Chapter 3

After being caught stealing, Mandy and Maya stayed out of trouble for a while.

My mother was already in poor health, and she recently began feeling unwell.

She often complained of fatigue.

Mandy seized the opportunity and began visiting the Rivers family every day.

She personally prepared all kinds of nourishing meals for my mother.

She acted like the perfect homemaker in front of my parents, but whenever they were not looking, she glared at me with such hatred that she looked as if she wanted to kill me with her eyes.

That day, Mandy came in carrying another bowl of steaming, dark-colored broth, a broad smile plastered across her face.

“I had someone track down an old country remedy for you. It’s supposed to restore your health, so drink it while it’s still warm.”

My mother accepted the bowl and was just about to take a sip when the system alarm blared again.

[Warning! The broth contains a slow-acting poison! Prolonged consumption will cause nerve damage and organ failure!]

My eyes widened.

What a vicious woman. She actually wanted to poison my mother!

I immediately slid off the sofa, hugged my little sippy cup, and staggered over to Mandy.

“Auntie, drink milk.”

I held up my sippy cup with an innocent expression.

Mandy impatiently tried to push me away.

“Go on, go play somewhere. Don’t get in the way of your mother taking her medicine.”

I refused to leave.

Instead, I hugged her leg and held my sippy cup beneath the bowl of soup, using it to block Mandy’s view.

While she was distracted, I pulled the dog kibble from my pocket and poured it into the black broth.

The kibble had been specially made. Its pieces were small and hard, so they quickly sank to the bottom.

Once I was done, I pretended to trip.

I lurched sideways and knocked against Mandy’s arm. The ceramic bowl slipped from her hand, crashed to the floor, and shattered into several pieces.

The black broth, dog kibble, and broken ceramic scattered across the floor, releasing a strange, indescribable smell.

“Oops!”

Mandy shrieked and raised her hand to slap me across the face.

“You little brat! What have you done?”

Before her palm could land, a hand seized her wrist.

My father had returned without anyone noticing. He stood behind Mandy with an ashen expression, his murderous gaze fixed on her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Mandy turned pale with fear and hurriedly withdrew her hand. The smile she forced onto her face looked utterly pathetic.

“Michael, you’re… you’re back. I… I didn’t mean to. Yuna was just being too naughty…”

I immediately hid behind my father’s leg, poked my little head out, and pointed at the mess on the floor as I complained.

“It stinks! Doggy won’t eat!”

My father looked down at the spilled soup, and his brows drew together even more tightly.

He caught a strange smell.

Beneath the broth’s herbal aroma was the unmistakable, meaty scent of dog kibble.

He crouched down, picked up some of the residue, and sniffed it. His expression changed completely.

“Mandy, this is what you gave my wife to drink?”

Mandy panicked and began explaining incoherently.

“N-No, Michael! It… It was the kitchen staff. They must have used the wrong ingredients! Yes! They must have mixed the dog food into the soup!”

She hurriedly tried to pin the blame on the kitchen staff.

My father let out a cold laugh and stood up. He did not believe a word she said.

“Is that so?”

He took out his phone and called the family doctor.

“Dr. Watson, bring your equipment and come over immediately. Yes, right now!

“Also, take the contents from the floor for testing.”

After hanging up, he fixed Mandy with a cold stare.

“Until we get the results, you’re not going anywhere.”

The color drained from Mandy’s face, and her body swayed unsteadily.

She knew she was finished.

I leaned against my father’s leg and watched her terrified, desperate expression without feeling the slightest bit moved.

This was only the interest.

For everything she owed me and my parents, I would make her repay it a thousand, and even ten thousand, times over.