She Lived in My Body for Three Years

If the side character is still as insufferable as she used to be, she's dead. The male lead is not the pushover she used to walk on.

The first second I had my body back, a line of live chat scrolled past in front of me. Nobody else can see it. Only me. A woman lived in my body for three years.

In those three years she scrubbed off my reputation as a spoiled, impossible woman one day at a time, and "redeemed" my husband and my son while she was at it.

Now her assignment was finally over. She handed the body back like returning a rental.

I forced down the hand that had almost flown up, arranged my face into something soft, and said to the two of them standing in front of me: "What — what are you two doing in here?" Elias didn't make a sound.

He was staring at the hand I had hidden behind my back. And then, in those dead eyes of his, something started to catch.

Like a thing he'd lost a long time ago had just turned back up. Chapter 1 My face was about to cramp from smiling.

And Elias just kept staring at my hand like the soul had gone out of him, and the rims of his eyes were going a strange red. I couldn't read whatever was tangled up in there.

Some of it looked like joy. Some of it looked like fear. But there was definitely no grief and no rage in it, which is what mattered. I let out about half a breath.

I was working out what else to say when the chat came back. what's wrong with the male lead?

Why is he frozen staring at the side character's hand? @above, hot take: I think he can tell the side character is back. oh no. Then he must be devastated right now. Right?

Three years with a gentle, sweet ray of sunshine, he's used to it, and now he's right back to square one… lol. Before it was abuse, now it's stealing his wife.

Put those two on the same tab and the side character can just wait to get crushed. The chat got louder and angrier with itself.

And went from feeling sorry for Elias to cursing me out. I swallowed. My brain was running hot. Questions kept coming up one after another. Where is my father now?

What does Elias feel about me at this point? Every question was worse than the last, and I didn't even know which one to think about first. My temples started to ache from it.

And then something soft and small closed around my pinky. I looked down without deciding to. There was a miniature Elias standing there.

Nice, even features, a slightly serious expression, except the face still had some baby fat on it and looked extremely pinchable. My breathing stopped for a couple of seconds.

And it hit me. This is my son. Mine and Elias's. Before my body got taken from me. This kid had just learned to walk.

His favorite thing was holding onto my finger and saying "Mmmma" without being able to get the sounds right.

And now he runs and jumps and speaks in whole sentences, and looks at a person carefully with those eyes he got from his father. "Bun…" Something went up the back of my nose.

I wanted to pick him up right then and kiss his whole face. Bun tipped his head back.

His eyes were bright, and his voice came out soft, with something eager underneath that he couldn't quite hold down. "Mama, I'm hungry.

Will you make us food?" Something in me went still.

Three years ago this child had just learned to walk, and his favorite thing was holding my finger and saying Mmmma with all the sounds wrong. Now he uses a sentence to test me.

Who exactly has he been learning from these three years? Chapter 2 the little dumpling is SO smart. One look at his dad's reaction and he had it figured out.

The female lead is a great cook and the side character can't cook at all, so he's using that on purpose to test her!

What a bright baby! hahaha and the female lead never says no to him, so the second the side character refuses she's done for. The ache in my chest stopped where it was.

I came all the way awake. I stroked Bun's hair, very gently. And lied through my teeth. "Of course. I'll get up right now and make you both something." "Actually.

Let me make you my lasagna. It's what I'm best at." Heh. Best at it. Sure. I have never made anything in my life.

I, Josephine Merrick, have not set foot in a kitchen in my entire life. I cannot tell sugar from salt. I'd just gone digging around in my own head.

And turned up nothing at all about my father or the money.

What I did have, in complete detail, was that woman's signature dishes and exactly what she liked to cook for Elias and Bun. The second it was out of my mouth. I felt it.

Elias's whole body went rigid. A minute. Two minutes. A full ten minutes went by and he did not move.

His brows drew slowly together and he stared at me like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Whatever had just started burning in him never got the chance to spread.

Somebody emptied a bucket over it. All that complicated stuff moving behind his eyes, the whole tide of it. Started going down, an inch at a time.

Until there was nothing left moving in there at all. Something in my chest pulled tight. Did I get something wrong? I thought about it carefully.

And went with what that socalled female lead had left in my memory. I reached for his sleeve. "Eli? What's the matter?" Eli. I have never in my life called him Eli.

In a good mood I called him Elias. In a bad mood I went straight to Vaughn, or to my errand boy. Eli is what that woman called him. Only her. I congratulated myself.

Even if I'd slipped up a minute ago, a name like that would smooth it right over. And sure enough.

The second it was out, the chat started up again. what is the side character DOING. Is she playing the female lead? I can't with her. she is 100% playing the female lead.

It started at the lasagna. okay but credit where it's due, she is good at it. If I didn't have the omniscient view I'd have bought it. well obviously. It's the same face.

Only the soul inside it changed. That's nearly impossible to spot. haha so now the male lead is happy again. He thinks the female lead never left… Was Elias happy?

I shifted very slightly. Trying to get close enough to read his face. I got maybe an inch. And he stood up.

And put back every bit of distance I had just spent all that effort closing. Elias standing over me. Half his face in the dark. I couldn't see his expression.

But I could feel what was coming off him, and it was cold. "You're awake. Go eat." Flat. Nothing in it I could name. He didn't even leave me time to answer.

He turned and left on his own. And Bun, who had been standing guard at my bed the entire time— Chapter 3 —went with him, eyes down, without a word. He didn't even say goodbye to me.

I looked at the two of them walking away. And they felt like strangers. Ten years ago. Everybody his age was in school.

Elias was out picking corn and looking after a sick grandmother. My father was out in the country evaluating a project.

