Chapter 1

My mother looked at me with disgust as she lay dying.

She said, "You've been mooching off Anabel and Dariel all these years, never earning a dime, just lazing around at home. Don't you dare try to claim the house after I'm gone. You have no right."

After she died, her will spelled it out, no room for doubt. One house went to my elder sister Anabel Contreras, the other to my younger brother Dariel Contreras, and the 200 thousand dollars in savings was split between them. I got nothing.

Anabel and Dariel said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

They said, "For the past fifteen years, all you ever did was stay home and take care of Mom. You didn't lift a finger for anything else. We've been supporting you all these years. You ought to be thankful."

I was thrown out on the street, and then got hit with a breast cancer diagnosis. The doctor said it was from years of pent-up frustration.

I pleaded with Anabel and Dariel for money to get treatment, but they just stared at me coldly and said, "Money's for emergencies, not for bailing out the hopeless."

I couldn't stand the pain from the cancer anymore, so I jumped into the river and ended it all.

The moment I opened my eyes again, I found myself back fifteen years ago, just as Mom had her stroke and needed someone to look after her.

Anabel said her kids were too young and she was up to her neck in work, while Dariel insisted he'd just graduated and was trying to get his career off the ground. Both of them said I should quit my job and take care of Mom.

This time, I refused.

The icy river water rushed into my nose and mouth, and my lungs felt like they were burning up.

I gave up struggling, let my body sink, and my consciousness began to blur.

The torment from the cancer was finally coming to an end.

"All these years you've just sponged off Anabel and Dariel, never made a cent, just living the easy life at home. When I'm gone, don't even think about fighting them for the house. You don't deserve it."

My mother's hateful words rang in my ears again, more chilling than the river itself as I sank beneath the surface.

It had been fifteen years.

I gave up the chance to go abroad, quit a job right before a big promotion, and dealt with my boyfriend dumping me, all so I could be the one stuck taking care of my mom after her stroke.

Fifteen years without a single full night's sleep, running myself ragged every single day, and all my family ever saw was me supposedly living it up at home.

The day I got kicked out, Coraline and Dariel stood in front of the two houses Mom left behind, their eyes full of disdain. "For fifteen years, all you did was stay home and look after Mom. You never had to lift a finger for anything else. We supported you all this time. You should be grateful."

I curled up in my cramped rental apartment, the pain from breast cancer gnawing at me day and night.

Chemotherapy drained my last bit of savings, and my own family coldly told me, "Money's for emergencies, not for the chronically broke."

The river swallowed me whole, and everything went black.

"Anabel! Why are you just zoning out? Mom's like this. Someone has to step up and take care of her!" Coraline snapped at me.

Her sharp voice stabbed through my ears, jolting me awake. The blinding glare of the hospital lights made me instinctively raise a hand to shield my eyes.

The stench of disinfectant, the icy hospital chairs, and Coraline standing there, makeup flawless but her face twisted in impatience. Everything was so familiar it made me shudder to my core.

"Coraline's right, Anabel. Your schedule's the most relaxed right now, so why don't you just quit and look after Mom?" Dariel said.

He was dressed in a crisp new suit, not even bothering to look up. "I just started at the investment bank, can't take any days off while I'm still on probation."

I looked down at my hands, smooth and tight, no sign of the wrinkles or cracks that come from years of housework and cleaning agents.

My phone screen lit up, showing the date: April 12, 2010.

I'd traveled through time! I was back to the very day Mom had her stroke and was hospitalized.

Seeing me stay quiet, Coraline got even more impatient. "My kid's only three, he's at that wild age, and my husband's always traveling for work. Anabel, you're not married anyway, so obviously you're the best choice to take care of Mom."

Back then, I let them guilt me into it with the same old excuses and tearfully signed my resignation. But now, I remembered all too well how they tossed me aside like yesterday's trash fifteen years later.

"No," I heard myself say, my voice surprisingly calm. "I just got tapped to be department head. There's no way I'm quitting."

They both looked up at me, staring like I was a total stranger.

"What did you just say?" Coraline's voice shot up an octave. "Mom's like this and you're still thinking about getting promoted?"

The hospital room door opened and the nurse shot us a frown. "Could you keep your voices down, please?"

I drew in a steady breath. "We can hire a home nurse, or set up a schedule and take shifts. I just looked up the labor laws. We're entitled to apply for..."

"Anabel!" Coraline snapped, her eyes full of disbelief. "After everything Mom did for you, you just want to walk away? Do you even realize how expensive it is to hire a nurse? And you seriously think we can trust some stranger to take care of her?"

From the hospital bed came a weak voice calling out, "Coraline... Dariel..."

We stepped into the room. Mom, Lauryn Contreras, was propped up on the bed, her left side still a little crooked from the stroke, but her eyes were as sharp as ever.

She smiled at Coraline and Dariel first, but when she turned to me, her face fell. "Anabel... how could you treat me like this... I heard every word..."