SHE REFUSED TO SAVE HER MOTHER-IN-LAW THIS TIME, AND THEN WATCHED KARMA WORK!

“Soon, you’ll pay the ultimate price for letting it slide.”

Chapter 3: The Breast Milk Incident

A few days later, I decided it was time to let Arthur experience his mother’s “little habit” firsthand.

I called his office line during his lunch break. “Hey honey, I left an important document at home. Can you bring it to the office?”

“But I’m at the office right now, Shirley,” he replied, sounding stressed. “Why don’t you call my mom to bring it?”

“Okay, I’ll do that.”

I handed Martha the folder, telling her Arthur desperately needed it at work. She practically sprinted out the door, eager to show off to her friends that her son was a corporate manager.

An hour later, my phone buzzed with a text from a former colleague who worked at Arthur’s company. You won’t believe what your mother-in-law just did.

Martha had arrived at the office, dropped off the file, and then decided to snoop around the employee breakroom. She opened the company fridge and saw several expensive-looking, unlabelled bottles of liquid. Assuming it was some high-end imported milk, she shoved all six bottles into her purse.

Those bottles were freshly pumped breast milk belonging to Ms. Carter, the fiercely strict, no-nonsense CEO of the company.

When Ms. Carter went to retrieve her milk for her infant, she found the fridge empty. She immediately ordered IT to pull the breakroom security footage.

“Mr. Andrews,” Ms. Carter said, standing in front of Arthur’s desk with a crowd of employees watching.

“We got the footage. This looks exactly like your mother.”

Arthur stared at the screen in pure horror.

“My mother? Why would she steal your breast milk?”

“She’s a pervert!” a female employee yelled.

“Ms. Carter went through so much trouble to pump that milk for her baby! And now the baby’s food is all gone! That’s so wicked!”

“Ms. Carter, it’s all my mother’s fault,” Arthur stammered, his face bright red with humiliation.

“For the losses, I’ll pay you back in full.”

When Arthur dragged his mother home that night, he was practically vibrating with rage.

“Mom, you’ve had this bad habit of stealing your whole life. You still can’t change, can you?” he yelled, pacing the living room.

“What are you talking about, Arthur?” she deflected, looking around innocently.

“You have the nerve to ask what you stole? You opened the company fridge and stole my boss’s breast milk! What for? Have I ever skimped on your food or clothes?”

“I didn’t!” she lied automatically.

“The security footage caught you! And you’re still denying it?”

I sat on the couch, sipping a cup of tea. “So, you knew your mother is stealing, Arthur. Now that it’s happening to you, and embarrassing you at your workplace, you finally feel the pain. But don’t worry. The worst is yet to come.”

“It’s just a little milk!” Martha screamed, turning on him. “Everyone else takes stuff! Why can’t I? That boss of yours, she actually keeps her own bodily fluids at the office! No shame at all! And another thing, you’re a manager! Taking something from her is showing her respect!”

“You steal, and you think you’re right!” Arthur screamed, burying his face in his hands. “Why did I have to be stuck with a mom like you?”

Chapter 4: The Airport Heist

The tension in the house was unbearable. Arthur was giving his mother the silent treatment, refusing to eat her cooking or speak to her.

“Since you’ve decided to give us the silent treatment, your mom and I will go out and get out of your hair,” my father-in-law, George, announced one morning. “When you’ve calmed down, we’ll come back.”

“Mom, Dad, take this chance to disappear for a few days,” I smiled warmly, pulling out Arthur’s credit card. “I’ll book your flights. Go have a nice vacation.”

I booked them a cheap flight to a neighboring state. But I knew Martha wouldn’t be able to resist the glittering duty-free shops and the chaotic security checkpoints at the airport. It was a kleptomaniac’s paradise.

Two hours later, my phone rang.

“Ms. Davis, I’m Officer Wang from the airport security office. Your father-in-law was just detained in connection with a stolen luxury watch at the security checkpoint. Your husband isn’t answering his phone. Can you come over and handle this?”

