The Daughter In Law

“Left everything he had to me, you ever wondered why he did that? Obviously he knew something about his own daughter that the rest of us couldn’t see. And before you tell me about your rights as squatters or whatever else you may have up your sleeve, your criminal activity put paid to that.

Yes mom, I know about the guy you hired to run my wife off the road. I know about the fake profiles you made up to stalk her on the Internet. I intercepted everything you tried to do to her, and because of that she never had a moment’s worry, because she never knew. All the time you thought you were harassing her it was me and the people I hired for just that purpose, who were playing along until this moment.” She looked like she was about to have one of her famous heart attacks but I could care less.

This wasn’t a mother sitting across from me. I don’t know what it was, but there wasn’t one maternal bone left in this thing if there ever had been. I’d had to do something no grown son should ever have to. I’d had to replay every moment of my life with her to see which parts were real and which were for her own personal benefit.

“You can’t just do something like this, can he Clarence?” Dad didn’t say anything, just kept staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

“I’m sorry you got caught in the middle dad but you’ll survive, you still have the business and although you’ve let her spend your money as soon as you made it, I looked into your records and you should be able to keep your head above water, if you put a stop to her shit. You won’t be able to live in the fashion you’ve been accustomed to, but at least you won’t be on the street.”

“But I don’t understand, why do you even want the house? It’s not like you don’t already have a perfectly fine one. This is all just one big misunderstanding, we’ll just work this out…”

“There’s nothing to work out, I’ve made up my mind. Your mistake was that you didn’t use your eyes or your head. You painted me with the same brush as you; thought I couldn’t love. I love her with everything that’s in me, more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything before. As to the house, that’s up to Vanessa, maybe she might want to move in there to raise our children since it has all that extra space, or she could use it as a showplace for her talent later on when and if she decides to go back to work.”

“Oh I could so revamp that place, it would be kickass.” I knew her over exuberance was hiding her nervousness. This wasn’t how I wanted this shit to go down, I didn’t want any of this touching her. I squeezed her hand again and she settled down. I wasn’t kidding either; the house was hers to do whatever the fuck she wanted. That was my fuck you to mom, I knew it would burn her ass to have Vanessa having any control of the place, whether we moved in or she used it for her designing business.

“This is all your fault, you...” I was expecting the move and grabbed her arm as she reached out to strike my wife.

“I’ll break it the fuck off I swear, and you’ve just knocked one more day off your stay. Two days, I’ll have someone there to look after my interest and make sure there’s no damage to my property. And remember, if you take anything of mine I’ll have you brought up on charges. They’re bringing our food out now, you may leave.” I kept my face stone cold as I glared at her. Her tears didn’t move me; I was done.

If there’d been any semblance of compassion left in me for her, it died when I sat and listened to a tape of her putting a hit out on my wife. Not only that, but she’d wanted her to suffer knowing that she carried my child, her own grandchild. What she didn’t know was that her being kicked out of the house was just the first step in my campaign. I wanted that for Vanessa, the humiliation and desperation. But in a few days I was taking those tapes to the cops and let the chips fall where they may. I wasn’t taking any more chances with my wife’s safety and Mabel had proven that she wouldn’t stop.

There were two very beaten people who stood from that table, at least dad didn’t look like the wind had been knocked out of his sails, but mom was a wreck. She didn’t even seem too worried about her image as she walked out of the place bawling.