"$2.99, right? I'll send you the money. As for the gold jewelry, whoever wants it can buy it themselves."
Muriel's expression changed instantly.
"What's your mom trying to say?"
Dylan rushed to her side like a servant attending royalty, loudly flagging down a sales associate and demanding they bring out the most expensive gold piece in the store.
When the associate carried over a gold phoenix crown worth over a million dollars, I turned on my heel and walked away.
Muriel jabbed a finger at my retreating back, seething.
"See? I told you your mom is a conniving snake! She's doing this on purpose to humiliate me!"
"I'm upset now. Are we even going to be okay after this?"
"She's trying to drive a wedge between us!"
Dylan whipped around to face me, red in the face, panic in his eyes.
"Mom! I'd have to buy Muriel gold jewelry for the wedding anyway. Are you seriously going to stand in our way?!"
Stand in their way?
When they needed money, I was "Mom." The second I stopped opening my wallet, I became an obstacle on their path to happily ever after.
I genuinely had no idea what I'd ever done to Muriel to make her despise me from the moment we met.