In my past life, my selfish son stopped caring about my husband and me after marrying a woman who followed her mother's words like they were holy commandments.
In fact, he orchestrates an accident to kill my husband and me under the influence of his wife and her family. It's all so he can inherit our fortunes earlier than expected.
When I'm reborn, I look at my son, who's rotten to the core, and decide that I don't want him anymore!
In my past life, my selfish son, Mathias Keyton, got himself a girlfriend when he first started studying at university.
When he introduced his girlfriend to us, we were very satisfied with her behavior and demeanor.
At first, my husband, Thomas Keyton, and I thought that Mathias had already grown up into a mature adult and wanted to settle down with his girlfriend.
But who would've thought that reality would be the exact opposite?
Mathias' girlfriend, Pamola Dentworth, may have looked fragile and dainty, but she was actually a woman who clung to her mother and prioritized her little brother's needs more than anything else. Also, she was very vain and materialistic.
Honestly speaking, Pamola had to be one of the worst people I had ever met.
After she married Mathias, she suggested that we live together. Her excuse was that she wanted to take good care of us.
But Pamola was quick to convince Mathias to give the house Thomas and I had bought for them to her brother. In fact, she even planned on asking her parents to move in with us!
After I disagreed with Pamola's suggestion, she seemed unhappy with me.
In the end, Mathias and Pamola came up with a scheme just to get their hands on our assets in advance.
They signed us up for an international tour with the excuse of wanting us to have fun on our vacation. But once we left the country, they were quick to orchestrate a car accident that killed us on the spot.
Just like that, we were forever trapped in a foreign country.
Once our assets were listed, Mathias took the initiative to take Pamola and her family on a vacation. He played the role of a good son-in-law well.
Life was amazing for them since Thomas and I were no longer there to restrain them.
…
Once I was reborn, I realized I was standing in the kitchen when I opened my eyes. I was still holding a few ingredients in my hands.
It turned out I was about to prepare breakfast for Mathias and Pamola.
In my past life, I couldn't endure Mathias and Pamola's barrage-like hints and requests, so I gave in and agreed them to move in and live with us.
I never thought that my decision would attract endless torture for me and Thomas.
After Mathias graduated from university, he spent his days at home. He didn't go out and socialize with others, nor did he actively go job-hunting.
In his words, he claimed that the employers of high-paying jobs didn't want him. At the same time, he felt that the recruiters of low-paying jobs had low social standing. Also, he wouldn't be able to earn much.
But whose fault was that?
Back when Mathias was still studying, Thomas and I kept lecturing and nagging him. But he refused to listen to us.
Even when we tried to go all authoritarian on him, he still refused to listen. After that, his rebellious streak worsened.
In the end, Mathias managed to get into a half-decent university under my supervision. At university, he refused to learn a single thing at all. We had to resort to our connections and pay a huge amount of money just to get Mathias his graduation certification.
Now, we finally got to see him get married.
Thomas had to put his pride on the line. He began asking his connections just so he could pull some strings and find Mathias a job.
One of his former students, who was grateful to him, recommended Mathias to the company he worked at. That was how Mathias got to become a white-collared employee with a relatively easy job.
But Mathias was weirdly confident in himself for some reason. He thought that his boss admired him because of his outstanding capabilities.
So, he tended to skip work for no reason whenever he felt like it. Because of him, Thomas' former student was scolded for recommending Mathias. Poor Thomas had to apologize to his former student a few times.
Now, it was already 6:00 am. Mathias and Pamola insisted that having breakfast before 7:00 am was good for their bodies.
But they emphasized that they only ate meals made from fresh ingredients, so Thomas and I had to wake up at least an hour in advance just so we could hit the market and make breakfast for them.
After we made breakfast, Mathias and Pamola would dilly-dally in their room for a long time before finally coming out.
Back then, when they first moved into our house, they put on facades for quite some time because of their promise to me.
Barely a week had passed before Mathias and Pamola revealed their true natures. All they did was lie in bed without doing anything the whole day.
