Chapter 2

The moment I finished, the whole room sucked in a sharp breath. Everyone had thought the youngest son was hauled off just for stealing. No one had imagined there was so much more underneath.

"Shut your mouth! Are you trying to drag our whole family's name through the mud? You just can't stand your own brother-in-law! You vicious woman!"

My mother-in-law screamed and wept at me at the same time.

I looked at the necklace around his neck, millions of dollars of it, the one I'd just bought him. The custom-label outfit on his back, worth six figures, I'd had made for him only last month.

He'd enjoyed every last bit of it, and now I was the ungrateful one. Truly laughable.

I ignored her cursing and turned to the rest of the room. "If any of you are curious, you're welcome to look up the scandal from back then online. As for tonight's party, I think we'll end it here."

Then I turned to the youngest son and my mother-in-law. "You love him so much, so let him pay for tonight. I won't stand in the way of him being a good son to you. Otherwise you'll only say I'm putting on an act again."

That was when my husband couldn't take it anymore and stepped in for them. "He's suffered enough these past years. And Mom hasn't had it easy either. He only wanted to see his son. Why do you have to be so merciless?"

My father-in-law joined in to talk me down. "That's right, that's right. Today was supposed to be our celebration. Give us a little face."

I almost laughed from the anger. Who exactly was refusing to give whom any face here.

"When your mother forced you to drop out of school back then, you didn't think your brother had it so hard. So what are you playing the good guy for now?"

His face went dark at once, and he didn't dare say another word.

The youngest son nearly fainted at all this, putting on his frail, delicate act, and the sight only made my mother-in-law angrier.

"Look at you. You're trying to push our whole family to death. All that meekness back then was fake. I can see now we never should have let you in the door! So your brother-in-law took your husband's tuition, that's all. And this is how you get your revenge?"

She left me completely speechless. I laughed coldly, several times over. "Just the tuition? We bought him his million-dollar new car. I paid for his two-million-dollar wedding!"

"And his five-hundred-thousand mortgage! Wasn't that me too? How much of your own money have you ever given him?"

My mother-in-law's expression shifted, a flicker of guilt in her eyes.

"You're lying! That money was all spent on this family! How it got spent is none of your business!"

Every single time, they came to me for money. To keep this family peaceful and steady, to keep my husband from being caught in the middle, I'd given in again and again, telling myself that even a peace I paid for was still worth having.

And all I got was a pack of ingrates.

Seeing that she still wouldn't back down, I simply pulled out the bills. The relatives crowded in, wanting a clear look, and her eyes went red on the spot.

Her hand came flying and struck me hard across the face.

"You cheap slut, who gave you permission to do this!"