“Don’t mention it. Take care of yourself.”
He had already turned to leave when she blurted out:
“What’s your name?”
“Mike.”
“I’m Ellie.”
He smiled. And that smile made something warm up inside her. For the first time in days.
“Nice to meet you, Ellie.”
They met again a week later. Completely by chance, at the grocery store, in the checkout line. He saw her first, came over, and asked how she was. Then came coffee. Then a walk along the riverfront. Then a movie. Then dinner.
Mike turned out to be a project engineer at a large construction company, Summit Construction. He worked long hours and traveled for business, but he always made time for her. He called every evening, sent her funny memes, and brought her flowers for no reason. At first, Ellie couldn’t believe it was real. It seemed too good, too perfect after everything she’d been through. But Mike was patient. He didn’t rush her, didn’t pressure her; he was just there, solid as a rock.
Six months later, he introduced her to his mother. It was a mistake. Susan greeted her future daughter-in-law with a polite smile, but Ellie immediately read the verdict in her eyes. Unworthy. No words, no explanation, just a cold statement of fact.
“An orphan?” his mother-in-law asked when she learned about her family. “You poor thing. Well, don’t you worry, we’ll take care of you.”
“We” sounded like “I,” and “take care of you” sounded like a threat.
The wedding was small; Ellie insisted. She didn’t want a lavish celebration, she just wanted to be with Mike. Susan pushed for a big party: “What will people say?” But for the first time, her son stood firm: “It’ll be what Ellie wants.” His mother said nothing, but the look she gave her daughter-in-law promised trouble.
After the wedding, they moved into Mike’s house, the one he grew up in. Susan stayed in her condo downtown, but her presence was a constant weight. She called three times a day, dropped by unannounced, and criticized everything—how Ellie cooked, how she cleaned, how she dressed. “You work too much” turned into “you’re lazy.” “You’re tired” became “you’re weak.” “You look pretty” became “who are you all dressed up for?”
At first, Ellie put up with it. She thought her mother-in-law just needed time to adjust. She tried to please her, to win her over. She cooked Susan’s favorite dishes, invited her for lunch, gave her compliments. It was useless.
“She’s never going to like you,” Kate, her only friend from college, said one day. “Stop trying.”
“But she’s Mike’s mother.”
“So what? That doesn’t give her a license to be rude.”
“I don’t want to make him choose.”
Kate sighed. “Ellie, open your eyes. She’s already making him choose. Every single day. And as long as you stay quiet, she thinks she’s winning.”
But Ellie stayed quiet. Because every time she tried to talk to Mike about his mother, he would frown and say, “Ellie, don’t exaggerate. Mom’s just like that. She means well.”
He didn’t see it. Or didn’t want to see it. Susan was too smart to show her true colors in front of her son. In his presence, she transformed into a caring, loving mother who adored her daughter-in-law.
“Ellie, honey, you look pale. Are you feeling alright? Mikey, look how thin she’s gotten. Aren’t you feeding your wife? Let me make you some meatballs. Poor Ellie is just worn out from all that work.”
But the moment Mike left the room, the mask would drop.
“You do realize he’ll see the real you eventually,” his mother-in-law would hiss. “And then it’ll all be over. You’re not his equal. You’re a nobody. A charity case from nowhere.”
“Susan, I love your son.”
“Love?” She scoffed. “You love his house, his stability, his paycheck. I’ve seen your type before.”
Ellie said nothing. What was there to say?
A year passed, then another. The situation didn’t improve; if anything, it got worse. Susan worked as the Head of Accounting at Summit Construction, the same company where Mike was an engineer. When she found out her daughter-in-law had graduated with honors in economics, something like alarm flickered in her eyes.
“An accountant? And where do you work?”
“Nowhere at the moment. I haven’t had a chance to find anything since we moved.”
“Well, don’t bother. Stay home, cook dinners. Why do you need to work when your husband makes a good living?”
But Ellie wanted to work. She needed to feel useful, to be a professional, not just a housewife waiting for her husband to come home. And then Mike, without realizing it, sealed her fate.
“Ellie, how would you like to work at Summit? One of our accountants just quit, there’s an opening.”
“At the company where your mom works?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with that? It’ll be convenient, we can commute together.”
Ellie wanted to say no. Her intuition screamed that it was a trap. But Mike was smiling so happily, so genuinely wanting to help.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll give it a shot.”
She aced the interview. The CEO, Mr. Henderson, a gray-haired man with kind, tired eyes, glanced at her resume and nodded.
“Impressive. Graduated with honors, excellent references. I’m told you’re our Mike’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful. We like to keep it in the family. You’ll be working under Susan. She’s our Head of Accounting—strict, but fair.”
A chill went down Ellie’s spine. Working under her mother-in-law was a disaster waiting to happen. But it was too late to back out now.
The first few weeks were relatively calm. Susan kept her distance, gave her simple tasks, and barely spoke to her. Ellie relaxed. Maybe her mother-in-law was different at work? Maybe here, she was a professional who didn’t mix personal and business matters? How naive.
The storm broke a month later.
“Eleanor,” her mother-in-law’s voice was icy and formal, “you’ve made a mistake in the quarterly report.”
“What kind of mistake?”
“Right here.” Susan jabbed a finger at a printout. “The numbers don’t add up.”
Ellie looked closer. The numbers were correct. She had checked them three times.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see an error.”
“You don’t see it?” Susan raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Perhaps you should pay more attention to your work instead of daydreaming about how to spend your husband’s salary.”
She said it loudly, in front of their colleagues. Several people turned to look.
“Susan, I checked these figures. They’re correct.”
“Are you arguing with me?”
“I’m just…”
“Double-check it and bring me the corrected report by the end of the day.”
Ellie double-checked. Then checked again. And again. There was no mistake. But when she brought the same report back to Susan, her mother-in-law just pursed her lips.
“Fine. But be aware, next time I won’t be so lenient.”
It was only the beginning. With each passing week, the nitpicking became pettier and more vicious. Susan found errors where there were none. She publicly reprimanded her for being late when Ellie was on time. She assigned impossible tasks with unrealistic deadlines, then accused her of incompetence. Her colleagues looked on with sympathy but were powerless to help. The Head of Accounting was too influential.
“Quit,” Kate pleaded with her in the evenings. “Find another job. That woman is going to destroy you.”
“If I quit, she’ll tell Mike I couldn’t handle it, that I’m a failure.”
“So what? Mike loves you, he’ll understand.”
“Understand?” Ellie laughed bitterly. “Kate, he still doesn’t believe his mother is capable of being cruel. To him, she’s a saint.”
“Then open his eyes.”
“I’ve tried. He says I’m exaggerating. That his mom is just demanding because she wants the best for me.”
Kate just shook her head. Time went on, and Ellie endured. She gritted her teeth and endured. For Mike. For their marriage. For the family she never had.
And then she found the documents.
It happened on a normal workday. Susan had gone to lunch, and Ellie needed a file from her office—old contracts for reconciliation. She went in, found the right folder on the shelf, pulled it out, and another thin, unlabeled folder fell out with it. Papers scattered across the floor.
Ellie knelt to pick them up and suddenly froze. One of the sheets was a contract with a company called “TechServe.” The amount was for a quarter of a million dollars. The date was three months ago. The problem was, Ellie was in charge of those exact contracts, and there was no “TechServe” among them.
Her heart started to pound. She quickly scanned the other papers. More contracts. More large sums. Invoices, bills of lading, purchase orders. All with unfamiliar companies that weren’t in the main database.
“What are you doing in here?”
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