"Mom, Jade has a bad temper and speaks without thinking. I already scolded her. For my sake, please, let it go just this once?"
"That's right. Mom, are you really so heartless that you'd make me lose face in front of my in-laws?"
I studied my daughter's posture—half-begging, half-manipulative. A thought crystallized.
*Fine.*
Since she insisted I was scheming, and since she claimed her in-laws were so wonderful, I would let her see the cruel truth.
"Fine," I said aloud.
We piled into the car. Savannah squirmed in Zoey Lambert's lap, kicking her legs.
"I don't want to sit with Bad Grandma!"
A bitter taste flooded my mouth.
Seven years ago, when Jade gave birth, her in-laws didn't even show their faces because Savannah was a girl. They had withheld the $20,000 confinement subsidy they promised. I was the one who raised this child from infancy, yet now she clung to the grandmother who had despised her existence and called me "bad."
The irony cut deep.
Jade had no choice but to sit in the middle, leaving me squeezed against the door.
From the front passenger seat, Patrick's dad, Alex James, spoke up. "Is tonight's New Year's Eve dinner arranged?"
Before Patrick could answer, Jade jumped in.