The Crash Exposed Them, My Mother-in-Law Lifted Me Up

My husband and my father-in-law were in a car crash together, and both of them fell into a coma.

Just as my mother-in-law and I were breaking down with grief, rows of floating subtitles suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.

Otto Mason and Joel Mason are about to put on a show. They'll pretend their souls got swapped, claim someone else's soul is living in their bodies, so they can go be some other woman's husband without anyone blaming them!

"There's actually nothing wrong with them at all. They just happened to both be cheating with a mother and daughter, and to avoid being condemned, to be with them out in the open, they staged this whole thing themselves!"

"They also secretly moved the assets, sank all the money into a trust, and named that pair of women as the beneficiaries! And they lied to Lindsay Parsons and Amelia Henson, said the business went under, when in fact these two are loaded."

"Poor Lindsay Parsons and Amelia Henson, crying their eyes out every day. Amelia Henson cries until she goes blind, and by then Lindsay Parsons discovers she's three months pregnant."

"She takes care of her blind mother-in-law while working to make ends meet, and after the baby is born she has to raise it too, until she finally can't hold on and drops dead at home."

"Amelia Henson can't take the blow and jumps off a building, leaving behind a wailing infant. And since Zoe Swanson is in poor health and can't have children, Joel Mason takes the baby in, and the two of them get a grown son for free!"

I forced back the tears that were about to spill over, turned, and asked my mother-in-law beside me.

"Mom, do you believe in fate?"

She froze for a moment.

"I believe in fate, but fate can be changed!"

"Lindsay, if I told you I got a warning from heaven, would you believe me?"

I was stunned.

"You saw it too?"

"You saw it too!"

One look between us and it was settled. We had seen the same rows of subtitles.

But she still couldn't quite bring herself to believe it.

"Lindsay, would your dad and Joel really do this to us?"

"I don't know."

Right then, my husband Joel Mason and my father-in-law Otto Mason both stirred.

I hurried forward. "Honey, how are you feeling?"

Joel Mason looked at me like he'd never seen me before. "Who are you?"

I paused, then said, "I'm your wife. I'm Lindsay Parsons!"

"Lindsay Parsons? My wife is Zoe Swanson."

Beside him, my father-in-law was saying the same kind of thing.

"Who are you? Why am I here? Where's my wife?"

My mother-in-law and I exchanged a glance. We both understood now.

"Dad, isn't your wife right here? Who else are you looking for?"

"I don't know her. My wife is Darlene Dickerson!"

Joel Mason struggled up out of the bed. "Dad! Is that you, Dad! It's me, Ryan!"

"Ryan? Why do you look different?"

"Dad, you look different too. Could it be we've been reborn in other people's bodies?"

My mother-in-law and I just watched them perform. We both knew exactly what was going on, and neither of us said a word.

Joel Mason tried his hardest to explain it to me.

"I know what I'm about to tell you is going to sound absurd, but I have to make it clear. My name is Ryan Wilkerson, and my father's name is Brett Swanson. We were already dead, but for some reason we've been reborn in these two bodies."

"The original owners of these bodies are already dead. We're not the same people as them at all. Do you understand?"

My mother-in-law's eyes filled with tears. "Son, what are you talking about! You must have hit your head in the crash. I'll go get a doctor to check you."

Joel Mason stopped her. "There's nothing wrong with me!"

Then he picked up the phone from the nightstand and called Zoe Swanson.

"Honey, Dad and I have been reborn. You and Mom get to the hospital right away and come get us!"

Zoe Swanson and Darlene Dickerson arrived incredibly fast. They must have already been at the hospital.

The moment they walked into the room, they threw themselves into Otto Mason's and Joel Mason's arms.

Watching a strange woman hold my husband, I didn't feel a shred of heartache. I only felt utterly sick.

Once mother and daughter had cried their fill, Zoe put on her overblown performance. "Honey, Mom and I went to a medium a few days ago to ask about where you and Dad had gone."

"The medium said the two of you would come back to us with brand-new faces. Mom and I didn't believe it at the time. I never thought it would actually come true!"

Darlene Dickerson stepped up in front of us. "I know this is hard for you both to accept, but the truth is that my husband and my son-in-law have been reborn in your husbands' bodies."

"Your husbands died in that car crash. The men living now are ours. Please, take comfort where you can."

Amelia walked over to stand in front of Otto. "Otto, I'll ask you one last time. Who exactly are you?"

