"You may not be ours by blood, but we raised you for over twenty years. This is your home."
"That eight hundred thousand? Consider it a gift. I'm making the call for Joel."
"And Leila, if you insist on making a scene, you can start by returning the hundred and eighty thousand we spent on your bride price and the two hundred thousand for the wedding banquet."
Joel pulled me aside. His eyes were strained, his jaw tight, as if he were the one being wronged.
"Leila, you weren't like this before. You told me once that as long as you could marry me, you'd do anything."
Yes. Before. I'd loved him so much that every sacrifice tasted sweet.
And what did it get me?
He signed our apartment over to Maya behind my back. Every birthday gift he ever gave me was a fake.
This family had no room for me. Not even the baby I carried for ten months. My child was born dead.
He registered Maya's illegitimate child under my name, and I spent seven years as a stay-at-home mother raising a kid that was never mine.
In my last life, I ended up homeless, and I died by slamming my head into a wall.
When I didn't respond, Joel pulled me tightly into his arms.