My husband, Micah, and I were truly in love, but to my father-in-law, Victor, I was just a gold-digger. At a formal family dinner, Victor’s mask finally slipped. After a harmless comment about me going to the gym, he announced to the entire table, “She’s just meeting a lover there. I’ve kept my mouth shut long enough. She married you for the money, son. It’s so obvious!”
I was humiliated. We walked out, and while Micah apologized, I told him I didn’t want an apology—I wanted respect.
The next morning, my mother-in-law, Vivian, invited me shopping. She was always elegant and kind, the opposite of her husband. While we were at the mall, Vivian suddenly froze. Across the promenade, we saw Victor laughing and holding hands with a woman young enough to be in college.
Vivian didn’t cry or make a scene. Instead, she sipped her coffee and said with a terrifyingly calm smile, “We’re going to play a little game, Elena. And I need your help.”
We followed the young woman, Ruby, to a coffee shop. When we approached her, she was terrified. She revealed that Victor had told her he was a divorced man whose wife lived in Spain with another lover. He had even promised to marry her and start a new family after she graduated.
Vivian didn’t blame Ruby. Instead, she asked, “Ruby, darling, how would you like to help us make sure he never lies to another woman again?”
A week later, at Victor’s lavish birthday party held in a private ballroom, Vivian revealed the final play. She had hired Ruby as the “host” for the evening. When Ruby walked onto the stage with a microphone, Victor turned ghost-white.
Vivian took the microphone and, with a “silk-wrapped knife” of a voice, exposed Victor’s double life to the entire room of family and friends. To make it even more devastating, they let Victor believe Ruby was pregnant (though it was just a ruse to get him to talk).
Micah was done. He confronted his father, saying, “You accused my wife of cheating publicly to humiliate her, while you were chasing someone closer to my age than yours. You were cruel, and now you’re alone.” Micah kicked him out and slammed the door.
Victor lost his wife, his son, and his reputation in a single night. As for me, I finally got the justice I deserved. Karma didn’t just show up; she walked in wearing fabulous heels and took over the stage.
