While we're having our dinner on Christmas Eve, my mom suddenly asks me loudly, "Do you have your chastity?"

I look confused. "What?"

My mom just smiles very smugly. "I knew you were the adventurous type! You must have lost it because of someone else!"

After that, she shoots my husband, Louis Hartson, a knowing look.

"You don't know about this yet, right? Before Yvonne married you, she was an absolute player in the dating pool. Her father and I couldn't keep her under control at all!"

I widen my eyes in shock. "What are you talking about?"

My mom is even happier when she sees how angry I am. "Oh? You have the guts to do it, yet you're too cowardly to admit to it?"

I can only clench my fists tightly under the table after hearing my mom's slanderous accusations.

Since she likes spreading baseless rumors about me this much, I'm not going to keep her secret for her anymore.

At the dinner table, in front of everyone, Mom was still spouting nonsense.

"No offense, Yvonne, but landing a husband like Louis Hartson is a once-in-a-lifetime blessing. Instead of being grateful, there you are, running around and fooling about behind his back.

"Who do you think you are? Some kind of social butterfly? A heartthrob? When Louis dumps you, don't come crying back to me!"

I was so furious that my head spun. "Don't make such accusations without proof. What makes you think I've been fooling around?"

Mom rolled her eyes. "Louis hasn't had a single illness this past year," she replied offhandedly. "You, on the other hand, are down with the flu one day, then hives the next. If you haven't been fooling around God knows where, then where did all these illnesses come from?"

I stared at her calmly, finally understanding how her twisted logic worked.

All of this stemmed from when I'd caught the flu for the first time.

Lately, I had indeed gotten sick quite a lot.

With the end-of-year financial audits piling up, I'd been working overtime constantly and not eating regularly. As a result, my immune system bore the brunt of my poor habits.

Still, I thought it was all worth it. I'd managed to hit all my targets and delivered flawless data by the end of the year. My colleagues agreed that I, Yvonne Lawson, had the best shot at a promotion the following year.

Never, however, did I expect my efforts would become ammunition for my own mother to tear me down.

Noticing the questioning looks of my in-laws, Dad smiled and said, "Alright, she was just joking. Don't take what she said to heart."

Dad had always felt Mom endured a lot while supporting his business ventures. As such, no matter how unreasonable she was, he would tolerate her without question.

Because of his tolerance toward her, Mom grew increasingly outrageous.

When everyone's expressions returned neutral, Mom turned back to my husband, Louis, and said, "Starting tomorrow, I'm moving in with you to keep an eye on Yvonne. I'll make sure she doesn't try anything funny."

Louis waved her off awkwardly. "That won't be necessary, Mom. Yvonne's fine. She wouldn't do anything of that sort."

Mom grabbed Louis' arm and glared at him. "You can't be that spineless of a man! If she does anything to betray you, I'll personally make sure she's punished adequately!

"If you can't bring yourself to hit or scold her, I swear I will. I'll straighten her out, don't you worry."

Looking at her absolute conviction, I suddenly felt the urge to laugh.

Was all this really coming from a mother?

Most mothers wanted the best for their daughters. Even when conflict arose between the young couple, they would always stand by their children no matter what.

Mom, on the other hand, seemed intent on pinning the blame squarely on me. She was even volunteering to discipline me on my husband's behalf.

After dinner, she remained chatting endlessly with Louis and my in-laws.

As I watched the grim expressions on my in-laws' faces and Louis' evasive gaze, I suddenly realized I'd truly had enough of Mom.

…

For some reason, Mom always found it entertaining to spread rumors about me and belittle me in front of others.

When I was a child, she'd accused me of stealing. Then, later on, at my college graduation, she fabricated stories of me having an affair with one of my professors on the spot.

I barely had any friends growing up. Everyone avoided me like the plague.

Every time I caught Mom in one of her lies, she would show no remorse. She claimed she was only joking, and that she didn't know everyone else would take what she said so seriously.

Whether she truly meant it as a joke or not, I knew one thing for certain. Nothing good ever came out of her mouth.

After dating Louis in secret for a year and a half, I finally decided to bring him home to my parents.

Fearing Mom would say something damaging about me again, I spent the entire drive home with sweat on my palms.

Dad had tried to reassure me. She was my mom, after all. No matter what, during moments like these, surely she had my best interests at heart.

When we arrived at my parents' house, Mom greeted Louis quite warmly. I felt slightly relieved.

I thought Dad could have been right. When it came to moments that mattered, Mom really could be different.

But then, she spent the entire afternoon talking badly about me to Louis.

"Look, this is what Yvonne looked like in high school. She was so freckly and chubby. So tall, too. When she stands, she just towers over everyone else awkwardly."

Mom held up my high school class photo for Louis to see. At that time, I had gained quite a lot of weight due to academic stress. I'd even been bullied for my appearance.

Mom knew all that, yet she chose to turn it into a joke regardless.

Fighting back tears, I managed to say, "At that time, the workload was impossible to finish. After dinner, I'd go straight to my room to do my homework, and I wouldn't sleep until at least one or two in the morning. The doctor said my weight gain had been due to a hormonal imbalance."

Mom shot me a disapproving glance. "That's enough of that. You make it sound like you were some kind of top student."

She then turned to Louis and said, "You probably don't know this, but Yvonne was actually terrible at school. Did you know she almost got expelled from college?"

My voice cracked under the weight of pent-up emotions.

"All I did was fail one class. I passed my make-up exam the next semester."

This time, Mom did not respond. Instead, she continued rattling off more unflattering stories from my past. Dad tried to get her to stop several times, but to no avail.

For the rest of the afternoon, every time Louis showed the slightest hint of curiosity, Mom would launch into another one of my embarrassing stories.

