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My Scheming Mother-in-Law Wanted a Refund on Me, So I Ended the Engagement
NovelShort
new
Completed
My future mother-in-law loves getting something for nothing. When she shops online, she pulls refund-only scams, keeping the item while demanding a full refund. After I got engaged to her son, she set her sights on me. Over Thanksgiving, I went home with my boyfriend. She deliberately pointed at the moldy dishes on the table and ordered me to clean them up. I called a cleaning service, and she blew up on the spot. "You need a cleaning service for a few chores? If you can't even do housework, shouldn't you give back part of the bride price?"
Chapters (4)
第1章
My future mother-in-law loved getting something for nothing.
When she shopped, she loved demanding refunds while keeping whatever she'd bought. After I got engaged to her son, she set her sights on me.
Over Thanksgiving I went home with my boyfriend, and she deliberately pointed at the moldy dishes on the table and ordered me to clean them up.
I called a cleaner, and she blew up on the spot.
"You need a cleaner for a few chores? If you can't even do housework, shouldn't you give back part of the bride price?"
I backhanded the boyfriend standing next to me.
"So the refund-only craze has made it all the way to me now?"
After I returned the bride price, she wasn't happy about that either.
1
Linda Carter stared at the handprint on her son's face, her heart aching for him.
"It's just washing a few dishes. What's wrong with doing a little housework?"
"My hand hurts, you know! And I'm still worried you won't even get them clean!"
I laughed. "If you're worried I won't get them clean, then wait until your hand heals and wash them yourself!"
"Oh, and just a reminder: you get what you pay for. An $88,000-bride-price daughter-in-law can't do anything! If you want a housemaid, you'll have to pay a higher bride price."
When I finished, I didn't care how ugly Linda's face had gotten. I paid the cleaner right then and there.
Then I followed the cleaner toward the door, ready to leave.
Seeing me about to slip away, Linda dropped right onto the floor and started throwing a tantrum, rolling around.
"Ethan Carter, this is the wife you want to marry?"
"A perfectly good Thanksgiving, and you bring her home to make me die of anger?"
My boyfriend's face hardened instantly. As if he were blind, he opened his mouth and blamed me. "Jessica Hayes, my mom's health isn't good. Don't talk back to her."
With my boyfriend backing her, Linda grew even smugger.
She simply sprawled flat on the floor, arms and legs flung wide, and started to wail. "I'm a widow who worked herself to the bone raising my son alone, scrimping and saving and spending every penny I had so he could get married. Who knew she'd be the death of me before she's even married in."
Linda's routine flowed without a hitch, nonsense spilling straight out of her mouth, and she didn't even give me time to react.
By the time I came to my senses, her wailing had drawn neighbors from the entire building to watch the show.
I didn't want to make a spectacle of myself, so I stepped forward to help her up.
The moment I reached out, Linda claimed I'd hit her.
She rolled back and forth on the floor, and I watched, helpless, as she polished the grimy floor beneath her to a shine.
Holding back a laugh, I asked, "Aunt Linda, all this drama, you just want the bride price back?"
"Jessica, don't you slander me! If anything, I think you came here to make trouble!"
"Then what did you mean just now about returning the bride price?"
"I..." Linda sputtered for a long while before she managed, "I just want you to learn to do housework!"
"Anything else?"
Her eyes went wide, and for a long time she couldn't get a word out.
I had no choice but to look at Ethan. When it was just the two of us, we'd always been in sync.
But now he didn't even dare look at me. Even an idiot would have understood. Today's whole show was a performance mother and son had put on together for my benefit!
With that thought, I smiled and said, "What if I agree to return the bride price?"
Linda nearly sprang up off the floor. "Really?"
Quickly realizing she'd given herself away, she added sheepishly, "The bride price was a token of our sincerity, too..."
Watching Linda try to have it both ways, I held back a laugh and said slowly, "Aunt Linda, Ethan told me you love doing refund-only when you shop online. If that's really what you're after, just say so."
Linda froze. Her mouth crumpled, and she started to sob.
"When have I ever done refund-only? Why do you love making things up so much!"
"Smearing my good name like this, do you think a widow is easy to push around?"
Ethan seemed to think his mother had suffered some terrible injustice too, and his face grew long.
"Jessica, you've got all these people here gawking. Happy now?"
I felt thunderstruck, and before I could say a word,
Linda grabbed hold of me with hands covered in snot and tears. Before I could react, she dropped to her knees in front of me.
Not caring who was watching, she knocked her forehead against the floor at my feet, thunk, thunk, over and over.
At the sight, the gawking neighbors erupted.
"How can you force an elder to bow down to you like that?"
"Can you even handle that? Aren't you afraid of the bad karma?"
His face dark, Ethan growled at me, "Jessica, is this what you wanted?"
"Or should I bow to you a few times too? Is that what it takes for you to stop acting up?"
I was utterly speechless. "When did you ever see me make your mom kneel and bow?"
