Laurel softened her tone too, taking my hand and patting the back of it gently:
"Leila, dear, family is supposed to help each other out. Maya isn't the type to forget a kindness!"
Three pairs of eyes fixed on me, brimming with expectation.
Waiting for me to fold.
But their eagerness to push the house purchase through stirred something uneasy in my gut.
I suddenly remembered what the clerk had told me in my previous life, after Joel transferred the property to Maya.
I'd asked offhandedly:
"When did this happen?"
The clerk flipped through the file, looked up, and said:
"2019."
2019. The year my son was born.
That year, Maya and I were pregnant at the same time. Joel signed the property over to her to "give her some security."
In my last life, Maya's excuse for borrowing three hundred thousand from me had been a car. This time, it was a house.
She was this desperate to move out of the family home. Could it be because she was already pregnant?
The thought snapped my gaze down to Maya's stomach.
Maya flinched, one hand instinctively shielding her abdomen as she stepped back.
A reflex. Pure self-preservation.
Everything clicked into place.
The last trace of warmth in my heart went cold.