[Clear-eyed, ruthless widow VS fiercely protective, scheming young marquis | Brother-in-law and sister-in-law romance + pseudo-forbidden love + mutually devoted, equally powerful leads]
Reborn as a newly widowed marquis’s wife, with her husband’s seventh-day memorial not even past, she finds the whole household of wolves waiting to devour her inheritance.
What a joke. Do they really think I’m still the naive fool who was schemed against and killed by a scumbag in my last life?
Her mother-in-law sobbed, “Daughter-in-law, they say you’re a bringer of bad luck!”
Me: “That’s right. I’m the bane of scoundrels.”
The second branch sneered, “A widow thinks she’s fit to manage the household?”
I smiled and presented ironclad evidence. “Second Uncle, would you like the censor to see the books showing how you embezzled military funds?”
The princess tried to make things difficult for me. “A woman who brings death to her husband thinks she can arrange a match for me?”
I replied gently, “Your Highness, the woman your chosen top scholar keeps on the side gave birth last night. Congratulations.”
The marquis’s household flourished under my hand. The princess’s marriage prospects and the secrets of the powerful all became pieces on my chessboard.
A jinx? A lonely widow? I’ll make everyone in the capital beg to share in my “good fortune.”
Until my usually distant brother-in-law kicked open my bedroom door.
He shed his gentle facade and pinned me against the bed, his breath hot against my skin.
“Sister-in-law.”
“You’ve been matchmaking for the whole capital…”
“How did you forget your own brother-in-law?”
His breath brushed my face, his gaze full of meaning. I couldn’t push away his solid chest. “Which young lady has caught your eye, little brother-in-law?”
He kissed the hollow of my neck. “You, sister-in-law.”