“I’ll be right there,” I said, a massive, genuine smile breaking across my face.

I drove to Arthur’s office, dragged him out of a meeting, and told him the news on the way to the airport. He looked like he was going to vomit.

When we walked into the sterile security office, Martha and George were sitting in plastic chairs, surrounded by three armed officers and a furious, wealthy-looking businessman.

“You two look all fancy, but I never expected you to be such thieves!” the businessman was yelling at George. “Stealing at your age! Aren’t you ashamed?”

“Don’t accuse me falsely! I didn’t steal anything!” George protested weakly.

“Then my watch grew legs and ran onto your wrist?” the man sneered.

“I thought you didn’t want it! Since you want it, I’ll give it back. That’s all. Is it that big a deal?” George mumbled, pulling a massive, glittering Rolex from his pocket.

“Ma’am, Sir, this is a watch worth over forty thousand dollars,” Officer Wang said sternly. “And you insist you just ‘found’ it inside someone else’s security bin? Do you take me for a fool?”

Arthur rushed forward, his face pale. “Officer, what the hell is going on?”

“Take a look at the security footage yourselves,” the officer sighed, turning the monitor toward us.

The black-and-white video was crystal clear. The businessman placed his Rolex into the grey plastic bin before walking through the metal detector. Martha, standing right behind him, expertly scooped the watch out of the bin and slipped it directly into George’s jacket pocket.

The thief had always been my dear mother-in-law. As for my father-in-law, he was just the convenient fall guy she used to carry the stolen goods.

“Arthur,” I whispered, leaning in close to my husband. “Back then, you were carefree and didn’t give a damn about anything she stole. You told me to just ‘drop it.’ But now, I want to see exactly how you clean up this massive forty-thousand-dollar mess. If your parents get a felony criminal record, how will our future kids ever pass a background check to land a decent government job?”

Arthur looked like he was going to pass out. He turned to the businessman, his hands clasped together in pure desperation. “Sir, please. Let’s step outside and talk. I’ll do anything. Please just apologize nicely, Mom! Since you’re elderly, he might not press charges!”

“I didn’t steal anything! Why should I apologize?” Martha shrieked, slapping Arthur’s hands away.

George, realizing the massive legal trouble he was in, completely snapped. “Since this hand can’t seem to kick its thieving habit, I’ll chop it off today!” he roared, lunging at his wife.

He tackled Martha right there in the security office, slapping her across the face. “I’ll beat you to death today! Then you’ll never steal again!”

“Help! He’s killing me! Officer, help!” Martha screamed, thrashing on the linoleum floor.

I stood in the corner, watching them tear each other apart. Martha, seeing you get beaten, I’m so incredibly happy. But this is only the very beginning.

Arthur finally managed to pull his father off his mother. He spent the next three hours begging on his knees, crying, and completely draining his own personal savings account to pay the businessman $40,000 for a formal “letter of forgiveness” so the police wouldn’t press grand larceny charges.

Because Arthur paid the massive bribe, Martha and George avoided a lengthy prison sentence, but Martha was still slapped with a three-month suspended sentence for petty theft.

When we finally got back to the apartment, Arthur was a broken, hollow shell of a man.

“If you can’t get rid of this bad habit, then get the hell out of this house!” Arthur screamed at his mother, throwing a vase against the wall. “Do you know how much I had to pay? Forty thousand dollars! It’s a whole forty grand!”

“I only wanted to get it back for your father to wear!” Martha cried, completely unrepentant. “You don’t appreciate my efforts! Fine! But you yell at me? I raised you for nothing!”

Chapter 5: The Wedding Setup

Three months passed. The atmosphere in the apartment was toxic. Arthur was working grueling overtime shifts to rebuild his decimated savings, and he completely ignored his mother.

Today was Leo’s wedding. In my past life, this was the exact day Martha framed me and sent me to prison for eight years. I knew exactly what was coming, and I had meticulously prepared for it.

