The mother-in-law froze for a couple of seconds, then slapped the table.

"You're throwing me out?"

"This is a James family dinner. You married in from outside. What right do you have to throw me out?"

I almost laughed.

"I booked the room, I paid for it, and I bought the cake."

"Tell me, which one of those belongs to the Jameses?"

Vincent's face went dark.

"It's one cash gift. Do you really have to blow it up like this?"

"You threw my mother out in front of all these people. Where is she supposed to put her face now?"

I turned to the side.

"If you've got a problem with it, you can walk out with her."

Vincent stared at me like he hadn't understood.

"You're telling me to leave too?"

I looked at him.

"Yes. Anyone who won't let my daughter enjoy her birthday can go."

The mother-in-law perked right up.

"Vincent, you hear that?"

"Since when does she get to run this family?"

"If you still recognize me as your mother, you'll take us out to eat somewhere else today!"

"I'd love to see who she thinks she's throwing this party for without the James family here!"

Vincent looked at me, then at his mother.

In the end, his face rigid, he grabbed the car keys.

"Kay, don't come crying about this later."

Then he took his mother's arm and headed for the door.

His brother's family stood up too.

As she passed me, Wanda bumped into me on purpose.

"Some cheap little birthday party. Who wants to eat here anyway."

"Come on, Vincent, let's go somewhere nice. No need to sit here and take this."

After the door closed, one of the aunts kicked the broken shards of porcelain aside, then suddenly clapped her hands.

"The bad luck's gone. Let's keep going."

"Nina's top of her grade and a year older today. That's double the happiness, so she gets two wishes."

The other relatives joined in to smooth things over.

Someone restarted the birthday song, someone stood the fallen candles back up.

With everyone urging her on, Nina closed her eyes.

After she made her wish, she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Mom, I want you to be happy forever."

"And if Dad makes you unhappy, then I don't want him anymore."

Something in my chest trembled.

Before I could say anything, my phone buzzed.

A text alert from the bank.

"Your supplementary credit card has been charged 50,000 dollars…"

My eyebrow went up.

After Nina's fever, Vincent kept complaining he had no cash on hand for emergencies, so I'd given him the supplementary card on my account.

I hadn't expected him to swipe fifty thousand just like that.

Clearly he'd used it to save face for his mother.

Sure enough, before long Wanda posted to her feed.

In the photo, the mother-in-law wore a brand-new gold bracelet and Howie was clutching a new tablet.

And Vincent sat at the table, picking apart crab for them.

The caption was a single line.

"Some people don't know how to honor their parents. Good thing the older brother knows right from wrong."

Relatives were already commenting under it.

"Vincent's such a good son."

"A gold bracelet that big must have cost a fortune, no?"

Wanda replied at lightning speed.

"Vincent bought it. He said all that matters is Mom being happy."

I let out a cold laugh.

Nina came over and handed me the biggest slice of cake.

"Mom, this one's for you."

"Don't be upset anymore. I don't have to have birthdays from now on, that's fine."

I stroked her head.

"You get a birthday every year."

"And from now on they're only going to get better."

Then I called the bank's customer service line.

"I need to freeze a supplementary card."

The agent confirmed my details, then told me that same card had just started another transaction.

The amount, ninety-nine thousand eight hundred.

"What's the merchant?"

"A luxury goods store."

I laughed coldly to myself.

He'd bought the gifts for his mother and nephew, and now he wanted to play the big spender in front of his brother and sister-in-law too.

"Decline it. Stop the card immediately."

"And that fifty-thousand charge just now, I want to dispute it as unauthorized. It was fraud."

Ten minutes later, Vincent's call came through.

"Kay, you froze my card?"

The background was loud.

Wanda was shouting, "It's all boxed up already, how can it not go through?"

I let out a short laugh.

"Your card?"

"Vincent, get one thing straight. I gave you that card for everyday emergencies, not so you could hand out prizes to your whole family."

Vincent's patience snapped.

"Don't blow this out of proportion."

"My mom and Howie got humiliated. What's wrong with buying them a few things to make it up to them?"

"Besides, a few thousand is nothing to you."

"You make so much a year. Do you really have to count every cent in front of family?"

I asked him, "If it's nothing, then buy it with your own salary."

Vincent had nothing to say to that.

His mother's voice came in at once from beside him.

"Vincent, why are you wasting words on her?"

"The money she earns is marital property. You spending her money is only natural!"

"Tell her to turn the card back on right now, and buy this bag too."

"If she won't back down today, you divorce her!"

Wanda chimed in from the side.

"Your wife just cares more about money than family."

"Your mom's getting on in years. What's the harm in a gold bracelet for her?"

I said, flat and calm.

"You're right, I do care quite a bit about money."

"So please transfer me what the bracelet and the tablet cost."

Wanda shut up immediately.

Vincent ground his teeth.

"Kay, are you set on wrecking this relationship?"

"I'm not the one wrecking it."

"And the fifty thousand you charged today, you have twenty-four hours to pay it back."

"By what right?"

"By the right that large purchases were made without the primary cardholder's consent. I can file a payment dispute, or I can just call the police."

Vincent's bluster dropped a notch on the spot.

"We're all family, why bring the police into it?"

"Turn the card back on first. We'll talk when we're home."

"Too late."

I didn't wait for him to say anything else. I hung up.

After the birthday dinner, my mother came home with me.

She watched Nina, asleep face-down on the couch, and suddenly asked, "How much longer do you plan to put up with it?"

My hands went still.

All these years, I'd rarely told my parents anything about the James family.

Every time my mother asked, I said things were fine.

Not because Vincent was actually any good to me.

It was that I couldn't bring myself to admit that the man I'd married against my parents' wishes couldn't protect me at all.

My mother took a document folder out of her bag.

"Your father had someone look into this. He didn't want me giving it to you today, afraid it'd spoil the mood on the kid's birthday."

"But now I don't see how I can hold it back."

Inside were photocopies of several bank statements.

On the fifteenth of every month, the moment Vincent's salary landed, it was transferred out.

The receiving account belonged to his younger brother, John James.

Seven years. Eighty-four transfers.

More than a million in total.

I stared at the last page, and a chill crept slowly up my back.

When John bought his house last year, my mother-in-law told everyone who'd listen that they'd earned that place through their own hard work.

We'd gone to the housewarming and even given a two-thousand-dollar cash gift.

So that was the hard work. Spending my husband's salary, while I carried every last expense of our own household.

My mother pointed to a few of the larger transfers.

"Now look at the dates."

I followed her finger.

A year ago, four hundred thousand transferred out.

The date was the day after I sold my premarital condo.

That money from the sale, I'd put into the joint account Vincent and I shared, meaning to pay down the mortgage early.

Then he said the bank's wealth manager had recommended an internal product with high returns, so he moved the money.

When it matured, he told me the product had been extended and we'd have to wait a little longer.

I believed him.

Now the statements were right in front of me.

That four hundred thousand had never gone into any investment.

It had gone into John's account, and become the down payment on his house.

Outside the door came the beep of the keypad lock.

Vincent was back, with his mother and his brother's family behind him.

The moment she was through the door, my mother-in-law jabbed a finger at my face and started cursing.

"You've got some nerve, Kay, the world's turned upside down, you actually dared to freeze my son's card!"

"This isn't over today!"

Vincent stood beside her without a trace of guilt on his face.

"Turn the card back on, and apologize to Mom."

"Otherwise, you can forget about staying in this home."

I pushed the statements across to them.

"Fine."

"But first, let's work out where Vincent's million-plus in salary and my four hundred thousand from the house sale actually went."