"Then why'd you say my mom loves doing refund-only?"
I found it absurd. If Ethan hadn't told me Linda loved refund-only, how would I have known? Every time he told me about it, he'd been practically beaming.
Besides, I wasn't the one who'd drawn the crowd in the first place.
At that thought, I couldn't help a cold laugh. "This is obviously meant to put me in my place, so you can push me around later."
Without thinking, I let go of the hand I'd been using to hold Linda up. I wanted to see exactly what stunt she planned to pull.
第2章
The moment I let go, Linda gave a bitter, self-mocking laugh.
"She hasn't even married into this family yet, and she's already treating me like dirt!"
With the neighbors crowding around, pointing and whispering, I had no way to explain myself.
"So that pile of moldy dishes on the table was an obedience test?"
Hearing that, Linda, still on her knees, tried to get up.
When Ethan saw I wasn't helping her, his face went dark, and he couldn't stop himself from snapping at me.
"Jessica, you can't even give my mom a hand up?"
"I wouldn't dare. What if she says I'm trying to hit her?"
Ethan was so angry he raised his hand.
I leaned my face right up to him, not the least bit afraid.
Linda pulled Ethan aside.
"Son, now you see what she's really like!"
I rolled my eyes at the two of them.
Looking at Ethan, who had worked himself into a real fury, I just wanted to get out of there, but Linda wasn't about to give me the chance.
"Jessica, there's no need to be so unreasonable!"
"I'm being unreasonable?"
"Yes! You knew perfectly well I've been a widow for over twenty years, and you mailed me a whole box of condoms!"
With that, Linda pointed to a corner of the room.
There sat a big cardboard box printed with "Sixth Sense." A shudder ran through me, my head buzzed, and my thoughts turned into a tangled mess.
Before coming back to his hometown, I really had mailed Linda a gift, but there was no way it was this.
Before I could argue, Linda, her aging face flushed red with shame, broke down sobbing. "What kind of girl sends something like this to a widow?"
But I had clearly bought Linda a $30,000 set of luxury face cream.
I couldn't even bring myself to buy anything that expensive for myself, and yet once it reached Linda's hands, it had turned into this junk...
I couldn't help asking, "Did you open it and look?"
The neighbors erupted, stepping forward one after another to take her side.
"Is that how a decent person talks?"
"So young, and she's not even human!"
"We all know Linda's been a widow ever since Ethan's dad passed! Sending her that stuff, do you want to be struck by lightning?"
Curses came at me from every side, and Linda's tears kept pouring like they cost nothing.
Forcing myself to keep going, I explained, "Maybe the seller used the wrong shipping box. Let's open it and see if it's cosmetics..."
Before I could finish, Ethan dragged me over to the box.
He roughly grabbed the fruit knife off the table.
I was completely sure of myself and didn't say a word.
Ethan snorted coldly. "Jessica, if it's not cosmetics in there, what are you going to say?"
"I'll eat it."
I couldn't bring myself to buy face cream that expensive for myself, and when I saw the bank's charge alert, it had even stung a little. If the seller had shipped some random junk instead, then under consumer protection laws, wouldn't I have hit the jackpot?
Seeing that I refused to admit I was wrong, Ethan shoved me aside, muttering, "I was wondering why my mom, who's such a good person, would suddenly give you a hard time today. So it turns out you did something this rotten behind everyone's back!"
Speechless, I stepped forward to rip the box open.
The moment I reached out, Linda rushed over and clamped down hard on my hand.
"I can't even prove my own innocence?"
Linda shot me a cool glare and muttered in my ear, "There are so many people here today. Once that box is opened in front of everyone, there's no going back. If you don't open it, we can still settle this privately."
Oh. So this was what she'd been waiting for.
I said, "Open it. I don't believe it."
Satisfied, Linda let go of my hand.
Seeing that nothing worked on me, Ethan said sternly, "Jessica, apologize to my mom now, and we'll drop it!"
With a cold laugh, I pried Ethan's hand off the box. "There's no way there's Sixth Sense in there."
第3章
The box flaps opened, and everyone burst out laughing.
My face burned red.
Inside, neatly stacked, were box after box of condoms.
I still couldn't believe it. I looked hard at Linda. "How can you be sure I'm the one who bought these?"
Linda gave a cold laugh and said nothing.
Standing beside her, Ethan saw I still refused to admit anything, and his face went white with anger.
"Fine. Then I'll make sure you're convinced, so you can't say you were wronged."
The words had barely left his mouth when he lifted the box and dumped it upside down. Countless boxes of Sixth Sense condoms spilled across the floor. There was no sign of the face cream I'd bought.
Ethan's expression was stony. "What do you have to say now?"
Linda watched me too, gloating openly.
I was so mortified I wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.
"So it's really true! Not even a viper is this vicious!"
Hearing that, Linda, who had been gloating a moment earlier, instantly teared up again.
