"Sweetheart, I have never once tried to come between you and Dylan. Whether your relationship is good or bad, that's something the two of you build together."
"I'm Dylan's mother. That's a fact no one can change."
"So that we can get along better, I'd like to sit down and talk with you. Can we go upstairs and grab a bite to eat?"
But Muriel just let out a cold laugh.
She turned on me, voice sharp as a blade. "You think I can't see through you? Your little schemes are practically hitting me in the face!"
"You know I don't like eating with strangers, and you're deliberately putting me in an uncomfortable position."
"You're too cheap to buy me jewelry, so you're trying to drag me away from the store."
"Let me make something clear. I'm not a three-year-old. Your little tricks don't work on me!"
I took a deep breath and told her I was being wrongly accused.
She didn't hear a word of it.
"I can't reason with a manipulative witch like you who plays dumb on purpose. Fine! Let everyone here be the judge!"
She burst into tears, sobbing loudly, mascara streaking down her cheeks.
Dylan's face crumpled with pity as he reached over to wipe her tears. She shoved him aside.
"If you hadn't pushed me to this point, I would never have brought this up!"
"The very first night I stayed at your place, you made me and Dylan squeeze into that tiny bed of his. I told you clearly that room would be our future bedroom after the wedding, and you should have given us the master. You should have known!"
"Don't tell me that after fifty-something years of living, you couldn't understand what I was saying!"
"And another thing. That night I stayed over, why were you pressing your ear against our bedroom door in the middle of the night?!"
The crowd that had gathered in the mall erupted.
"You're not just playing dumb. You're shameless!"
When those words hit me, I froze where I stood.
She'd been treating me like some kind of rival. Like I was the other woman.
But he was my son.
That night, I'd gotten up to use the bathroom. I walked past their door on the way. And somehow that made me some kind of predator.
The onlookers closed in, murmuring, pointing.
"Overbearing mothers are no joke. Never underestimate how messed up the dynamic can get."
"Some women literally make their sons fill the role of a husband. It's disgusting."
"Families like that are suffocating. Anyone who marries into one is screwed."