I landed a huge deal at the end of the year, bringing in a five-million-dollar bonus.
The company, in a gesture of goodwill, allowed me, eight months pregnant, to start my maternity leave early.
My mother-in-law, Brenda, asked why I wasn’t going to work. Lying on the couch, I joked, With the company cutting back, I was laid off.
“Guess I’ll just be a stay-at-home wife and mom from now on.”
To my shock, Brenda immediately slapped my heavily pregnant belly. “Then why aren’t you off your butt doing laundry and cooking?!”
“Just because you’re carrying a girl, you think you can freeload?!”
Mark, my husband, happened to walk in, pulling Brenda into the nursery. Feeling completely wronged, I opened the hidden camera feed they didn’t know about, wanting to see whose side Mark would take.
But what I uncovered were chilling secret after chilling secret.
0
Brenda, flung a raw, mud-caked potato at me, hitting my eight-month pregnant belly with a dull thud. A sharp, searing pain shot through me.
“Ashley! I’ve been wanting to tell you for ages, but I’ve been holding my tongue!”
“Parading around, all dressed up every day! Anyone who didn’t know you were going to work would think you were soliciting on the street! What kind of boss would keep such a loose woman?!”
The sudden outburst stunned me.
Three months ago, Mark said my pregnancy was progressing, and Brenda would come to take care of me.
“I’m often on business trips. I’d feel better with Mom here.”
Indeed, after Mark’s promotion, his business trips became exceptionally frequent. Considering it would be inconvenient to be alone, and that my previous short visits with Brenda had been smooth enough, I happily agreed.
Brenda had, in fact, been meticulously caring for me during this time, preparing every meal herself. When I tried to help, she’d shoo me out of the kitchen.
“You’re busy with work. Cooking is a small thing, don’t worry about it.”
I thought I’d never have to face mother-in-law conflicts in this lifetime, but one joke turned Brenda into a completely different person.
“Your elder is speaking to you! Don’t you know to stand up?!”
“You orphan trash! No wonder you have no manners!”
Her words stopped me cold, just as I was about to explain, piercing me to the core.
My parents died in an accident when I was fifteen. The first time I visited Mark’s family, Brenda held my hand, her eyes full of pity.
“My biggest regret in life is not having a daughter. From now on, you’re my own daughter!”
At that time, I thought I finally had a family again. So over the years, even when Brenda and I had a clash of values, I tried my best to compromise and adapt. I couldn’t understand why a single sentence could make her completely transform like this?!
I was still reeling when Brenda started nagging again, full of discontent.
“Living in the city is expensive! Now it’ll all fall on my son!”
Seeing me still dazed, Brenda slapped my lower back.
“You still have the nerve to lie there?!”
The slap was incredibly forceful, sending me sprawling off the couch, my knees hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
My first instinct was to clutch my aching belly, desperate to explain.
I’d just managed to call out “Brenda,” when Brenda had already settled onto the couch, placing her smelly feet right on my back!
Her weight, about 170 pounds, pressed down deliberately, leaving me unable to move.
“Brenda?! What are you doing?!”
I was utterly shocked and bewildered. Brenda snorted.
“Teaching you the rules of being a daughter-in-law in my family, of course!”
“Mark used to say you made good money, so for my son, I tolerated you, you damn girl, for so long!”
“Now you don’t make money anymore! You better cut the attitude from now on!”
“Let me tell you! I’ve been furious since the first day I arrived! You threw out a whole pot of stewed chicken I brought!”
Knowing Brenda was coming, I’d spent two days cleaning the house from top to bottom. New bedding, fresh fruits, and vegetables piled high on the table.
Brenda didn’t come empty-handed either, carrying a plastic bag filled with stewed chicken.
“Free-range chicken! You can’t get this in the city!”
“For Ashley to regain her strength!”
At the time, Mark grumbled that his mom was making unnecessary trouble, but I smiled, accepted everything, and thanked her profusely.
However, after the long train journey, the chicken was already spoiled and rotten.
“The chicken was spoiled, didn’t Mark tell you?”
But before I could finish, Brenda kicked me to the ground.
“Still daring to talk back! You beggar, choosing your food! Just because you’re carrying a girl, you think you’re some kind of queen?!”
I frowned, about to argue, when the front door suddenly opened. Mark, who was smiling and looking at his phone a second ago, froze in his tracks, frowning at the scene.
“What’s going on?”
