I never thought my in-laws could be so biased. Three years ago, when I married Silas, they claimed they had no money to buy us a house or contribute to the wedding. So Silas and I just got our marriage certificate and had a simple dinner with friends to celebrate. But the very next year, when Silas’s younger brother Liam got married, it was a different story. My in-laws bought them a spacious three-bedroom apartment and even gave Sarah, Liam’s wife, an expensive gold necklace and a generous cash gift. I was furious. How could they treat their daughters-in-law so differently? When I confronted them, they had the audacity to say, “It’s different. You and Silas fell in love on your own. Liam and Sarah met through an arranged date. If we didn’t provide for them, no one would want to marry Liam.” I was so angry I couldn’t think straight. I had a huge fight with them. Eventually, when they couldn’t argue anymore, they started saying hurtful things. “It’s our money, we can give it to whoever we want. We just love our younger son more. He’s always been more obedient and caring. And you, you’re so shameless, willing to marry our son even without a dowry.” I burst into tears when I heard this. All my efforts to be understanding and accommodating had only made them think I was worthless. I left for my parents’ house that night and didn’t speak to my in-laws again. Silas eventually coaxed me back home with promises. He said we’d live our own life, just the two of us. He promised to make up for everything I didn’t get and ensure I wouldn’t suffer or face any conflicts alone. He vowed to protect and cherish me, never letting me feel wronged again. I was a romantic at heart, so I believed him. Thankfully, Silas kept his word. He truly treated me well, which helped me feel a bit better about the situation. However, I still harbored resentment towards his parents. I didn’t stop Silas from contacting them, but there was no way I would show them any respect or care. Last year, when I gave birth to our daughter, Silas called his parents to inform them. Not only did they fail to show any concern for me, but they also completely ignored their granddaughter. In the end, my mom had to travel from out of town to take care of me during my postpartum period. Later, I found out that Sarah, Liam’s wife, was also pregnant. My in-laws were doting on her, buying the best things for both the baby and Sarah. And of course, they were covering all the expenses. Sometimes, I seriously doubted if Silas was their biological son. How could parents treat their children and daughters-in-law so differently? Eventually, I resigned myself to the situation. I decided that I would treat them exactly how they treated me. 02 But then, my father-in-law fell ill. And to make matters worse, they wanted to stay at our place because it was closer to the hospital. Silas tentatively asked me, “Zoe, we have a spare room. Would it be okay if my parents stayed there?” I refused without a second thought. The house Liam and Sarah lived in was also in the city. The only difference was that their place was an hour away from the hospital, while ours was just half an hour away. Besides, they had a three-bedroom apartment, while we only had a one-bedroom. There was no reason for them to stay with us. Moreover, that spare room was for our nanny. Silas and I both worked full-time, and my parents were too old and not in good health to help with childcare. So we had hired a nanny to look after our daughter while we were at work. If Silas’s parents moved in, where would the nanny stay? And who would take care of our daughter? I certainly didn’t expect them to babysit. I asked Silas, “Doesn’t Liam have space at his place? Why do they have to come here?” Silas hesitated before explaining, “It’s Liam… well, Sarah doesn’t agree. She’s worried about the risk of infection. Their son is only a year old and has a weak immune system.” Little James was Liam’s son. Hearing this, I immediately got angry. “Oh, so their child is afraid of germs, but our daughter isn’t? Silas, don’t forget how they treated us before. Why should we suffer while they enjoy all the benefits? Are we destined to be bullied?” I ranted for a while until Silas begged me to stop and promised he wouldn’t make any decisions without my consent. Only then did I manage to suppress my anger. But I had a feeling this wasn’t over yet. Sure enough, the next day when I got home from work and opened the door, I saw three familiar figures. My father-in-law, mother-in-law, and Liam. At first, I thought I was seeing things. After all, it had been years since I’d last seen them. But upon closer inspection, it really was them. Silas saw me come in and said sheepishly, “Zoe, you’re back. My parents and Liam are here.” I responded with a noncommittal sound, thinking about how to handle this situation. Were they here uninvited? Or had Silas failed to inform me? Should I greet them? As I was pondering, I glanced at my in-laws sitting on the sofa. They looked like royalty waiting for a servant to pay