The mother-in-law froze for a couple of seconds, then slapped the table.
"You're throwing me out?"
"This is a James family dinner. You married in from outside. What right do you have to throw me out?"
I almost laughed.
"I booked the room, I paid for it, and I bought the cake."
"Tell me, which one of those belongs to the Jameses?"
Vincent's face went dark.
"It's one cash gift. Do you really have to blow it up like this?"
"You threw my mother out in front of all these people. Where is she supposed to put her face now?"
I turned to the side.
"If you've got a problem with it, you can walk out with her."
Vincent stared at me like he hadn't understood.
"You're telling me to leave too?"
I looked at him.
"Yes. Anyone who won't let my daughter enjoy her birthday can go."
The mother-in-law perked right up.
"Vincent, you hear that?"
"Since when does she get to run this family?"
"If you still recognize me as your mother, you'll take us out to eat somewhere else today!"
"I'd love to see who she thinks she's throwing this party for without the James family here!"
Vincent looked at me, then at his mother.
In the end, his face rigid, he grabbed the car keys.
"Kay, don't come crying about this later."
Then he took his mother's arm and headed for the door.
His brother's family stood up too.
As she passed me, Wanda bumped into me on purpose.
"Some cheap little birthday party. Who wants to eat here anyway."
"Come on, Vincent, let's go somewhere nice. No need to sit here and take this."
After the door closed, one of the aunts kicked the broken shards of porcelain aside, then suddenly clapped her hands.
"The bad luck's gone. Let's keep going."
"Nina's top of her grade and a year older today. That's double the happiness, so she gets two wishes."
The other relatives joined in to smooth things over.
Someone restarted the birthday song, someone stood the fallen candles back up.
With everyone urging her on, Nina closed her eyes.
After she made her wish, she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Mom, I want you to be happy forever."
"And if Dad makes you unhappy, then I don't want him anymore."
Something in my chest trembled.
Before I could say anything, my phone buzzed.
A text alert from the bank.
"Your supplementary credit card has been charged 50,000 dollars…"
My eyebrow went up.
After Nina's fever, Vincent kept complaining he had no cash on hand for emergencies, so I'd given him the supplementary card on my account.
I hadn't expected him to swipe fifty thousand just like that.
Clearly he'd used it to save face for his mother.
Sure enough, before long Wanda posted to her feed.
In the photo, the mother-in-law wore a brand-new gold bracelet and Howie was clutching a new tablet.
And Vincent sat at the table, picking apart crab for them.
The caption was a single line.
"Some people don't know how to honor their parents. Good thing the older brother knows right from wrong."
Relatives were already commenting under it.
"Vincent's such a good son."
"A gold bracelet that big must have cost a fortune, no?"
Wanda replied at lightning speed.
"Vincent bought it. He said all that matters is Mom being happy."
I let out a cold laugh.
Nina came over and handed me the biggest slice of cake.
"Mom, this one's for you."
"Don't be upset anymore. I don't have to have birthdays from now on, that's fine."
I stroked her head.
"You get a birthday every year."
"And from now on they're only going to get better."
Then I called the bank's customer service line.
"I need to freeze a supplementary card."
The agent confirmed my details, then told me that same card had just started another transaction.
The amount, ninety-nine thousand eight hundred.
"What's the merchant?"
"A luxury goods store."
I laughed coldly to myself.
He'd bought the gifts for his mother and nephew, and now he wanted to play the big spender in front of his brother and sister-in-law too.
"Decline it. Stop the card immediately."
"And that fifty-thousand charge just now, I want to dispute it as unauthorized. It was fraud."
