Reborn as an Infant, I Protected My Mom's Career and Family

Other people fall for love, or chase their careers. Not my mom.

My mom lived for her best friend.

Her best friend caused trouble, and my mom took the fall.

Her best friend got hit, and my mom stepped in front of it.

Her best friend got smeared with rumors, and my mom did everything she could to clear her name.

And that best friend never saw her as anything but a shield.

She even went so far, just to be with her white boyfriend, as to openly set my mom up to marry my dad in her place.

Only after the wedding did everyone learn my dad was a wealthy heir who'd only been pretending to be broke.

Later my mom had me, and life ran smooth and easy.

But her best friend started to regret it.

She came back into the country and tried to crawl into my dad's bed. That didn't work.

So on the very day my mom gave birth, she used her own sister's baby to swap me out, and openly accused me of being my mom's child with her ex.

The DNA didn't match.

And just like that, my mom went from the woman who'd earned her place in a wealthy family to a shameless slut.

With no way to defend herself, she was thrown out with nothing, left to raise someone else's child alone through years of hardship. And that child grew up to be an ingrate.

While newborn me was forgotten in the basement and left to starve to death.

Then I opened my eyes again, and I was back in the confinement month.

My mom's best friend had come to carry me off for a bath.

It made me so frantic I just came right out and spoke:

"Mommy, don't let her take me away, or you'll be framed for cheating on Daddy!"

My inner voice startled my mom into stillness.

She looked left and right, trying to find where it had come from.

"Mommy, I'm your baby. I'm in the crib!"

Propped against the headboard, her whole body went rigid.

Her eyes shot straight to me in the crib.

Valerie Fox's hand was already reaching for me.

There was a smile on her face, and delicate manicured fingertips.

To me, she looked like a big bad wolf out to eat a child.

"Such a good little girl. Auntie's going to take you for your bath."

Just as her hand was about to touch me,

my mom suddenly shouted,

"Don't touch her!"

Valerie's hand froze.

She turned her head and looked at my mom strangely.

"Zara Henson, what's wrong?"

"I'm just taking her over there so the professional staff can give her a bath. Is something wrong with that?"

My mom opened her mouth, not knowing how to answer.

"Mommy, her sister just gave birth today too. She's taking me over there to swap me with her sister's baby."

"Then she'll steer Daddy into doubting where I came from, and once the DNA test comes back, you won't be able to explain your way out of it!"

Hearing this, my mom threw herself off the bed barefoot and pulled me into her arms.

"No one is taking my child!"

Valerie straightened up, eyes narrowing on my mom's face.

"Zara, what's gotten into you? You don't even trust me now? I'm your best friend!"

Right then, the door to the room opened.

It was my dad, Morgan Farley.

My dad, in a custom hand-tailored suit, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, standing tall and impossibly refined.

Valerie's gaze warmed at once.

She crossed to him in two steps.

"Morgan, do you think Zara has postpartum depression? She looks at everyone like they're out to get her."

"I was just going to take the baby for a bath, and she reacted like she was under attack."

My dad's eyes settled on my mom.

He frowned, then took me from her arms.

"The doctor said you had a C-section, you shouldn't be holding the baby. Give her to Valerie!"

"She's just taking her for a bath. Nothing's going to happen!"

And with that, he handed me over to Valerie.

Valerie took me, turned away, and a smug little smile curved at the corner of her mouth.

It scared me so badly I cried out at once:

"Mommy, no!"

"She really is going to swap me out."

"And then you'll be raising someone else's child!"

"Stop right there!"

The instant she caught my inner voice, my mother lunged forward.

She wrenched me back out of Valerie's arms with everything she had.

Valerie wouldn't let go, and in the struggle my mother's nail raked across her brow bone.

"Aah!"

"Zara, have you lost your mind?"

Valerie clapped a hand over her eye, blood seeping out between her fingers.

Some small part of my mother felt a pang.

But she didn't waver.

"I already told you. No one touches my child!"

"If she needs a bath, I'll take her myself!"

My father looked at my mother, helpless.

"Zar, you're really not doing well. Let me get you a therapist, okay?"

My mother took a step back, holding me.

"I don't need one!"

"I'm fine!"

"Do you believe her, or do you believe me?"

My father glanced at Valerie, then back at my mother.

He reached out and drew her into his arms.

Softly, gently, he said:

"You're my wife. Of course I believe you. But you just gave birth, and I'm afraid this really is postpartum depression. After all, you used to trust Valerie more than anyone..."

