Son's Girlfriend Cursed My Obedience Test; I Reclaimed Home Money

My son's fiance came over to visit, and I was thrilled.

Not only did I give her a fat red envelope with twenty thousand in it, I also cooked a whole table of her favorite dishes.

Everything was warm and pleasant, but when it came time to clear the table, I smiled at her.

Sweetie, could you hand that bowl to Auntie?

With a loud crash, the future daughter-in-law who'd been so well-behaved suddenly flipped the table and cursed.

"You old hag! What kind of trash are you, that you'd dare put me through a damn obedience test!"

My son shot me a resentful glare and hurried out the door after his fiance, who left in tears.

There was nothing I could do, so I sent her another ten thousand and apologized, saying I hadn't meant anything by it.

I never expected that after she took the money, that same night I'd scroll past a post she'd put up on Instagram five minutes earlier.

That trashy mother-in-law of mine is putting me through an obedience test. I go over as a guest, and she wants me washing dishes and doing housework?

I'm my mom and dad's precious little treasure, not the maid at her house! You old bag! Drop dead!

My blood pressure shot straight up from the anger, but when my son read it he just rolled his eyes at me.

"It's all because you said the wrong thing, did the wrong thing! You bully my girlfriend and still act like you're in the right!"

Hearing that, I gave a cold laugh.

"That's right, I said the wrong thing, I did the wrong thing! Then that eight hundred eighty thousand dowry, you pay it yourself!"

"And the two million for the house, don't even think about it!"

Hearing what I said, my son Nolan Fox gave a cold snort and kept his head down, playing on his phone, not taking it seriously at all.

I pulled out my phone and immediately canceled his shared payment access and unlinked every bank card tied to his phone.

The whole thing was done in one smooth motion, and only when the unlink notifications came through did Nolan bolt up off the couch, roaring.

"Mom, are you crazy!"

"You actually unlinked the cards? Over something this small, is that really necessary!"

He rolled his eyes at me and reached out to grab my phone. "Give me the phone, link them back right now."

"Maria told me to snag a bag for her tonight, the payment's due any second, and if I don't get it I'm holding you responsible!"

I glanced at his phone screen. Tonight he was supposed to snag a bag for that girlfriend of his, Maria Dickerson.

One bag cost fifty thousand.

He'd snagged plenty before, each one no less than five figures.

Every time the money came out of my card, and I never made a fuss.

But this time, all I could think about was the post Maria had put on Instagram.

Not only did she call me "trashy" and an "old bag."

The comments went even further, tallying up my five hundred crimes.

I washed strawberries and set them out on the table for her. She said I was forcing her to eat something she didn't like.

When I gave her a red envelope at New Year's, she said I was testing whether she was a gold digger.

Even when I asked her what she wanted to eat before she came over, that got twisted into an obedience test.

...

It suddenly hit me that being good to her, being good to my son, was so damn pointless!

I snatched the phone right back out of Nolan's hand, and seeing his displeasure, that aggressive, blustering posture,

I smacked him on the forehead. "Get lost. Buy a bag?"

"Your mother's got no money! If you've got the guts, use your own!"

With that, I grabbed my purse, turned, and walked out.

Nolan sat on the couch fuming and threatened, "I'm telling you, if you don't link my cards back, I'm going on a hunger strike starting today."

I didn't even acknowledge it and kept walking.

But I never expected that when I'd just finished a patient's surgery that night and got home from the hospital,

I'd find the once-tidy house torn apart, every cabinet door thrown open.

My clothes in the closet had been rummaged through and scattered everywhere, and even the paintings I treasured had been tossed on the floor.

Instinctively I looked toward the jewelry cabinet, and saw that the locked jewelry box had been pried open.

The vintage gemstone necklace worth a hundred thousand was gone!

I broke out in a cold sweat, terrified, and rushed to call the police.

But the moment I turned on my phone, I saw another post Maria had put on Instagram five minutes earlier.

My darling hubby didn't win the handbag, but he gave me a necklace worth over a hundred thousand, so I've decided to forgive him.

Attached photo: the two of them kissing.

And the necklace around her neck was the very one that had gone missing!

My blood pressure spiked from the anger, my face went red.

With a ding, Nolan sent me a message.

"Mom, I gave the necklace to Maria. You're so old anyway, it wouldn't look good on you."

"Oh, and Maria says she can forgive you, on the condition that you swear you'll never put her through an obedience test again."

Seeing my son's message, a chill ran through my whole body, and I wrote back.

Return the necklace right now, or I'm calling the police.

I sent the message, but Nolan didn't reply.

Instead, he added Maria to our family group chat, and she fired off more than a dozen messages in a row.

Hello, everyone. I'm Nolan's fiance. I joined the group because I want Nolan's mother to give me an apology and a reasonable explanation.

Nolan and I have no problems in our relationship, but his mother is always picking on me and putting me through obedience tests.

Last time I went over to her place for dinner, she forced me to wash the dishes and do the housework. I just said I didn't want to, and she flipped the table and cursed at me.