We arrived at the lavish banquet hall. The room was bustling with relatives and expensive floral arrangements.

“Shirley, let’s go to the dressing room and see Chloe,” Martha said, grabbing my arm with a fake, overly sweet smile. “The stylist she hired is super famous.”

Booking the stylist is a cover, I thought to myself. You just want to use me as a scapegoat again. You really can’t change your spots.

“Mom, I have a sudden stomach ache. I’m going to go to the bathroom first. You go ahead,” I said, slipping my arm out of her grasp.

“Choking when it counts,” Martha muttered under her breath, her eyes flashing with annoyance before she hurried toward the bridal suite alone.

I didn’t go to the bathroom. I went straight to the security monitoring room and handed the technician a crisp hundred-dollar bill to let me stand in the corner and watch the live feeds.

Ten minutes later, chaos erupted in the main hall.

“Hey! Officer! We’ve had something stolen!” Leo yelled, standing near the bridal suite.

Two patrol officers, who were already on-site for traffic control, jogged over. “Who reported it?”

“I did,” the bride, Chloe, said, crying. “I put it in the cabinet. My solid gold jewelry set and my diamond engagement ring are completely gone.”

“Think hard,” the officer said, pulling out a notepad. “Who came near the cabinet at that time? The dressing room.”

“There was no one else,” a bridesmaid pointed directly at Martha, who was standing near the buffet table. “Only she came in.”

“Hey! You can’t just accuse people like that!” Martha yelled, instantly switching to her defensive routine. “I’m a good person! If you don’t believe me, you can check my bag!”

She eagerly thrust her cheap leather purse forward, knowing perfectly well she had already slipped the velvet box into the pocket of my coat, which was hanging on the back of my chair at our table.

“There’s no security footage inside that specific dressing room,” the officer said. “Searching the bags is the fastest way.”

They searched Martha’s bag. Nothing.

“See? I told you!” Martha smiled triumphantly. She turned and pointed a dramatic finger across the room, directly at my coat. “But look! My daughter-in-law, Shirley! She was acting incredibly suspicious earlier! Check her coat pocket!”

The officer walked over to my chair and pulled the velvet box directly out of my coat pocket.

“There it is,” the officer said, opening the box to reveal the glittering gold and diamonds.

The entire wedding hall gasped. Arthur stared at the box in pure horror.

“So, it was you,” Martha sneered, shaking her head in fake disappointment. “I know you’re mad at my son for losing all that money at the airport, Shirley. But even if you wanted money that badly, you can’t just steal from family!”

“Come with us, ma’am,” the officer said, reaching for his handcuffs.

“Wait,” I said, my voice echoing through the silent hall. I walked calmly out from the crowd, holding a sleek silver tablet I had borrowed from the security room.

“Officer, before you arrest me, you might want to watch this.”

I handed the tablet to the officer and tapped the screen.

It was high-definition footage from the hallway camera positioned directly outside the bridal suite. The video clearly showed Martha sneaking out of the dressing room, checking over her shoulder, and then hurriedly shoving the velvet box directly into my coat pocket before walking away to the buffet.

The entire wedding party stared at the screen in absolute, stunned silence.

Martha’s face drained of all color. She looked like a ghost.

“Hey… let me see!” Martha lunged forward, desperately trying to grab the tablet. “This is AI-generated! Hey, how can you use something fake as evidence?”

She managed to smack the tablet out of the officer’s hand. It shattered against the marble floor.

“Ma’am, you’re deliberately destroying police evidence,” the officer growled, stepping forward.

“I slipped! Didn’t hold it well!” Martha shrieked, backing away. “Is it AI-generated? You can’t prove it’s real!”

“Aunt Martha, who’s that thief to you that you’re protecting them like this?” Leo demanded, his face red with anger. “Or are you just protecting yourself?”

