just then, my baby thought again, 'Mom, what are you talking about? Grandma really will end up dying because of that old guy.

'Don't you believe me? Listen, tomorrow afternoon there's a raffle at the mall by our house. Go there, and you'll win the grand prize. Mom, I'm really trying to help our family.'

My baby kept talking to me, the voice low and urgent, almost like it was pushing me toward disaster.

But on the surface, I acted completely unfazed.

In my previous life, I asked Jenny, Rick, and others around me if they had heard any strange voices near me.

But everyone denied it, thinking I was imagining things.

So, this time, I didn't ask anyone. I pretended I hadn't heard anything, convinced that nothing bad would happen again.