Baby-in-Law

Before we went to meet my boyfriend's parents, he swore to me and said, "Don't worry, my mom is easy to get along with. She's just a little naive." I believed him and showed up with gifts. The moment the door opened, I froze in the entryway. My future mother-in-law was wearing a pale pink baby onesie! My eyes nearly popped out, but my boyfriend simply laughed. "It's just my mom's hobby. Don't let it bother you too much." I took a deep breath and offered her my gifts. "Hello, ma'am. It's so nice to meet you. These are just some gifts..." But before I could finish, my boyfriend's mother's eyes suddenly turned red, and she began to whimper. "Why are you calling me ma'am? I'm just a baby!" Chapter 1 I stood there holding my box of expensive dried wild Morel mushrooms gift set and tea, my fingers so stiff they were starting to cramp. I glanced at my boyfriend, Raymond Smith. He looked just as uncomfortable. He leaned closer and whispered, "My mom has always stayed home and never had to deal with much. She cries easily, so don't let it bother you. I'm sure she isn't trying to pick on you." I forced a smile while screaming inside. This was what he called "crying easily"? This was "a little naive"?! My future father-in-law, Jason Smith, had seen it all before. He got up from the couch, pulled his wife Brandy into his arms, and patted her back. "Don't cry, Dee Dee. This is her first time here. Don't scare her, okay?" Still sniffling, Brandy peeked out from his arms and looked at me the way a child might study a newly hired nanny. "Call her Sis," Jason reminded me. I took a deep breath, set the gifts on the cabinet by the entryway, and forced myself to say something. "Hello, Sis. It's nice to meet you. I brought you some gifts." Brandy brightened. She slipped out of Jason's arms, padded over in her slippers, and rummaged through my gifts. "What did you buy? Did you get Dee Dee any candy?" She opened the bag, saw the dried mushrooms and pouted. "But Dee Dee doesn't eat this." My smile was about to crack. Raymond hurried to calm things down. "Mom, Fran bought that supplement for you. She picked it out herself." Brandy huffed and pushed the mushrooms aside. She then curled up on the couch with her knees to her chest and said, "Dee Dee is thirsty." Jason went to pour her a glass of water immediately. Before handing it to her, he even blew on it and checked the temperature. I sat on the couch uncomfortably the entire time. Brandy kept sniffling and glancing at me, even after we had talked for more than ten minutes. Raymond and Jason passed her tissue papers and snacks without missing a beat. Looking at how practiced they were, they must have been doing this for more than a decade. I gave halfhearted answers and swallowed every comment that I wanted to say. Dinner finally began. Trying to put me at ease, Raymond served me first and served the steak on my plate. Brandy slammed her fork and knife onto the table. "My son already forgets his mother the moment he finds a wife!" Her eyes turned red, and her voice shook. "You always served me first in the past!" The table went silent for a beat. Jason quickly put a steak on her plate. "Don't cry, Dee Dee. There are plenty left." Brandy cried harder. "No! I want one from my son! He doesn't love Dee Dee anymore!" Jason spent ten full minutes trying to calm her down. She finally quieted down after Raymond put three more well-sliced pieces of steak onto her plate. Even then, she sniffled as she ate and glared at me through her tears. My fork and knife hung in midair. I had taken one bite of the steak, but I could neither swallow it nor spit it out. Chapter 2 Raymond and Jason were both embarrassed, so they changed the subject and started talking about when Raymond and I might get married. Jason faked a cough and said, "Since the two of you are doing well together, we'll make sure you're taken care of when you join the family. For your financial security, I'll give you three percent of the company's shares. Consider it a small gift." I declined at once. "There's no need for that. That's far too valuable." What I really thought was that I would have to be insane to join a family with a mother-in-law like this. Forget three percent, I wouldn't even marry Raymond for thirty percent. Besides, my family had our own company too. Such a small amount of shares weren't that valuable to me. Brandy caught the word "shares" and started another scene. "What did you say? You're giving what's mine to that gold digger? All of you lied to Dee Dee!" She charged around the table and raised her hand. I leaned back, but her nails still scraped my cheek as she swiped down. I could still feel the pain on my cheeks. Raymond stepped between us. He finally snapped after he was being humiliated like this. "Mom, stop