I put down the tomatoes in my hands with a stony expression. Then, I stepped into the storeroom and began searching for something there.
Soon, a loud whirring sound echoed throughout the house. I made sure to turn on the strongest setting on the vacuum cleaner I was holding, resulting in it letting out a loud and shrill sound. At the same time, I also toggled the volume of my phone's music to the loudest.
Since our neighbors living across from us and the floor below us had gone on business trips, I didn't have to worry about causing any noise pollution and disturbing them.
In a span of five minutes, I made sure to walk past Mathias and Pamola's room ten times. When I finally heard something being thrown at the door angrily, I smirked in satisfaction before giving the vacuum cleaner a rest.
Yeah. I didn't do it accidentally. I specifically did it for them, after all.
Since they made me suffer, it only made sense for me to do the same to them.
I placed the two plates of freshly made breakfast on the dining table. Thomas still had a class to teach at 8:30 am. After breakfast, he helped me clear the table and do the dishes before leaving the house.
After that, I turned on the television and sat on the couch. Once I increased the volume to a certain threshold, I started waiting for Mathias and Pamola to leave their room.
When the hour hand of the clock was almost done with its third lap, the door of the silent room was finally opened from the inside.
I raised my head to look at the time. It was almost 10:00 am. It seemed that Mathias didn't plan on going to work again today.
A figure walked past me without even glancing in my way. He made a beeline for the kitchen right away.
Soon, an impatient voice sounded. "Mom, where's my and Pamola's breakfast? Why isn't there any food in the kitchen?"
I didn't even avert my gaze from the television screen as I replied casually, "I thought you two weren't going to have breakfast again, so I didn't prepare anything for you. Otherwise, it'd be too big of a waste."
Mathias and Pamola kept emphasizing that they needed to have breakfast at 7:00 am. But in reality, they only woke up around that time a handful of times.
The breakfast that I had made for them in the past was either thrown into the trash or abandoned by the couple simply because they thought it was left cold for far too long.
In the end, I'd be the one eating the remaining food for lunch while smelling the nice smell of takeout that Matthias and Pamola ordered for their lunch.
Mathias rushed over to my side angrily. He barked out, "Mom, hurry up and fix two more plates of breakfast for me and Pamola! We stayed up till 3:00 am last night playing games! It's been almost 20 hours since we last ate!
"Besides, are you saying that you won't make breakfast for us just because we don't eat it? You still have to take care of us if we collapse from starvation anyway!"
I didn't say anything. My gaze was firmly trained on the television screen.
Mathias realized that I plainly ignored him, so he moved to stand in front of the television. Disgust and disdain were apparent on his face as he glared at me.
It was as though he was glaring at a slave instead of his own mother.
Soon, I turned to look at Mathias. "Are you a big baby? Why must your father and I do everything for you? You could've used the time questioning me to whip up a meal by now!
"Do you know what you look like right now? A sloth who has hands but doesn't know how to use them to make his own food!"
Mathias never expected that I had such a mean side to me. He was already used to me obeying his every whim and command, after all.
He remained rooted to the spot, clearly stunned.
A while later, the room door was opened once again. This time, Pamola walked out of the room.
"Honey, is breakfast not done yet? I'm so hungry!"
She paused for a moment when she noticed how tense things were between me and Mathias.
"Honey, are you and Mom…"
Only then did Mathias register what was going on. He turned around to look at Pamola.
"Honey, let's go out for lunch! I'll take you to the best restaurant in town! Tch! Does she seriously think her cooking's the best? She can just stay at home and eat all that garbage on her own!"
I just shook my head. To think that Mathias even jeered at me.
Idiots would always be idiots. They'd never be able to gain a brain cell, no matter how hard they tried.
When Pamola heard that they'd be dining at the best restaurant in town, she was so delighted that she went off into her own little world.
She didn't even hear the rest of Mathias' words. All she said was, "I'm going to get dressed and put on makeup!" before leaving.
