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Family Vacationed, Abandoned My Daughter; I Took the Money
NovelShort
Completed
In the evening, my husband told me the whole family was going away for the summer to escape the heat. He said his parents would bring our daughter along, and the two of us would enjoy some time alone first. But when we got there, my mother-in-law laid it all out. "What can you do? Somebody has to stay and watch the house." And so they left my 8-year-old daughter home alone. Yet Murray's older sister, his younger sister, and all their kids had come along.
Chapters (4)
第1章
That evening my husband told me the whole family was going away for the summer to escape the heat.
He said his parents would bring our daughter along, and the two of us would have some time to ourselves first.
But once we got there, my mother-in-law laid it all out.
"Nothing we can do. Somebody has to watch the house."
And so my eight-year-old daughter was left home alone.
But Murray's older sister, his younger sister, and all their kids had come along too.
I looked at my husband. I didn't understand.
"Why leave my daughter behind and not your sisters' kids?"
He explained, guilty about it.
"This way you can tutor them without worrying about anything."
So the trip was a lie. The truth was, I was their free tutor.
I turned away and made a call.
"Mom, when the old place gets its property settlement, I want one of the units. I'm bringing Emma Abbott back to live there tomorrow!"
From the day I married in.
Workdays, holidays, it never mattered.
His parents kept bringing the three grandkids over for me to tutor.
Now I was taking my daughter and going home to my parents.
Whoever wanted to teach those kids could teach them.
I was done waiting on them.
1. After I hung up, I was shaking all over.
I still hadn't pulled myself together when Murray's older sister pushed the door open.
She had Aiden by the hand.
The younger sister's two sons trailed behind her.
All three kids had backpacks on.
They'd clearly come ready.
"Nat, we've got facials booked, so the three of them are yours for the day."
"Their summer homework isn't finished, perfect timing. You go over it with them."
With that, she shoved the kids toward me.
I gripped my phone and told her, "Emma's home alone. I'm not comfortable with that."
Murray's older sister clicked her tongue.
"What's there to be uncomfortable about?"
"I already worked it out with Murray, and he agreed."
I turned to look at my husband.
He was slouched on the couch, scrolling his phone.
"So before we came, how much else did you keep from me?"
He glanced up at me.
"There's nothing planned today anyway, just help out and watch them."
"It's not a big deal."
I took a deep breath. "And our daughter?"
"You're really going to just leave her home by herself?"
My husband answered like it was obvious.
"Emma's so well-behaved, what could happen?"
"It's a good chance for her to learn some independence."
I laughed.
The kind that came out loud.
How could he say it like that, like it was the most natural thing in the world?
That was the daughter I carried for ten months and gave birth to.
She was only eight this year.
A year younger than Aiden.
I stared into his eyes and asked.
"She's your own flesh and blood. You're really that fine with it?"
My husband got uneasy under my stare and looked away.
"The neighbors will help keep an eye on her."
"You keep harping on this. What's the point?"
Murray's older sister chimed in from the side.
"Right, you're blowing this way out of proportion."
"Didn't we all grow up the same way?"
I ignored her and stared straight at my husband.
His throat moved, but he said nothing.
Murray's older sister got impatient.
"Well, is it a yes or a no? I'm going to be late."
"Murray promised me."
"You're not going to make him go back on his word, are you?"
I answered her coldly.
"If he promised, get him to watch them."
"I didn't promise anything."
Murray's older sister froze for a second, then her face fell.
"What's with the attitude?"
"Family helping each other out, what's wrong with that?"
"It's just checking some homework. They're not going to eat you."
I asked her, "When you all worked this out, did anyone ask me?"
Murray's older sister shrugged.
"That's not my problem. I settled it with Murray."
"You've got a complaint, take it up with him."
She paused, then added one more thing.
"You're the top graduate from that fancy university, after all."
"Who else would we ask? Count on Murray with his little diploma?"
She said it with such a straight face.
Like the fact that I'd gotten an education meant I owed them free labor.
Every other day they'd show up at my door. I put up with it.
Weekends they'd bring the kids over to sponge off my tutoring. I put up with that too.
But this time.
They dumped my daughter home alone.
Just so I'd be free to watch their kids?
This time I couldn't put up with it.
Murray's older sister was still going on and on.
"Aiden adores you. He talks about how good his aunt's lessons are every single day."
"Just think of it as doing the kids a favor."
"We're not strangers."
I turned and started packing.
My husband's face changed. He planted himself in front of me.
"Come on, don't make a scene."