it!" Brandy exploded the moment Raymond said that. "You yelled at me! You actually yelled at me because of an outsider!" She grabbed plates on the table and hurled them at us. A ceramic bowl shattered beside my feet, and pieces bounced off my pants. Jason stepped forward to stop her. A glass struck his temple with a sharp crack with a loud clang. Blood trickled down the side of his face. I was bewildered. "This is all your fault! You brought this woman home, and now none of you love me! Poor me! Poor Dee Dee!" Brandy sobbed so hard she could barely breathe. Then her eyes rolled back, her body went rigid, and she fell backward. It took a long time to calm her down and get her breathing back to normal. Jason sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see that, Fran." I shook my head. "It's fine. I... I should go home. Thank you for having me today." Raymond grabbed my wrist. "Don't go. It's already dark, and you live so far away. Stay here for the night at least." I looked out the window. It was true that night had fallen, and no cab would come this far into the gated community. After a brief hesitation, I nodded. Jason carried Brandy, who had cried herself to sleep, back to the bedroom. Raymond and I sat in the living room with the aftermath of what happened just now still scattered across the floor. A long silence passed before Raymond finally said something. "My mom has been like this since I was little." He looked down and rubbed his fingers together. "She's been this way for as long as I can remember. When I was four, I had to learn how to manage her moods. I had to keep her from crying, getting angry, or feeling ignored..." I frowned. "When you were four?" "Yeah." Raymond looked up as if the answer were obvious. "But isn't that normal? Children should take care of their mothers. It's only right." The more he said, the worse it sounded to me. Only right? What kind of adult made a four-year-old take care of his mother? She had reversed their roles! The adults had made a child responsible for meeting their emotional needs. One look at Raymond's face told me he thought all of this was normal, and I felt sorry for him. He had been taught this since childhood. He had no idea what a healthy relationship between a mother and son looked like. "Listen." I met his eyes. "This relationship is unhealthy. Your mother should have taken care of you, not the other way around. In a healthy relationship, a mother cares for her child, and the child loves her in return." Raymond froze. His lips moved, but no words came out. We talked for hours. From how she was having her meltdowns, how he had to soothe her, and how he gave in every time. Chapter 3 Raymond said his mother hadn't been like this when she was younger. She had slowly changed after his father's business became successful, though he couldn't explain why. I said it was not normal, but he said they had lived this way for years. And I said that was exactly why it was so terrifying for him to have lived like this for so many years. The living room lights cast a dim yellow glow. The door to the master bedroom upstairs had been creaked open, and neither of us noticed. - I woke at first light after barely sleeping. I got ready, packed my bag, and planned to say goodbye to Raymond before leaving. Every second in that house made me feel suffocating. I could feel sorry for Raymond, but I wouldn't gamble away the rest of my life. When I opened the bedroom door, a figure in pink fell right toward me. She collapsed at my feet and burst into tears. "She pushed me! This bad woman pushed Dee Dee!" I stared at her in disbelief. "Dee Dee hurts so much from the fall!" Brandy lay on the floor, pounding it as she wailed. "She pushed Dee Dee on purpose! Dee Dee doesn't want to live anymore!" The noise brought Raymond and Jason running from their rooms. As soon as Brandy saw them, she crawled over and threw herself into Jason's arms. "I don't want her in our family! She's a bad woman! Last night, she tried to turn my son against me! Dee Dee heard everything!" She cried until she hiccupped. "Dee Dee is still a baby! I won't let my son find a wife so soon! Dee Dee wants him to stay with me forever!" For once, Jason didn't rush to comfort her. Instead, he stood there frowning. The company had been struggling lately, and his patience was already thin. He rubbed his temple and sighed. "You..." "Sir," I cut in. "You don't need to say anything." I looked down at Brandy, who was still on the floor wiping away tears. "Brandy, you misunderstood something. I do love Raymond…but anyone who met a future mother-in-law like you would break up with him without hesitation." Raymond looked hurt, then lowered his head. Brandy stopped crying for a second. "You have security cameras in this house, don't