Sometimes, my sister and I found ourselves with the same mother-in-law. Everyone adored my husband he talked up a storm. He courted me, but stole secret glances at my sister as well. The day Edward learnt my grandmother had left me her cottage in Oxford and not Charlotte, he proposed to me without delay.
By that point, my sister was already pregnant; she had secretly planned to marry Edward herself and hoped to tie him down that way. In the end, she lied to her old flame Martin, insisting the child was his, just to have some sort of man beside her.
Edward and I moved into a cramped house tucked beside my in-laws place in Kent. When their neighbours decided to sell the adjoining plot, Edward persuaded me to sell the cottage and buy up the land. I acquiesced. Yet building called for a bank loan as well.
That mother-in-law of mine never let me be. Every little thing set her off; she doted on her daughter, barking at me as though I were hired help. When our house was finished, she flattened the fence, letting her pack of terriers run wild in our garden, knowing full well how I quailed at the mere sight of dogs. Always making herself queen of the roost. I begged Edward to speak with her, but he only ever said I was blowing things out of proportion.
I couldnt bear it any longer. Off to court I went, hoping to claim my share of the house and buy a flat for myself. But to my horror, I learned the sole owner on the deeds was not us but my mother-in-law. Whatever trickery they’d played, I was left homeless.
Right about then, Edward discovered that my sister inherited a London flat from our father. Swiftly, he set about wrecking her marriage by telling her husband, Martin, the truth that he was the biological father of her daughter. I divorced Edward, and he pulled precisely the same stunt with Charlotte as he had with me.
All this time, Charlotte and I had no contact; I only stumbled upon the news of them being together by the most peculiar chance. Yet, when Charlotte realised hed tricked her as well, she proposed we join forces.
Blundering through a patchwork of recollections and whispered conversations from neighbours, we discovered the truth: our mother-in-law and Edward had managed to buy five plots thanks to gullible women. Edwards pattern was always the same bring his wife to the family home, swiftly file for divorce, leaving them empty-handed.
We rallied the wronged women, crafting a class action. But the moment for justice slipped away Edward had vanished abroad. The mother-in-law stayed in England, clutching her claim on our children, her only grandchildren.
She even took us to court, insisting we were unfit mothers as no property bore our name. But each woman was duly granted a place to live, and her fraudulent machinations were laid bare. Following the trial, the court demanded we ensure our children could visit their grandmother uninhibited.
The most unsettling thing is how our mother-in-law poisons the children against us. The narrative in her home is always the same: she is righteous, and we are heartless. She sours our happiness, demands investigations, even teaches the girls to lie about smoking and drink. They now threaten us: if we dont buy them new tablets, theyll call social services.
Ill take my grandchildren from you. Just wait! the mother-in-law shrieks, her voice echoing through my dreams.
What are we to do, drifting in this shadowy struggle? How can we face her relentless spite? She has wronged us so, but will not rest.
