My husband, Alan Swift, and his mistress were caught kissing while driving, leading to a severe car crash. The doctor told me I’d need £20,000 to save Alan’s legs. When I said I didn’t have the money, the doctor went ahead and amputated it.

When Alan woke up and burst into tears, I gave him a hard smack and said, “Just legs. Stop being so dramatic.”

——

Upon hearing that Alan and his mistress had both been in a car accident and were being rushed to the hospital, I happily whipped up two plates of spaghetti before leisurely heading over.

After emergency treatment, Alan's life was saved for now, but his legs were badly crushed. We had two options: come up with £20,000 for surgery to save his legs, or go for amputation.

When I heard this, I exclaimed, "Doctor, you have to save my husband's legs! We'll do whatever it takes, even if we have to sell everything!"

I immediately pulled out my phone and called Alan's mother, Iris, right in front of the doctor.

"Can you lend me 20 grand? It's for Alan..."

"20 grand? No way! You wretched woman! Don't bother me while I'm playing Texas Hold'em. About to win!"

Beep, beep, beep…

The hospital was noisy, so I had the speaker on. All the medical staff members clearly heard Iris's voice.

I pinched my thigh hard to keep from laughing. With tears streaming down my face and a barely suppressed smile, I cried to the doctor, "All the family money is with Iris. If she says there’s no money, then maybe... there really is no money…

“Doctor, let's go for the amputation then…”

The doctor was at a loss for words.

A nurse pointed to Alan’s mistress on the adjacent bed and asked, “This one was brought in with him. Are you her family? She also needs surgery. Please sign here.”

I glanced at Alan's mistress, covered in blood, and shook my head.

“That’s my husband's girlfriend. I'm not her family. Can I even sign for her?”

Clearly, I couldn’t.

“Please, you have to take good care of her. She’s my husband's true love. If anything happens to her, my husband will be heartbroken.”

The nurse looked at me sympathetically.

After some treatment, Alan’s condition stabilized, and he was moved to a general ward.

Iris arrived late and immediately lunged at me, ready to slap me hard.

"You wretched woman! How could you do this to Alan? You jinx!"

I lightly dodged, and she crashed into the side of the bed, knocking over the IV stand that was administering fluids to Alan.

With great force, the needle was yanked out of Alan's vein, causing the fluid and the blood to spray onto her face.

It looked both terrifying and comical.

"The patient's room is no place for a scene! Take it outside and don't disturb the patients!" the nurse snapped, replacing Alan's needle and switching out the IV fluid.

Iris grabbed the nurse and demanded, "Nurse, isn't this awful woman the one who hurt my son? You have to testify for me in court! I'm going to sue her to death!"

The nurse glanced sympathetically at me and curtly replied to Iris, "Please don't interfere with my work."

Iris shot me a nasty glare and raised her hand, ready to strike again.

I quickly dodged to the bedside and secretly pinched Alan hard. "Mom, look, Alan’s awake!"

Sure enough, Alan opened his eyes.

Iris threw herself onto him, crying her heart out. "Alan, my son! Who did this to you? Who's the monster that hurt you like this?"

Alan, struggling to breathe under her weight, finally managed to gasp out, "Move... move away!"

Iris realized what she was doing and quickly got up, looking at him with concern. "Alan, was it that evil woman who tried to kill you?"

Alan tried to sit up, but Iris pushed him back down. "Son! Are you trying to get up and hit her? Don’t move, I'll hit her for you!"

"Mom, get out of the way!" Alan roared, disregarding his injuries as he struggled to rise. "Where’s Bella? I need to see Bella! How is she?"

I silently gave him a thumbs-up in my mind. Such a touching love story!

But as soon as he threw off the blanket, both Iris and Alan froze as if struck by lightning.

"Ah!" Alan screamed. "My legs? Where are my legs? Doctor! Doctor! What happened to my legs?"

Under the blanket, Alan’s legs were wrapped neatly in bandages—both amputated below the knee.

I kindly informed him, "The doctor said your legs were too badly injured. If we could have come up with £20,000 for surgery, they could have been saved. But since there was no money, they had to amputate."