I ignored him and kept stuffing clothes into the suitcase.
He grabbed the suitcase.
"You don't help watch the kids, you're not going anywhere today!"
I looked at him, done, and stopped what I was doing.
"Murray Fox, is your heart made of iron?"
He didn't answer.
I kept going.
"Ever since their kids started school, workday or day off, it never mattered."
"Your parents drag the three grandkids over here every few days."
"They say they're coming to visit."
"But when has it ever been anything but using me as a tutor?"
"A real tutor charges by the lesson."
"But your family, why pay when you can get it free, right?"
My husband's face went red. His pride couldn't take it.
"Don't be so nasty about it."
"My sister's standing right there in the doorway."
I laughed. "So you do know it's embarrassing?"
"If anything happens to Emma, I'll take your whole family down with me!"
My husband muttered under his breath.
"Mr. Lambert next door is keeping an eye out, what could possibly happen…"
Murray's older sister sneered from the doorway.
"Some people are just impossible."
"Petty and selfish."
There was only one thing I could never stay calm about, and that was my daughter.
None of them showed any sign of getting out of my way.
I unzipped my bag and pulled out a pair of scissors.
I pointed the tip at them and warned them, cold.
"Don't push me."
第2章
Murray didn't dare move again.
He knew me too well.
When it came to my daughter, I was capable of anything.
He held both hands up and forced out a smile.
"Honey, just calm down first."
"We can talk this through."
His older sister huddled behind him and threw the father-in-law question at me.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"We're all family. Is there any need to make it this scary?"
I gripped the scissors tighter. My voice went colder.
"I'm perfectly calm right now."
"And I know exactly what I'm doing."
Murray started coaxing me.
"Look, when we get home, we'll buy Emma plenty of presents."
I looked at him, and the disappointment only grew.
"You still don't get where the problem is."
His smile faded, and irritation took its place.
"Honey, will you quit acting up?"
"Put the scissors down first. If someone actually gets hurt, it's no good for anyone."
As he spoke, he reached out to snatch them.
I slashed twice through the air, and the blades grazed the tips of his fingers.
"I'm not playing games with any of you."
He flinched back, his face going white.
He valued his own skin too much to come any closer.
His older sister muttered under her breath beside him.
"She's a real lunatic..."
"Let's go. Stay away from this crazy woman."
She grabbed the three kids and pulled them toward the door.
I shut it fast and turned the lock.
Then I turned around and went back to packing.
Booking the flight, I felt completely calm inside.
Getting angry with this family wasn't worth it.
Once I finished, I leaned in to check the peephole.
The hallway was empty.
So I grabbed my suitcase and opened the door.
The elevator doors had barely opened when my mother-in-law came storming out at me.
"Where do you think you're going with that suitcase? Trying to go home?"
"We finally get the whole family out on a trip, and you're the one ruining it!"
Ruining it?
I let out a soft laugh.
"You've all had your fun. But what about my daughter?"
Her eyes darted away.
I pressed her. "On the phone last night, what did you promise me?"
"You said you'd bring Emma along today."
"You told me not to worry."
"And then what?"
I stared straight at her.
"Does a single true word ever come out of your mouth?"
She flew into a rage.
She shoved me hard.
I stumbled a couple of steps and nearly fell.
Almost without thinking, I shoved her right back.
I didn't put much force into it. I just wanted to pay her back.
I didn't expect her to topple backward and hit the wall.
"Ow..."
She cried out, wildly overdone.
Just then, Murray came climbing up from the stairs beside us.
My father-in-law was right behind him, roaring at me.
"So you're staging a rebellion now? You'd even raise a hand to us?!"
Murray didn't say a word.
He came straight up and slapped me across the face.
It was loud.
The whole hallway echoed with it.
I held my cheek. It burned.
My ear rang along with it.
"What gives you the right to hit my mother?!"
All these years of marriage, he'd only ever taken his mother's side with words.
This was the first time he'd raised a hand to me.
"She shoved me first."
My voice was quiet, but every word came out clear.
He wasn't listening at all.
"All I saw was you shoving my mother!"
"You apologize to her!"
My mother-in-law clutched her arm, leaning on the wall, whimpering.
There wasn't a trace of real pain on her face.
It was all an act.
My silence made Murray angrier.
"Did you hear me? Apologize to my mother!!"
I lowered the hand from my cheek.
I stood up straight and asked him, one word at a time.
"And if I don't apologize?"
He clenched his fists, his face flushing dark red.
The veins stood out on his neck.
