“If you can’t behave like a real wife, pack your things and go back to your parents,” Beatrice’s remark landed on the New Year’s table like a sharp slap in the face.
Peyton put her fork down next to her plate of cod while her mother-in-law continued to glare at her with disdain. Her sister-in-law, Susan, smiled cheerfully as she checked her phone, and her husband of three years, Craig, did not even bother to look up.
“Mom, that’s enough, because it’s the end of the year,” Craig murmured softly.
“What do you mean by enough?” Beatrice retorted sharply. “You have been married three years and there is not a single child, while he works all day, comes home late, and still has to eat this bland food. Tell me, Craig, is that why you got married?”
Peyton felt like something vital inside her had just broken completely.
For three whole years, she had paid the mortgage on that luxury apartment in the Northwood neighborhood of Minneapolis, along with the maintenance fees, electricity, water, gas, groceries, and even a good part of the living expenses for Beatrice and Susan. They had originally said they would stay for a few weeks, but they had been living there for almost two full years.
Nobody ever mentioned her financial contribution.
To them, Peyton was simply the girl from a humble background who had been exceptionally lucky to marry Craig.
“Besides, my mom is completely right, because even I cook much better than this,” Susan added with a smirk.
Peyton turned her head to look directly at her husband. “Are you going to say something to them?”
Craig let out a heavy breath and sighed. “You know how my mom is, so please don’t take it personally.”
That response hurt Peyton far more than all the cruel insults combined.
Peyton stood up immediately from the dining table. “Alright then.”
“Okay, what?” Beatrice asked coldly.
“I am leaving right now,” Peyton replied.
For the very first time, her mother-in-law’s arrogant smile disappeared entirely.
Peyton walked straight into the bedroom and pulled out a sturdy suitcase she had prepacked days ago. She carefully placed her personal documents, clothing, laptop, and a small frame containing family photographs inside it.
Craig followed her into the room with an annoyed expression. “Don’t make a big scene out of this, because we can just talk tomorrow.”
“Your mother just kicked me out of the house, and you are asking me not to make a scene?” Peyton asked.
“Just hang in there a little longer, because what will your family say if you leave today?” Craig pressed.
Peyton looked at him for a long time before answering. “That is what worries you the most, isn’t it, just what other people will say?”
She picked up her luggage and walked out the front door without looking back.
Beatrice crossed her arms in the hallway and sneered. “And when you get tired of being crammed into your parents’ house, don’t think you are going to come back here and set conditions for us.”
Peyton took out her cell phone, made two quick taps on the bright screen, and put the device away. “Happy new year to you all.”
She closed the heavy front door firmly behind her.
Half an hour later, she arrived at her parents’ modest house in the working-class district of Bloomington, hugging her mother tightly and trying hard not to cry.
At eleven fifty that night, Craig suddenly discovered that the apartment’s gas tank was completely empty. The high-speed internet service was suddenly suspended for lack of subscription renewal, and the building manager sent a text to inform him that the coming month’s maintenance fee would no longer be automatically debited from the usual card.
Craig called Peyton immediately in a panic. “What did you just do?”
She responded with a deep calmness that chilled him to the bone. “I stopped paying for a house that, according to your mother, I no longer have any room in.”
“Peyton, please don’t be so childish right now,” Craig pleaded.
There was a heavy silence on the line before Peyton spoke again. “Craig, that apartment is entirely mine because I bought it two years before I ever married you. It is registered solely under my legal name, and you lived here for three years only because I allowed it. Today your mother kicked me out of my own home, and you stood there and let her do it.”
Craig completely lost his voice as realization hit him.
“Talk to my lawyer tomorrow, and tell your mother that this time I actually listened to her advice,” Peyton added.
Peyton hung up the phone instantly.
Back in the living room, Beatrice asked in an irritable tone, “So when is she coming back?”
Craig looked up from his phone, looking deathly pale. “Mom, I don’t think we ever actually knew who this house really belonged to.”
And none of the three people in that room could imagine what was going to happen next.
PART 2
The very next morning, Beatrice was still fully convinced that everything could be fixed easily with a simple apology.
“Let’s go find her right now, because I will talk to her and that will be it,” Beatrice ordered firmly.
Craig drove straight to Bloomington with his mother and Susan sitting in the car. During the drive, his younger sister looked out the window and blurted out, “Did Peyton really grow up here, because no wonder she never talked about her family.”
“Shut up right now, because you are not going to ruin anything today,” Beatrice interrupted her sharply.
Peyton’s father, Thomas, opened the front door and hardened his face the second he saw them standing there. “What do you people want from us?”
“We have come to take Peyton back home,” Craig said quickly.
Thomas let out a harsh, dry laugh. “Are you coming for the same woman you let run away from her own house last night?”
Beatrice swallowed her pride with difficulty. “I was wrong, but I only said those things in anger, and we are family after all.”
“Family was when my daughter had a fever of thirty-nine degrees and you sent her to the emergency room completely alone,” Thomas countered sternly. “Family was when she spent her birthday waiting for a dinner that none of you showed up for, or when she got up early to bring you breakfast before going to work.”
Craig lowered his gaze in deep shame. His father-in-law clearly knew far too much about his neglect.
Then Lucinda, Peyton’s mother, appeared right beside her husband. “My daughter does not want to see any of you today.”
“Please,” Craig begged desperately. “At least tell her we need to sort out the situation with the apartment.”
Thomas looked at him in total disbelief. “Did you come here for your wife, or did you just come for the apartment?”
Nobody in the group answered his question.
“Peyton has already spoken with a professional lawyer,” Lucinda continued calmly. “She is going to officially start the divorce proceedings.”
Beatrice took an aggressive step forward. “You cannot just do that to us like that!”
“You were able to kick her out just like that,” Lucinda replied firmly. “Now you can deal with the consequences.”
The front door closed tightly in their faces.
Upon returning to the car, Craig finally told his family the whole truth. Peyton was not just a basic administrative employee like his mother had always imagined. She was actually the regional finance director for a massive international corporation, meaning she earned several times more than him and had bought that apartment entirely with her own personal money.
Beatrice was left completely speechless by the revelation.
Susan started crying loudly when Craig announced that they would soon have to move out. “I cannot afford to rent a place for all three of us on my income, so Susan, you really need to find a job right now.”
“Are you kicking me out too?” Susan asked through tears.
“No, I am telling you that we can no longer live off someone else’s hard efforts,” Craig answered tiredly.
That same afternoon, as Craig was frantically searching online for cheap apartments, he received an urgent phone call from his company’s Human Resources department.
Someone had formally reported him for accepting an eight hundred fifty thousand dollar bribe from an outside supplier, and there was an alleged bank receipt attached as proof.
“That is completely false,” Craig said, feeling the floor disappear beneath his feet.
“There will be an official investigation, and in the meantime, you will be suspended immediately,” the HR representative stated.