He answered without a flicker of shame. "I'm Brett. I'm Darlene's husband, and I'm Zoe's father."

Amelia's tears finally broke free. She crossed to Joel.

"Son."

He took a step back, dodging her outstretched hand.

"Don't touch me. I'm not your son. I'm Victor. I have nothing to do with you."

The subtitles kept scrolling in front of my eyes.

"These two are truly heartless. All they care about is their own pleasure, and to hell with what happens to the wives they married."

"This way they get to be with their affairs free and clear, and never wear the blame for it. Poor Lindsay Parsons and Amelia Henson, their whole lives ruined by these men."

"Otto dropping his pants and playing stranger is one thing, but Joel was raised single-handedly by Amelia, and he can still treat his own mother like this. What a devoted son."

"Lindsay is risking her life to bear Joel a child, and these two foolish women are being led around in circles by these two scumbags. After mother and daughter-in-law are dead, this father and son will pretend to get their memories back and inherit the one house left in Amelia's name."

""

With every subtitle that flashed past, Amelia's face turned a shade colder.

By the end, every trace of warmth had drained out of her eyes, leaving nothing but resolve.

Zoe looked at Amelia and me like a woman who had already won.

"Could the two of you please leave? Our family is finally reunited, and we don't want outsiders in the way."

Amelia gripped my hand, as if she had settled something inside herself, and said only one thing.

"Lindsay, we're leaving."

Out of the hospital, my heart was still pounding.

"Mom, everything we saw. It's all real."

Amelia looked at me, her gaze sliding slowly down to my belly.

"Come on. We're going to see an OB."

The doctor examined me. Sure enough, I was pregnant.

Amelia didn't hesitate. "End it. This child can't be kept."

I froze.

"Mom, I thought you'd never be able to bear it."

"An ingrate's child is just another ingrate. What is there to bear? That father and son don't care whether the two of us live or die, so why should you throw your life into carrying on their name?"

"Get rid of the child. Today we leave the Mason line without a single heir."

I nodded hard. "All right."

That same afternoon, I went in for the procedure to end the pregnancy.

Coming out of the operating room, I saw the subtitles again.

"Lindsay may have gotten rid of the child, but soon the Mason men will come knocking to file for divorce. By then the two women will be left without a cent, and everything they've built up over half a lifetime will have been quietly carried off by the Mason men and handed to that mother and daughter."

"The Mason men still have several outstanding construction payments they never settled, and the debt collectors are about to come to the door. These two kindhearted women can't stand to see the workers go unpaid, so they'll borrow money everywhere to scrape the sum together."

"If it weren't for those construction debts, Lindsay wouldn't have to work herself to the bone, and Amelia wouldn't be washing dishes for strangers at sixty. What they don't know is that these debt collectors are all in on it with the Mason men, and the whole point is to squeeze the last bit of value out of the two of them."

Amelia and I traded a look.

She kept a hand on me. "Let's go home first."

The moment we were through the door, she went straight to the kitchen to make me chicken soup.

"Ending a pregnancy takes a lot out of a woman. You need to build your strength back up."

"Thank you, Mom."

Once the soup was done, she sat and watched me drink it.

"Lindsay, from now on you're my own daughter."

"Husband, son, none of it matters to me anymore!"

I lost my parents young, and after I married Joel, Amelia always treated me well. I'd always thought of her as my own mother.

"Mom, you are my mother. You always have been."

Her eyes shone with tears. "The two of us are going to make a good life together, and those two Mason bastards are going to get exactly what they deserve."

Then I saw the subtitles again.

"Years ago, the Mason men bought two big penthouses on the outskirts of New York, just to keep their women tucked away, somewhere convenient to meet that mother and daughter in secret. Right now that pair each live in one of the units, and the deeds are in their hands too!"

"There's also a trust the Mason men set up. The contract is hidden in an iron box under the bed in the master bedroom!"

The second we read that, Amelia and I rushed into the master bedroom, dropped down, and hooked the iron box out from under the bed. Sure enough, the contract was inside.

Amelia took the contract out and slid the box back under the bed exactly as it had been.

"I'll hold on to this for now. Once we've stripped those two bastards down to nothing, we'll go redeem the money in the trust."

I nodded hard.

Three days later, the Mason men showed up at the door, just as expected.

Amelia produced two divorce agreements she'd prepared in advance.

"Sign them. Once you do, we're done with each other."

Otto and Joel flipped through the pages.

Joel was clearly unhappy. "Why should my father and I walk away with nothing? I won't agree to it!"

