At the wedding, my daughter-in-law told the officiant to skip the part where she'd start calling me "Mom."
"I only recognize the woman who gave birth to me and raised me, so I won't be calling this stranger 'Mom.'"
"And from now on, your son and I are the family. You'll need to think of yourself as an outsider and stay out of our business."
I wanted to argue, but my son told me to let it go.
"She's just scared you'll turn into one of those monster mothers-in-law, so she's setting boundaries early. Do it for me, okay? Don't make a scene."
I didn't want my son stuck in the middle, so I swallowed it and went along.
But I never expected it.
After that day, my son and daughter-in-law really did become "strangers."
Not only was I barred from their home, on every holiday they vanished without a trace.
The moment I tried to say anything, my daughter-in-law would throw her wedding-day words back in my face to shut me up.
Even when my heart condition flared up and I called them begging for help.
The two of them just laughed into the phone and said.
"You've got the wrong number. There's no son or daughter-in-law of yours here."
The rage seized my heart, and I died on the spot.
Now I had it all over again.
I didn't swallow it, didn't get angry. I simply stood up, calm.
"I came to attend my son and daughter-in-law's wedding."
"But since you say we're strangers, then I must have wandered into the wrong reception."
——
The instant the words left my mouth, the lively reception fell dead silent.
The faces in the crowd ran the whole range.
Still, most of them didn't think I was the one out of line.
After all.
There was only one daughter-in-law in the world who'd stand at her own wedding and announce that the couple and the mother-in-law were strangers, and that was Gwendolen Dale. All I'd done was follow her logic to its conclusion.
Gwendolen frowned, not feeling she'd said anything wrong, and clearly not believing I'd actually leave.
She let out a few cold laughs.
"What? Did I say something untrue?"
"I married Karl to be his wife, not to be your daughter or your daughter-in-law."
"After the wedding, Karl and I are the family. You're not!"
"So tell me, was I wrong to say you and I are strangers?"
I'd heard this twisted logic plenty of times in my last life, so I was more than ready for it.
I wasn't angry at all, and I didn't argue. I just smiled and nodded.
"You're absolutely right. So I'll do as you say and be a stranger, and leave your reception. Is there anything wrong with that?"
Gwendolen opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say.
So she stamped her foot and looked over at Karl Tanner, who was standing there playing deaf.
Karl had his own headache now. He walked over to me, lowered his voice a little, but his tone carried an edge of impatience.
"Mom, can you read the room and stop causing a scene?"
I looked at Karl, my expression utterly cold.
"I'm causing a scene?"
"I'm only doing what you told me, listening to your wife. She says I'm a stranger, so of course I have to leave. Unless you'd rather I get into a fight with her?"
Karl stared at me.
As if he was searching my face for anger.
The second my expression slipped, he could slap the "monster mother-in-law" and "making trouble for no reason" labels right onto me.
But I wasn't angry. The way I looked at him really was exactly the way you'd look at a stranger!
So his tone softened a touch.
"Gwendolen's words were harsh, sure, but as long as you treat her sincerely from now on, she'll come around and treat you the same way, and one day she'll truly want to call you 'Mom.'"
"Look at me. Isn't that exactly how I am with my father-in-law and mother-in-law?"
These words of Karl's were word for word the same thing I'd told myself in my last life.
I'd been a daughter-in-law once too. I knew exactly what it felt like to be asked, out of nowhere, to call a "stranger" your mother.
