“Come on, Beulah, we’re all family. You’re not a kid anymore. Don’t make your sister-in-law upset. It’s just a bit of money. Isn’t it only right to give it to her? We’re family. Don’t be so stingy.”
Ethel, smug and sure of herself, stretched out her palm toward me, waiting for me to hand over the cash.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
So this was how it was.
This entire family thought I was some kind of fool with a bottomless wallet.
I opened my bag, pulled out a small mirror, and placed it in Ethel’s outstretched hand.
“Take a good look at yourself. You see a difference between you and a beggar?”
“Actually,” I sneered, “scratch that. No beggar would have the nerve to ask for this much!”
She froze, her face twisting like she’d just swallowed a fly.
“Who are you calling a beggar, huh, Beulah?! What are you, exactly? Coming into my house acting like you’re the queen of it?! Is this how a sister-in-law should be treated?!”
She stomped her foot and shouted, “That’s it! I’m done! I want a divorce! I’m getting divorced!”
Her outburst sent Mom and my brother into a panic.
Mom slapped my arm sharply, her voice trembling with anger.
“Apologize to your sister-in-law! Right now! If you don’t, you can forget about calling me your mother again!”
My brother scrambled to comfort his wife like a bootlicker.
“Please, honey, don’t be mad. I’ll never let anyone in this house treat you unfairly.”
Indeed, she had never been treated unfairly, not once. My brother, Buck, and my mom both pampered her like she was made of gold.
Buck’s obsession with her? I could understand it. Honestly, I even envied her a little for having a husband who loved her that much.
Mom, though… She spoiled her daughter-in-law far more than she ever did for me.
In this house, Ethel never lifted a finger. Food was served to her; clothes were handed to her.
In fact, every meal had her favorite dishes. But the braised pork I liked? Mom never made it again.
It was all because Ethel once said that braised pork was “greasy and disgusting.”
From that day on, Mom never let that dish appear on the table again.
Mom always said she wanted to be a good mother-in-law. Only then would her future daughter-in-law willingly take care of her in her old age.
But every time she got sick, even with something minor, neither my brother nor his wife ever lifted a finger to help.
Still, Mom thought they were good people. To her, they were family.