My son said, “My wife, the kids, and my mother-in-law are coming to live here. They’re cramped in the apartment. There’s no point in complaining… it’s decided!” He went to get them, but when they returned… they were sh0cked by what they saw.

“Penelope, did you or Randall ever actually ask me if I wanted you to move in here?” I asked directly. She became very flustered and started fidgeting with her napkin because she knew they had completely ignored my feelings.

“Well, Randall said that you agreed and that you were very lonely living here all by yourself,” she stammered. I told her the truth which was that I was never lonely and that I actually loved my routine and my privacy.

I saw her confidence crumble as she realized that I was not the submissive woman Randall had described to her. “They did not think about me at all because they only thought about solving their own problems,” I told her firmly.

Penelope realized that they had made a massive mistake by assuming I would just go along with their plan. She argued that they had already told the landlord they were leaving and that they had nowhere else to go.

“Those are problems that you and Randall created when you made decisions for me without my input,” I told her. She left the house in a hurry and she was clearly angry that I was not cooperating with her vision for the future.