Chapter 1

I suspect the nanny has been drugging my mother-in-law with sleeping pills.

Even though we don't get along, I still wanted to warn her.

But when I went to find her, I overheard her on the phone with an old friend. "I deliberately picked a young, pretty nanny. My son is in his prime—there's no way he can resist her!"

"My daughter-in-law's pregnancy is already unstable. When she gets upset, she'll definitely miscarry!"

"She dared to cross me—this is what she gets!"

Listening to my mother-in-law's triumphant voice, I wasn't even angry.

After all, the person who snuck out of the nanny's room in the middle of the night last night wasn't my husband.

I'm somewhat responsible for my mother-in-law's broken leg.

I accidentally spilled water on the floor while getting a drink. A delivery arrived that I needed to sign for, so I didn't have time to clean it up.

But I never expected such a coincidence—my mother-in-law also went to get water, stepped right on the wet spot, slipped, and even fractured her leg.

After that, our already strained relationship became downright tense.

Although I didn't think it was entirely my fault, I had spilled the water, so I put up with her passive-aggressive comments during this time.

Besides that, I found myself paying more attention to her, and that's how I noticed something odd.

My mother-in-law has diabetes and always gets up once or twice during the night to use the bathroom. I'm pregnant too and need to pee frequently, so we often ran into each other in the bathroom.

But a few days after the nanny arrived, I stopped seeing her at night.

At first, I didn't think much of it. I figured we were just going at different times.

Until one night, after my mother-in-law took her medicine, the nanny took the cup to the kitchen to wash it. I saw white powder at the bottom of the cup.

The next day, when the nanny went to wash the cup again, I pretended to look at my phone but actually turned on the camera and zoomed to 10x. Sure enough, the powder in the cup was crystal clear.

I thought about it for a while. The nanny probably didn't want to get up at night to take care of my mother-in-law, so she was giving her sleeping pills.

This could be a big deal or a small one, so I wanted to tell my mother-in-law first and see if she'd fire the nanny or call the police.

But I never expected her to harbor such vicious intentions!

I touched my belly, trembling with anger. This was her own grandson!

In the room, my mother-in-law was still gleefully describing to someone my "miserable state" after the "miscarriage." I sneered silently.

The person who snuck out of the nanny Linda's room in the middle of the night wasn't my husband. I'd like to see who ends up miserable!

Linda and my father-in-law were being quite careful. If I hadn't gotten up to use the bathroom last night and caught them, I still wouldn't know they'd gotten involved.

But no matter how careful, they'd eventually slip up.

The shirt Linda wore today had a rather large collar, and when she moved, you could inadvertently see the red marks below her collarbone.

My mother-in-law asked with feigned surprise, "Linda, what happened there? It's so red!"

Linda's face flashed with panic as she nervously explained, "It must be mosquito bites."

My mother-in-law looked at me meaningfully. "Well, you do have such fair, tender skin—you attract mosquitoes!"

I pretended not to understand and calmly continued eating.

Seeing no reaction from me, my mother-in-law started praising Linda's beauty, figure, and cooking, pointedly saying that any family who married such a daughter-in-law would laugh in their sleep.

Linda blushed shyly throughout, as if embarrassed by the praise.

Compared to her bold behavior at night, I almost couldn't help laughing. This woman was quite interesting.

After my mother-in-law went for her afternoon nap, Linda came to find me. She said, "Grace, you know a lot of people. If there's anyone suitable, could you introduce me to someone?"

"I like men older than me—more experienced, stable, and they know how to care for a woman."

This was practically spelling it out.

I was quite surprised. Although young women nowadays joke about "old men being low-maintenance with benefits, and you can find someone new when they're gone," everyone knows that's just a meme.

But listening to Linda now, was she serious?

My father-in-law is fifty-one this year, and Linda just turned thirty!

I probed, "I do have someone in mind, but he's twenty-one years older than you. Could you accept that?"

Linda smiled. "I could accept that."

Our eyes met, and we both understood each other's unspoken meaning.

If Linda wanted to climb up the social ladder, she'd naturally deal with my mother-in-law herself—no need to dirty my hands. I was satisfied.

And by pulling in me, the daughter-in-law carrying the Lee family heir, beforehand, she was satisfied too.

That left only one question: should I tell my husband about this?