I looked at him, calm. "You're not my husband. You've already taken over his body. Now you want his money too?"

Joel had nothing to say.

Otto's face went dark as well.

Amelia, who had been silent the whole time, finally spoke.

"My husband and my son are dead, God rest them. Their property should go to us, the widow and the orphan they left behind. And on top of that, you two have taken over their bodies, and my daughter and I haven't said a word about it."

"If you insist on using my husband's and my son's bodies to fight us for their money, then I'll have no choice but to bring in a medium to scatter your souls for good!"

At that, four men dressed like Taoist priests came out from the back room, rushed forward, and pinned both Mason men down.

Otto was furious. "Amelia, have you lost your mind?!"

"So which is it going to be? Do I have the master perform his rite and scatter your souls, or do you sign these agreements yourselves and walk away with nothing?"

"Let go of us. Let me talk it over with my son!"

Amelia signaled the men to release them.

The two of them bolted into the master bedroom and shut the door.

The subtitles started drifting by.

"Otto's telling Joel to just agree to walk away with nothing. Amelia and Lindsay don't know about the penthouses or the trust anyway. As for the little bit of cash in the house, once the men come collecting on the project payments, the women will have to hand it over just the same."

"And this house, they'll let them stay in it for now, and the two of them will figure out how to get it back later."

"They've settled it. They're going to steal the trust contract!"

I looked over at Amelia, and she leaned in at once and whispered in my ear.

"Don't worry. I already put a fake contract in that iron box. They won't be able to tell."

I gave her a thumbs-up. "Mom, you're amazing!"

Otto and Joel came out of the master bedroom, and their whole attitude had changed.

"We agree to walk away with nothing!"

Amelia spread the agreement in front of them. "Then sign it."

Otto and Joel read it over carefully, and each signed his name.

"You need to sign this too."

Amelia handed them two more documents, notarized powers of attorney. The named agent on both was our lawyer.

Otto asked, "What's this?"

"Once you sign this, if anything comes up down the line, you just send my lawyer in your place. It's easier for both sides. You don't want us coming to you every time there's some little thing to deal with, do you?"

Joel asked, "So you mean, from now on we don't have to show up for anything? Someone else can go for us?"

"That's right."

Joel signed without a second thought.

Otto tensed. "Son, why'd you just sign it? What if something"

"Oh, what could possibly happen? The two of them aren't that clever."

Amelia took Otto's copy back. "You don't have to sign. If something really does come up, I'll just come straight to you."

Joel snatched the document back out of her hand.

"Dad, just sign it already. If she actually starts coming to you, Mom's going to be upset."

Otto still had his doubts, but in the end he signed the power of attorney too.

After they left, Amelia and I both laughed.

Amelia held up the two notarized powers of attorney. "We've got both their IDs, and now with these, we don't need either of them present to transfer the properties. The houses go straight into our names, yours and mine."

I couldn't help laughing. "This time they're the ones who'll be left with nothing."

The subtitles started scrolling again.

"Brett and Joel were running from creditors when their car went into the river and they drowned. The people they owed never got their money back. Millions, just gone."

"A lot of those people had lent them their life savings. Brett and Joel said they were putting it into investments, but it all went to Darlene and Zoe to blow through."

"That mother and daughter, coasting on a pretty face, ruined how many innocent families!"

Amelia looked at me, her eyes sharp and bright.

"Lindsay, looks like we'd better hurry up and let those creditors know Brett and Joel are back among the living!"

A month later, Amelia and I got our divorce decrees without a hitch.

The first thing we did after the divorce was head to the county recorder's office to report the deeds lost and have them reissued.

Then we brought in Otto and Joel's designated agent and transferred both properties into our names.

Right after that we went to the trust company and redeemed the entire trust held under Otto's and Joel's names.

When the twenty million landed in the account, the relief Amelia and I felt was hard to put into words.

Then we listed both penthouses online, priced below market, and buyers turned up fast.

All of it took us just five days.

Amelia and I stood there holding the twelve million from the sales plus the twenty million from the redeemed trust, thirty-two million in all, grinning ear to ear.

"Mom, the buyers will be moving in any day now, and they'll throw all four of those lowlifes out."

"Then those four will realize something's wrong and rush to check on the trust."

Amelia picked it up. "Only the trust was redeemed long ago. The money's already in our pockets."

"With nowhere left to go, they'll have to move back into the old Swanson family house. And the moment they do, the creditors will come knocking!"