"Yes, what do you need?" The voice of the staff resounded, and everyone turned to look at Winnie. Within moments, I'd managed to expose her for lying about me playing games on my phone, and her face was flushed in embarrassment.
"I want to donate my husband's corpse," I said. "He just passed away, so can you please come to Charity Hospital as soon as possible?"
The staff on the other end immediately agreed, and said they'd need thirty minutes to arrive.
Thirty minutes, huh?
I wondered how long Joey could last.
Winnie finally reacted to what I was doing, and her eyes widened. "How could you donate Joey's body? He's not going to be able to rest in peace!"
Tony didn't offer a single word of apology for blaming me for something I didn't do, and continued to be Winnie's staunch supporter. "That's right! Who knows, maybe this is a ruse, and you plan to sell Joey's organs to the black market! I won't be surprised if a woman like you does something that dirty, after all."
The other firefighters nodded and voiced their agreement, looking at me as if I was a piece of irredeemable trash.
I thought it was a waste of time to try to explain anything to them, so I just took out the digital body donation application form Joey and I had signed.
In my past life, Joey had agreed to sign a body donation form with me to placate me, and I had forgotten all about it, too occupied with grieving his sudden death. By the time I remembered, his body had already been cremated and buried, so I threw it to the back of my mind.
Even Tony couldn't say a single word in rebuttal, seeing Joey's signature on the donation form.
"No, you can't donate his body!" Winnie ran and stood right between me and Joey. "His organs were damaged badly from the smoke, so it wouldn't have any value!"
She was a doctor, so she knew better than anyone that her reputation would be utterly destroyed once the people from the body donation center verified that Joey wasn't dead.
"Well, that's for the people from the body donation center to decide, isn't it?" I asked. "Even if his organs are damaged, I'm sure he could make great contributions for the medical field, right? He's a wonderful, selfless man who sacrificed his life to save me, so I'm sure he'd agree with my decision."
Hearing this, Joey's teammates started becoming convinced by what I had said.
"That's true, our captain was a good man…"
"Donating wouldn't be all that bad, at least we'd be able to see him at the medical school…"
Easily enough, I noticed how Joey's toes were trembling in fear, and how the white cloth on his forehead was damp with cold sweat.
If he was exposed for faking his death, his reputation that he had spent such a long time building up would hit rock bottom in no time.
Seeing how futile her efforts were, Winnie started going with a different approach.
"Actually, Joey had one last wish!" She exclaimed, reaching to grab my hand. "He wanted you to have a baby for him through IVF! You're responsible for his family losing its successor, so you should give birth to one for him!"
As she talked, she glanced at her subordinates standing beside us, and their hands scrambled towards me, holding me in place as Winnie continued to speak. "I already sent in a request for his sperm to be unfrozen, so they're going to become inactive if you don't go there soon. How will you take responsibility for their family line ending?"
In my past life, all I could think about was giving birth to a baby, an extension of Joey's life, and I didn't even care that I was still weak and frail.
In the end, I only gave birth to an ungrateful child, Winnie and Joey's flesh and blood instead of mine!
After my son grew up, he started contacting them behind my back, and was brainwashed by the two into treating me as a free nanny at his beck and call.
Once I outgrew my usefulness, he kicked me aside and reunited with his birth parents. They were all parasites, each and every one of them!
This time, I wouldn't let Winnie have her way.
Reaching to grab Joey's bed tightly, I shouted, "I won't move a single step until the people from the donation center arrive!"
Winnie's plan was as clear as day.
She wanted to make me go away so that she could transfer Joey's body in secret, thus avoiding the people from the donation center. My reaction, evidently, made her completely lose any semblance of composure.
"Nina!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. "You're just trying to buy time until Joey's sperm becomes inactive!"
"How dare you?!" Tony glared at me, before raising his hand in a full arch and slapping my face, making it numb immediately.
"You have no other choice!" He said through gritted teeth, and it almost looked like he was trying to kill me with his glare alone. "If you didn't set your house on fire to attract Joey's attention, he wouldn't have died! You owe this to him, and you will never be able to repay him even if you spend the rest of your life trying!"
"I… set my house on fire…?"
I was dumbstruck, and it only seemed to make him even angrier.
"Don't even try to say you didn't, because I have proof!"
After he said it, he threw his phone at me, showing me the chat history between him and Joey and the messages he had sent right after I reported the fire.
He was complaining to Tony about how I had set our house on fire again, saying that I was petty and jealous, wasting public resources to get his attention.
Of course, I had never committed arson on purpose. When our house went up in flames, I was cleaning the bathroom without any access to anything that could cause a fire.
In all the years we were married, I always suffered quietly, not telling him about any of my woes since he was working hard as a firefighter. Naturally, I had never committed arson at all, much less because of petty jealousy.
I turned to look at Joey again, realizing that he was even worse than I'd imagined.
There was small wonder, then, why the firefighters treated me coldly in my past life, and why I always had a hard time finding a job no matter where I went.
So he was the cause, tricking everyone into believing that I was nothing more than a foolish woman who had caused her own husband's death because of jealousy.
"Nothing you can say to this, huh?" Tony asked smugly. "Come on guys, let's get her to do the procedure!"
I was able to deal with Winnie's assistants, but a whole team of firefighters who were put through grueling and systematic training was a whole other story.
In a rush of adrenaline, I grabbed a knife placed on a nearby table, and held it against my stomach.
"Come on then!" I threatened. "If anyone takes one step closer, I'll make sure I can't ever give birth!"
Tony and the others didn't dare to move, and I glanced at the clock once more.
Ten minutes left.
Another ten minutes, and I'd win this war of attrition.
Winnie was quick to notice the time they had left, and her shouts became frantic. "Get her! She wouldn't dare to actually stab herself! Are you going to take responsibility if Joey's sperm becomes inactive?!"
"Right! She wouldn't…"
Tony and the others stepped closer towards me.
In the past, I would've hesitated, but this was nothing compared to the strife I had experienced in my past life.
Without any hesitation, I plunged the tip of the knife into my stomach, and my shirt was quickly dyed with blood.
Tony froze on the spot, while Winnie continued having a fit.
She wanted to use my womb to spare herself the pain of childbirth, after all, so she wouldn't want me to lose the ability to give birth.
She stared at me like a hawk for a few more moments, before an idea popped seemed to pop into her head, twisting her expression into a mocking sneer as she sent a message on her phone.
And so, time passed by, second by second.
I was still bleeding, but I only had to hold out for another five minutes.
Another five minutes, until I can…
"You give me my son back!"
My in-laws appeared without warning, and kicked me to ground while I wasn't expecting it.
My mother-in-law stepped on my throat and reached down, tugging my hair gleefully. "We've already called the police! We'll get you arrested for committing arson and killing my son!"
