“I’ll expose you for who you really are! I’ll find out who’s sponsoring you!” Raisa Timofeyevna promised her daughter-in-law.
For now, though, she said it only to herself. She still didn’t have enough facts to corner her son’s unworthy wife.
The woman could not find peace. For several nights in a row, she had barely slept, tormented by doubts. Dark suspicions kept crawling into her mind. And the more Raisa Timofeyevna thought about it, the longer she turned it over in her head, the more convinced she became that her suspicions were right.
“No, this has to end immediately! I must find out everything and open my poor son’s eyes to the truth about his wife,” she reasoned during those long sleepless nights.
Her only son, Kostya, had recently gotten married. And Raisa Timofeyevna was not happy about that marriage at all. She had imagined a completely different kind of daughter-in-law for herself.
Karina had appeared in their lives suddenly, like a whirlwind. Raisa had barely had time to understand what was happening before the girl became her son’s wife.
The young woman was certainly not timid. From the very first day, she made it clear to her mother-in-law that she would not allow herself to be pushed around. Karina worked as an ordinary secretary in the reception office of the head of staff at the local administration. But in Raisa Timofeyevna’s opinion, she behaved as if she were the Queen of England.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“I’ll figure it out myself.”
“I know better than you how to handle this situation.”
These were the favorite phrases of the rebellious daughter-in-law.
And the mother-in-law bitterly realized that with all her advice and lectures, she had very quickly lost her importance both to her son and to his wife.
Raisa never forgave Karina for that and quietly held a grudge.
“Son, why don’t you invite me over anymore? And why don’t you visit me yourself?” she asked her son, who seemed to have forgotten about his mother after the wedding and now saw her less and less often.
“We don’t have time, Mom. We’re working. And Karina says it’s time for me to finally grow up. She also says I should stop clinging to your skirt, considering I held on to it almost until I was thirty.”
“She actually says that?” his mother gasped.
“Yes. But she’s right. I understand that myself.”
His words wounded her deeply. It hurt to hear such things. Some strange girl, someone they hadn’t even heard of a year earlier, had become closer to him than his own mother.
“What a snake,” Raisa Timofeyevna thought about her daughter-in-law. “She’s doing everything she can to turn my Kostya against me.”
And then, recently, something absolutely outrageous happened. Karina did not invite her husband’s mother to her birthday party.
“No, Mom, it’ll just be young people there. We’re celebrating at a nightclub. Honestly, what would you even do there?” Kostik replied casually when she asked when they were going to celebrate and what kind of gift his wife would like from her.
“How can that be?” his mother asked, confused.
“That’s how. Don’t waste your money. There’s no need for a gift. Or buy something you like, if you really want to congratulate her.”
“But that isn’t right! We’re one family now. Families should celebrate holidays together. So now it turns out I’m no longer needed by you,” Raisa Timofeyevna lamented.
“Mom, what’s the problem? We’ll set a table one of these days and invite you over. Don’t worry,” Kostik reassured her.
But the invitation never came.
Karina continued behaving exactly as before, ignoring her mother-in-law. But Raisa was not going to tolerate it. She decided that if they did not invite her over, she would come to her son’s apartment herself. Whenever she saw fit. She was his mother, and her child’s health and well-being were far from indifferent to her.
So Raisa Timofeyevna began visiting them on weekends and in the evenings after work. She did not always find Konstantin at home, because her son often stayed late at work. The insolent daughter-in-law pretended not to notice her. If she came, then she came. She would sit for a while and leave — that was Karina’s attitude.
The stern mother-in-law silently inspected the apartment: was everything in order, was there dinner? Then she drank tea and went home.
Lately, Raisa had begun to notice that her daughter-in-law often spoke to someone on her mobile phone, but whenever she did, she would leave the room and go somewhere away from her mother-in-law.
“She’s hiding something,” Raisa decided.
It was strange. What could a married woman have to hide? Was she purring into the phone with a lover? Raisa wouldn’t put it past her daughter-in-law.
Another thing also troubled Raisa. She could not help noticing that Karina’s wardrobe had recently filled with new items. And these were not cheap clothes and shoes — Raisa understood that very well. The expensive jewelry in the ears, on the hands, and around the neck of her cunning daughter-in-law gave her no peace either.
“And where did you get money for all this? New earrings again!” the mother-in-law finally snapped one day. “Yesterday it was a new suit and shoes. You change handbags every day!”
“I am not obligated to report my income and expenses to you!” Karina replied sharply. “Stop counting other people’s money. It’s a foolish thing to do.”
“Kostik, did you change jobs?” Raisa asked her son one day. “Or maybe they doubled your salary?”
“No, everything’s the same. Though that would be nice, Mom! My boss only keeps promising, but it’s all just words. Why are you asking? Do you need money?”
“No, son, I don’t need anything. I earn enough. How much does a woman alone really need? But you two must be short on money, judging by how much your wife has been spending on herself lately,” his mother said reproachfully.
