The Mother-in-Law's Secret Recipe

I had three boyfriends in my life, and every single one of them dropped dead right after eating my mom’s secret family recipe meatloaf.

The police department even set up a special task force to investigate their deaths.

They spent six grueling months tearing our house apart, flipping everything upside down, and still found absolutely nothing. Not a single clue.

It left me so traumatized that I swore off dating for two whole years. By the third year, I finally crawled out of that dark place and started seeing someone again.

But with three dead exes haunting my past, the fear lingered. I was terrified to bring my new boyfriend, Brooks, home to meet my mom. He wouldn't let it go, though.

He kept pushing for marriage, wearing me down until I finally caved and brought him over. Following our family tradition, Mom baked that secret meatloaf again.

Right after dinner, I slipped away to use the bathroom. That’s when a scream ripped through the house. "Ah! Another one is dead!" I bolted into the living room.

All the blood drained from my face. Brooks. He had been perfectly fine minutes ago. Now, his body was stiff, his skin icecold to the touch.

He looked like he’d been dead for a while. Chapter 1 I froze, my feet rooted to the floor as I stared at Brooks slumped on the couch, lifeless.

The room spun. "How… how is this happening? Brooks, wake up. Don't do this to me!" My hands shook violently as I reached out to check under his nose for a breath.

Mom grabbed my wrist, pulling me back. "Thea, what do we do? Your boyfriend is dead again!" Mom was a regular bluecollar worker. She hated trouble more than anything.

Her only instinct was to call 911. Her face was paperwhite as she ended the call. "They said they're on their way.

Thea, don't look." I collapsed onto the opposite armchair, my vision blurring. "How is he dead again?" My chest tightened. "Mom… this is the fourth one." She looked at me, letting out a heavy sigh.

The lines on her face deepened, aging her ten years in a matter of seconds. It didn't take long for the major crimes detectives and forensics team to arrive.

They strung up yellow police tape, cordoning off our front yard. Detective Victor, the lead investigator for the task force, spotted Mom and me.

He tugged at his tie in pure frustration, letting out a heavy groan. "Why is it always your house?" he muttered. "How did this one die?" Mom shook her head frantically. "Detective, we have no idea." They secured the body right there in the living room, prepping for a full autopsy.

Mom and I sat on the porch steps, waiting in absolute silence. This was the fourth time. The detectives and the medical examiners were practically old acquaintances at this point.

During a brief lull, one of the medical examiners leaned in and lowered his voice. "Roxanne, you don't think there's something wrong with this house, do you?

Your daughter brings a guy home and he drops dead. It's like a demonic curse. "This place is definitely haunted by something nasty.

If I were you, I'd sell the property and move somewhere else." Mom pressed her lips into a thin line, shaking her head. "It's just me and Thea. Her dad passed away early.

This is our home." "Where else would we go?" She wiped a tear from her cheek. "I just feel awful for my Thea.

She finally finds a steady relationship, and now… ugh." With a dead boyfriend in our living room, Mom and I were the prime suspects.

The neighbors gathered behind the yellow tape, shooting us dirty looks. "Another one? Something is seriously wrong with that family.

It's too freaky." "Ten bucks says the mother and daughter are killing them." "Don't talk crazy. The city's best task force is right there.

If they were the killers, they would've been locked up after the first guy died." "There has to be more to the story." Hearing the whispers and accusations, Mom's breathing hitched. "We'll cooperate with whatever you need, Detective!" She grabbed Victor's sleeve. "My Thea is applying for a government job soon.

You have to investigate this properly." "Please don't frame innocent people!" Detective Victor held his hands up, trying to calm her down. "Roxanne, don't worry.

We're going to do everything in our power to crack this case.

If the evidence shows you two had nothing to do with it, we won't hold you." Chapter 2 We waited until our stomachs growled, but they still couldn't find anything.

Not a single trace. Even the medical examiners with decades of experience under their belts shook their heads. "This is bizarre.

We can't determine a cause of death." "Just like the other three.

Sudden cardiac arrest." The city's top forensic team had swarmed the house, but none of them could crack the mystery. Another boyfriend dead in our living room.