Meanwhile, I thought sardonically, "Go on. Keep eating out a few more times. Right now, you still have money given to you by me and your father. Let's see how you, a lazy bum who doesn't show up for work, and that jobless wife of yours maintain your current level of expenses once you run out of money."
I lowered my gaze after that. Suddenly, I remembered the house Thomas and I had bought for Mathias and Pamola.
Recently, Pamola had given it to her younger brother.
During this period, Mathias still had a grudge against me for scolding him back then. Till now, he refused to talk to me.
Of course, I enjoyed the tranquility that came with his radio silence.
Whenever Mathias came to talk to me, it'd always be about asking me for money. To him, I was just as useful as a free ATM.
Pamola, on the other hand, began appearing around me frequently. I knew what she was doing, but I didn't expose her right away. The sight of her looking so stiff and awkward made me chuckle on the inside.
"Pamola, wash some fruits before serving them on a plate."
"Pamola, this coffee table is too filthy. Come clean it up."
"Pamola, the laundry is done. You should go hang it."
"Mom, I'm a little tired. Why don't you do that yourself? Whenever I'm home, my mom doesn't have the heart to let me do all these chores."
Pamola pretended to be exhausted as she sank on the couch. After that, she didn't move an inch.
I turned to look at her silently. Finally, Pamola's unnatural awkwardness was completely depleted. She revealed her true colors.
"Oh? Is that so? Then did you see how many chores I have to do every day? I'm the one who's been doing chores every day in this house! You think you're the only one who feels tired from doing these chores? Then what about me?
"Pamola, tell me the truth. Ever since you married into this family, have I asked you to do anything else other than these three chores today?"
I chuckled lightly, not believing any of Pamola's lies.
The reason why I was so nice to Pamola after she married Mathias was because of the incident that had happened before their marriage.
Once, I happened to see Pamola's mother taking her and her brother, who was four years younger than her, shopping.
Pamola's brother was half a head taller than both her and their mother. Yet Pamola was the one who was forced to carry all the shopping bags because of her mother's outright biasness toward the brother.
Back then, I had noticed how strong Pamola was. After all, she didn't even bend over despite having to carry that many things.
How was it possible for her to not be able to do any chores after marrying into my family?
"That's different! Now that I've married into this family, that means I'm a part of this family. I'm here to enjoy my life, not to work as a free maid!"
I had to say, I was amused by Pamola's nonsensical reasoning.
"Alright, then. You claim that you're a part of my family now. But your brother, on the other hand, isn't a part of my family, correct?"
"What makes you think you have the right to give the house my husband I bought for you to your brother?
"Not to mention, you keep returning to your parents' home at least once a month. It's bad enough that you've taken a lot of our valuables from this house back to your parents' home.
"But you also bought a lot of supplements for your family as well! Every time, the total price of those supplements is more than 3,000 thousand dollars!"
Pamola didn't know what to say, though her cheeks soon turned scarlet out of embarrassment.
"W-Well… you and Dad bought us that house, after all! Since you gave it to us, then we get to do whatever we want to the house!
"Besides, Mathias never protested against this decision! Mom, you're being overly controlling, aren't you?"
For some reason, Pamola thought her reasoning made sense.
"Then why don't you ask him whose name is the one that's written on the property deed? Whose money are you leeching off right now in order to afford such a nice life?"
As I watched Pamola widen her eyes slowly, I couldn't help but feel relieved that I had made a correct decision in the past.
Thomas and I had bought that house when Mathias was still a minor.
He was a very rebellious teenager back then. Thomas and I were worried that Mathias might sell the house and use the money for other entertainment purposes, so we left our names on the property deeds for the time being.
Back then, we genuinely thought that we only had one son, so our assets would eventually be his.
But now, I'd rather donate all of my money to society than leave these ungrateful and heartless bastards a single cent!
"If your brother doesn't move out of the house by next week, then don't blame me for calling the cops on him."