Then he shouted the four words I'd most wanted to hear.
"Then we're getting a divorce!"
The air went silent all at once.
Watching their son ask for a divorce, my in-laws' faces changed instantly.
Before they could get a word out,
I grabbed my suitcase and stepped into the elevator without looking back.
And gave him four words of my own.
"Gladly."
第3章
The elevator doors slid shut.
I watched his face vanish, inch by inch, into the closing gap.
His expression went from fury to blank shock.
He must have thought I'd beg. Thought I'd cave.
Thought I wouldn't dare.
From the day I married into that family.
From the first time they dumped a nephew on me for tutoring.
From all the nights I came home from overtime and still had to check three kids' homework.
From the way they treated my daughter like she was invisible.
And then left her home alone.
This marriage, in that moment, was officially over.
The elevator stopped on the first floor.
I wheeled my suitcase out.
My phone rang.
It was my mom.
"Sweetie, your dad and I worked out the settlement. We're keeping one of the units for you."
"Come home and take a look first. If you don't like it, we'll swap it out."
I gripped the phone, my eyes stinging.
"Mom, I'm bringing Emma home tonight."
A while back she'd told me the old house was slated for demolition.
All told, it came to over a million dollars and three units.
I'd meant to set some of it aside.
A little fund for the three of us.
So that whenever money got tight down the road, we wouldn't have to sweat it.
Now I saw it differently.
Murray Fox didn't deserve a cent of it.
I'd barely stepped out of the hotel when my phone buzzed.
A text from Murray.
【Natalie Ball, what can you even do without me?】
【I'm giving you one last chance.】
【Come back and apologize on your own, or don't ever come back!!!】
I looked at the message and almost laughed.
Which of us really couldn't survive without the other?
I didn't bother replying. I just blocked him.
Then I called a car and headed straight for the airport.
My whole mind was on my daughter now.
Meanwhile, over at the in-laws', it was as if I'd dropped dead.
Not one of them reached out.
They were too busy enjoying themselves.
Soaking in the hot springs, ordering big meals, posting photos online.
Three kids' homework was the last thing on their minds.
Until early evening.
Aiden, the older sister's boy, spoke up on his own.
"Mom, I still haven't done my summer homework."
That was when it hit the whole family.
Murray's older sister spoke first.
"I was never any good at school. I can't even make sense of those problems."
Murray's younger sister jumped right in.
"I'm even worse. I never finished middle school."
"Better let our brother do it. At least he's got a college degree."
All three of them turned to Murray at once.
His face soured. "Me?"
The older sister said, "Your wife took off, so who else is going to? "
"This is what you get for not being able to keep your own wife in line."
Murray had nothing to say to that. He just marched the three kids back into the room.
At first he was serious enough about it.
Working through the problems one by one.
But half an hour in.
He was falling apart.
There was one math problem he explained five times.
The kids still stared at him blankly.
A vein stood out on Murray's forehead.
"A problem this simple? What are you even doing in class?"
Aiden looked ready to cry.
"Aunt Natalie only had to explain it once and I got it."
The words landed like a slap across his face.
His phone rang.
He'd already made plans to go out drinking that night.
Murray checked the time, then looked at the three little terrors.
He got up without a second thought.
Shoved them into his parents' room.
"Mom, watch them for me. I'm heading out."
Before the mother-in-law could react.
The three kids had already stormed the room.
Jumping on the bed, fighting over the remote, digging through the suitcases.
How were two old people supposed to control that?
They tore around until nine, until the old woman had yelled herself hoarse.
The mother-in-law collapsed on the couch and called her older daughter.
"Come get Aiden, now!"
The older sister was soaking in the hot springs with a face mask on.
"Mom, it's not every day I get to enjoy myself."
"Just let me have a little peace and quiet."
Then she hung up on her.
The mother-in-law called the younger daughter instead.
That one was even more blunt.
"Mom, I'm right here next to my sister. Go bother my brother."
The mother-in-law was furious.
She turned around and called Murray.
The second he picked up, she laid into him.
"You useless thing, you can't even keep your own wife in line!"
"Get her back here right now to help watch these kids!"
On Murray's end the music was pounding.
He had to shout over it.
"I'm out, I don't have time!"
The mother-in-law went even harder.
"Good for nothing, wrecks everything he touches!"
The line went quiet.
No one answered.
The whole house had fallen into chaos.
On my end, I'd just landed and grabbed a cab home.
The moment the key slid into the lock, my hand was shaking.
"Emma, Mommy's home."
