Chapter 1

"Mom! Why would you do this?!"

My son, Wesley Keating, burst through the door, face white with shock. Behind him trailed a handful of internet influencers.

That was how I learned that from the moment Wesley had won, content creators had approached him, asking to install cameras in our home to keep watch on me. They had made a bet with him that I would sell the ticket again.

Wesley had cursed them out, calling it nonsense. However, when the footage showed that I had walked out the door with the ticket, he had no choice but to believe them.

I looked at the disbelief on his face and shot back impatiently, "I'm your mother. I gave birth to you. It's just a lottery ticket. Don't I have the right to do what I want with it?"

The influencers and their live stream audience erupted.

"You must hate your own son!"

"What is wrong with you? So what if you're his mother? Even an idiot knows you don't sell a 30-million-dollar lottery ticket!"

"For anyone just tuning in, she did the same thing five years ago. She sold her husband's winning ticket. Their daughter couldn't get treatment and died, and her husband couldn't take it and jumped off a building!"

A collective gasp swept through the room. Every pair of eyes locked on me.

"How is this woman not in prison? That was her daughter and her husband! That's murder!"

"She's terrifying. She even killed her own daughter and husband."

Wesley swayed on his feet, pale and visibly shattered, but he still spoke up for me. "Dad left a note before he died. He said it was his fault and that he lost the ticket himself. What happened five years ago had nothing to do with my mom!"

One of the influencers jabbed a finger at me, unconvinced. "And what about today? She did this one herself! It's all on camera!"

Wesley still positioned himself between me and the crowd. "My mom's getting older. Maybe she's just not... thinking clearly anymore."

Then, he turned to me, pleading. "Mom, who did you sell the ticket to this time? Please, just tell me. If you do, I'll let it all go, everything before and everything today. We'll still be a family."

His eyes burned with desperation, every word stripped raw. I let out a quiet sigh, and the silence only made him more frantic.

"All these years, we've been paying off the debt from Sadie's treatments, living worse than beggars. Corinne's seven months pregnant, and the doctor says something might be wrong with the baby. They recommended an amniocentesis, but I can't even afford that.

"Do you want your grandchild to be born sick? Why won't you just let this family have a decent life?"

His eyes were red, his voice shredding as he screamed at me. His wife, Corinne Landry, stood to the side with both arms wrapped around her belly, tears streaming down her face in silence.

She and Wesley had married for love. She knew exactly what she was walking into and asked for nothing before their wedding. They had been working two jobs ever since to help pay our debt.

I said flatly, "If there's a problem, why didn't she terminate earlier instead of dragging it out? An amniocentesis won't magically make the baby healthy. She married into this family, and all she knows how to do is produce another burden."

The comments section exploded.

[Unbelievable! I've never seen a mother-in-law this vile! That poor girl. The doctor said there might be a problem, not that there definitely is one, and this woman's already telling her to abort!]

[She doesn't love her own kids and assumes everyone's the same! She killed her husband, and now, she wants to destroy her son's family too!]

[Someone needs to do something! I've never seen anyone this evil in my entire life!]

Wesley was quiet for a long moment, something shifting behind his eyes. "Mom, have you truly made up your mind? You're really not going to tell me who you sold it to?"

I sighed softly. "I'm your mother. Would I ever hurt you?"

A bitter smile crossed his face.

"I found something in Dad's things," he said slowly. "Corinne told me that if I ever released it, the whole world would turn on you. But the way I see it now, you never deserved Dad's love in the first place."

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a battered old camera. The moment I saw it, I knew exactly what was stored on it, and my stomach dropped.

Wesley watched the shift in my expression and, for the first time, did not soften. His voice went cold. "Mom, I gave you a chance. You're the one who threw it away."

Under the weight of every curious stare in the room, the video was projected onto the wall.