In the hospital ward, everyone stared at me as if I was the mean daughter-in-law.
I looked back at them, my face the picture of innocence. I pretended to have no idea what they were talking about.
“I work all day, from dawn till dusk. Your mom is the one at home, and she makes her own meals. I give her 1,200 dollars a month for expenses, and she never has any cash left. There’s no way she’s eating food that had gone bad, right?”
Mandy clammed up when she heard that. She knew she was the one pocketing most of that money, a whole 1,050 dollars of it.
My mother-in-law? She was good at looking sorry for herself, crying and playing dumb. I used to let it slide, but did she think I was an idiot?
Just then, they wheeled in Edwin, who was groaning with a bad case of stomach flu—all because he had food that had gone bad.
I had asked the doctor to put him in the same ward as my mother-in-law just to see what would happen.
The doctor came in and warned us, “It’s hot now, and food goes bad quickly. Don’t eat what you shouldn’t. Saving a few bucks isn’t worth the hospital bills.”
When my mother-in-law saw that Edwin was in the hospital too, she got scared and hid behind Mandy.
Edwin lost it when he saw her. “Mom, did you give me rotten meat and pasta that had gone bad again? You knew I had a big meeting today, didn’t you? You’ve messed up everything! You always unplug the fridge to save a few pennies, and then the food goes bad. Look, we’ve ended up here, having to spend a fortune. I even lost my job. What are you trying to do, ruin me?”
I watched Edwin freak out and had to try my best to keep from laughing.
