Blurb：
In this gripping family drama, Cassie faces relentless sabotage from her sister-in-law Ruby Nolan. When Cassie brings her perfect boyfriend Vincent Turner home to meet the family, Ruby’s true colors emerge. Calvin’s wife Ruby Nolan schemes to destroy Cassie’s relationship with wealthy tech professional Vincent Turner through lies and manipulation. Witness the shocking confrontation as Ruby exposes fake secrets about Cassie’s past relationships and hygiene. Will Vincent see through Ruby’s deception? Explore themes of family betrayal, gaslighting, and resilience in this emotional rollercoaster where Cassie fights to protect her love against Ruby’s vicious tactics.
Content：
When my boyfriend came to my family home to ask for my hand in marriage, my sister-in-law, who was usually cold and aloof, became a completely different person. She flung her arm around me warmly and asked, “Cassie, who’s your favorite? This boyfriend or one of the dozen or so men that you’ve brought home before?”
As I denied her accusation and interrupted her, she cheekily batted her eyelashes at my boyfriend and cooed, “Oh, yes, yes. Cassie has never brought another man home. You’re the lucky first!”
In the midst of dinner, she deliberately took her own soiled underwear out of the bathroom, pinched her nose, and waved it around as she screeched, “Oh my goodness, Cassie! I know you don’t really care about hygiene, but we have guests today! How can you have no shame? It smells so bad!”
Chapter 1
My sister-in-law, Ruby Nolan, had been a part of the family for over a year. She got along very well with my parents, but her attitude towards me was somewhat lukewarm. She rarely spoke to me.
She would regularly buy gifts for the whole family but conveniently forget about me. When I came home for summer break, she would take the whole family out for a movie, leaving me to wait for them outside on the porch. During casual chats, she would deliberately bring up topics that would only be relevant to the rest of the group, leaving me out of the conversation. She would even kick up a fuss whenever my parents gave me some money for my living expenses.
I was a straightforward person, so I confronted Ruby several times in person, but every time, she looked at me as if nothing had happened and said, “I don’t hate you or anything! You’re just too sensitive!”
She would then snuggle into my brother Calvin’s arms and give him puppy eyes, as if a child had thrown an unreasonable tantrum at her and hurt her feelings.
My parents took Ruby’s side and said that she was too gentle to ever deliberately target me. They even warned me that if I continued to be suspicious, it would destroy Calvin’s marriage.
As a result, I often doubted myself. Perhaps I was overreacting about the entire situation. I finally learned the truth on the day I brought Vincent Turner, my boyfriend of two years, back home to meet the family.
Vincent was 6 feet tall, handsome, well-to-do, and had a charming smile. Although his parents were civil servants, he had worked hard and joined a major tech company with an annual salary of about 500,000 dollars.
He was more than perfect in my eyes. My parents were happy for me, but Ruby kept silent with a sullen face. She pulled me aside and asked a bunch of intrusive questions about Vincent. Finally, with a frown, she stared at me as if she had figured me out and said, “I don’t care if you’re dating, but why hide it from the family? Are you trying to push me out of your life?”
At this point, I was confused and retorted, “If you hadn’t blocked me on social media, you would’ve seen my relationship announcement in the family group chat a year ago.”
I turned around and went to the kitchen with my mother to prepare the fruit platter. When I came back out, I saw Ruby leaning over suggestively to Vincent and whispering, “You’re just playing around with Cassie, right? It would be so embarrassing if you really married her.”
Vincent was so taken aback that he wanted to show his heart and soul to prove his sincerity.
However, Ruby pursed and continued, “You boys are too naive and so easily deceived. You must not be able to tell. In fact, Cassie’s nose is…”
Vincent raised his head and glanced at me, and Ruby immediately stopped talking.
I felt uncomfortable and asked, “What’s wrong with my nose? Ruby, please finish your sentence.”
“I’m just having a casual chat with your boyfriend. Do you have to be so jealous?” Ruby complained as she shot me a look, then turned around and went to her room.
After a while, Calvin sent me a message: [Can you stop bullying Ruby all the time?]
Less than ten minutes later, Ruby came out and grabbed my arm as if we were best friends and sat between me and Vincent like nothing had happened.
She asked Vincent all kinds of questions, most of which were about his opinion of me, including my personality, appearance, family background, abilities and so forth. She also smiled sweetly and asked Vincent to give me a rating, which made me very uncomfortable.
She seemed to regard me as cattle at an auction, while Vincent was the customer who could evaluate me as he pleased and choose whether to buy me or not.
Every word out of Vincent’s mouth was nothing but adoration and praise, but the more he praised me, the more Ruby’s expression stiffened. Suddenly, she smiled knowingly at me and said, “Cassie, who’s your favorite? This boyfriend or one of the dozen or so men that you’ve brought home before? I heard that you just went out for dinner with another guy two days ago. I can’t believe you can switch partners so quickly!”
