Deborah blinked, visibly thrown.
“Of course not, but Todd—”
Mom cut her off with a razor-sharp smile.
“Allow me to enlighten you. My daughter bought this apartment with her divorce settlement—you remember, the one you gleefully gossiped about at church? Yes, both she and Todd saved, but when the final check was cut, it was her money that closed the deal.
That’s why the apartment is legally hers. Solely in her name. As per the purchase agreement.”
A shocked murmur rippled through the guests.
Todd’s head jerked up!
I could see the truth hit him like a truck.
We’d both saved. We’d both looked. But after my divorce, I invested wisely, and when it came time to sign the paperwork for the apartment, I’d done it myself.
Not out of spite, just habit. After what I’d been through, I needed a safety net.
Todd never asked. And I hadn’t told.
Until now.
Deborah’s jaw tensed. “Well, she can’t seriously think she owns—”
“I can,” I said, finding my voice. “And I do.”
My mom wasn’t done.
“As the legal owner, my daughter gets to decide who stays and who goes. Given your… delightful welcome, I think it’s safe to say you’ll be leaving.”
Deborah sputtered, turning desperately to Todd. “You’re going to let them talk to me like this?”
He stepped forward, finally!
“Mom,” he said, his voice firmer than I’d ever heard it, “you’re not staying here.
And you will never—ever—speak about Meredith like that again.”
She looked at him like he’d slapped her!
“You would choose her over your own mother?” she hissed.
“No,” he replied. “I’m choosing my family.”
Silence.
Then, slowly, Deborah turned. For a second, she looked like she might argue.
But even she saw the writing on the wall. With trembling hands, she dragged her suitcases toward the door.
Marcus cleared his throat loudly. “I’d help, but I think I threw my back out lifting that flamingo.”
Riley, not missing a beat, added, “Besides, entitlement weighs a ton.”
Deborah shot them both a venomous glare and slammed the door behind her!
A week later, we found out the real reason she wanted to move in with us.
She’d sold her house months earlier—assuming, apparently, that we’d be her retirement plan. She had to move in with her cousin Brenda, the one she used to call a “clutter-loving hoarder who lives in a shoebox.”
Karma sure has a sense of humor!
After the guests left that night and the dishes were stacked, Todd sat beside me on the couch, holding my hand.
“I should’ve said something sooner,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“You did it when it mattered,” I said softly.
Todd was a mama’s boy, and until today, he usually just avoided any confrontation with his mother.
She was a bully who liked steamrolling him, but this time, she’d met her match in Helen. It seemed seeing my mother stand up to his mother pushed Todd to finally take a stand.
He looked down the hallway, where Meredith and my mom were hosting a “butterfly room tea party” in my daughter’s bedroom—a trend that happened every Sunday. Helen and my daughter had been close over the years, but that day, they became best friends as their friendship grew tighter.
“She’s my daughter too,” he said.
“No one talks about her that way. Not even my mother.”
I leaned against him, tears prickling my eyes.
“I wonder why she’d insist on kicking a five-year-old out instead of just asking to use the guest room,” I said aloud.
“My mother is strange like that. I think she wanted a reason to cause a commotion and wasn’t thinking straight.
Sometimes her decisions just aren’t rational,” he replied laughing.
That night, we curled up in bed, just the three of us. Meredith, sandwiched in the middle, clutching her favorite stuffed turtle. I watched her sleep, safe and peaceful, and I knew something had shifted.
We hadn’t just kicked out a toxic MIL.
We’d kicked out the last of my old fears.
And we’d made room for something better.
Something real.
Source: amomama
