The next morning, Janet burst into our apartment without knocking, her face red with fury.
“Take it down!” she screamed, waving her phone in my face.
“Do you have any idea what people are saying about me? I’m being humiliated! My friends, my church group, everyone’s seen it!”
“You humiliated yourself when you decided to try on my dress without permission.”
“Mark!” she turned to her son.
“Tell her to take it down!”
Mark looked between us, his face pale. “Mom, maybe if you just offered to replace the dress —”
“Replace it? After what she’s done?” Janet’s voice reached a pitch that probably only dogs could hear.
“Never!”
I looked at Mark, really looked at him. At the way he shrunk from conflict, the way he’d let his mother walk all over both of us, the way he’d betrayed my trust without a second thought.
“You’re right, Janet,” I said quietly. “The dress doesn’t need to be replaced.”
I slipped my engagement ring off my finger and placed it on the coffee table.
“Because there won’t be a wedding. I deserve better than a man who won’t stand up for me, and better than a mother-in-law who has no respect for boundaries.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Janet’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water.
Mark started to speak, but I walked to the door and held it open.
“Please leave. Both of you.”
As I watched them go, I felt lighter than I had in months.
Source: amomama