you?" I asked as I pointed to the corner of the hallway ceiling. "You said I pushed you, so check the footage. Otherwise, I could never afford to make up for poor little Dee Dee's injuries." Brandy's face turned pale. "You..." Her lips trembled. Jason looked at the camera and fell silent. He said nothing, but his silence told me everything. Pain appeared on Raymond's face. He looked at his mother, then at me. He hurried after me and caught my arm. "Let me explain. My mom..." "Don't," I said as I pulled free and headed downstairs without looking back. "Let's just break up. With no hard feelings." Behind me, I heard Jason speak sharply to his wife for the first time. "That's enough!" Brandy screamed through her tears. "You yelled at Dee Dee for that woman! You're all bullying Dee Dee!" I hurried down the stairs, my heels clacking as I walked down each step outside. My phone kept vibrating with texts from Raymond. [I'm sorry... I didn't know this would happen... Can you give me a chance to explain...] I ignored every one of those texts. I took a cab home and collapsed onto the couch. My phone buzzed again. This time, the text came from an unknown number. [What spell did you cast on my son? He fought with me over you! I'll never let you into my family! Just you see] The message drained what little energy I had left. I tossed my phone onto the coffee table and sank deeper into the couch. Chapter 4 How could there be a woman as insane as Brandy? She was over forty and had spent twenty years pretending she was a baby. I thought about how Jason had enabled her… Most of the blame lay with him. Raymond flooded me with texts all night. I didn't answer any of them. His last text came at three in the morning. [I now know that my family isn't normal, but I can't leave her yet. Give me some time.] I read it five times, then locked my phone. - At eight the next morning, pounding on my front door woke me up. "Open the door, thief! Open the door for Dee Dee!" Brandy's voice pierced the door, and her pounding triggered every sound-activated light in the building. I rubbed my eyes, got up, and looked through the peephole. She stood there with her head raised, fierce and determined. I took a deep breath and opened the door. As soon as she saw me, she charged inside and smacked me in the face with a stack of papers. "You stole company documents! My husband asked Dee Dee to keep those secrets safe! You're a corporate spy!" The pages scattered across the floor. Several nearly cut my eyes. I looked down. These weren't secrets; they were ordinary copies of meeting minutes without even the company's official stamp. "Are you done?" I asked calmly. "Dee Dee isn't making a fuss!" she shrieked, stomping her feet. "You're a thief! Dee Dee will call the police and have you arrested!" "Then call them." I spoke quietly, but she stopped as if she was choked. Instead, I took out my phone and called the police in front of her. "Hello. Someone is falsely accusing me of stealing confidential business documents. Please send an officer..." She lunged for my phone. I simply stepped back, and she fell across the doorway. That was when Jason and Raymond arrived just then. They were both wearing suits and had rushed over from the office. Their faces were equally grim. Jason saw the papers scattered across the floor and his wife lying there crying, his head throbbing. He roared for the first time in a long time. "What are you up to now?!" Brandy scrambled up and threw herself at him. "She stole things! Look, honey! She scattered the company secrets everywhere!" Raymond walked forward and picked up the papers. His expression darkened as he flipped through them. "Mom, these are just the minutes from last week's meeting. They aren't even classified." "If Dee Dee says they're company secrets, then they're company secrets!" Brandy screamed. "Stop talking!" For the first time, Raymond shouted at his mother. "She's our business partner! Why would she need anything from you? The entire project is a partnership with her family's company. How could she steal documents for a project her own company is part of? Besides, you accused her of stealing these papers, but you're the one who brought them here." Brandy shrank back. Her lips trembled, and tears still clung to her face. I stepped away from the doorway, bent down, and picked up the remaining papers one by one. After stacking them neatly, I spoke. "Maybe you're the one who stole company secrets." Brandy raised her head up suddenly and glared at me. She lunged at me again, but Jason managed to catch her wrist. His face went from red with anger to pale. He stared at the woman who had spent twenty years crying, and his voice came out hoarse. "Make one more scene, and I'll divorce you. Raymond will cut ties with you, too."