All Chapters of Reborn and Done Trying: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

When my mother-in-law, Lucy Miller, came back, she was panting as she dragged a sack filled with venomous snakes and scorpions.She looked proud as she addressed everyone."Give it a couple of days, and the old man will be just fine. I found a special remedy for crooked mouth and eyes. I begged the man for a long time before he agreed to sell it to me. It's a family secret, not something he shares lightly.""What kind of remedy?" Charlotte Smith, my aunt-in-law, asked curiously. "What's in there? Why is it moving?"Lucy explained that the sack was filled with venomous snakes and scorpions. They'd be soaked in a herbal alcohol mixture, and then my father-in-law, Edward Smith, would sit in it for three days. With acupuncture on top of that, he would supposedly make a full recovery.Everyone looked uneasy except my brother-in-law and his wife, Kenneth Smith and Susan Taylor.Charlotte hesitated. "Shouldn't we go to the hospital?""Hospital? What for?" Lucy shot her a sharp look, cl

Edward started vomiting nonstop that night, and his speech became even more slurred.Lucy was certain it was a detox reaction. She told him to drink more water so he could "flush out the toxins."By the next morning, the whole house was filled with a strange, foul smell.Edward was stripped down to just his underwear, and Kenneth and Lucy held him up as they tried to lower him back into the tub.His crooked mouth dripped with saliva as he let out muffled, unclear groans. His weak arm pushed at Lucy, like he was trying to get away."What are you afraid of? Just get in! Once the medicine kicks in, you'll be fine!" she snapped, shoving his back.He fell into the tub with a loud splash, and the herbal alcohol mixture splattered everywhere.The snakes and scorpions had been soaking for a full day. They were even more agitated now, attacking him nonstop.He struggled, trying to climb out."Hang in there! Today is the most important day!" Lucy said.She and Kenneth pressed him down

"What nonsense are you babbling? You just want your father-in-law to die, don't you?"Lucy stormed out of the room, screaming at Susan. At the same time, the front door burst open.Charlotte walked in with Sally Grant, our neighbor. Sally was a retired doctor. She wasn't a neurologist, but she knew a thing or two.The moment she saw Edward in the tub, she rushed over. One look was all it took, and she knew it was a stroke."Oh my God! What are you doing!" she shouted.Sally still carried her professional instincts as a doctor, and she looked at everything before her with shock and anger. She could barely believe her eyes."How can you treat a stroke patient like this? This abuse! Murder! Quick, call 911!"Charlotte hurriedly pulled out her phone, but Lucy snatched it and threw it to the ground. She narrowed her eyes at both of them."What, you're here for my husband's pension, aren't you? Trying to take a share of the money? In your dreams!"She even spat at Sally."You're a

"Mom, I need to work and earn money," I said calmly. "How else is this family supposed to survive?""You can go to work, but you have to give me your paycheck!"I just smiled and said nothing.I had just moved into a small one-bedroom apartment on the north side of the city. It wasn't big, but it was clean and bright. Standing on the balcony, I could see a distant park and the blue sky.For the first time in eight years, I felt like I could finally breathe.I didn't completely cut ties with that family.Every few weeks, I still went back to check on my so-called husband. He was still lying in bed like before. But without anyone taking care of him, the smell of bedsores and waste filled the room."You wretch, where the hell have you been?" he barked the moment he saw me.Even like this, his first reaction was still to curse me.When I fell down the stairs and was barely alive in my previous life, he had been lying in that same bed. He didn't ask anyone to help me. He just said