“Mom, what’s going on here?” Arthur asked, his voice trembling as the reality of the situation finally crashed down on him.

“I didn’t do it! I think they’re falsely accusing me!” Martha cried, grabbing her chest. “Oh… why am I dizzy? Oh, I can’t stand anymore. I’m going back home.”

She tried to shuffle toward the exit.

“Ma’am, before we figure this out, you absolutely cannot leave,” the officer said, blocking her path. “Because that footage clearly proves you are the thief.”

“In my past life, you set me up,” I whispered, stepping close to Martha so only she could hear me. “I was dumb and fell for it. I rotted in prison for eight years because of you. But in this life, dream on.”

I stepped back and raised my voice for the entire hall to hear. “Mom, the stolen stuff was found in my pocket, yes. But I’ve been with the security technicians in the monitoring room the entire time you were in the suite! Even if you hate me, you can’t set me up like this!”

“That’s right,” the security technician called out from the doorway. “Shirley’s been with me the whole time. I can vouch for her.”

Martha looked completely trapped. She turned to Arthur, her eyes wide with panic. “Son! You’ve got to believe me! She’s the one who’s in cahoots with others to frame me!”

“Enough!” Arthur screamed, his voice cracking. “Mom, haven’t you caused enough embarrassment? Huh?”

He turned to Leo, looking completely broken. “Leo, about today… I’m really sorry. This gold jewelry and the diamond ring, I’ll pay you double for the trouble. Is that okay? Please don’t press charges. My mom… she’ll go to prison this time.”

“Still sticking up for her,” I laughed coldly. “There you go. Birds of a feather flock together.”

“Arthur, I’m getting married today,” Leo said in disgust. “I don’t want your dirty money. I want justice.”

“Officer, sorry for the hassle,” Arthur begged. “After the wedding, we’ll settle this at the station. Just let us get through the ceremony.”

“Then we’ll wait until your wedding is over and come back,” the officer said firmly. “But ma’am, you are the prime suspect. If you try to run, I will issue a felony arrest warrant for you.”

As the police stepped back, I turned to Arthur, my face completely blank.

“After their wedding is over, we’ll go straight to City Hall and get divorced, Arthur,” I said.

“I don’t want a divorce! Shirley, please!” Arthur grabbed my arm.

Before I could answer, Martha let out a horrifying shriek.

“It’s over! It’s over!” she wailed.

She ran toward the massive floral archway at the center of the room. She grabbed a thick silk ribbon used for decoration, quickly tied it around the sturdy wooden beam, and slipped it around her neck.

“Mom! What are you doing? Mom, don’t scare me!” Arthur screamed, sprinting toward her.

Martha stood on a decorative wooden crate, pulling the ribbon tight around her neck. She looked directly at me, her eyes filled with pure, manipulative malice.

“Playing the victim again,” I sneered, standing my ground. “You’re such an incredible actress. But hanging yourself at someone else’s wedding? Even if you don’t die, you’d still be in incredibly deep legal trouble for this stunt.”

“Shirley, you! You!” Martha gasped, pretending to struggle.

“Stop yelling,” I said coldly. “Even if you died right here, I wouldn’t care.”

“I’ll kill you!” Martha shrieked, totally breaking character. She tried to step off the crate to lunge at me, but she misjudged the distance. The silk ribbon snapped tight around her neck, violently jerking her backward.

She swung in the air for exactly three seconds, her face turning bright purple, before the decorative wooden beam snapped under her weight. She crashed to the marble floor in a heap of silk, wood, and crushed flowers.

“Mom!” Arthur yelled, falling to his knees beside her.

“Get out of my way!” Martha wheezed, coughing violently and clutching her bruised throat. “Don’t come near me, or I’ll really kill myself in front of you! Unless you promise me that I won’t go to jail, and Arthur won’t divorce me!”

“Fine! I promise you!” Arthur cried, completely broken by her manipulation. “I’ll handle Leo! Okay?”

