My Failed Comedian Mother Mocked My Suicide Attempt At My Engagement Party. I Decided To “Roast” Her In Front Of Her Entire Circle. Did I Go Too Far?

Chapter 10: The Dinner Test

Luke’s parents invited both of us to dinner at their house to clear the air before the wedding. And I knew this was some kind of test. Gina promised she’d behave and apologize properly, that she understood how serious this was. But I didn’t trust her to get through one meal without making everything about her somehow.

Luke told me this dinner was important to his family. That his mother was really struggling with whether she could support our marriage given everything that had happened. I agreed to go because I didn’t have a choice, but I spent the whole drive over feeling like I was going to throw up.

Gina met me there, arriving in her beat-up car and wearing a plain black dress that looked like she was going to a funeral. We walked up to the house together without talking, and I could feel her shaking next to me.

The dinner started awkward and got worse from there, with Luke’s mother being coldly polite in that way rich people are when they hate you but have manners. His father barely spoke, just passed dishes and cut his food with precise movements that felt angry.

Gina launched into an apology that started okay but somehow turned into excuses about her difficult childhood and struggling as a single mother and never having any support. Luke’s mother let her talk for maybe 2 minutes before cutting her off mid-sentence, saying that many people have hard lives without exploiting their children’s trauma for attention and entertainment.

The words hung in the air like smoke, and Gina’s face went red and then white. Luke’s father set down his fork and said he wanted to know if Gina planned to use his son’s wedding as material too. If she’d already started working on jokes about their family.

Chapter 11: The Ultimatum

The question was so direct and brutal that even I felt defensive of Gina for a second before remembering that he was right to ask. Gina’s mouth opened and closed but nothing came out at first. I watched her chest rise and fall in quick shallow movements like she couldn’t get enough air.

She grabbed the edge of the table with both hands, her knuckles turning white. When she finally spoke, her voice came out small and broken in a way I’d never heard before. She said yes. She’d been a terrible mother, that she knew it even when she was doing it. But she couldn’t stop herself because making people laugh was the only time she felt like she mattered at all.

Luke’s father leaned back in his chair and asked if she planned to use his son’s wedding as material too, if she was already writing jokes about this dinner in her head right now. The question sat there in the middle of the table like a knife and everyone looked at Gina waiting for her answer.

She shook her head and tears started running down her face. Actual real tears without the dramatic sobbing she usually did for effect. She promised she wouldn’t give a speech at the wedding or make any jokes about our family, that she understood she’d already done enough damage.

Luke’s mother set down her wine glass with a sharp click and said that wasn’t enough. That Gina needed to understand she was on thin ice with their entire family and one more incident would mean she’d never be welcome around them again.

I felt something weird twist in my chest, almost like I wanted to defend Gina even though she deserved everything they were saying to her. The words came out before I could stop them, that she was still my mother and she’d be at the wedding.

And everyone turned to look at me with surprise on their faces, including Luke. His mother’s eyebrows went up and his father frowned, and I could tell they thought I was making a mistake. But I couldn’t take the words back now.

Chapter 12: Decision Time

Luke drove me home after dinner without saying much. Just the sound of the car engine and the radio playing something low that I couldn’t focus on. We pulled into my apartment parking lot and he turned off the car but didn’t move to get out. Just sat there staring at the steering wheel.

He asked me if I actually wanted Gina at the wedding or if I was just doing this because I felt like I had to. I opened my mouth to answer but realized I didn’t know what to say because I’d spent so long being angry at her that I hadn’t thought about what I actually wanted.

He turned to look at me and said it was okay to uninvite her if that’s what I needed to feel safe on our wedding day. That his family would understand and support whatever choice I made. I told him I needed time to think about it and he nodded, kissed me on the forehead, and said he’d call me tomorrow.

I went inside and lay on my couch staring at the ceiling for hours, playing the dinner over and over in my head and trying to figure out what I felt underneath all the anger. Two days passed where I barely left my apartment, just ordered food and sat with my phone in my hand staring at Gina’s contact information.

I thought about all the times she’d humiliated me, all the boundaries she’d crossed, all the ways she’d used my pain for her own benefit. But I also thought about what would happen at the wedding if she wasn’t there. How everyone would ask where she was and why. How the whole day would become about her absence instead of about me and Luke starting our life together.

I picked up my phone and called her before I could change my mind. She answered on the first ring like she’d been waiting. I told her she could come to the wedding but there would be strict boundaries. No speech, no jokes about me or our family, and if she drank too much my cousin would escort her out without discussion.

She agreed immediately without arguing or making excuses. And the fact that she didn’t fight me on it actually worried me more than if she had.