From Small to Crazy

My future mother-in-law loved to twist the truth.

She gave me 1,300 dollars as the wedding fund, then told everyone it was 130,000.

All she did was take me to a jewelry store to try on a few pieces, yet she went around bragging that she had spent tens of thousands on me.

I told myself it was fine. I was going to spend my life with my husband, not her. So I swallowed it.

Until the night before the wedding.

We had a minor argument, and he let it slip without thinking.

"My family already spent 150,000 dollars just to marry you. What else do you want?

"We've spent 130,000 just for the wedding. Anyone who didn't know better would think your family was selling a daughter."

For a second, I could not even speak.

That money had never passed through his hands. Both families had sat down and discussed it together.

However, he believed every word his mother had said. He really thought I had taken some outrageously expensive wedding gifts.

That was when it finally sank in how wrong I had been.

So when my future mother-in-law sent me a pathetic 1,000 dollars for the wedding banquet, while telling everyone she had given me 15,000, I stopped holding back.

On the wedding day, I swapped out the luxury banquet for instant noodles. Then, I played her stingy little transfer on a loop for all the guests to see.

When the waiters brought out buckets of instant noodles, the entire room fell silent.

Every guest froze. Then, the whispers started. Their expressions turned strange, eyes full of disdain.

My mother-in-law, Nancy Tucker, looked like she had just swallowed poison.

As for me, I acted like nothing was wrong. I picked up the microphone and cheerfully waved to everyone to start eating.

"What are you all waiting for? Go on, eat. Don't tell me none of these flavors suit your taste," I said.

Nancy's face twisted in disbelief. She could not hold it in anymore and snapped at me, saying, "Jessica! This is a joke, right? You're serving instant noodles at a wedding banquet?"

I let out an icy laugh. "What else should we be eating at this wedding banquet?"

All eyes turned to me at once, sharp and piercing.

Nancy's face flushed red. She looked like she wanted to disappear into the floor.

"What kind of wedding serves this? Other people prepare full meals with meat and seafood! You're humiliating the Jones family!"

The guests' murmuring grew louder.

"I mean, even poor families wouldn't do this. At worst, they'd cut a few meat dishes. Who serves instant noodles at a wedding?"

"And they're not even poor. This has to be some kind of joke, right?"

Exactly. Even families with little money would try to make their banquet look decent.

However, at my wedding, every single guest had nothing but a cheap cup of instant noodles in front of them.

No sausages. No eggs. Nothing extra.

I smiled at everyone.

"You're overthinking it. This is today's menu."

My husband, Erick Jones, finally snapped out of his shock. Then, he slapped me across the face.

"Jessica, how can you be this cruel? Just to pocket the 15,000 my mom gave you for the wedding, you'd do something this disgusting?"

A flicker of guilt crossed Nancy's face, but she quickly covered it up and turned the blame on me.

"Everyone, please judge this situation for us. Haven't we treated our daughter-in-law well enough?

"We gave her a wedding fund of 130,000 dollars. Even with gold prices so high, we still spent over 10,000 on her jewelry.

"Why would you still steal from the banquet budget and embarrass us in front of everyone?"

The guests began pointing at me, their faces filled with disgust.

"This daughter-in-law is vicious. If we didn't know better, we'd think the Jones family did this on purpose."

"Seriously. I've seen gold diggers, but never one this shameless. Erick is really unlucky to marry someone like her."