On New Year's Eve, I spent half the day slaving in the kitchen before finally getting dinner on the table.
We hadn't even picked up our chopsticks when my sister-in-law spoke.
"Alex, it's New Year's. Time to settle up, don't you think?"
"I took care of you two in your house for a whole year. Seventy thousand in nanny fees isn't too much to ask, right?"
My hand froze mid-reach for the chopsticks.
Tanya Austin had been living in my house since January, using "job hunting" as her excuse.
Sure, she'd help with housework occasionally—if you could count the instances on one hand.
And now she was demanding I pay her for it.
When I didn't respond, she slammed down her chopsticks.
"Alex, you're not thinking of stiffing me, are you? Ever since you married into our family, you've been taking advantage of us left and right—don't pretend you don't know."
"I worked my ass off being a nanny for your family all year, and you won't even pay me? How shameless can you get!"
I set down my chopsticks too.
Fine. You want to settle accounts? Let's settle accounts.
1.
The air turned to ice.
My husband, Alex Austin, shifted uncomfortably. "Tanya, knock it off."
My mother-in-law let out a cold snort, her nose practically pointed at the ceiling.
"I think Tanya's absolutely right. Don't think you can just boss people around now that you've married in."
"You're paying her that seventy thousand, or don't bother coming through this door again!"
I looked at the spread I'd cooked—a full table of dishes—and almost laughed.
If I could actually boss people around, I wouldn't have spent the whole day cooking for this family by myself.
So exhausted I could barely stand straight.
I forced my voice steady. "Tanya, you said you had nowhere to go and needed to crash here for a while. That's why I let you move in."
"But a nanny? How many times have you actually cooked? Done laundry? Swept? Mopped? When exactly were you anyone's nanny?"
Her face flushed red.
She grabbed the chopsticks off the table and hurled them at me. They cracked against my forehead—pain burst across my skull.
"Fine, I didn't do that much. But I was basically on call for you 24/7. Seventy thousand for the whole year—that's nothing!"
"Nannies make at least ten grand a month these days. I'm only asking for seventy thousand. I'm being generous."
She hadn't worked a single day. Stayed home scrolling her phone. And in her mind, that was being on call 24/7.
Never mind that I'd fed her, housed her, bought her nice things all year.
I'd even given her an extra set of my skincare products.
But somehow I was the ungrateful one.
I looked at Austin sitting there in silence. At my mother-in-law taking her side. At Tanya, drunk on the family's backing.
The feast in front of me turned my stomach.
"Forget it. You're not getting a cent."
I stood and walked to the bedroom.
Her curses followed me down the hall.
I shut the door and cut them off.
I'd been on my feet all afternoon without a break.
Now my back hurt so badly I couldn't even sit, so I collapsed onto the bed.
Austin crept in, closing the door softly behind him.
"Alex, just give her the money. This year hasn't been easy for her either."
Rage flooded my chest.
I pushed through the pain and sat up to face him.
"And it's been easy for me? You know exactly how I treated her this whole year."
"If you think she's had it so hard, you pay her. Didn't you hand your entire salary over to your mom? Go ask her for it."
