“Forget it, forget it. Just ask someone to deliver it,” Dad said with a glare. “Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and place an order on your phone.”
“I think you’ve gotten used to being a rich wife—lazy, spoiled and gluttonous.”
His words snapped me out of my daze. Yes, I could have lived a life without worrying about food or clothing. But I had fallen out with my in-laws and willingly turned myself into a blood bank for my so-called family. How pitiful!
I sat down on the sofa with a cold expression. In front of all the relatives, I pulled out an IOU and slapped it onto the coffee table. “This is the 50,000 Joseph borrowed from me. When do you plan to pay it back?”
My mother picked up the IOU in confusion. After reading it clearly, her face instantly darkened. “Alice, you actually asked your own brother to sign an IOU?”
She was about to tear it up, but seeing the relatives’ eyes on her, she choked back her anger and changed her tone. “Your father and I have always believed boys should be raised with discipline. We were too strict with him. He’d rather borrow 50,000 dollars from you than ask us. That’s our failure as parents.”
Sensing the awkward tension, the relatives quickly tried to mediate.
“Alice, you’re not short on money. Today is your brother’s big day. Let’s not talk about the 50,000 now.”
“I heard your parents have been transferring 5,000 dollars to you every month. Over the years, that’s way more than 50,000. Your brother doesn’t have a penny. You should be more understanding.”
“Besides, your husband’s family is wealthy. What they save on snacks alone is probably more than this. The richer people are, the stingier they tend to be.”
With everyone siding with her, my mother became even bolder. “Your brother is so considerate. He said he’d take your father and me on a honeymoon. I thought the travel expenses shouldn’t burden the young couple, so you transfer 50,000 from that card to me first. We’ll pay you back eventually.”
I sneered and replied with just two words, “No money.”
My mother jumped up at once. “How could there be no money!”
She pulled up the transfer records on her phone and started scrolling through them one by one, clearly wanting to prove herself right in front of the relatives.