respects. Remembering how they had never shown me any kindness, I turned and went into the side bedroom without a word. Our nanny was trying to put Lily to sleep. When she saw me come in, she started complaining. “Zoe, your in-laws are so heartless. They didn’t even look at their own granddaughter. Lily doesn’t know them and got scared when she saw them. She started crying, and your mother-in-law called her a bad omen. I quickly brought her in here.” “Don’t worry, I’ve disinfected the room,” she added. I hadn’t mentioned my father-in-law’s illness before, so the nanny must have overheard their conversation this afternoon. The nanny looked towards the living room and lowered her voice, “I heard them say they plan to stay here.” Hearing this, I felt even more upset. Just then, Silas opened the door. “Zoe, can you make some dinner? My parents and Liam haven’t eaten yet.” I was already in a bad mood, and hearing that they were waiting for me to come home and cook for them made me even angrier. I snapped, “Let’s just order takeout.” As soon as I said it, I regretted my tone. It did sound impolite. Silas was taken aback for a moment before saying, “Okay.” But Liam wasn’t having it. He started yelling from the living room, “What’s going on? Are we not welcome here? What kind of attitude is this? Coming home with that face, like we owe you something. Is this how a daughter-in-law should behave?” “Bro, you’re too soft. You’re letting a woman walk all over you. No wonder Mom and Dad don’t like her.” I had initially decided not to argue, but hearing Liam’s increasingly disrespectful words, I couldn’t help but confront him. “Who do you think you’re talking about?” I demanded. “You come to our home to stir up trouble? Did I invite you? Who asked you to come? If you don’t want to be here, then leave. Who wants to see you anyway?” Liam got angry. “I’m here to visit my brother’s home. It’s none of your business.” I laughed coldly at his words. “You said it yourself, this is your brother’s home. Your brother’s home is my home. So how is it none of my business?” I was about to say more when Silas intervened. “Zoe, stop it.” Why should I stop? I was about to protest when I saw Silas’s troubled expression and held back. As I was about to return to the bedroom, my father-in-law coughed loudly. “What a disgrace to our family,” he said twice. “Silas, how do you manage your wife? She doesn’t even know how to respect her elders. We’re your parents and brother, not your enemies.” “You clearly don’t welcome us. Fine, we’ll leave,” my mother-in-law said, grabbing her husband’s hand and heading for the door. I was more than happy to see them go and didn’t try to stop them. But Liam was different. He hesitated and said, “Mom, Dad, please bear with it for now. Sarah said the hospital is full of germs. You go there every day, and if you accidentally infect little James, that would be terrible.” “Don’t worry, I’ll come pick you up as soon as you’re better,” Liam promised. With that, Liam left quickly. I watched this scene unfold, finding it ridiculous. Now my in-laws were stuck, unable to move in or leave. In the end, Silas had to drag them back to the sofa. My mother-in-law, playing the victim, said to Silas, “Son, you won’t turn us away too, will you?” She glanced at me as she spoke. Silas quickly assured her they were welcome, and went to comfort them. I turned and went back to the bedroom, out of sight, out of mind. 03 Later, Silas ordered takeout for his parents. I brought a separate meal for our nanny. I had already eaten at the office and wasn’t hungry. Sitting on the bed, I pondered what to do next. I’m not a heartless person. Despite my harsh words, I couldn’t bring myself to turn away sick parents, even if they had treated me poorly. They were still elders, and seriously ill at that. If I forced them to leave, my conscience wouldn’t let me rest, and it might affect my relationship with Silas. Yes, even though Silas’s parents clearly favored their younger son to an extreme degree, and Silas himself felt conflicted about it, blood is thicker than water. He’s soft-hearted and can’t bear to see his parents suffer. But we really didn’t have space in our home. It was only about 800 square feet. We occupied one room, the nanny another. We couldn’t possibly make his parents sleep in the living room. I planned to discuss with Silas about possibly renting an apartment near the hospital for his parents. Of course, we’d split the rent with Liam and his family. I wasn’t going to be the only one footing the bill. But I never imagined that Silas’s father had been diagnosed with kidney failure. I looked it up online. It’s a difficult disease to treat. Time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. He needed dialysis three times a week, four hours each time. And that was just to keep him alive. For a real cure, he’d need a kidney transplant. A transplant would cost at least several hundred thousand dollars, and there was no guarantee of finding a suitable donor. For an average family, it was a catastrophic expense. I had a feeling our peaceful life was about to be disrupted. The day of the diagnosis, Silas was silent for a long time. He smoked on the balcony all night, and finally came to me with red eyes. “Zoe, what should I do? My dad is sick,” he said, tears streaming down his face. It was the first time I’d seen him cry. I didn’t know what to say, so I just held him silently. The idea of renting an apartment for them now seemed unrealistic. I could only discuss with our nanny about coming during the day to look after Lily and going home at night to sleep. 