My Boss Sister-in-Law Trained Me Into Wife, Then Regretted

At my engagement party with Ervin Rowe.

That was the first time I met Juliana Rowe, the older sister the whole family bragged about, a manager at a government agency.

She gave me a small nod.

Then tossed me a cash gift.

Evelyn Lawrence, right? I hear you were pampered back home, that your mom raised you like a princess.

"Once you marry in, things are different. Nobody's going to coddle you. You'll have to adjust, so be ready for that."

The words grated.

For Ervin's sake, I said, "Of course. Understood."

After the engagement party ended.

I asked Ervin, "What was your sister getting at?"

He said, "That's just how my sister is. You'll get used to her."

Then he added, "As long as you go along with her, there won't be any trouble."

I caught the undertone.

His sister was out to make my life difficult.

1.

Back when I first met Ervin, I'd already heard he had a sister who was a manager at some government agency, the sharp, no-nonsense type.

Ervin was scared of her. He said she had a harsh tongue and never spared anyone when she laid into them.

Harsh was right. The engagement party had given me a taste of it.

Ervin also said his sister was good at whipping people into shape, that plenty of troublemakers at her agency had come out completely transformed after she got through with them. He'd told me this more than once.

I didn't understand why he kept bringing it up, and I didn't think much of it.

Before I knew it, our wedding day arrived.

Juliana ran the ceremony herself.

The moment the guests scattered, she called Ervin and me over.

"You two, once the honeymoon's over, you're moving back here to live."

I didn't follow.

"Juliana, we have our own place. Why would we move back here?"

"Your in-laws only have the one son. They watched Ervin grow up, and out of nowhere he won't be around. The house'll feel empty."

There was displeasure in Juliana's tone, as if I should already know this and had no business asking.

I turned to look at Ervin. He kept his head down and said nothing.

Once Juliana left, I asked him, "What are you thinking?"

"My sister said so. We have to listen."

"You go if you want. I'm not."

Seeing I wasn't happy about it, he hurried to explain, "Don't worry, it's only temporary. Once Mom and Dad settle in, we'll move back to our own place."

Temporary I could live with.

Besides, I'm not an unreasonable person.

"Fine."

So the honeymoon ended, and I moved in with Ervin to his parents' house.

The place was over eighteen hundred square feet, with two big bedrooms. His parents took one, Juliana took the other.

That left one small room for Ervin and me.

It stuck in my chest.

I wouldn't fight the old folks for their room, fine. But what gave Juliana, one single woman, the right to the other big bedroom?

I asked my husband, "Whose idea was this?"

He answered without missing a beat. "Juliana set it up."

"And what do you think?"

"It's not for long anyway. Just put up with it."

I didn't say anything else.

This wasn't about putting up with it. His sister was targeting me.

If it was like this on day one, God only knew what came next.

Sure enough, it came.

Early the next morning, while I was still dreaming under the covers, Juliana banged on the door and called me out.

"Evelyn, quit sleeping. You waiting for someone to wait on you?"

"You're the youngest one in this house. If you don't cook, who's going to?"

"Go on, get breakfast started!"

It was too early in the morning to get into it with her.

Besides, my in-laws were still asleep, and I didn't want a scene.

So I went into the kitchen.

My first time cooking there was a mess. The porridge came out too thick, the eggs overcooked.

Still, for a first attempt, it wasn't bad.

At the table, I figured Ervin owed me at least one kind word.

Instead, he glanced at his sister and actually said, "Evie, you tell me. How is anyone supposed to eat food you cooked like this?"

The words caught in my throat.

I turned to look at my in-laws.

They pretended they hadn't heard.

Juliana spoke up.

There was a sneer in her voice.

"Spoiled rotten by her own parents."

Then she looked at her brother.

"Don't talk about your wife that way, though. Nobody's really stupid. It's just a matter of putting your heart into it. Put your heart in and there's nothing you can't do right."

That last part was for me.

The message underneath was clear enough: from now on, the cooking was mine.

Oh. So having us move back here was just to get a free maid.

With my temper, I'd have flipped the table right then.

I didn't.

I held it in. I wanted to hear what my own husband would say.

Surely he couldn't stay quiet at a time like this.

Ervin opened his mouth. "Juliana's right. Evie, I believe you'll only get better and better."

That settled my guess.

So it turned out the whole family was of one mind.

A sneer curled up inside me.

But my face stayed calm as I answered, "Don't worry. I'll try harder."

The family exchanged a look, and they all smiled.

I smiled too. On the inside.

After that.

I started waiting on the whole family at every meal.

Every day before dawn I got up and walked to the market two miles away to buy groceries.

I'd come back, wash the vegetables, trim them, get everything ready in advance.

Every day I came home from work with no time to catch my breath, straight into a change of clothes and into the kitchen.

From morning to night I was worn until my bones felt like they'd come apart.

And while I was busy in the kitchen, what was the rest of them doing?

Not sitting idle, exactly.

Juliana kept my in-laws company, chatting, cracking sunflower seeds, watching TV.

Ervin sprawled on the couch scrolling videos.

Not one of them came into the kitchen to help me.

It wasn't like that at first, actually.