I immediately frowned and replied, “Ruby, I’ve never brought a man home before, let alone have dinner with another man just a few days ago!”
Ruby smiled and winked at my boyfriend. “Oh, yes, yes. Cassie has never brought another man home. You’re the lucky first!”
What she said made the anger I had long suppressed explode out of me. I stared at her, silent.
Ruby looked at me indifferently. After a minute, I could not bear it anymore. Something in me snapped.
Chapter 2
I said, “If you’re going to claim I’ve brought a dozen men home before, show me your proof. When did they come over? What are their names? What were they like?”
Ruby pouted and said, “How would I know anything about the men you’re involved with? I’ve only heard that you bring several men home to stay the night every year…”
“Who did you hear that from?” I turned around and called out to my mother, Angie. “Mom, Ruby says that you told her I’ve brought guys home before to stay the night.”
Angie poked her head out of the kitchen, but before she could speak, Ruby got anxious and interjected, “I didn’t say Mom told me.”
“That means either my Dad or Calvin said it, since who else would tell you that? Are you the only person who knows that I brought a man home for the night?”
Ruby argued adamantly, “I’ve just heard it from the grapevine. I wouldn’t falsely accuse you for no reason…”
I looked at her and interrupted her, “Hey, Ruby, I heard that you worked as a hostess in a nightclub before marrying my brother. People said that you liked to have threesomes, and you allowed yourself to be touched if money was on the table. You’ve had two abortions just to secure a bag. Wow! You’re such a player.”
Ruby tried to interrupt me several times, but I continued speaking over her. She was furious as she scrambled to explain.
I smirked slightly and said, “Why are you so anxious? I’ve only heard it from the grapevine. I wouldn’t accuse you randomly. Why would people say that about you and not others if it wasn’t true?”
Ruby was so angry that she almost attacked me.
Vincent sensed that the atmosphere had gone wrong. He quickly came over and sat next to me to smooth things over. He said, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care how many people Cassie has dated as long as she’s willing to be with me now.”
After saying that, he looked at me affectionately.
Livid, Ruby stomped back to her bedroom and almost broke the door with the force she slammed it with.
After a while, Calvin sent me another message: [Don’t think that you’re safe just because you have a boyfriend. If you dare to bully Ruby again, I’ll beat you to death!]
I sent a middle-finger emoticon and furiously typed a reply: [I can hear your skull rattling from over here. If Mom had an ultrasound while she was pregnant with you, you wouldn’t be here to yap all this nonsense in the first place.]
In the evening, Calvin and my dad, David, came back from work.
Calvin did not even look at me as he walked in. He rushed straight into his room. I could hear choked sobs coming from the inside. After a while, Calvin yelled through the door, “Cassandra Briar, come in here now!”
I grabbed a water glass from the table and smashed it against the door. The glass fell to the ground and broke into pieces. The sobbing inside stopped.
I turned around as if nothing had happened and asked, “Mom, is dinner ready?”
At the dinner table, Dad and Vincent were drinking and chatting, while Calvin held Ruby in his arms, trying to coax her to eat.
As the topic shifted to marriage, Vincent said sincerely, “My family wants us to get married next year. I’m willing to give Cassie 200,000 dollars, and Cassie’s name will be added to our house deed.”
My family was a little surprised by this gesture. Before they could speak, Ruby clinked her utensils vigorously and chuckled. “Wow, second-hand goods can still be worth $200,000. You must be made of gold!”
As everyone turned to look at her, Ruby feigned innocence and said, “That’s just a quote from a TV series. I was just speaking aloud, so don’t read into it.”
With that, she left the table.
My parents quickly smoothed things over and told Vincent, “We don’t really care about the money. All we want is for you to treat Cassie well.”
I echoed their sentiment and nodded.
Calvin suddenly kicked me under the table and winked at me with a frown.
I knew what he meant.
Ruby’s family valued ??boys over girls. In order to marry her, my family had paid 300,000 dollars. The money went to her parents and brother.
Now, it was my turn to get married. My parents did not want any money in return, and Calvin was greatly displeased.
I ignored him and was about to say something else when Ruby suddenly let out a scream from the bathroom. She pinched her nose and walked out with a pair of pink underwear in hand.
It was dirty, and its strange smell drifted over to the dining table.
“Oh my goodness, Cassie! I know you don’t really care about hygiene, but we have guests today! How can you have no shame? It smells so bad!” Ruby rolled her eyes several times and scoffed, “You’re not married now, so it’s okay for Mom to wash your underwear. But when you get married, you can’t just let your man wash your underwear, right? You should learn to handle your chores.”
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