Chapter 2

The room went dead silent.

Jessica couldn't hold the wounded look on her face any longer. Instinctively, she glanced at Alfred.

His expression darkened. "Bernice, do you really have to do this? It's just ten thousand dollars. I'll give it to you for my mom!"

He reached to transfer the money right there, and I put up a hand to stop him.

"Alfred, this is the gift for calling her Mom. Are you asking me to call you Mom?"

His face changed. "Bernice, don't push it. What's wrong with me covering it for my mother?"

My voice stayed even. "Alfred, we're legally married. Your money is marital property. You're using my money to pay your mother's gift, and your mother puts in nothing. That's a pretty clever arrangement."

His face went black.

Jessica's eyes reddened, and she launched right into her act.

"Don't fight over me. I'll give it."

"Bernie, sweetheart, look, the bank won't open for another hour. How about this. I'll write you an IOU first, and the moment the ceremony's over, I'll go straight to the bank and get it for you. Does that work?"

She turned as she spoke, asked someone for pen and paper, and wrote out the IOU.

[Forcing her mother-in-law to write an IOU on her wedding day. I've already got the trending headline planned out. Bernice, dig your own grave. I'll have you calling me Mom like a good girl, and posting a public apology to me online too!]

She held the IOU out in front of me and forced a smile.

"Bernie, this settles it, doesn't it? Can you change how you address me now?"

[Little brat. Let's see you hold out. All those short dramas I watched would be wasted if I couldn't get a grip on you!]

I stared at the IOU for two seconds and didn't take it.

"Ma'am, I don't need an IOU. Whenever you give me the gift, that's when I'll call you Mom."

Jessica's expression froze, tears still on her face.

Clearly she hadn't expected me to be this impossible to budge.

Alfred finally lost it and grabbed my arm. "Bernice, what are you actually trying to do? Today is our big day. Do you have to make a scene?"

"You think I'm making a scene?"

"Aren't you? It's just the gift money. Are seven years together worth less to you than ten thousand dollars? When did you get so money-hungry?"

The moment the words money-hungry left his mouth, the looks around me shifted. Even the wedding car driver was suddenly sizing me up.

I almost laughed.

His brother had drained the family accounts getting married last year. By the time it was our turn, there was no bride price, no gold jewelry, and my parents had paid for the house outright. The candy, the wedding planner, the wedding photos, all paid for by my family. I never saw so much as a pair of socks from his side, and now he was calling me money-hungry?

Alfred and I were classmates in college. He wasn't especially handsome, but he was exactly my type.

I chased him from freshman year all the way through senior year, four full years, and only got him right before graduation.

Three years in, I followed him back to his city and settled down there.

He couldn't put up a bride price, so I told him not to bother.

He couldn't afford a house, so my family bought one.

He said keep the wedding simple, and my parents, aching for me, covered every expense.

I did all of that, and his family didn't even want to hand over ten thousand for the gift, and used one cent to humiliate me instead.

I forced the anger back down and looked him dead in the eye. "Alfred, you call me money-hungry. So when my mom handed you that ten thousand a minute ago, how did you take it with such a clear conscience?"

"Should I go through the accounts with you right now?"

Jessica's and Alfred's faces changed at the same instant.

[She can't be allowed to say it. I told all the relatives I paid a hundred and eighty-eight thousand for the bride price. They all think our family bought the wedding house. If she blurts it out, where does that leave my face?]

She quickly softened her tone. "Bernie, don't hold it against Alfred. He just loves me too much and spoke without thinking. Mom knows you're not that kind of person."

Her explanation was vague and slippery, and his relatives looked at me as if they'd just gotten their answer confirmed, contempt and anger both.

I didn't expose her. I just corrected her. "Still haven't called you Mom. It's still ma'am."

She went rigid, shooting me a look of disbelief, then a moment later piled that wounded expression back on.

"If you don't want to call me Mom, then don't. Ma'am is fine too. It's only a word."

"As long as you and Alfred are happy, I'll go along with whatever you say. Can we go upstairs and get through the ceremony now?"

That little speech, retreat in name but advance in fact, nailed me firmly to the pillar of the ungrateful daughter-in-law. I was the one being unreasonable now.

My Aunt Diana had come along to see me off, and though she was furious, she still stepped up to coax me.

"Bernie, today's your big day. Don't let a small thing like this spoil the mood. Get through the ceremony first, and whatever needs saying can wait."

Aunt Priscilla lowered her voice too. "Bernie, we've already covered the big costs. This ten thousand or so isn't worth it. Don't worry your parents."

Picturing my parents worn out over this wedding, I finally swallowed it down.

Jessica said nothing more, but the look on her face told me she wasn't about to concede.

I sneered inwardly. It was just one day. I'd handle it carefully and be done.

But at the door of the new home, the moment I stepped inside, I froze.