Chapter 1

Urgent knocking at the door snapped me back to reality. The door cracked open slightly, and my sister-in-law, Leah Hanson, squeezed her face through the gap.

She first glanced at the child in my arms, then called to me in a low voice, "Claire, dinner's ready. Quick, come out and eat."

As she spoke, she waved at me excitedly. "Let's eat first. The food won't taste good if it gets cold."

My brain felt sluggish, but I unconsciously rose and walked out the door. In the living room, my husband's ex-girlfriend's Ragdoll stood at the head of the dining table, licking a plate with relish.

My husband, Neil Hanson, looked completely smitten as he picked up a piece of pork and placed it at the cat's mouth.

When she saw me come out, the cat arrogantly lifted her head and stared at me provocatively. This scene sent chills down my spine and completely woke me up.

I had been reborn!

On our wedding night in my previous life, Neil brought home an enormous Ragdoll. At the time, he seemed helpless about it.

"My ex-girlfriend died in an accident, and her parents can't take care of her cat, so they asked me to take her in."

I loved small animals and thought married couples should be more trusting of one another, so I agreed and even set aside a special place for the cat to live. However, I soon realized something was wrong.

The cat, Poppy, did not like me. She even seemed to harbor great malice toward me. Whenever I got close to her, she would bristle and bare her teeth to frighten me. Even worse, she insisted on sleeping in Neil's arms every night.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I could hear Poppy making soft, coquettish sounds in Neil's embrace.

Later, after I became pregnant, I suggested that Poppy should not be allowed on the bed.

The moment I finished speaking, she lunged straight at me, opening her mouth to bite. If Neil had not intervened in time, my face would have been scarred.

I was furious and began considering sending Poppy away, but Neil patiently explained to me, "Cats are spiritual animals that can understand what you say. Just now, when you said you wanted to send her away, she got upset. That's why she lashed out at you."

Leah also tried to console me, saying, "Well, you're not hurt, so no harm done. This cat has a sixth sense. She's a good cat. If we send her away now, she'll end up on the streets. That would be heartbreaking!"

I was soft-hearted. After hesitating for a while, I finally decided to keep Poppy. However, I had one condition—she could never enter my bedroom again.

Neil agreed, but what I did not expect was for him to choose to sleep in separate beds from me for the sake of this cat. Although I was angry, I endured it when I thought of the child in my belly.

However, after our child was born, even more bizarre things happened. During my recovery after childbirth, I had no breast milk for the baby, so I bought formula. However, no matter how I tried to feed her, my daughter refused to drink it.

At first, I thought she did not like that brand of formula, so I tried several different brands in a row, but my daughter still would not drink any of them.

Just as I was preparing to take my daughter to the hospital for a checkup, I suddenly discovered that Poppy was nursing my daughter! She had pressed her chest to my daughter's mouth, and my daughter was cooperatively sucking with her little mouth. She was gulping down Poppy's milk!

What made me feel sick to my stomach was that Poppy's chest area had no cat fur at all. The skin was fair and very smooth, just like a woman's breasts during lactation.

I nearly went insane with fear, screaming that I wanted to throw Poppy out. However, my usually gentle husband swore at me. "Why are you being so unreasonable? We have plenty of space in this house, and you can't stand having one cat around!"

I incoherently told him what I had witnessed, but he mocked me for being mentally ill. Leah pulled me to the couch and gave me sleeping pills.

"You're just overwhelmed. You have postpartum depression. How could a cat nurse a child like a human?"

Under her consolation, my emotions calmed down considerably. However, when I woke up that night, I discovered that my daughter had stopped breathing. Her entire body had grown cold.

I wanted to call for help but found that no one else was in the house. Soon, I became short of breath and died right beside my daughter.

Only after my death did I learn that this was all an incredibly vicious conspiracy! My husband, sister-in-law, and even that cat all wanted to steal my body.

My daughter and I had become sacrificial victims in their body-swapping ritual.