Mom and I huddled together, our bodies trembling uncontrollably.

Tears streaked down Mom's face before she finally broke, a raw, guttural sob tearing from her throat. "God, what did we do to deserve this? Is my daughter cursed?

Why do they all drop dead in our house?" A moment later, a task force investigator sized me up before stepping closer. "You're Thea?

Tonight's victim, Brooks, died exactly like the other three.

Think hard." "What did they have in common?" I dug my fingernails into my palms, forcing my brain to focus. "If we're talking about connections… They dated me.

Other than that, they didn't know each other. I don't think there's anything else—" I shook my head, but then it hit me. A cold realization washed over me. "I remember!

They all ate my mom's secret recipe meatloaf!" The second the words left my mouth, every detective in the room snapped their heads toward me. "Secret recipe meatloaf?" Just like the last three times, their attention zeroed in on the meatloaf my mom baked.

But every time, they found absolutely nothing. The meatloaf yielded zero clues. "They eat the meatloaf and die?

Is someone poisoning it?" A detective glared at us, his eyes narrowing. "We're innocent, officer!" Mom cried out. "We aren't stupid.

If we really wanted to kill him, why would we bake him dinner and let him die in our own house?" "Are we asking for the electric chair? He was my daughter's boyfriend.

He could have been my soninlaw.

What possible motive would we have?" Detective Victor cut her off, his voice flat. "Is there any meatloaf left from tonight?" "Yes!" Mom nodded rapidly. "I made extra.

There's a whole unbaked loaf in the fridge." "And everything happened so fast tonight. The leftovers are still on the dining table.

We haven't cleared the plates." The forensics team immediately bagged every scrap of the leftover meatloaf.

From the grocery receipts for the ground meat, to the spices and secret sauce my mom mixed herself.

They tested the cooked leftovers and the raw batch, running thorough toxicology screens. "Well? Got anything?" The lab tech shook his head. "No traces of toxins.

It's just a normal meatloaf." A young detective on the task force named Weston suddenly looked up, locking his cold gaze on me. "Thea. Quit playing games.

Why is your mom so obsessed with making that secret meatloaf?" Chapter 3 I wanted the answer to that just as badly. I pulled Mom forward to explain.

She wrung her hands, the lines around her mouth deepening. "Officers, you don't understand, this has always been our family tradition.

Whenever a daughter's boyfriend comes over for the first time, the mother has to bake her secret meatloaf.

We’ve been doing this for decades." "Why… why is it only my daughter's boyfriends who end up dead? This is a nightmare." But Weston from the task force didn't blink.

His eyes stayed locked on me. "Maybe you found a more sophisticated way to poison them." All the blood drained from my face.

I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself, but Victor beat me to it. "Weston, the chances of that are practically zero. Didn't forensics just tell us?

There's no sign of poisoning in the victim's body. He didn't die of poison." The task force shook their heads regretfully. "So we can rule that out.

This has absolutely nothing to do with eating your mom's meatloaf." I couldn't help but mutter under my breath. "Besides, I ate it too." Mom loved making that meatloaf.

Before the bodies started piling up, I used to love it too. Tonight, my stomach had been tied in knots over Brooks. I barely touched my plate. But Mom?

She inhaled two massive slices. If that meatloaf was actually spiked… How the hell were the two of us still standing here?

With the food ruled out, the detectives started running down the list of other possibilities. Finally, they landed on a new theory. A crime of passion.

Victor pointed a pen at me. "Thea, think hard. Is there anyone out there holding a grudge?" "A rejected guy playing sick games in the shadows, taking out your boyfriends one by one?

It's a solid motive." I chewed on my lower lip, racking my brain. Suddenly, I snapped my head up. "Actually… there is one." The room went dead silent. Every eye locked onto me.

I took a breath and spilled it. "A thug I met while working at a fastfood joint. Cody. He harassed me relentlessly for a while, but the guy was a total junkie.

It made my skin crawl, so I shut him down." "He didn't take it well. He stalked me, threw out threats left and right.

Said any woman he sets his sights on, he gets, no matter the cost." "When I told him I had a boyfriend, he just sneered.