At first Ervin looked like he meant to help. But the second his backside lifted off the couch, his sister shot him a glare, and he sat right back down.

After a while it just became the way things were.

As my soft hands turned rough and my cooking got better and better, I never once heard any praise.

What I heard, always, was criticism.

If the food wasn't too salty it was too bland. If there wasn't too much oil there was too little.

Once, Juliana was eating and suddenly slammed her chopsticks down.

"Evelyn, don't you have a brain? I've told you a hundred times not to put ginger in the sauted mushrooms, and you still did it. What is going on in your head?"

I didn't answer. I turned to look at Ervin.

He kept his head down, eating, not even lifting his eyelids.

As if the one being sneered at wasn't his wife, but some other person entirely.

Little by little.

My heart went cold.

I came back from grocery shopping that day.

Just as I was about to push the door open,

I heard voices coming from inside.

Sis, you're amazing. Evie really is turning into the perfect little homemaker now.

I'm helping you keep your wife in line. Just remember one thing: she has to be scared of you. In this house, she gets no say.

Then came my father-in-law's and mother-in-law's voices.

My daughter really knows her stuff.

This household should be run by my daughter.

There was a door between us, but I could picture it perfectly, that look of triumph and satisfaction on every one of their faces.

Then.

Juliana's voice drifted out, full of feeling.

"Only children these days are all spoiled. None of them want to be a good wife and mother, so you have to be ruthless."

The corner of my mouth curved up.

My patience, they took for weakness they could trample.

My silence, they took for meekness that swallowed everything.

Ruthless, is it.

Fine.

You think you're ruthless. But what you don't know is that I'm more ruthless than any of you. It's just not time yet.

The days passed, one after another.

Word of how I was behaving at my in-laws' got out.

Friends who knew me found it impossible to believe.

One after another, they came to me.

"Evie, you never used to cook, never lifted a finger for housework. How did marriage turn you into a completely different person?"

"Is it that manager sister of your husband's bullying you? If it is, just say so, and we'll stand up for you."

To my friends and their concern,

I said nothing, and let it go with a smile.

Later the whole thing reached my mother's ears.

She called me in a frantic panic.

"Evie, are you being mistreated at your in-laws'?"

I said, "No. I'm doing fine."

Later.

Word that Juliana was "training" me spread to the relatives on their side.

They were all stunned.

Is that for real? Girls these days aren't easy to manage.

A daughter-in-law who doesn't bully her mother-in-law is already a rare thing. She actually waits on the whole family?

What kind of daughter-in-law is that? It's unbelievable.

They went to Ervin to check whether it was true.

Ervin said, "Absolutely true. My wife's been completely remade. Whatever my sister tells her to do, she does. When my sister's home, she doesn't dare make a peep."

The Rowe relatives were green with envy.

One after another, they came to Juliana for her secrets.

"How did you train your brother's wife like that?"

"What method did you use?"

"How'd you turn her into a whole new person?"

"Come on, tell us."

Their eagerness was easy to understand.

Once Juliana's know-how and experience spread through the family, it would be put to use overnight, and a whole crop of dutiful little homemakers would be born.

Juliana held nothing back.

She launched right in.

"It's just like managing people at work. You set the rules first. No rules, no order."

"A new wife has all kinds of ideas when she first moves in, so laying down the law early is key. You crack her over the head right out of the gate."

"Training a person is like pressing on a spring. You go hard, she folds; you go soft, she pushes back. So you keep going hard, always."

"Bottom line, stick to one principle. Never, ever let her have a say in the house."

As she warmed up to it, some crude words slipped out.

Things like "you've got to grind her into the ground" and "you sit on her head and treat her like dirt."

Talking about it wasn't enough.

She wanted to show off the results.

"Tomorrow's the weekend. Everyone come to my place. I'll have Evelyn put out a whole spread for you, and you can see for yourselves what her cooking's like now."

The suggestion got an enthusiastic response.

"Perfect," they said, and "We'll see it firsthand."

At dinner that evening, Juliana said to me, "The relatives are coming over for lunch tomorrow, fifteen, sixteen of them. Get up early and prep. Bring your best. Make it a big spread. Don't embarrass us."

Same as always, I answered with a calm face, "Sure. No problem."

The next morning, before it was even light, I got up and went to the market for the shopping.

When I came back, the whole family had just gotten up, and seeing me haul in two big bags packed with fresh vegetables and meat, they all looked pleased.

After breakfast, Juliana said to me, "We're going to pick up the relatives now and take them to the beach for a while. We'll be back at twelve sharp. The food had better be done by then."

I said, "Don't worry. I promise you'll sit down to a hot meal the second you're back."

I watched them go, the whole family walking off without a care.

I smiled.

I'd swallowed it for so long, and now the moment to hold my head up had finally come.

The hour hand crept along with the ticking of the clock on the wall.

At last it pointed to twelve.

Footsteps clattered outside the door.

Juliana was back with the whole crowd of relatives, done with their outing.

They must have had a great time. Even through the door I could hear the laughter and chatter.

Juliana opened the door as she spoke. "We've been out all morning, everyone's starving. I already had my brother's wife get the food ready, so you can all dig in right"

The door swung open.

At the sight in front of her, Juliana froze.

Every one of them froze.