Chapter 3

The agency owner hung up in a fury after that conversation.

When Linda came back carrying the thermos, I immediately questioned her. "Who gave you the right to say you're my mother?!"

Linda frowned as she poured me a glass of water. "A mother-in-law is practically your mother. Don't you know that?"

She was still lost in her own world and refused to listen to reason. I could not help but laugh in anger.

Wendy was supposed to arrive soon, so I took my medicine with the water and stopped talking to Linda. But maybe it was the medication, I fell asleep not long after I lay down.

When I was half-asleep, I felt someone lifting me out of bed.

I opened my eyes just to see Linda's old face grinning at me. She was even holding my ID and health insurance card. "Come on, my new daughter-in-law. We're going home. I've already handled your discharge paperwork."

"Impossible! The doctor hasn't cleared me to leave!" I cried out.

Linda smiled smugly. "And you can't discharge just because he said so? I know plenty of ways on how to get things done."

At that moment, I regretted ever choosing a private room. With a lunatic like Linda around, I did not even have another patient nearby who could call for help.

To keep her from wheeling me away, I clung tightly to the bed rail and shouted. "Help! Somebody, please help me!"

Before I could shout again, Linda clamped one rough hand over my nose and mouth, and I immediately could not breathe.

My scream had already brought several nurses into the room.

"Ms. Johanson? I thought you'd already been discharged."

Linda dug her fingers into my arm and shot me a vicious look, but I spoke up anyway.

"No! My caregiver arranged all this without my permission! I never agreed to leave! Ask the doctor! I was examined this morning, and he told me I still needed two more days of observation."

The nurses heard me and were about to contact the doctor.

Seeing things were getting out of hand, Linda immediately started making a scene.

"Caregiver? Keep talking like that, and I'll slap you in front of everyone, you heartless little witch! You're waiting for that man to come get you, aren't you? You won't even come home even after he left you?"

She even pinched my arm hard after that.

"How long are you going to keep throwing yourself at him? Do you need his wife to come here and break your leg again before you'll learn?"

Everyone around us started looking at me differently.

"So that's what happened. I knew it. What grown woman still goes around skateboarding?"

"Disgusting. Who knows what she might be carrying? We need to disinfect every sheet she has touched."

However, there were still some people who questioned her story.

"Wait, wasn't the old woman hired as Ellen's caregiver? Since when is she her mother-in-law?"

That voice felt like a lifeline, and I burst into tears. "She's not my mother-in-law! I've never even been married! I'm not well enough to be discharged, either! Ask the doctor if you don't believe me!"

The nurses began to waver. "Come to think of it, the doctor did mention that during shift change. We should probably check."

Before they could make the call, Linda started making another scene. She pulled out a wrinkled marriage certificate and shoved it in front of them violently.

"Open your eyes and read! Ellen is my daughter-in-law! It's right here in black and white! If you keep her here and that man's wife comes after her again, your hospital will be responsible for whatever happens!"