He told me we wouldn't last." The words tasted like ash in my mouth. A cold sweat broke across my neck. My chest tightened.

I looked up at Victor, my voice cracking. "Detective… could it be him?" "But how would he even know I was dating? And how is he doing it?

How is he killing them right under our noses?" Victor rubbed his jaw. "We can't say for sure if he's our guy, but he's officially a person of interest.

We're going to need to dig into this." Chapter 4 The task force suggested Weston pose as my boyfriend and come over for dinner. "Me?" "Him?" Weston and I shot back at the exact same time.

I stared at his stupidly handsome face. His jaw was clenched in pure reluctance.

I crossed my arms. "Can't we use someone else?" Victor let out a dry chuckle. "He's the only one on the squad your age. It's the most believable angle." Fine.

So, following the operation playbook, Weston showed up at my doorstep playing the role of the devoted boyfriend. I recreated the exact timeline from the night Brooks came over.

Mom wiped her eyes, forcing a tight smile as she mixed the ground meat and spices in the kitchen, prepping to bake the meatloaf just like last time.

While waiting for the meatloaf to go into the oven, I grabbed a pitcher of Mom's homemade lemonade from the fridge, poured a glass, and shoved it toward Weston. "My favorite.

Knock yourself out." He shot me a flat, unimpressed look. I rolled my eyes hard and slammed the glass onto the table. "Suit yourself." I couldn't wrap my head around it.

This guy acted like I kicked his dog. Every time he looked at me, the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek before finally snapping. "Weston, what is your actual damage?" He let out a dark scoff, dodging the question.

Instead, his gaze drifted to a childhood photo of me pinned to the wall. "You look like a handful even back then." Heat flared in my chest.

I shoved my chair back, the wood scraping harshly against the floor as I stood up. My vision blurred. "What is that supposed to mean? Why are you so dead set on hating me?

Do you honestly believe I'm the one murdering them?" The tears spilled over, hot and pathetic against my cheeks. I hated myself for crying. Weston froze.

The cocky attitude vanished, his jaw tightening as he scrambled forward.

He snatched a napkin off the table and shoved it at me. "Hey, stop crying." His voice was stiff, almost awkward. "I didn't mean it like that.

Don't twist my words." But I wasn't backing down. I slapped the napkin away. "Then how did you mean it?

You've been on this task force since the beginning." "Every time you see me, you look at me like I'm dirt. Brooks is dead. He died in my house.

I'm the one living this nightmare, and you're blaming me." He stared at me for a long, heavy moment before finally letting out a harsh exhale. "I just think you're a walking disaster.

And it's a damn shame about the body count." He raked a hand through his hair. "But whatever it takes, we are going to crack this case.

You have my word on that." A broken laugh escaped my throat. Weston's lips twitched into a faint smirk. He picked up the lemonade and took a long sip.

After that, the icy hostility in his eyes seemed to thaw just a fraction. We went through the rest of the motions.

We finished the meatloaf, sitting in tense silence, waiting for the killer to make a move. But even after the last piece of meatloaf was gone, nothing happened.

Weston checked his pulse. "I'm still breathing." The task force had already screened the meatloaf for toxins beforehand. There was zero risk.

In fact, the entire night passed without a single glitch. The squad outside over the comms sounded baffled. "Did we read this completely wrong? It was never the meatloaf.

Something else is triggering this!" Chapter 5 I was the only one who spoke up. "Could it be that the killer figured out Weston was just playing my fake boyfriend?" Just then, Victor's radio crackled.

Dispatch had an urgent update.

They had just intercepted an anonymous letter at the precinct. "Detective, this has to be from the killer!" the voice over the radio reported. "They're watching us run around like idiots from the shadows.

It's a blatant taunt!" Victor's face hardened. He signaled an officer, who rushed the sealed envelope straight to the scene. He snatched it, ripping it open.

One look, and the color drained from his face. My heart pounded against my ribs. I leaned in to see.

Scrawled across the paper in bold letters was a single sentence: "I've taken the fifth life." The air in the room instantly froze.

The detectives let out sharp exhales. "This is insane