My mother froze.

It was true.

Half the reason my father trusted Valerie was because he loved my mother, and that love spilled over onto her.

Before all this, my mother had treated Valerie like a real sister, and wouldn't let anyone say a bad word about her.

Valerie stepped forward and offered graciously:

"It's all right, Zara. I know your emotions are all over the place during confinement."

"I don't blame you!"

My mother pressed her lips together and said nothing.

Ten o'clock that night.

Valerie brought my mother a bowl of chicken soup.

"Zara, the confinement nurse made this. She added fish maw. It's good for your recovery!"

My mother took the bowl and was just lifting it to her lips.

I cried out at once:

"Mommy, don't drink it. There are sleeping pills in the soup. If you drink it you'll go out cold."

"Then she'll wait for you to fall asleep and swap me out!"

My mother's hand trembled, and she stopped, the bowl halfway there.

"Why aren't you drinking? It won't taste good once it's cold!"

Valerie pressed.

My mother's eyes locked hard on her face.

"You take a sip first. Let me see."

Valerie's face flickered with panic. "I... I'm not the one who just had a baby. I don't need the extra nutrition!"

"You don't have to be a new mother to drink chicken soup with fish maw!"

"Or did you put something in it?"

Valerie startled and backed away in a fluster.

But my mother seized her wrist.

"What are you so nervous about?"

Valerie came completely undone.

"Zara, the way you are right now, it's honestly terrifying."

"I'm your best friend. How could I ever put something in your food?"

"If you ask me, your postpartum depression is getting worse and worse. You're even showing signs of persecution paranoia. I... I'm not talking to you anymore..."

With that, she shook off my mother's hand and turned to leave.

But she knocked the bowl of soup out of my mother's hand by accident.

A whole bowl of chicken soup spilled across the back of Valerie's hand.

"Aah!"

The back of her hand swelled red at once.

Hearing the noise, my father came in from the outer room, just in time to see it.

Valerie immediately pointed at my mother, eyes red, asking in an injured voice:

"Zara, I brought you chicken soup out of the goodness of my heart, so why would you throw it at me?"

As she spoke, she made a point of showing off the red, swollen skin on the back of her hand.

My father's gaze flickered, then landed sharp on my mother.

I shouted at once:

"Mommy, you can't just sit there and take it. You have to learn to fight back!"

"The way to beat a two-faced fake is to look even more wronged than she does!"

My mom caught on instantly.

She threw her arms out toward my dad and looped them around his neck.

"Honey, I didn't do it on purpose."

"It's the middle of the night. I really didn't feel like drinking chicken soup."

"Val kept pushing me, and she's the one who knocked the soup over. I already said I was sorry!"

Sure enough, after that little display, the way my dad looked at Valerie changed on the spot.

"Val, if you knocked over the soup yourself, why did you say Zara splashed it on you?"

"You slandered Zara right in front of me on purpose. What are you really after?"

Valerie's face went white in an instant.

She waved her hands quickly.

"You've got it all wrong."

"I wasn't slandering Zara. It was probably just a misunderstanding."

"If Zara doesn't want the soup, that's fine. I'll clean it up!"

In no time she had swept the broken shards into the trash can.

But as she backed out of the room, the look she gave my mom was ice-cold.

I knew this wasn't over.

She'd definitely be waiting for her next chance.

Better to give her that chance and expose her than to keep guarding against her like this.

The next day, the smoke alarm in the maternity ward went off out of nowhere.

Valerie came rushing in with a hand over her mouth and nose, scooped me up, and grabbed my mom, trying to pull her outside.

"Zara, someone next door was smoking and set the whole hallway on fire. Come with me, hurry!"

Sure enough, the hallway was thick with smoke.

The alarm wouldn't stop. People were putting out the fire, moving the newborns out.

My mom panicked. "Where's my baby? Give her to me!"

Valerie said, "Your incision hasn't healed. Let me carry her for you!"

I hurried to calm my mom.

"Mommy, don't be scared. If she swaps me out, just swap me back."

My mom went calm at once.

On the way down the stairs, someone had spilled oil on the steps, and my mom slipped and fell.

Valerie helped her up and handed her off to a nurse.

"Zara, I'll get the baby somewhere safe first."

"Nurse, take care of Zara and get her downstairs right away!"

Half an hour later, the fire was out.

The nurses started taking count of the babies in the nursery.

ID bracelets, birth dates, blood types, parents' names.

Once everything checked out, they brought me over to my mom.

"Ms. Henson, this is your daughter!"

