She Gave Me 20K — I Disowned Her

The day I, Margaret, went back to my hometown, my daughter Lily Miller quietly slipped $20,000 into my bag.

Just after I got off the plane, my son-in-law, David Miller, called to berate me:

“Mom, how could you accept the $20,000 Lily gave you? Don’t you know we’re raising a child right now? If we need money we can have my dad or I find another job — you can’t be bleeding your own daughter dry. Return that money right now!”

I was stunned and furious. He even served my daughter with a paper and dragged her to court — demanding that the three of them move out of the marital home I bought for them immediately!

“If you won’t get a divorce then don’t call me ‘Mom’ — I have no daughter who takes from her own family!”

The day we left Los Angeles to return to my hometown, Lily had escorted me to the airport and slipped $20,000 into my bag. When I later dug in my bag for my phone, I discovered the money. I was just about to take a photo to show Robert and say Lily finally understood when my son-in-law rang.

“Mom? Did Lily give you twenty thousand?” he asked.

Huh? Wasn’t that something they’d agreed on between them? I froze for a second and then replied, “Yes — Lily secretly put it in my bag; I only just noticed.”

David immediately freaked out. “Lily and I agreed that the money was just a token. How could you actually accept it?”

His words hit me like a punch; a nameless anger swelled up. Holding myself back I asked, “What do you mean by a ‘token’?”

“Don’t you get it? It was just for show. We’re raising a kid — expenses are brutal. Twenty thousand could feed our whole family for three or four months. How could you take it?”

I drew a deep breath and reminded him, “I’m Lily’s birth mother.”

“So what? Shouldn’t a birth mother be thinking of her daughter? You just accepted twenty thousand like that — aren’t you afraid you’ll spend it and end up in the hospital?”

Good heavens — is this the same man I treated like my own son? How could he curse me to get sick over twenty thousand dollars? I went cold and answered without mercy:

“The money was given to me by Lily. Since she gave it, I’ll treat it as her offering of filial piety. If you don’t like it, keep it to yourself. If you want it back, have her ask in person — and if she dares open her mouth, I’ll break her legs!”

David was furious at that. All his insults about freeloaders, sucking blood from his wife, curses about cancer — everything came pouring out. I opened the voice recorder and captured every vile word, then forwarded the recording to my daughter as a text message.

When he saw I was silent, he panted down the line and threatened: “Return the money or I’ll come over and make a scene in a few days so the whole neighborhood knows — that you’re lazy and relying on your daughter to support you!”

Ha! I laughed at him through my anger. “Come on then. I’d love it if everyone judged whose son-in-law behaves like yours — who asks their mother-in-law to return a gift of twenty thousand!”

“Beep…beep…beep…”

A busy signal. He’d hung up on me. How infuriating — not an ounce of decorum.

I dialed Lily right away, pinched my brow, and forced my voice calm. “Did you get the recording I sent?”

She answered softly through the receiver, “I heard it…”

“And what does that mean?”

“Mom, please don’t get angry. I’m at work right now. Let me ask him when I get back and I’ll get back to you, okay?” Her voice was low — she sounded like she was in the office break room.

“All right — you better ask quickly!” I agreed, hung up, and exhaled a long, heavy breath. Back at home, Robert saw I wasn’t happy and went straight to the kitchen to start cooking.

I sat on the sofa and got angrier the more I thought about it. Robert and I both worked; Lily was our only child. We paid for her through college and even handled the wedding. She and David had been classmates and had been together for a little over five years. They didn’t ask for any formal wedding gifts from our side, and instead we gave them a generous dowry/wedding support because we knew the groom’s family wasn’t wealthy.

Two years after marriage Lily became pregnant. David’s family came from a small Midwest town; they said his parents were worried about the chickens, ducks, pigs — so they asked me to take care of Lily during her confinement. I went and stayed for three years. I covered grocery expenses and other costs until our granddaughter Emily turned three and started preschool.

Lily and I discussed it — she said she could pick Emily up after work so Robert and I could return to our hometown. And that’s how all this started.

To be honest, at first I didn’t approve of the marriage. We weren’t rich, but when Lily graduated we arranged a car and a place for her. I hoped she’d find someone with similar prospects, but she wanted David and that was that. With Robert’s persuasion I reluctantly agreed. We used years of savings to buy them a place in Los Angeles. Robert pulled strings with an old comrade to help David get a job at the Public Utility Department.

