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!"