Iris, still in shock from the sight of her son's amputated legs, erupted again when she heard this.

"You wretched woman! If money could’ve saved him, why didn’t you spend it? You wanted to hurt my son on purpose! You’re so evil! Why weren’t your legs the ones to go? Just die already!"

Alan, glaring at me with murderous eyes, looked ready to tear me apart.

I spoke calmly, "I called you to borrow £20,000 to save Alan’s legs, but you said you didn’t have the money and to not bother you while you were playing Texas Hold'em..."

Iris froze, remembering the call. Her face changed dramatically. Alan looked at her in disbelief.

She suddenly screamed again, "You lying wretch! How dare you blame me! You never said it was to save my son’s legs! You did this on purpose!"

When Alan woke up, I had already pressed the button by the bed. Just then, the doctor walked in.

Iris immediately charged at him, grabbing his collar and yelling, “You quack! My son’s legs could have been saved! Why did you amputate them? Were you paid off by this wretched woman to harm my precious son?”

“You just wait, I’m going to sue you into the ground!”

The doctor’s face turned pale as he pushed Iris away. “I understand your distress, but our decision was medically necessary. If you’re unhappy, feel free to sue. But if you keep causing trouble, I’ll call the police.”

Iris fell silent, then turned her fury on me. “You wretch! Why didn’t you tell me the money was to save my son’s legs?”

Feeling wronged, I played the recording of our phone call. “Mom, can you lend me £20,000? It’s for Alan’s surgery; otherwise, he’ll lose his legs.”

“What £20,000? No money! You wretched woman! Don’t bother me while I’m playing Texas Hold'em. Winning streak!”

The words "winning streak" echoed clearly in the room. The doctors and most of the nurses heard it. The emergency room was noisy, and my later words were drowned out. Iris hadn’t heard the full context. She only heard me asking for £20,000, which she wasn’t going to give me. She wouldn’t have given me £20, let alone £20,000.

“Why didn’t you find the money yourself? You did this on purpose to harm my son!” she accused.

Feeling wronged, I replied, “Mom, both Alan’s and my salary cards are with you. Where was I supposed to get the money?”

Alan, enraged, shouted, “Enough!”

The truth was undeniable. His own mother had indirectly caused his suffering. She had insisted he hand over his entire salary to her and was happily playing Texas Hold'em while he lay on the operating table, fighting for his life. To save £20,000, she let him lose his legs and become disabled.

Alan looked at Iris with deep resentment. I covered my face, struggling to suppress a smile.

Come on, let the fight begin. I’m so looking forward to it!

My name is Katrina Louis. I grew up in a group home after losing my parents. After working my butt off for years, I finally saved up enough to buy a little two-bedroom house.

Then I met Alan. We dated for a year, and he showered me with love and affection. Since I had always craved love, I gave my all in return when someone was even a little bit kind to me. So, I didn’t mind that Alan’s family didn’t have much. I didn’t care about rings or a big wedding; we just went and got our marriage license.

A month after we got married, Iris showed up with her bags, claiming she was there to help us out. But really, she just wanted to kick back and relax, leaving all the housework to me. If I did anything she didn't like, she'd lay into me.

I tried talking to Alan about it, but he turned on me. “That’s my mom! It wasn’t easy for her to raise me, so you need to treat her right.”

“She’s older. What’s the big deal if she gives you a hard time? Why are you so sensitive? If you’re nice to her, she’ll be less of a pain.”

“Why do you always badmouth my mom to me? Are you trying to cause trouble between us? How can you be so nasty? I didn’t think you were like this. I really messed up by marrying you.”

I was speechless.

I was not the type to fight back. I finally had a place to call home, and I figured mother-in-law issues were just part of the deal. I decided to bite my tongue and deal with it.

Then I got pregnant and felt sick from even the tiniest smell of cooking oil. I asked Iris to help with making dinner, but she just put her hands on her hips and snapped at me.