The living room lights were off. No answer.
My heart shot straight into my throat.
I flicked on the lights and searched the room.
There in the corner of the couch was a small, curled-up shape.
On the coffee table in front of her.
Sat a slice of cold bread she'd taken from the fridge.
A few bites gone, most of it left.
Beside it, an opened bottle of water.
The cap not screwed on right, water spilled all across the table.
Looking at my daughter, already fast asleep.
My legs gave out, and I dropped to my knees in front of her.
第4章
I called out softly, “Emma……”
She lifted her head slowly.
Her eyes were red, tearstains still on her cheeks.
The moment she saw me.
She froze for a second or two, then burst out crying.
“Mommy……”
“Why did you take so long to come home……”
She threw herself into my arms, her little hands clutching my clothes.
Her whole body was shaking.
I held her tight.
“I'm sorry. Mommy will never leave you behind again.”
Her face pressed against my neck.
Tears ran down under my collar.
That cold piece of bread on the coffee table, with a few bites taken out of it.
I looked at it for a long time, and it hurt.
Emma's voice was badly hoarse.
“Mommy, I'm hungry.”
“The fridge was too high. This was all I could find.”
I picked her up and carried her to the kitchen.
I opened the fridge.
Inside there were only a few eggs and a limp bunch of greens.
This was what they'd left for Emma.
An eight-year-old girl, alone in an empty house.
I made her a bowl of noodles in hot broth.
Emma held the bowl and ate in small bites.
So obedient it broke my heart.
I sat beside her and asked, “Emma, if Mommy took you to Grandma's……”
Before I could finish, she wiped her eyes and asked.
“Mommy, when are we going?”
I told her that if we went this time, she might never see Daddy again.
She shook her head and told me it didn't matter.
And said Grandma and Grandpa were her favorites.
I hadn't expected her answer to be so firm, so decided.
I'd never imagined that in her eyes.
That so-called father was really this worthless.
After dinner, I took my daughter back to my parents' house.
On the way, my phone buzzed without stopping.
I hung up every call from Murray's family.
The moment I silenced it, the screen lit up again.
In the family group chat, Murray's older sister had posted something.
【This one's really something. Ask her to watch a kid and she falls apart.】
She'd added a hand-over-mouth laughing emoji.
Murray's younger sister jumped in right after.
【Right? So petty.】
【Just because she's got a fancy degree.】
Other relatives popped up one by one, asking what happened.
The younger sister started laying it on thick.
She told the whole day's story from start to finish.
In her version, I was a selfish, dramatic, wicked wife.
The chat blew up.
All the aunts and cousins piling on, one after another.
【That daughter-in-law's a real piece of work.】
【Her elders ask her to watch one kid and she gives them attitude.】
【Murray marrying her is the worst luck eight generations could bring.】
I left the group chat, out of sight, out of mind.
When we reached my parents' door.
Mom and Dad were already waiting outside.
“Emma, Grandma missed you so much!”
My mom swept Emma up into her arms.
My dad stood beside her and said with a smile, “Come inside, quick, the food's getting cold.”
Inside, the table was covered with dishes.
All of them things Emma and I loved.
At the table, my dad hesitated for a long time.
“Sweetheart, are you and Murray having a spat?”
I didn't go into detail.
“Yeah, we had a bit of a falling-out.”
“You two don't need to worry.”
My mom patted my hand. “If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. Eat first.”
After dinner, I went to clean up the room.
I pushed the door open and found it spotless.
The sheets were freshly changed, and the quilt smelled of sunshine.
There was even a bunch of gardenias in a vase on the nightstand.
I turned to look at my mother.
She leaned against the doorframe and said with a smile.
“This time you're home, stay as long as you want.”
My nose stung all at once.
I turned away and pretended to straighten the bed.
In the living room, my dad was playing with blocks with Emma.
The two of them laughing together, drifting in wave after wave, so warm to hear.
It wasn't until Emma got sleepy that I carried her back to bed.
But late in the night.
The gate outside the yard was suddenly pounded on.
I jolted awake.
Emma rolled over, and I tucked the quilt back around her.
I pulled on a jacket and went out.
My mom was already up, her face pale.
“Who is it, this late?”
“Mom, go back inside. I'll get it.”
The moment I pulled the gate open.
A pair of hands seized my shoulders hard.
It was Murray!
He reeked of alcohol, his eyes bloodshot.
His voice was urgent and hoarse.
“Nat, I heard our place is getting a property settlement?”
“Is it true?!”