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I explained why I gave him the address,backed by the guard’s testimony.Police ruled it a crime of passion.
They found the dead man was a scammer on the run.His scammed money was long transferred abroad,leaving only empty accounts—the money coming in to Lily’s account was just numbers.
Lily's family lost everything.
At the hospital,handling transitions,I passed Margaret's ward.She wailed,"Where's the money?Why can't we withdraw?Lily,don't scare me—we're not greedy,just give us back the principal!"
Through the door,I saw Lily,pale,arm bandaged,body bruised,her mole now 7mm,swollen and red from scratching.
She frantically tapped her phone's withdrawal button,muttering,"Impossible...my money's still there.The cops are lying!"
After repeated failures,she finally realized it was gone,soulless.
Margaret,with only one child,couldn't scold her.
"Your lucky mole's still there—it'll turn bad luck to good luck!"
A dermatologist,seeing the worsening mole,urged her to see a specialist.
Margaret cursed them."That's a lucky mole!Testing it throws away our fortune!"
She told Lily not to trust"quacks"out to harm her.
Other doctors,seeing the melanoma-like mole,stayed silent.
Lily didn't stay long—she fled the hospital.
Besides investing the family's$25,000,she had also borrowed$50,000 in high-interest loans.
Some serious people tracked her down,and penniless,she bolted.
But you can't outrun debt.
They cornered them at their village house.
Lily tried contacting me,but I had blocked them.If I heard their voices on new numbers,I hung up.
I had quit my job at the hospital,and security barred them.
With no choice,they sold the village house to pay the loans.
When I saw them again,they were kneeling in front of my house,holding a banner with my photo:
"Merciless daughter-in-law steals house,leaves sixty-year-old mother homeless."
Onlookers,unaware,gathered,clogging traffic.
Property management called,asking me to handle it.
They smirked,thinking they'd won.
"Ladies and gentlemen,first,she's not my mother,just my ex-mother-in-law—I owe her nothing.Second,the house is my pre-marital property, and mine alone.Third,my ex-sister-in-law is an adult with no illness whatsoever to prevent her from working—can't she support one elderly woman?"
The crowd nodded in agreement.