I barely remembered some of the things she said, but no matter how much I questioned her and protested, she just kept on talking.

I spent the entire afternoon tense and restless, my nerves stretched taut.

By the time I walked Louis out to the parking lot, I was mentally preparing myself for him to break up with me.

However, as I turned to leave, Louis took my hand and said, "No matter what your mom says, I'll only believe what I see.

"Our wedding will go ahead as planned. Don't you dare think about leaving me."

My eyes stung with unexpected tears. This was the first time anyone had chosen to believe me despite my mother's words.

…

After the disastrous Christmas dinner, Louis noticed my lingering gloom and suggested that we go on a road trip for a few days.

We chose to go to a nearby small town.

The festive atmosphere here felt much richer. The food was also wonderfully fresh. Louis and I had a great time.

Two days before the end of the holiday break, I received a call from a distant relative.

"Yvonne, where are you right now?"

"Out," I replied.

"Wait, did you really go into hiding?"

I was utterly confused. "Why would I be hiding?"

Her voice grew anxious upon hearing my question. "Yvonne, you can stop hiding things from us now. You could have just told us you lost your job.

"We're family. We would have pitched in to tide you over. Why did you even take out an online loan?

"Look where that's gotten you now. It's Christmas and you're out there hiding from your creditors, unable to come home."

I almost fell over. I scrambled to explain, even sending screenshots of my employee ID from my work software to prove that I, in fact, did still have a job and had never taken any online loans.

She believed me reluctantly after reviewing everything I'd sent. Still, she urged me to call my mom.

My blood boiled upon hearing this.

Sure enough, Mom had been the one who'd spread this ridiculous rumor about me.

Before I could confront her, Mom called me herself.

"Do you have any idea how much you've embarrassed me? Why did you tell your aunt you're still working? That makes me sound like I've been spreading nonsense to everyone!"

I laughed coldly while clutching my phone. "Is that not what you've been doing, though?"

"They were the ones who asked me where you are! I didn't know, so I just said something random. I didn't think they'd actually believe me.

"Either way, can you blame me? I can't control what others think."

Listening to her righteous yet evasive excuses, I sighed deeply.

Of course, she was far from done. "Look, the economy's terrible right now. Who knows? You might actually lose your job one day."

I could tolerate anything Mom said, just not this. This, I could not stomach.

Among all those initial interns, I had gone through who knew how many rounds of evaluations just to stay in the company.

Gripping the phone, I said in a low voice, "There is no way I'm ever going to lose this job."

Perhaps sensing the iciness in my tone, Mom fell silent on the other end. However, after a few seconds, she suddenly perked up.

"Never say never. Who knows…"

Gosh, she was truly hopeless!

Not wanting to listen to her nonsense anymore, I ended the call.

Later events proved I shouldn't have done that. At least then I could have prepared myself for what was to come.

…

After the Christmas break, Louis and I both returned to work.

The first morning rush after the holidays always resulted in unusually congested traffic. To make matters worse, I seemed to get caught at every red light possible.

The trip that usually took no more than half an hour ended up taking me almost 50 minutes.

When I rushed into the office, I immediately noticed everyone staring at me strangely.

Just as I reached my desk, Mark Roland, the director of the company, appeared before me. "Yvonne, can you come with me for a moment?"

"What's wrong?"

Mark's expression was inscrutable. "We'll talk more inside," he said seriously.

Before I even reached his office, I heard Mom's voice coming from inside.

A sense of foreboding washed over me instantly.

When I opened the door, Mom was indeed inside, along with several other executives of the company. The atmosphere was thick with tension.

When Mom caught sight of me, she pointed at me and declared, "You might be my daughter, but you've done something to betray the company and I have no other choice but to expose you."

"What have I done now?"

"What have you done?" Mom repeated my question with righteous indignance. "Last night, I saw you send all your company's data to a competitor. That's right, I saw everything."

I drew in a sharp breath. As an employee of the finance department, leaking company data was a cardinal sin. If the executives believed her claims, I was as good as dead.

Sure enough, several of them turned their gazes to me upon hearing Mom's words. I steadied my breathing.

"You weren't even with me last night. How exactly did you see all this?

"Also, which data specifically are you talking about? What's the name of this competitor you speak of?"

Mom faltered momentarily, but soon replied loudly, "You were the one who contacted them. You should know all this."

I stared straight into her eyes. "I want to hear it from you."

Mom's eyes darted around. "If all of you don't believe me, you can check her laptop yourself. There must be records," she addressed the roomful of executives.

Mark's expression turned icy as he ordered me to turn on my laptop.

The data spreadsheet was right on my desktop. The last modified timestamp was at 10:30 pm last night.

Mark's glasses glinted coldly. "What were you doing with this so late at night?"

"It's our first day back at work today. I thought it might come up during the meeting, so I opened it before bed to take a quick look," I replied.

Mark said nothing. He revoked my access to the company's system immediately.

"Take a few days off. We'll discuss this further once the company completes a formal investigation."

With that, he turned and walked away without another word.

Mom beamed with smug satisfaction.

"I always wondered what all that fuss about your job was. All it took was a few words from me and here they are, kicking you out.

"You used to foolishly work overtime so much for them too. Well, at least you know now. They never really took you seriously to begin with."

Intense anger made my tears spill out uncontrollably. "Is this another one of your jokes?" I demanded. "Do you realize this might cost me my job?"

Mom shrugged indifferently. "So, what? You can just rest at home if you lose your job. What's the big deal?"

Fine, then. If she loved spreading rumors about me so much, I, too, would not keep her secret any longer.

When I got home, I pulled out a yellowed piece of paper.

"Does this look familiar to you, Mom?"

Mom's face turned deathly pale the moment she saw the piece of paper I was holding.