Uncover the Conspiracy of the Evil Mother-in-law

Hugh begged me to bear with his mother's antic and avoid having arguments with her. Finally, I relented to his wishes.

At five in the morning, I was startled awake by the sound of clattering and banging inside the house. Frowning, I went to the living room. There I found my mother-in-law was dragging in piles of cardboard boxes and plastic bottles.

"Did I wake you up? I'm just trying to help lighten my son's burden by earning a little money for him," she said. She did not find it strange to make a lot of noise early in the morning and did not say any regret for waking her up. Instead, her face was beaming with pride as if by collecting trash, she could earn a fortune.

Before I could say anything, Hugh had tugged my hand and pulled me into our room. Meanwhile, his mother’s voice grew even louder and her eyes were gleaming with smug satisfaction.

There was something off about it. I could not put my finger on it, but it left me feeling uneasy.

What was stranger, for me at least, Hugh seemed completely unfazed by the noise outside. In fact, there was a nostalgic look in his eyes. He held my hand and his expression was full of gratitude.

“My father died young and my mom worked hard, saving every bit of money that she earned to put my brother and me through school. She went through so much. I’ve always wanted to repay her.”

His voice broke as tears welled up in his eyes and he looked pointedly at me as if he were waiting for me to say something.

After a moment of silence, I finally realized what he was implying.

I forced a smile while staring at him in disbelief. "You and your brother can repay your mother all you want. However, it has nothing to do with me. You need to make sure she doesn’t make too much noise in the morning. The neighbors will complain.”

Hugh’s face stiffened for a split second. He quickly lowered his head and muttered awkwardly, “Okay.”

The first time I noticed my underwear was missing, I had just come home from work and headed to the balcony to collect the laundry.

As I stared at the empty clothespins, I felt confused. Hadn’t I hung everything here? Why did it seem like some items were missing?

We lived on a high floor, so I peered outside, while wondering if a strong gust of wind had blown my clothes away.

Once or twice could be a coincidence, but when I noticed a whole section of my wardrobe box was empty, I knew something was wrong. I mentioned it to Hugh, but he quickly brushed it off.

“Who would take something like that? Maybe you didn’t clip them tightly enough and the wind blew them away. Don't be too stingy, just buy more.”

I was still trying to figure it out when I caught sight of my mother-in-law in the hallway. She was busy wrapping a small cardboard in tape with her body hunched over it. She was very quick while doing it.

“Mom, what are you doing?” I asked casually.

Before I could step closer, she snatched the box away, while muttering something about mailing a package. Her hands moved deftly as she taped the box shut.

“You’ve really embraced online shopping, huh? You are getting the hang of shipping things too,” I joked.

Gloria gave me a strange smile and her eyes narrowed slightly in my direction. “Oh yes, I can make good money with this.”

It was probably another one of those so-called get-rich-quick schemes. I responded half-heartedly, my attention wandering to the rose bouquet on the dining table.

I wondered who brought this because Hugh had never given me flowers before.