My Daughter Betrayed Me, So I Took Everything BackChapter 1
My daughter had barely finished her postpartum recovery when my son-in-law and his mother showed up with suitcases.
Jeffrey got right to it.
"Mom, Ginny's done recovering. Time for you to go. My mother and I are moving back in."
"Oh—and you've been living here for thirty days. Three hundred a night for the room, two hundred a day for utilities. You owe us fifteen thousand. Cash or transfer?"
I stared at him.
"My daughter was in her postpartum recovery. You and your mother ran off on vacation the day she gave birth. I dropped everything and came from my hometown to take care of her around the clock, looked after the baby, bought the groceries and the formula with my own money—and you're charging me *rent*?"
Jeffrey didn't blink.
"Look, one thing's got nothing to do with the other. She's your daughter—taking care of her is on you. But you slept under my roof, so you pay up."
His mother planted her hands on her hips.
"That's right. Even brothers square up when money's involved. You're not even family on this side. You pay what you owe."
I turned to my daughter, certain she'd speak up for me.
Instead, she sighed like I was the problem.
"Mom, Jeff and I are struggling too. Have a little consideration. Stop trying to mooch off us and just pay it."
I didn't argue. I didn't make a scene. I transferred the fifteen thousand right then and there.
But that money wasn't a room fee.
It was a lesson.
The kind they wouldn't recover from.
——
When Jeffrey held out his phone with the payment code, I'd frozen for a moment.
I looked at my daughter instinctively and asked:
"Ginny, you really think I should pay this?"
She looked at me, hesitated for two seconds, then said quietly:
"Mom, Jeff's right. You're my mother. Taking care of me is what you're supposed to do."
"Things are hard for us. Stop trying to squeeze us for a free ride."
I stared at her, stunned. I couldn't understand how, in her mind, *I* was the one freeloading.
Had she not seen how I'd spent this past month?
A month ago, Virginia had called me out of the blue.
"Mom, Jeff and my mother-in-law are going on vacation. There's no one to take care of me during my recovery."
"The baby's about to come. Can you come help me?"
Honestly, when I got that call, I was furious.