I just shook my head in utter disgust.

“What about you, dear mother-in-law? You’re celebrating too soon. The real show is yet to come.”

Chapter 6: The Final Betrayal

I didn’t wait for Arthur to handle anything. I filed the divorce papers the very next morning. I moved out, taking everything that rightfully belonged to me.

But I wasn’t done with Martha. I knew exactly how to destroy her from the inside out.

A few weeks later, I paid a visit to Susan, Martha’s estranged biological sister. Susan was a notorious gold-digger who had always been wildly jealous of Martha’s marriage to George.

“Susan,” I said, sitting in her cheap apartment.

“I heard George is recovering from his recent heart issues, but Martha treats him terribly. She steals his money, yells at him, and makes his life miserable. He’s incredibly lonely. Someone really ought to comfort him.”

Susan’s eyes gleamed with greedy intent. “Is that so?”

Three days later, Martha returned home from another one of her petty shoplifting sprees at the local market to find her front door deadbolted from the inside.

“Open the door! Open the door!” Martha screamed, pounding her fists against the wood.

“I know you’re in there! I’ll count to three! Get the hell out now!”

The door finally opened. George stood there, looking flushed, hastily buttoning his shirt. Behind him, adjusting her skirt and smirking triumphantly, was Susan.

“Susan! You’re shameless! I’m your biological sister!” Martha shrieked, lunging forward.

“Who’s the shameless one here?” Susan laughed, pushing her back.

“You steal from innocent people, and you make George take the fall for you! You’re a disgusting criminal, Martha. George wants a divorce. He’s giving me the house.”

“I’ll kill you!” Martha roared, launching herself at Susan.

The two sisters tumbled onto the floor, scratching, biting, and pulling hair. George tried to pull them apart, but his heart couldn’t take the sudden, intense physical strain.

He clutched his chest, his eyes rolling back in his head, and collapsed hard onto the concrete floor, hitting his head with a sickening crack.

“George! George!” Martha screamed, abandoning the fight.

At the hospital, the doctor delivered the brutal news to Arthur and Martha. “Your father has suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. He’s had a severe stroke. Even if he recovers, he will never walk or speak again. He will be in a wheelchair, requiring round-the-clock medical care for the rest of his life.”

“Paralyzed?” Martha gasped. “You old geezer! You can’t even get up? And now I have to take care of you? What a complete drag!”

Arthur looked at his mother in absolute disgust.

“Mom, can’t you just shut up? With Dad in this terrible state, if you upset him anymore, what am I supposed to do?”

“My own son won’t side with me,” Martha cried, playing her final victim card.

“What meaning is there left in living?”

Chapter 7: The Poisoned Karma

Arthur’s life completely spiraled. Burdened with massive medical debt for his father’s care, the lingering $40,000 debt from the airport incident, and my relentless divorce settlement demanding half of all marital assets, he was entirely ruined.

He was fired from his managerial job after Martha showed up at his office again, trying to steal expensive office supplies to sell at a pawn shop. He ended up working grueling, back-breaking shifts at a construction site just to afford cheap instant noodles for dinner.

Martha, completely unrepentant, was forced to scavenge for food.

One evening, I received a phone call from the local police department.

“Ms. Davis? We are calling regarding Arthur and Martha Andrews. According to our investigation at the scene, they died of severe chemical poisoning.”

“Poisoning?” I asked, a cold chill running down my spine.

“Yes. It appears Martha found a discarded bag of expiring seafood behind a local market. She didn’t realize it had been thrown out because the market owner had accidentally spilled highly concentrated industrial rat poison on the boxes. She took the contaminated food home and cooked it for dinner. Both she and Arthur passed away shortly after consuming it.”

I hung up the phone. I walked over to the large window in my beautiful, peaceful new apartment and looked out at the glittering city skyline.

What goes around, comes around, I thought, taking a deep, cleansing breath of fresh air. If it’s not yours, don’t get greedy.

I was finally free.