My MIL Gifted Us a House for Our Wedding – A Week After Moving In, I Demanded We Return It or End Our Marriage

I’d catch her staring out the window, chewing her lip until it turned white. Sometimes, she disappeared with her phone for ages, always giving me a vague answer when I asked what she’d been doing.

“Babe, what’s wrong?” I asked one evening after dinner. “Don’t you like it here?”

She sighed, avoiding my eyes. “It’s just… a big adjustment. Newly married, starting our lives together in this house…”

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Adjustments I could handle. But her distance? That gnawed at me.

A frowning man | Source: Midjourney

The first crack came during a dinner at Janice’s a few days after we moved in. The three of us sat around her pristine dining table, the smell of rosemary chicken wafting through the air.

“So, have you spoken to my lawyer, yet?” Janice asked, her voice honeyed but sharp, “I’d like you both to sign the contract as soon as possible.”

“Contract?” I set my fork down, the word sticking in my ears like a bad tune.

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Janice tilted her head, her expression perfectly balanced between feigned confusion and patronizing sweetness. “Oh, I assumed Sarah would’ve told you by now.”

A woman seated at a dinner table | Source: Midjourney

Across from me, Sarah’s knuckles whitened against the stem of her wine glass. Her shoulders tensed, and she stared at the table like it might swallow her whole.

“Mom,” she started, her voice barely above a whisper.

But Janice held up a hand, a soft laugh spilling from her lips. “Sarah was probably waiting for the right time. It’s about the contract for the house, Jeremy. I may as well explain the terms now, I suppose.”

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