And last month, she asked if I wanted some fruit. I said no, but she still shoved it into my mouth.

Nolan and I aren't even married yet, and she's already pushing me to have a baby. She actually told me that if I don't give birth to a boy, I'm not fit to be a daughter-in-law of the Fox family.

...

Not satisfied with just text, she also posted a video of herself crying and wiping away tears into the family group chat.

Those messages set the family group chat on fire instantly.

A lot of the younger generation and relatives in the group came forward one after another to blame me.

Holy crap, what century is she living in? So backward, insisting on a boy? Why not just have another one yourself?

Exactly. She's a young woman with a master's degree, and she speaks so gently too. Bullying her like this is really out of line.

Unbelievable. Has she been scrolling too many short videos? Now she's pulling out this whole obedience-test routine.

...

I was left with nothing to say.

But the truth is, I never once thought of making her wash dishes or do housework.

The bowl was just a little far from me that day, and I wanted her to pass it to me.

As for the fruit.

I asked her if she wanted some fruit, but she was busy playing a game and ignored me, so I washed a few pieces and set them in front of her.

She made a face right then and said, "I already told you I don't want any, and you insist on washing it for me. Are you trying to force me to obey?"

The idea that I pushed her to have a baby is even more absurd.

I knew she'd only recently finished her master's, so I offered a couple of words of advice: "For a woman, your career matters more; there's no rush to have children."

And she decided I was being snide, that I was actually pushing her to marry and have kids.

I was so angry my hands were shaking. I'm getting old and slow at typing to begin with, and this only made it worse.

I chose my words carefully and had just sent my edited explanation into the group.

But all that popped up was a red exclamation mark.

Nolan had already removed me from the group chat.

He messaged me.

Mom, Maria says that with you and her in the same group, she feels sick every time she sees your profile picture.

She's willing to give you one more chance. As long as you write a two-thousand-word apology that satisfies her, I'll add you back to the group.

But you have to pin this apology to the top of your social media feed for a month and post it in every one of your group chats, to show you mean it.

If you won't apologize, then don't blame Maria and me for no longer recognizing you as our mother.

Write an apology? No longer recognize me as their mother?

Over something that never even happened.

Just how far do they intend to push me?

To my mind, I've never once shortchanged my son or his girlfriend all these years.

Never mind the twenty thousand a month in living expenses, I even paid the rent on the two-thousand-square-foot apartment they lease.

And all the extra money spent on Maria, I never held any of it against them.

They even said they wanted to get married, and I agreed on the spot to give them an eighty-eight-thousand dowry.

Plus a two-hundred-thousand wedding home and a fifty-thousand new car.

And all this talk of an obedience test is nothing but nonsense!

All I did that day was ask her to hand me a bowl, and that makes me some unforgivable villain?

That I deserve to be treated like a criminal by my own son?

My nose stung, my whole body trembling without stop, and I quickly swallowed a blood-pressure pill before it eased.

A thousand thoughts ran through me, and it took real effort to finally calm down.

I looked down at my phone, made a call, and made up my mind.

"Is this Rodney? That new home we agreed on last timeI don't want it anymore."

"How much of the deposit can I get back?"

I canceled the wedding home I'd put a hold on for Nolan Fox, the one that cost over two million.

The deposit was eight hundred thousand, and they said they'd dock three percent off the top. Fine by me.

Whatever happened, I wasn't spending another cent on those two ungrateful leeches!

I pulled myself together and got ready to head to the hospital for my clinic shift.

I never expected that when I opened the door first thing in the morning, I'd see those two little animals again.

Maria Dickerson was standing there looking smug, a hundred-thousand-dollar necklace around her neck.

The clothes she had on, the bag on her arm I'd seen every one of them in the order history on my phone.

The moment Nolan saw me, he put on a fawning smile. "Mom, done making a scene?"

"You still haven't sent me this month's allowance. What's the deal, why aren't you answering my messages?"

Allowance?

I'd just transferred him twenty thousand at the start of the month, and he was already broke again?

I looked up at him and waved him off. "No."

"Didn't you say you wouldn't forgive me unless I wrote an apology? That you wouldn't claim me as your mother?"

"What's this now? Only remember me the second you're short on cash?"

Nolan looked positively pleased with himself. "Mom, this time I've got good news."

"Once you hear it, you'll hand over the money all on your own."

As he spoke, Nolan pulled a medical record out of his pocket and pressed it into my palm.

"Here Maria's pregnant! You're going to be a grandma!"

"What?"

I frowned and glanced down at the record. There was no joy on my face, only shock and speechlessness.

Then I saw Maria stroking her belly, pitching her voice up.

"I'm your family's biggest hero now. I'm a generous person, so I'll let what happened last time slide."

Nolan nodded along like a dog. "That's right, Mom, see how good Maria is? We can't treat her badly."

"The two of us talked it over and made a decision. We're just letting you know."

"We've decided to bump the dowry up to one point two million."