“It’s just a pregnancy! Why are you being so dramatic? You’re not about to give birth tomorrow, so stop making a fuss!”

“You’d better take care of me now. Later, when you have a son, you’ll need me to help with him. You’re just an orphan who doesn’t know anything about raising kids!”

“In our day, we worked right up until we went into labor. You’re just a poor orphan, not a rich girl. Stop pretending and get cooking!

“What are you waiting for? Do you want me to starve? How can you be so heartless?”

I had no choice but to push through the discomfort, throwing up while trying to cook.

After a long, tough pregnancy, I finally went into labor. The delivery didn’t go smoothly, and the doctor suggested a C-section. But Iris didn’t want to spend the extra money, so she refused to sign the papers and insisted I go through with a natural birth. She even said the baby needed a bit of pain to be smart.

In the end, my baby was born with a bluish tint and was almost suffocated. I came close to dying in the delivery room. When my baby girl finally arrived, Iris took one look at her and sneered, “What a useless piece of junk!” before walking out of the hospital. She even called Alan at work and told him not to bother coming.

I was left alone, dealing with complications and heavy bleeding, with no one to help me. The nurses, feeling sorry for me, did what they could to help me pull through. I managed to drag my exhausted self and the baby back home.

As soon as we got back, Iris started in on me, poking me in the forehead. “You lazy good-for-nothing! Get cooking, I’m sick of doing all the meals these past few days!”

The baby was wailing in my arms. Iris pointed at her and yelled, “Make that baby stop crying! She’s ruining our luck! No wonder I keep losing at Texas Hold’em—she’s bad luck!”

“If you don’t shut her up, I’ll smother her myself!”

I was too weak to argue with Iris. I quickly took the baby into the bedroom and tried to soothe her.

I tried to explain everything to Alan, but he was fed up. He told me I was useless, that other wives get along fine with their mothers-in-law, but I couldn’t. He said other wives handle both the baby and the housework without complaining, while I was just too delicate.

I cried, had meltdowns, and felt totally overwhelmed. It was so hard. In this house, I felt like the outsider, the one who couldn’t win. I couldn’t win arguments, fights, or anything.

Iris and Alan were working together to keep me down. It felt like I was suffocating. Even though it was clearly their fault, they always managed to twist things around, turning black into white and making me feel utterly helpless and defeated.

Slowly, I lost all hope in Alan. I figured I must’ve been blind. I just wanted to get through a few months, get stronger, and then leave with my baby. But I never imagined they’d actually go so far as to harm my child.

All because she was a girl.

My thoughts drifted back. Iris was making a huge fuss in the hospital, demanding the doctors reattach Alan’s legs or she’d jump off a building. No one stopped her from jumping, so she just raged on until she finally calmed down.

With her anger and nowhere else to go, she took it out on me. Alan was furious at her for not spending her money on his leg treatment and yelled at her every time he saw her. Iris didn’t dare confront him, so she went home for now.

She warned me she’d come back the next day to check on things. If I didn’t take good care of her precious son Alan, she’d make sure I paid for it.

I grinned coldly. Fine, I’d take care of him. Then I’d deal with you, you nasty old witch!

Alan lay in bed, completely helpless. He needed help just to go to the bathroom.

“Water… darling, can you get me some water…”

I tore a bit of his cracked lip, making blood ooze out. The pain made him gasp.

“Katrina, what are you doing? Are you trying to start a fight?”

“Shut up.”

I smirked and slapped him hard across the face.

“You need to pee after drinking water. You’re a complete mess now. You can’t even stand up to pee on your own and expect me to cater to you. Can’t you just deal with it?”

“You’ve got a bit of blood on your lip. Lick it off if you’re thirsty.”

He tried to hit me with his hand. I jabbed at the bandages on his severed limbs, making him scream like a pig being slaughtered.

“Still want to hit me?”

Alan was wailing in pain, “No… I won’t do it again…”

I slapped him again, “Stop crying like a baby. It’s disgusting.”

“It’s just a leg amputation. Why are you making such a fuss? Plenty of people with amputations aren’t as whiny as you.”