Chapter 3

I couldn't let tragedy strike again. I swore I would live happily with my brother and our parents.

As for Aunt Tanya's family, let them face their own hell.

Just because we survived last night didn't mean I could breathe easy. In the past timeline, Uncle Robert figured out Aunt Tanya was cheating from the marks on her body, but he never found out who the guy was.

He actually restrained himself from killing her last night, probably because he wanted to expose the guy she cheated with, just like he did in the previous timeline.

Uncle Robert brutally murdered my parents, but he never killed Aunt Tanya.

Even on the day he was executed, he was still ranting about wanting to kill the guy she cheated with.

Uncle Robert suspected a lot of people, but never once did he think it was his own younger brother. The man Aunt Tanya was cheating with was none other than his brother, Jonas Wyatt.

Jonas was a real lowlife. He drank, gambled, whoring, and did every bad thing you could think of.

Even Anthony was actually the son of Aunt Tanya and Jonas.

The men from the Wyatt family were all aggressive and violent. When Jonas was eighteen, he raped his female classmate and was sentenced to six years in prison.

When he got out, everyone knew about his rape conviction, so no woman would go near him.

Back then, Aunt Tanya had only been married to Robert for half a year. She was still fresh-faced and attractive, not pregnant yet, and Jonas just couldn't resist her.

After a few secret glances and stolen moments, the two of them started hooking up behind Robert's back.

After Aunt Tanya got pregnant and had the kid, Jonas got bored with her and started messing around with a widow from the neighboring village.

But the widow couldn't stand his gambling habit or the fact that he was always broke, so she kicked him to the curb.

So Jonas came slinking back to Aunt Tanya, and the two kept sneaking around behind Robert's back, always waiting until he was out working in the fields.

That day, Jonas brought back some pills, and he became too excited when he was having intimacy with Aunt Tanya. He ended up leaving marks on her, and that was what Robert spotted later that night.

Robert was a real hardass. Years of backbreaking work on construction sites had made him tall, ripped, and downright intimidating.

Even Jonas wouldn't mess with him.

The night Aunt Tanya got beaten up, Jonas was right there in the house. He just kept his head down, watching the woman he was sleeping with get smacked around, and didn't even make a peep.

In the previous timeline, after Robert was dead, Jonas and Aunt Tanya just started shacking up together out in the open, like they didn't care who saw.

That was when everyone finally figured out the guy Aunt Tanya had been sneaking around with was Jonas, and Anthony was actually his kid.

Too bad Robert was already dead by then. If he'd still been around, he would've killed them both, no question.

Right now, as long as Robert hadn't figured out who the guy was, he would keep making Aunt Tanya's life hell. And with that kind of violent threat hanging over her, she would keep running to my dad for help, over and over.

We might've gotten through last night, but there was no way we would dodge the next round, or the one after that.

Aunt Tanya was like a bad rash, impossible to get rid of.

Sure enough, right in the middle of breakfast, Aunt Tanya showed up uninvited. Gone was the swagger from last night. The moment she walked in, she started apologizing to my parents.

She said, "I spent all night at the hospital, thinking about what I did. I was wrong, I said the wrong things. Mabel is my niece, and Spencer is my nephew. I love them. Look, I even bought some fruit for them."

As she spoke, she pulled two mangoes out of the bag and handed them to me. "Mabel, I got these just for you. I know they're your favorite, and they're not cheap."

I shot her a look and said, "I'm allergic to mangoes."

Aunt Tanya froze for a second, then glanced at my mom. Seeing my mom's cold, expressionless face, she realized I really was allergic.

Flustered, she hurried to cover up. "Oh, my brain's all scrambled from Robert hitting me. I got it wrong. It's Spencer who likes mangoes. I bought these for him."

My mom replied, "He's allergic to mangoes too."

Spencer chimed in, "Yeah, Aunt Tanya. Every time I eat mangoes, I get a rash all over."

Aunt Tanya was totally embarrassed. She stuffed the mangoes back into the bag and just dropped the act, getting straight to the point with my dad.

She said, "Robert's been losing his mind these days. There's no way I'm going back to that house. I'm staying here for a while. Just let me have Mabel's room."

As soon as she finished, Spencer was the first to object. "That's Mabel's room. No one's taking it from her."

"You little..." Aunt Tanya almost snapped at Spencer, ready to call him a little punk, but bit her tongue at the last second.

She shot my dad a frown. "Come on, say something. When is Brenda gonna get the room ready for me? I barely slept at the hospital last night. I'm wiped out and just want to crash."

As soon as Aunt Tanya finished, my mom set her fork down with a deliberate, almost exaggerated motion. My dad shot her a look.

After things blew up yesterday, my mom wasn't about to put up with Aunt Tanya anymore. She turned to my dad and said, "I don't agree."

I backed Mom up right away. "Dad, I don't want to move out of my room."