Chapter 1
My husband slapped me across the face in the middle of Christmas dinner because I gave my sick mother $5,000 for medical treatment. When the bowl of hot soup spilled across me, my mother-in-law just sat there and smiled.
I had spent all morning cooking for Ryan’s family at our home outside Chicago.
By seven o’clock, everyone was sitting around the dining table pretending we were one happy family.
Then Ryan’s mother, Linda, looked at me and said, “So where did the money go?”
I froze.
Ryan slowly put down his glass.
“What money?”
Linda smiled.
“The five thousand dollars missing from your joint savings.”
I looked at my husband.
“I was going to tell you tonight.”
His face hardened.
“Tell me what?”
“My mom needs tests and treatment, and her insurance won’t cover everything.”
Ryan stared at me like I had admitted to stealing.
“So you gave her five thousand dollars?”
“She’s my mother.”
Before I could say anything else, he stood up and slapped me.
The entire table went silent.
I stumbled backward into the serving cart.
A bowl of hot soup tipped over and poured across my arm and dress.
I cried out and dropped to the floor.
Ryan didn’t move to help me.
“You had no right to take that money.”
I looked toward Linda.
She was watching me with a cold smile.
“I told you she would always choose her own family over us,” she said.
My hands were shaking from the pain.
“I earn half the money in that account.”
Ryan leaned down toward me.
“Not anymore.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
Linda calmly picked up her napkin.
“Tell her, Ryan.”
He looked suddenly nervous.
I pushed myself up from the floor.
“Tell me what?”
Then my phone rang on the kitchen counter.
It was my mother.
I answered with trembling fingers.
But it wasn’t her voice on the other end.
A man said, “Mrs. Carter, your mother never received the $5,000.”
I stopped breathing.
Then he added, “Someone transferred it out of her account this morning.”
May you like
I slowly turned toward Ryan.
And Linda’s smile disappeared.