"That two-million house is too small for Maria's taste. We've got our eye on a big penthouse it's only three million right now."

"Just switch it to that one."

"If there's no problem, transfer the money to Maria's card this week."

Hearing that, I stood frozen in place.

So they hadn't come to share good news, and they hadn't come to make peace.

They'd damn well come to hit me up for money again?

I tossed the medical record right back at them, and like I'd just heard the biggest joke in the world, I couldn't keep the corner of my mouth from lifting.

"Money?"

"No!"

"And by the way not only am I not giving you more, I'm not giving you a single cent for the dowry or the house."

"And don't come asking me for an allowance ever again. If I ever give you two one more penny, my name isn't Finch!"

With that, I locked the door tight, turned, and walked away.

Behind me, Maria threw out a threat. "You won't pay?"

"You think I won't? I'll go abort this kid right now! This is your own grandchild!"

Nolan panicked and shouted after me, "Mom, this is a Fox family heir! It's just a little money!"

"How can you be so stingy!"

I sighed. "My own grandchild?"

"I can walk away from my own son never mind a grandchild."

"Abort the kid, huh? Then you'd better hurry up and get a slot."

"Otherwise the hospital's going to close for the day!"

And with that, to the shock of the two ungrateful leeches, I got in my car.

Behind me they were still cursing up a storm.

"You old good-for-nothing! You old hag!"

"No money and you still wanted to marry me into the family!"

I didn't give them the time of day.

At the hospital, I had clinic duty today, and I was slammed all afternoon.

In the quiet moments, that medical record Nolan had shoved into my hand kept coming back to me.

I couldn't shake the feeling that something about it was off.

Then, all of a sudden, the door to the consultation room swung open, and a young nurse called out.

"Dr. Finch, there's an emergency! You need to come out and see!"

The situation was urgent, so I hurried out after the nurse.

As I neared the hospital lobby, I heard a familiar voice.

It was Nolan!

He stood in the crowd, holding a banner and shouting, "Today I'm putting justice above my own family!"

"I'm filing a formal complaint under my own name against neurosurgery specialist Narelle Finch. Not only does she take money from patients on the side, she also exposes their private information."

"And she's had multiple misdiagnoses and medical accidents, all of which she used her connections to bury."

"As her son, I truly find such behavior beneath contempt. I'm ashamed of her!"

"So today I'm putting justice above family. I'm filing a formal complaint under my own name!"

My steps froze abruptly, and my heart nearly stopped.

I took two steps forward, and when I saw the words on his banner, my heart ached as if a hand were squeezing it.

"Unscrupulous doctor Narelle Finch takes lives and is unfit to practice medicine! Unfit to be my mother!"

In the crowd, my eyes met Nolan's.

In just an instant, my eyes went red.

He was my son, the son I carried for ten months and gave birth to.

My husband died young, and I raised him all on my own through every hardship.

But now, for a woman, for that money, he could actually do this to me.

He'd even stoop to spreading lies?

When he knew perfectly well how much I loved being a doctor.

How much I had given up for it over the years.

In the crowd, quite a few people who heard him began talking among themselves.

"I know Dr. Finch. She's a very good person. She speaks kindly, and she always prescribes me the cheapest medicine."

"Yes, she did my mother's surgery, and the results were excellent."

"That's right, that's right. My family is poor and couldn't afford treatment, and she even had someone find a charity to reduce my surgery fees. How could she be the quack he's talking about?"

...

Hearing everyone speak up for me, Nolan and Maria's faces changed drastically, and they hurriedly shouted.

"I'm her son. Would I lie?"

Maria put on a sweet, wounded act.

"Exactly. I'm her daughter-in-law. Some people you can know by face but never by heart. We're her closest family, and even we've come forward to report her. It just shows how truly rotten her conscience is."

As she spoke, she wiped at her tears. "And there's more. I'm her future daughter-in-law. Last time she told me to wash the dishes, and all I said was, 'Can I do it in a little while?'"

"She slapped me five times across the face, and I've got a baby in my belly!"

Behind them were the actors they'd rounded up. I recognized their facesthey had to be Nolan's friends.

Each of them was holding either a banner or a black-and-white photo of me.

Every one of them claimed to be a victim, accusing me of misdiagnosing them, of causing medical accidents during surgery that ruined their lives.

The group described it all so vividly that many of the onlookers began to half believe it.

After all, when a man's own son reports him, how could it be false?

My legs felt as heavy as lead, and the hand gripping my phone kept clenching tighter.

That suffocating feeling wrapped around me, and the discomfort in my chest grew stronger.

DingNolan had sent me a message.

A "snickering" emoji.

Mom, well? Do you give up or not?

Transfer the money now and buy the house for me, or Maria and I won't have a good life, and you can forget about having one either!

I nodded, forced myself to take a deep breath, and replied.

Fine. The moneyI'll give it.

After sending the message, I immediately reached out to a mysterious number.

Last time you mentioned that the Australian medical research team invited me.

I agree to join.