My mom looked at the baby girl in her arms and her first instinct was to push her away.

"This isn't..."

The words my daughter caught in her throat.

Because I called out to her from the crib next to her.

"Mommy, I'm over here!"

My mom's head turned toward me right away.

Once she'd confirmed my bed number and the code on my bracelet, she gave me a little nod.

While the nurse was checking the next baby, my mom switched me back at once.

Soaked from the sprinklers, Valerie came back in a fresh change of clothes.

Seeing me in my mom's arms, the corner of her mouth curled into a smug little smile.

"Zara, let me carry her for you!"

And with that, she took me from my mom's arms.

Her eyes darted back and forth between me and the baby girl beside us.

She thought her plan had worked.

She saw my mom back to her room.

Set me down in the crib.

And when my dad came in, she let out a deliberate little gasp.

"Oh, Zara, don't you think the baby looks a lot like your ex-boyfriend?"

Then she turned, pretended she'd only just noticed my dad standing in the doorway, and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth in shock.

"Sorry, sorry, I misspoke!"

"Maybe it's just some throwback to an earlier ancestor!"

"After all, Zara did date her ex for three years, so who knows, maybe she already..."

My dad's face went dark.

Anyone would feel sick hearing something like that.

"Mommy, see? She thinks she swapped me, so now she's steering Daddy into suspecting you!"

My mom heard my thoughts, and the smile she'd worn for my dad froze on her lips.

The look she turned on Valerie was complicated.

Before this, she'd only suspected Valerie.

Now it was as good as confirmed.

"What are you talking about?"

"My ex and I broke up a long time ago."

"And that was back in college. We were young, and it never went past feelings. Nothing improper ever happened."

But Valerie pretended not to understand, covered her mouth, and let out a little snort of a laugh.

"Yes, yes, yes, you're the purest of us all!"

"Then why did you ask me to cover for you?"

My dad's tone changed in an instant. "Cover? Cover what?"

Just then my grandmother arrived, too, with a lawyer, a stack of property deeds in hand and a share-transfer agreement.

The lawyer stepped forward.

He spoke to my mom.

"Ms. Henson, your mother-in-law, Mrs. Walker, wishes to thank you for giving the Farley family its firstborn granddaughter. She's putting five properties on Kingsley Road, Riverside Drive, and elsewhere into your name.

She's also transferring ten percent of the company's shares to Miss Renata Farley, to be held in trust by you as her mother."

My grandmother took my mom's hand warmly.

"Rest and recover. The Farleys won't shortchange you and the baby."

My mom was so moved she nearly cried.

The jealousy in Valerie's eyes was thick enough to spill over.

She shot to her feet. "Mrs. Farley, do you want to reconsider?"

My grandmother looked over at Valerie, standing by the crib, not understanding. "Hmm?"

Valerie glanced at me, seemingly by accident, as if she'd finally decided to throw all caution aside.

"Zara and I are the closest of friends. There are things I really shouldn't say."

"But you and Morgan are good people. I can't stand by and watch you get deceived, watch you hand over everything you worked so hard to build."

"The truth is, after the wedding Zara kept up an improper relationship with her ex. This baby isn't Morgan's at all. It's her ex's!"

"If you don't believe me, take the baby right now and do a paternity test with Morgan!"

My mom demanded furiously, "Valerie, I treated you like my own sister. Why are you slandering me?"

Valerie instantly put on a righteous face. "I just can't stomach watching you lie to people!"

As she said it, she pulled out a stack of vile photos.

"These are all proof!"

My dad's face changed, his eyes moving between my mom and Valerie, not knowing who to believe.

My grandmother slammed the table and stood, then called in a professional testing team.

"Collect two samples from me. Run a paternity test!"

"I want the results within twenty-four hours!"

The team began drawing blood.

The needle pierced my tiny finger, and my mom watched with an ache in her chest.

My grandmother narrowed her eyes at my mom. "If the results come back and the baby isn't Morgan's flesh and blood, you and the child walk out of here with nothing. The Farley family can't afford this kind of disgrace."

My mom was stricken. "Mom, you don't believe me?"

"Morgan, what about you? You don't believe me either?"

My dad clenched his fists, his face torn. "I should believe you."

"But you and Valerie are so close. Why would she risk turning against you just to frame you?"

My mom closed her eyes. There was nothing left to say.

She'd misjudged people. She'd let a wolf through her own door.

Two hours later.

The head of the testing team came back with the report.

"Ma'am, the results are in!"