And he happened to see this kid standing there like a young poplar that would not break.

He decided on the spot to bring him into the city, put him through school, and cover every dollar of that grandmother's medical bills. I'm an only child.

I was raised on more indulgence than any person should get, and my temper is not good.

Elias's temper was too good, and he barely talked, and he never once went to my father about anything. So. From the day he moved into our house.

I treated him like a toy that could not be broken no matter what I did to it. I found new ways to bother him every single day, and I made him wash my feet.

Elias had beautiful hands. Long bones, a thin layer of callus on the pads of his fingers. He'd hold my ankle very lightly, like he was afraid of breaking something.

But those calluses were rough. That thin hard layer would drag across the sole of my foot and set off an itch. Sometimes I'd pull back without meaning to.

He'd stop and look up at me, confused. I'd push down whatever that feeling was and snap at him. "Wash. What are you looking at?

I'll hit you." Elias would drop his eyes and go right back to it, obedient. Except partway through. Something started to seem off to me.

He was crouched down with his shoulders pulled in and his back drawn into a line, like a man covering something up. I watched that strange posture of his.

And my eyes went down him, inch by inch. Past the belt. And stopped. Oh my God. What has he got in his pocket? Why is it sticking out like that? Has he been stealing from me?

The nerve on this boy. He eats our food, he lives in our house, and he steals from me? I shoved him out of the room, furious about it.

Then I turned that room upside down and could not find a single thing missing. Huh. So I owed him an apology. I did not give him one. Until the day a friend sent me a link.

And a whole new world opened up in front of me. And I understood exactly what Elias had been covering up that day. Ugh. Shameless. Absolute pervert. I went and found him in a rage.

And yelled at him for a solid hour. And pinched him, hard, several times. He didn't say a word the whole time. He just let me circle him and hit him and shout.

Which made me angrier. So I put my head down and bit his arm. He is all hard muscle. My teeth left two shallow marks in him and he didn't so much as raise an eyebrow.

And then, in the second I bent down to wipe the sweat off my face. The man who had not changed expression once through any of it. Visibly panicked. Ears went scarlet.

And his hand went to cover something without him deciding to. I stared for one second. And then I lost it. I could not believe him.

I was so angry I didn't go bother him for three days. Everybody in that house was thrilled that Elias had gotten a break from me.

My father even gave him a pile of money and told him to go enjoy himself somewhere I wasn't. Everybody except Elias.

That silent, endlessly patient boy who let me hit him and yell at him. For the first time, he looked lost.

Chapter 4 He trailed around after me with no idea what to do with himself, apologizing over and over. Until finally. I couldn't stand it anymore. And backhanded him across the face.

He looked me in the eyes. And gave me the first smile I'd seen since I stopped speaking to him. Later on. He took that money.

And bought me the ridiculously expensive bag I'd been asking for and my father had refused to get me. He didn't keep a cent of it.

An alarm went off somewhere and pulled me out of it. I got out of bed and put my shoes on. And went after the two of them. Three years. Not long, not short.

Long enough to remake a person. Elias has gone from a broke country kid with no idea what he was doing to a man who runs the company. Standing in front of me just now.

Suit pressed, face still, and something expensive in the way he moved. He carried himself like a different man entirely. I almost didn't recognize him. Fortunately.

I still had a piece of that woman's memories, plus the chat, which is basically a cheat code. Going by what the chat says. She got on very well with Elias and Bun.

Of course she did. Who doesn't like a person who's gentle and kind? I'd only just gotten control of my own body back. I had no idea what the situation actually was.

So the plan was to keep doing an impression of her for a few days. So I wouldn't get crushed the way the chat kept promising. Mm. I'm extremely clever. I turned around.

And found that this was a single bed, with one pillow and one blanket on it. What? She and Elias didn't sleep in the same room? The chat answered before I could finish wondering.

The male lead treasures the female lead too much to touch her. He takes cold showers for her sake.

That's why they sleep apart. right, right, he's obviously waiting for her to say something first. And now the side character's back so he'll never get to. it kills me.

My ship loves each other this much and they never even sealed it. I'm crying. So that's how it is. I let out a breath. I couldn't have told you what I was feeling.

Is this what real love does to a man? It has driven Elias to go platonic.

He used to put me on a bed at any hour of the day or night, and I'd wondered more than once whether he had some kind of condition. Turns out it wasn't a condition.

It was that he didn't love me. When I came downstairs. The two of them were already eating. I went off that woman's memories.

Walked to the table the way she walked, sat the way she sat, greeted them the way she greeted them, poured soup and water the way she poured them. Not a single misstep.

The chat was impressed with my impression, and started genuinely wondering which one of us was sitting there. But I wasn't enjoying it. Because the mood at that table.

Looked fine on the surface, and underneath it was wrong in a way I couldn't name. Nothing about it was a family eating dinner. Neither of them acted like I was there.

Or they saw me and it didn't matter. They kept their heads down and didn't say a word. The only sound at that table was silverware. I could not sit still.

When Elias got up to serve soup. I reached out and took it from him. And softened my voice. "Eli, let me do that." Our fingers touched. Chapter 5 He pulled his hand back fast.

He didn't even lift his eyes. "Thank you." Bun did the same thing. Took the bowl I'd filled for him.

And didn't call me Mama at all. "Thank you, ma'am." I sat back down with something bad in my stomach. And got through the meal.

Until I couldn't take that mood one more minute. "You two go ahead. I'm going up to rest." Elias made a small sound that meant fine. He didn't ask anything.

Bun didn't even lift his head. I turned around. And did not see a thing. Behind me, once I was up and moving.

Both of them, in perfect unison, poured the soup in their bowls into the trash. Neither one changed expression the entire time