In the face of this so-called evidence, nobody was willing to hear my side.
I wanted to ask the seller for their packing video, but before I could even say so, Linda signaled Ethan to throw me out of the house.
Ethan looked at me like his eyes were about to shoot fire. "You're still not going to apologize?"
"I'll ask customer service and get this straightened out. They'll definitely have a packing video."
Hearing that, Ethan looked thoroughly disappointed. Shaking his head, he pushed me out the door. "Then go straighten it out!"
I turned around, and what met me was the heavy slam of the door behind me.
The neighbors who'd come to watch the show saw me get thrown out and scattered.
I was left standing alone in the hallway, the autumn wind cold and bleak, lost and dazed.
In all my years with Ethan, I had never been wronged this badly.
I even wondered if I'd ordered the wrong thing. I checked my purchase history again and again. It was clearly the luxury face cream, but what everyone had just seen was a pile of junk.
It felt like the sky was falling. Shivering, I kept at it until midnight.
Only when after-sales service sent me the packing video was I sure I hadn't made a mistake.
Just then, I heard Ethan and his mother talking inside.
"Mom, why did you do this?"
"I just wanted to knock her down a peg."
"What if she gets mad and won't marry me?"
"Just sweet-talk her and it'll be fine."
When Ethan said nothing, Linda's dismissive voice came again.
"A five-legged toad is hard to find, but two-legged women are a dime a dozen. Besides, this blew up so big her reputation's ruined. Who else but you would want her now?"
"Mom, you did this on purpose?"
"And you bought that box of stuff?"
"Yes. Go return it at the package pickup station."
"What about the skincare set Jessica mailed you?"
"Face cream that expensive? I couldn't bear to rub it on my face. I took it to a luxury resale shop and sold it. Twenty thousand dollars!"
Listening to the two of them, I couldn't help laughing at myself. If I'd known this was a setup to ruin my reputation, I never would have bought Linda such expensive face cream. I should have smeared her face with shit instead.
The next day, I was still asleep in the hotel.
The ping of a text woke me.
"Jessica, I spent all night apologizing to my mom. Come over in a bit, bow your head and admit you were wrong, and we'll put this behind us."
I rolled my eyes. Knowing Ethan couldn't see me, I typed back, "Tell your mom to wait."
"Okay. My mom loves the roast chicken from that place on the north side of town. Grab one if it's on your way."
Want roast chicken? How about a plate of shit?
第4章
When I finally woke up on my own, I saw countless missed calls from Ethan and countless messages.
"So this is your attitude?"
"You won't stop until this whole thing blows up?"
I'd been asleep, so of course I hadn't answered any of them. Ethan seemed to have run out of patience, and he sent me an ultimatum.
"If you don't come apologize before three, don't bother coming at all."
I didn't even reply. I opened a travel app and paid extra to get myself a train ticket home.
I checked out, and the moment I stepped out of the hotel, Ethan appeared in front of me, fuming.
"You won't answer my calls, you won't answer my texts. What's that supposed to mean, Jessica?"
I said, "I have a train to catch. I don't have time to explain anything to you."
With that, I stepped forward to push him aside. Ethan stared at me in disbelief.
"Do you know how hard it was to find you? If I hadn't seen your hotel booking, I'd have turned the whole town upside down."
I couldn't even be bothered to look up. Last night I'd stood outside his door for hours, and not once had he opened it to come looking for me.
"I spent the whole night calming my mom down, and you just up and left. Did you even think about the consequences?"
"An apology? Not happening! The engagement's off. We're done!"
Just as I finished, the car I'd booked pulled up.
I pushed Ethan aside and slid into the cab. I hadn't expected that to set him off. He got in his car and chased after us like a madman, and on the way to the train station, he actually forced the cab to pull over.
"Jessica, how far are you going to take this?"
"My mom's a widow. You buy her a box of that stuff, and now you act like you're in the right?"
It would have been better if he'd kept that to himself. I was livid. I got out of the cab and slapped him across the face.
"Did you see with your own eyes that I was the one who sent it?"
Even though I knew he was just choosing to be blind, I still pulled up my order history and shoved it in his face.
"Open your damn eyes and take a good look. What I bought was a $30,000 luxury face cream!"
Ethan sat frozen in his car like a wounded quail, too scared to move a muscle.
I said scornfully, "You two staged this whole show just to drag my name through the mud so I'd hand back the bride price and throw in a bigger dowry, didn't you?"
"Fine. I'll give you what you want right now."
I took out my phone and transferred $90,000 to him on the spot.
"Keep the change. Now get out of my sight."
With that, I turned to leave. Ethan panicked, reached out, and grabbed hold of me tight.
"You're calling off the engagement over something this small? Besides, my mom isn't the person you think she is. And even if you want to call it off, you can't just walk away like this."
"Don't be mad. Let's go somewhere and talk this through."
I pried his fingers off me one by one. "We have nothing to talk about."
"No matter what, this engagement is over."