Before I could speak, Brenda cut in.
“Go ask your wonderful wife! She got herself fired!”
“My poor son, such a tough life! He finally started making something of himself, and now he’s stuck with a freeloader!”
“I, as his mother, said a few words, and she’s sticking her neck out, talking back!”
“Ashley, let me tell you! This is the only time! If you dare to do this again, get out of this house!”
Mark frowned, looking at me. “You got fired?”
I was carrying his child, kicked to the ground by his mother, and he didn’t try to help me up. Instead, his first question was about being fired.
Looking at my husband of three years, a chill ran through me, and I didn’t want to explain anything.
“If you also think I’m a freeloader, then talk to your mom and figure out which of us should get out of my house.”
When we got married, Mark’s family wasn’t well off. This house was my parents’ inheritance.
An eight-month pregnant woman, not only bullied by her mother-in-law but also told to get out of her own home.
Lying in bed, tears of injustice streamed down my face.
Hearing Mark pull Brenda into the nursery, I suddenly remembered the hidden camera I’d installed two days ago.
It was for keeping an eye on the baby later, and I hadn’t had a chance to tell Mark or Brenda.
I thought I’d see how Mark would mediate the conflict between Brenda and me, but when I opened the feed, I heard an earth-shattering secret.
It sent chills down my spine.
“You said she might get a promotion and a raise by the end of the year! Now look, she got fired!”
“She’s about to give birth, and she is too. You’re supporting two families on one salary, my heart aches for you, son!”
Brenda’s face was full of annoyance, and she even dabbed at her eyes.
She? Two families?
Could Mark have another family behind my back?!
Thinking of his frequent business trips recently, a sinking feeling of dread suddenly gripped me.
In my late pregnancy, I had frequent bathroom trips at night. Several times, I’d caught Mark sitting on the toilet with a strange smile on his face.
Sometimes he’d be so engrossed in his phone that he wouldn’t even notice me come in, then he’d almost drop his phone when he saw me.
His explanation was that work stress kept him awake, and he scrolled through funny videos, not wanting to disturb my sleep in bed.
I wasn’t without my suspicions, but Mark would casually hand me his phone.
“Look, look! I think your pregnancy hormones are just acting up, making you paranoid!”
Checking his phone, I didn’t find anything, so I had to let it go.
I quickly continued listening, but Mark didn’t respond directly, only saying,
“A few days ago, I asked her team members, and they did say she had a good chance of closing a big deal and getting a promotion. How could she just get fired?”
“Could it be she closed the deal, earned the money, and just doesn’t want us to know?”
“I’ll double-check.”
My scalp tingled. Mark had secretly contacted my team members?! And I knew nothing about it!
Realizing this, I quickly created a private group chat and added all my team members.
Being an orphan, I cherished human connections deeply. We shared profits generously, and my chosen team members clicked really well with me. They proudly called themselves my “chosen family.”
[If Mark contacts any of you, stick to the same story! The big deal didn’t go through! I was fired by the company!]
[All]
I stared at my phone screen, seconds stretching into an eternity, terrified Mark would get a response before me.
Sure enough, after a few ‘received’ messages, my assistant Sarah replied:
[Ashley, is this a surprise for Mark? Mark just asked me, almost blew your cover! Got it! I’m going to play hard to get with the info!]
After a sigh of relief, I sent another message.
[My marriage is in crisis. More details when I have time, but for now, if Mark contacts any of you, you MUST stick to the same story!]
This time, almost instantly, no one asked any questions. A flood of “Got it” messages appeared.
I deleted the group chat. On the surveillance feed, I saw Mark frowning at his phone, muttering a curse.
“That useless Ashley really screwed up the deal and got fired!”
Brenda also grew anxious.
“Chloe is about to give birth! I promised her a 0-05,000-a-month luxury post-birth recovery suite!”
When I first got pregnant, I also wanted a postpartum recovery suite, but Brenda refused outright when she heard the $5,000-a-month price.
“Outsiders can’t take care of you as well as family! With me here, why waste that money!”
Chloe?
I suddenly remembered once when I’d forgotten some documents at home. When I returned to get them, Brenda was at home, chatting and laughing with a young pregnant woman.
The table was laden with expensive fruits I’d bought, and the two had made a huge mess.
Brenda had said she was a distant niece, Chloe, who came to the city for her prenatal check-ups!