“Everything is fine with us, Mom. But if you ever need money, don’t be shy.”
“No, my dear son. There is something wrong here,” she said, more to herself than to him.
And the woman began to analyze. Then she began to watch. And, to her horror, she came to very unpleasant conclusions.
She roughly calculated how much her daughter-in-law had spent over the past month on new clothes and jewelry, and the amount turned out to be impressive. More than her son’s monthly salary. Of course, one could assume that the daughter-in-law herself earned well. But Raisa knew for certain that at her job Karina earned much less than her husband. There was no way her salary could cover such excessive spending.
Something did not add up. And it gave the mother-in-law no rest. What surprised her even more was why her son remained blissfully unaware of what was happening right under his nose.
“It all fits,” Raisa thought at night. “Those secret phone calls, the money coming from nowhere. She has someone, she definitely does! She’s deceiving my Kostya, that shameless woman.”
That was what the poor woman thought during her sleepless nights. But she did not know how to catch Karina.
Then one day, she got unbelievably lucky.
Raisa Timofeyevna saw Karina get into a car with an unknown man.
Recently, she had often been keeping watch near her daughter-in-law’s workplace. She would come closer to the end of the workday and sit in the little park across from the administration building, pretending she was simply enjoying a bit of culture and fresh air.
And today, the shameless daughter-in-law had finally exposed herself. In broad daylight, without the slightest embarrassment, she got into her lover’s car.
The mother-in-law did not lose her head. She jumped into a taxi that happened to be standing nearby and asked the driver to follow the right car.
The daughter-in-law and the stranger drove to a café. Smiling sweetly at each other and discussing something animatedly, the young people went inside. Raisa had no choice but to follow them. Taking a seat not far from the cheerful pair, she began to watch them.
Karina and her companion ordered light snacks and continued their lively conversation.
“What a disgrace!” Raisa thought. “No morals, no shame at all! Sitting with her lover in a public place, completely unafraid of anyone!”
The mother-in-law even tried to record a video on her phone so that she would have evidence. But when she noticed the waiter looking strangely in her direction, she quickly ended her little spying operation.
When the “loving couple” left the café, Raisa Timofeyevna lost sight of them. She could not find another free car quickly enough.
Driven by her thirst for revenge, the mother-in-law went straight to her son and daughter-in-law’s apartment, intending to wait for Kostik and tell him everything. She would finally open his eyes to his unfaithful wife.
But after getting stuck in evening traffic, she reached her son’s building only about two hours later. The lights were on in the windows.
“Good. Now I’ll tell Kostik everything at once,” she thought.
But what awaited her was complete failure.
Inside the apartment, Raisa saw not only her son and his wife, but also the very same man who had spent the evening with Karina at the café.
“Hi, Mom!” Kostya said cheerfully. “Meet Igor. He’s Karina’s cousin. He came to our city for a couple of days and decided to visit us.”
“Her cousin?” his mother repeated in disappointment.
She had not expected such a turn of events. But even so, she still longed for revenge.
“Son, we need to talk,” she said sternly. “Can I ask you to come into the kitchen?”
“Of course,” Konstantin replied, slightly confused.
“Tell me, where does your wife get so much money?” his mother began irritably. “Do you even understand how much everything she wears costs? All these new clothes and expensive jewelry?”
“Mom, I know. I’ll tell you even more. Soon Karisha is planning to buy a car. With her own, honestly earned money,” her son stunned her.
“And exactly what part of herself did your wife use to earn that money? You can’t live like that on a secretary’s salary, let alone buy a car.”
“Mom, Karina is a blogger. She has been running several channels on different social media platforms for a long time. And yes, I know it sounds strange to you, but she earns much more than the two of us together make at our regular jobs.”
“What? You mean to tell me she makes that kind of money on the internet? Don’t make me laugh!” his mother refused to believe it.
“It’s true. Karina makes videos about her life. About how we met, about our wedding, about family life, about her work too. And also, don’t be offended, Mom, about how much you dislike her.”
“What?!”
“Yes, Mom. In fact, quite a lot of her recent videos have been about you. My wife has an army of thousands of followers. And you’ll be surprised, but for some reason people find all of it very interesting.”
His mother stood there in stunned silence while her son continued.
“Of course, it took Karina several years for her income to reach this level. But now it’s a fact.”
“Well, son, you certainly surprised me… But why? Why does she talk about me? Am I really that bad?”
“Because it’s a painful topic — relationships with mothers-in-law. A lot of people are dealing with the same issue, so they watch, talk in the comments, and give each other advice. Mom, stop pressuring Karina already. She’s a good person, and I love her. Yes, my wife has a strong character, because she has achieved a lot in life on her own. But she is no worse than other women. And for me, she’s the best of all.”
Raisa Timofeyevna did not recover immediately from everything she had learned that day. But she did not stop being wary of her daughter-in-law. Especially now that she knew Karina could tell the whole world what a terrible mother-in-law she had.
Bloggers were like that, after all. Capable of anything for fame.