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At the family dinner, my six-year-old nephew Dylan Abbott was rolling around on the floor, refusing to eat.
My sister-in-law Carol didn't lift a finger to stop him. She just beamed at him.
"Be good, Dylan, finish your food, and Auntie will take you to buy a smartwatch tomorrow!"
For the sake of family peace, that time I'd swallowed my disgust and picked up the tab.
But this dinner, Carol pulled the same trick.
"Dylan, drink up this soup, and tomorrow your auntie's going to buy you a big gold pendant! Solid gold!"
I set my chopsticks down right there.
"Carol, I never said I'd buy anything. Don't go making promises for me."
She didn't even blink.
"He won't behave unless I say it. And you're his aunt. Spending a little money, what's the big deal? So stingy."
The whole family jumped in, calling me small-minded, even letting the kid roll on the floor to squeeze the cash out of me on the spot.
Fine. You want money?
The next day, Carol's parents were throwing a graduation party.
In front of a room full of relatives, every one of them rich or connected, I handed my nephew a cracked, chipped bowl.
"Dylan, your grandpa and your uncles are all bosses. Just go over and kneel to each of them, and they'll give you ten grand a head!"
...
The next second, Dylan grabbed that chipped bowl, dropped to his knees with a thud, and landed dead at the feet of Carol's own brother, the big-shot boss she was always bragging about.
"Uncle! I'm kneeling! Ten grand! To buy a gold pendant!"
Six-year-old Dylan screamed himself hoarse, banging his forehead against the tile three times, hard.
Carol's brother had just pulled out his BMW keys, and they froze in midair as his face went red.
Hand it over? That was ten grand, not ten bucks.
Refuse? He'd just been at the table bragging about the three-million-dollar contract he'd landed this year, and now his own nephew was kneeling at his feet begging, with a table of a few dozen relatives staring straight at him.
Seeing that no money was coming, Dylan just flopped onto the floor and started rolling around, an expert at it.
"Uncle won't give me money! Uncle's cheap! I won't get up until he pays!"
This move had never once failed him at my house.
Only this time, he was up against Carol's family, the people who cared about face more than anyone.
"Carol Whitney! What kind of a mother are you?"
Carol's sister-in-law was the first to drop the act, sharp and vicious. "On a happy day like this, you send a kid around with a broken bowl to beg? You came here to jinx us on purpose, didn't you!"
"Right, has poverty driven you insane? Coming to your own family's graduation party to panhandle!"
"Dresses herself up all respectable, and it turns out that husband's family raised a little beggar!"
The relatives' jeers came rolling in like a tide.
Carol's face went from green to white and back.
She was livid.
The face she prized above everything had just been smashed to pieces by that broken bowl.
She rushed over, snatched the bowl and shattered it, then whipped around and slapped Dylan across the face, hard.
"Waaah——!"
Dylan let out a shriek like a stuck pig.
Carol's eyes went red with rage. She spun around and came flying at me, clawing.
"Katherine Dickerson! You little witch! You dare set me up! I'll rip your face off today!"
I was ready for it. Cold-faced, I stepped aside.
In her heels she couldn't stop herself, and she slammed into a solid wood chair, wincing in pain.
I looked down at her and let out a cold laugh.
"Carol, what are you so angry about?"
"Wasn't it you who said yesterday that he won't behave unless you talk like that? Today I was just helping you discipline the kid."
"Besides, everyone in your family's a big-time boss. What's ten grand for a nephew? Doesn't it just show how much his own uncle and aunt adore him?"
I threw every word she'd used to corner me yesterday right back at her, not one of them left out.
Carol clutched her bruised side, shaking with fury, pointing at me but unable to force out a single word.
I let out a scoff and picked up my bag.
"All right, you elders take your time doting on the kid. This aunt won't keep you company."
With that, under a crowd of stunned stares, I clicked out of there in my heels, cool as anything.
Out through the hotel doors, the early autumn wind blew past, and I felt lighter all over.
