The Heir Trap

When I didn't respond, my mother-in-law, Nora Stroud, raised her voice into the microphone on purpose."Clara, just have a baby with Vincent. It's the same thing. Once there's a child in this family, everything settles."My gaze shifted to my brother-in-law, Vincent Stroud, sitting beside me in his wheelchair.He had been paralyzed since birth. He couldn't move from the waist down. He even required help going to the bathroom.I thought back to when I first married into the Strouds. Nora would always ask him what he thought of me, whether I looked good.So this had been her plan from the beginning. She never saw me as a daughter-in-law. To her, I was just a body meant to carry children.I looked up at the relatives gathered in the funeral hall, hoping someone might speak up for me.Instead, they all sided with Nora."Clara, Nora has a point. A wife's job is to carry on the family line.""This kind of thing is normal where we're from. If the older brother's gone, the younger one

What Quinton didn't know was that I wasn't in the bed at all. I had already slipped out through the first-floor window.I was in a motel, watching everything through the security camera.When Quinton realized I wasn't there, he kicked the trash can over."Damn it! That woman thinks she can play me?"He glanced toward the hallway, worried about waking Nora. Just as he turned to leave, his eyes fell on a small card on the table."What… Is this how Malcolm hired them?"He stared at the photo of Mandy on the card, turning it over in his hands. A grin slowly spread across his wrinkled face. Then, he dialed the number printed on it."Hello, are you Mandy? How much for everything… Alright, alright. I'll come now. Wait for me."He hung up, almost excited, and hurried out.The next morning, Mandy called me."Got him," she said, her voice bright with satisfaction. "Your father-in-law is old, but he's still got it in him."I let out a faint smile. "Did he say anything?""He did. Said

Nora froze for a few seconds, then dropped to the floor and broke into loud, wailing sobs."What did I ever do to deserve this…?" She grabbed at her hair as she cried, her voice rising and falling."Did you hear that? This woman shows up at my door and tries to drag my husband's name through the mud! My husband's been a decent man his whole life. Do you think he'd go anywhere near someone like her?"Standing off to the side, I almost laughed.When Malcolm died in another woman's bed, Nora had said the same thing."My son would never go to a place like that! Someone must've set him up!"She had only stopped when the police pulled the footage.Mandy, though, didn't look shaken at all. She calmly took a sheet of paper out of her bag."Take a look."It was a pregnancy report.The relatives closest to her leaned in, reading it out loud without thinking."It's positive. Very early pregnancy...""So she really is pregnant!" one of the aunts said, startled.Another lowered her v

The lawyer called Nora into his office, his tone measured."Mrs. Stroud, your husband transferred the property of his own will. There's no evidence of coercion or fraud. It's unlikely you'll be able to get the house back. As for compensation, we've looked into Ms. Carver's accounts. There's nothing there to recover."Nora was so furious that she ended up back in the hospital that same day.Mandy, meanwhile, spent four months overseas, enjoying herself before finally returning in style.The moment I saw her, something felt off."Did you take care of the pregnancy?" I asked."Of course." Mandy smiled brightly. "I found a clinic overseas and handled it.""Good. You don't want anything coming back to haunt you." I let out a quiet sigh.Another month passed, and instead of going away, Mandy's stomach kept getting bigger. She started to panic and went to the hospital for an ultrasound.When she saw the results, she froze where she stood."What do you mean it's still there?" Her voi