No wonder I’d felt an inexplicable hostility from Chloe back then, and her words had been full of snide remarks. When I’d vented to Mark about it, he’d just said I was being petty.
So, they had boldly brought his mistress into my home!
On the recorded feed, Mark said another word, then turned and left.
Brenda, left alone, rolled her eyes in annoyance, muttering under her breath,
“I gave her so much medicine! Why hasn’t that useless burden miscarried yet?!”
“Could the medicine be fake? No, it can’t be, I paid a lot of money to Dr. Peterson in the village for it…”
A cold sweat drenched me instantly. Brenda had been drugging me!
Just as I was shaking with fear, the bedroom door was pushed open the next second!
The moment Mark walked in, I frantically exited the surveillance app on my phone.
Looking at the husband before me, my heart hammered against my ribs. Just now, I had clearly heard Mark say on the recording:
“The house is her pre-marital property, so let’s wait until we’ve swapped houses before divorcing.”
“If she plays nice, fine. Otherwise, a pregnant woman with no family to back her up… if we don’t press charges, who’d care what happens to her?”
A while ago, Mark had said the house would feel small after the baby was born, and he wanted to sell this one to get a bigger house.
Two hours earlier, I’d been daydreaming that with the bonus, we could not only get a bigger house but also take Mark and Brenda on a lavish trip.
But I never imagined that the path to happiness I’d envisioned was actually a trap designed to destroy me!
Mark’s once somewhat handsome face now seemed sinister and cruel.
No wonder he’d been so extraordinarily attentive after learning I was an orphan. He’d had this plan all along!
“Honey, you really got fired? Them firing you while pregnant is a violation of labor law, I’ll go talk to your boss!”
I quickly stopped him. “No!”
Under Mark’s suspicious gaze, I tried to keep my voice steady. “It was my fault for losing the order. If it weren’t for me working tirelessly without complaint all these years and being pregnant, the company would have pursued damages and compensation.”
“Millions in compensation. Our life savings wouldn’t cover it.”
Mark frowned even deeper. He just grabbed my phone and dialed my boss’s number.
“I’ll ask, I can’t let you be wronged.”
As the phone rang, my heart nearly pounded out of my chest.
The next second, the call connected, and my boss’s impatient voice came through.
“Ashley! I’ve already made it clear to you! The company not pursuing charges is already the best outcome for you! Don’t even dream of compensation!”
Luckily, I was quick-witted. While I was recording the surveillance earlier, I had briefly explained my predicament to my boss.
My boss was a fierce businesswoman who hated scumbags, and she immediately said the company would stand firmly by me.
After hanging up, Mark stared at my pale face, brushing back my sweat-soaked strands of hair. “Honey, why are you so nervous?”
“So what if you lost your job? I can still support you. Mom just felt the pressure of me being the sole breadwinner. She’s going through menopause and prone to emotional breakdowns. For my sake, just let it go.”
“Perfect, now you have time. The sales agent for that house we liked has called several times for us to sign the contract. No time like the present, let’s go today! It’ll wash away your bad luck from losing your job!”
Mark, without a word, pulled me and Brenda to the sales office. To my surprise, Chloe was already waiting there!
Brenda intimately linked arms with her as soon as she got out of the car.
“I called Chloe to come along, for her advice.”
Chloe puffed out her belly, showing off. “Mark, Auntie Brenda was worried about your taste, so she asked me to come and approve. You don’t mind, do you~”
She’d been like this at home too.
“Ashley, don’t just rely on being pregnant and make my aunt do all the work.”
“My Mark works hard for his money, Ashley, you need to learn to be thrifty! Look at all these packages! You’re married, who are you dressing up for?”
“I’m just direct~ Don’t mind me, Ashley~ I’m only saying this for your family’s good.”
At the time, I thought she was just jealous of Mark and my good life, spouting sour grapes, so I paid her no mind.
After marriage, I had always played the role of a devoted wife and dutiful daughter-in-law. Even Mark had forgotten that an orphan girl had clawed her way to the top—I wasn’t someone to be easily taken advantage of.
New and old resentments flared, and my face hardened.
“Even if I did mind, you’d still cling on like an irritating rash, wouldn’t you?”
My sudden counterattack stunned both Brenda and Mark.
Chloe pouted petulantly, looking at them, stomping her foot and huffing.
Brenda immediately glared at me.
“You’re rebelling! You uncultured brat! Who gave you permission to speak to a relative like that!”