After I retired I ran a little neighborhood bookstore that did well. When Lily was far along in her pregnancy she called me, crying that David wanted to keep working and she’d be alone without a hot meal. So Robert and I closed the shop and went to care for her. Near her due date she had leg cramps in the middle of the night and screamed in pain. David complained about the noise and moved into the kids’ room the next day. I slept beside her and rubbed her legs all night.

I had cared for her for twenty-eight years, thinking she finally understood filial piety — and she slipped me twenty thousand. Then her husband pointed at my nose and accused me of sucking my daughter dry! Twenty thousand — it barely makes a dent in what I’ve subsidized them with! Outrageous.

I was so angry I couldn’t sleep. The next morning at 6:30 a.m. Lily called in a trembling voice.

“Mom, David was wrong to insult you, but I also didn’t think things through. David is just trying to think of our small family — our incomes aren’t high, and Emily is in preschool…”

“So could you please understand and return the $20,000? Calm David down? Do it for me?”

My chest hurt with anger; I felt like I’d given birth to a piece of char siu. I said nothing and hung up.

I went to exercise in the complex, skipped breakfast, grabbed my bag, and headed to the bank. I had a checking card that Lily kept for me; my monthly pension is deposited there. During Lily’s late pregnancy she wasn’t working and told me her days were hard. I felt for her and handed over my pension card to help her through. She never returned it, and I never asked. After all, Robert and I live simply and his pension is just enough. So now they were spending my money and wanted me to give back the $20,000 they’d handed me.

I’m not stupid — let them spend their own money!

At the bank the clerk asked, “How can I help you today?”

I handed over my ID and said, “One of my bank cards was lost. Please freeze it temporarily and issue a replacement.”

The clerk smiled. “Of course.” The old card was voided once the new card was made.

With a brand new card in my wallet I stopped by the farmer’s market and bought a pound of the big shrimp I usually can’t afford. When I was helping out at Lily’s house I always saved the shrimp for the evening so they could have it after work. A pound yields about sixteen or seventeen large shrimp; by the time I fed Emily and set the plate down there were only shells left.

Back home, Robert sat on the couch watching TV. Seeing the shrimp, he joked, “Oh? Spent some time in the big city and picked up a taste for luxuries?”

I put on a straight face. “What’s wrong with that?”

Robert hurriedly put down the remote to placate me. “Who says anything’s wrong? I’ve long told you to treat yourself better. You’re finally seeing reason.”

I went into the kitchen and started to cook the shrimp. Just as I turned on the stove Lily called.

“Mom? My card’s not working — I was about to buy David a decent suit. Did you freeze it?”

I turned off the heat, wiped my hands, and calmly replied, “Yes. I ordered a replacement.”

Lily was a bit startled, then tried to probe: “Mom, are you still mad at David? He can be sharp with his tongue, but he’s actually grateful for everything you’ve done for our little family. You don’t understand how tight things are for us young people — expenses everywhere, we have to save a lot. You’re retired now; you don’t get our difficulties. Please don’t be mad at him.”

Don’t I understand their difficulties? Had all my effort been fed to the dogs? When I was struggling to earn a living nobody helped me like this! I clenched my fist, exhaled, my heart pounding. The doctor told me I have high blood pressure and must not get emotional — it raises the risk of a stroke. So I calmed myself and said as evenly as I could, “Get out. I have no daughter like you who’s turned on her own family.”

I hung up, fished the cooked shrimp out of the pot, set it on the table, and Robert and I split them between us.

That afternoon, while dancing with a few old friends in the park, David called again. Because music was playing and my hearing isn’t great, I put the phone on speaker. He immediately started cursing: “You old biddy — you accept the $20,000 and then freeze the card!”

“You’re doing this on purpose just to make Lily and me miserable. You’re senile and making trouble!”

“I’m bringing my parents to Los Angeles to enjoy a better life. I demand you cough up money so Lily and I can move to a bigger apartment, or don’t expect us to ever acknowledge you!”

At that point the music stopped and all my dance girlfriends stared at me in surprise. One of them had once urged me to have more children; I’d told her back then, “Why have many? Raise one well!” Now she was getting the last laugh.

My blood pressure shot up and I blasted back at him: “You’ve got the nerve of two-faced slime — shameless on one side, thick-skinned on the other! Are your brain cells all hibernating? You expect me to contribute to your big apartment — fine, I’ll contribute to your burial plot instead!”