04 After Silas’s father fell ill, he moved in with us. He went for dialysis three times a week without fail. Liam visited a few times at the beginning, but his visits became less and less frequent. He barely showed up after a month. He was clever, though. He’d check in with his parents via SnapChat every day, keeping them happy. But he never mentioned money. His parents didn’t bring it up either. Everyone was pretending not to understand the situation. It had been two months since Silas’s father fell ill, and we had been bearing all their living expenses and medical bills. I calculated that we had spent nearly $100,000. This was basically all the money we had. After all, we had only been married for three or four years, and without any help from family, we had to pay our mortgage, car loan, and the nanny’s salary ourselves. After our daughter was born, we also had to buy formula and diapers. We could barely save any money each month. If this continued, we would soon be penniless. I asked Silas to ask his parents for money, but he was too embarrassed. I told him to ask his brother, but he was still too embarrassed. Seeing Silas’s cowardice, I got angry. “Are you going to ask or not? If you don’t, I will.” “This isn’t right. They left everything to your brother, and now that they’re sick, they come to us.” “Your whole family is playing dumb. Are you all trying to take advantage of us?” Despite Silas’s repeated attempts to stop me, I called Liam. Liam knew I was calling about money, so he immediately started pleading poverty. “Sis, you know our James is only a year old. It’s an expensive time for us. Sarah and I aren’t as capable as you and Silas. Why don’t you cover Dad’s medical expenses for now, and we’ll pay you back when we can afford it?” I had never met such a shameless person. “Liam, that’s not how it works. Your dad has two sons, not just Silas. When you got married, your parents bought you a house and a car. We got nothing. You can’t expect to reap all the benefits and then push all the responsibilities onto us when your dad gets sick.” “Since your dad got sick, you haven’t contributed a penny. It’s always been Silas taking him to the hospital.” “If this is how it’s going to be, I won’t be reasonable anymore. I’ll have Silas drive your dad back to your place tomorrow.” Hearing this, Liam panicked. “No, please don’t, sis. If you send Dad back, Sarah will kill me. Besides, James is still young. Dad goes to the hospital every day, who knows how many germs he’s exposed to. If James gets infected by accident, that would be terrible, you know?” Can you believe what he’s saying? Is this how you talk about your own parents? He’s nothing but an ungrateful brat. And it’s not just their son who matters. My daughter is my precious baby too. Are they saying only their child is valuable? Anyway, my personal principle was clear: if the money didn’t come through, I’d send his father back immediately. Liam had no choice in the end. He transferred $20,000. It wasn’t much, but it helped ease our immediate financial pressure. I thought I had done a great thing. But I didn’t expect to offend Silas’s parents once again. After getting the money, I was quite happy. But Silas’s parents were visibly upset. When I asked why, I found out they were unhappy that I had asked Liam for money. What’s going on here? How did this become my fault? When I got home from work, I saw Silas’s father sitting on the sofa, his face ashen. His mother was muttering beside him. “Oh, poor Liam. He’s already struggling, and now he had to give up $20,000. What will they do?” “They’re not very capable and don’t have stable jobs. Where will they get the money?” “It’s been so long since we’ve seen little James. I wonder how the child is doing.” Hearing her sighs and complaints, I simply ignored them. But my tolerance only made them more overbearing, thinking they could bully me. That evening, because I didn’t have time to go to the supermarket after work, dinner was a bit simple. Two vegetable dishes and one meat dish. Feeling it wasn’t enough, I even cut up a sausage. I thought I had done well enough. But when Silas’s father saw the dishes on the table, he threw his chopsticks away. “If you want us to leave, just say so. No need for this.” I was bewildered. What had I done wrong? “Eating like this every day, there’s no taste in my mouth, no nutrition at all. I think you’re doing this on purpose!”
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