For the first time, I talked back without backing down.
“I’m buying a house, and a distant relative who has nothing to do with this comes here bossing around. Who’s really uncultured?!”
My voice wasn’t quiet, drawing stares and whispers from the onlookers.
Mark frowned and pulled me. “Can’t you just let it go?! It’s not that big a deal!”
“No matter what, you can’t talk back to my mom!”
I coldly shrugged off his arm.
“Then listen to your mom. Let your mom pay for the house too.”
Mark’s frown deepened. “What are you talking about?! We already agreed to sell this house and put extra money down to upgrade, didn’t we? You saw the upgrade contract last time! Besides, where would my mom, a stay-at-home mom with no job, get the money?! Alright, alright! I know you’re still holding a grudge about what happened earlier!”
“My mom has diligently taken care of you all this time! And just because she said a few words, you’re so unforgiving! Fine, fine! I’ll apologize for her, okay?!”
Seeing the onlookers pointing and whispering, Brenda’s eyes darted.
“I knew it, getting old means becoming a burden! It’s all my fault! All my damn fault! For running my mouth and annoying my daughter-in-law! I’ll just slap my own mouth off!”
Brenda feigned slapping herself, but Chloe quickly intervened.
“Auntie! Blame me, I’m young and foolish, I spoke out of turn and upset Ashley! Ashley, I’ll kneel and apologize to you! Please, for my aunt’s sake, she’s old! Don’t bully her anymore!”
Chloe started to kneel, but Mark quickly caught her.
“Chloe! You’re pregnant!”
“You absolutely can’t get emotional!”
Mark glared at me. “Ashley! Are you only happy when you make everyone miserable?!”
“Getting a bigger house is for both of us, it should be a happy occasion! You just have to make everyone unhappy!”
As he lectured me, he seemed to forget that I was also a pregnant woman about to deliver, and I couldn’t get emotional.
Mark was still holding Chloe’s arm, frowning.
“Alright! Stop making a scene! Aren’t you embarrassed with all these people watching?! Let’s just sign the contract first!”
The sales manager, fearing his commission slipping away, eagerly handed the prepared contract to Mark.
Just as Mark was about to sign, I snatched the contract away.
“How come this purchase agreement only has your name on it?”
Brenda, who moments ago was playing the victim, now glared, eyes wide.
“What kind of talk is that?! Mark is the head of the household, if not his name, whose name should be on it, yours?!”
Mark reached out to grab the contract.
“Everything after marriage is marital property, whose name it’s under doesn’t matter!”
I held the contract further away.
“If it doesn’t matter, then why not put only my name on it?”
Mark’s eyebrows furrowed, and he glared.
“Ashley! What is wrong with you today! Can you stop being so unreasonable?! You can’t just make the whole family miserable just because you lost your job!”
I sneered, staring into his eyes.
“Your ‘whole family’ refers to you, your mom, and your mistress Chloe with her bastard child in her belly, right?!”
My words dropped, and the crowd of onlookers erupted in gasps.
Chloe reacted first, shrieking in a high-pitched voice.
“You’re slandering my good name!”
“If you don’t clear my name today, I’ll die here with my baby to prove my innocence!”
Brenda plopped onto the floor, wailing.
“Ashley, I know you despise this old woman, take your anger out on me, I don’t mind a little suffering! But you two must be well!”
“To openly slander a woman’s good name, you’re trying to drive her to her death!”
I watched her thrashing on the ground and shouted back even louder.
“Selling my pre-marital assets! To buy a big house for his mistress and her bastard child!”
“Who’s really trying to drive someone to their death?!”
Mark’s face went white, his jaw clenched so hard the veins on his forehead pulsed.
“What nonsense are you spewing?! Just because you’re out of a job, you’re full of suppressed anger with nowhere to vent?!”
“I won’t change houses today, is that enough?! Let’s go home and talk about this!”
With that, Mark grabbed my arm and tried to drag me out. If he managed to get me into the car today, my fate would be sealed!
I struggled desperately, but Mark’s hand was like a vice clamping my wrist. I shouted for help to the people around me, but Brenda yelled,
“This is our family business! Stay out of it! Don’t get mixed up in our family drama!”
Just as I was about to be dragged out the door, a panting figure blocked our way, forcefully pushing Mark’s grip away, and shielding me behind them.
“Who dares touch my Ashley!”
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