My Husband Called Me A “Money-printing Machine” While Dining With His Mistress. I Canceled His Credit Cards And His Mother’s Life-saving Surgery In One Hour. Was I Too Cruel?

The Reality Check

5:00 p.m. According to the security team’s report, Eleanor had returned from playing cards at 4:30. Her habit was to take a taxi to the gate and ring the bell insistently for the housekeeper to come out and open it. But today the script had changed.

Eleanor got out of the car and started ringing the bell non-stop. A minute passed, 25. The heavy wrought iron gate remained closed. No one came out to open it. She started screaming and insulting the staff.

“Where are you, you useless people? Are you all dead or what? Why aren’t you coming out to open the door for your lady?”

Only silence answered her. The taxi driver began to lose patience and demanded payment. Eleanor rummaged in her purse and took out the supplementary credit card I had given her for her expenses, handing it to the driver.

“Here you go, charge it here and get lost. I have to go inside and put these people in their place.”

The taxi driver swiped the card through the machine. The device emitted a long beep and displayed the message: Transaction Declined.

“The card has an error, ma’am. Give me another one or pay in cash.”

“What do you mean error? My daughter-in-law just put thousands of dollars on that card. Try it again,” Eleanor grumbled.

The driver tried again. Same result. He started to get angry.

“Look, don’t mess with me. If you don’t have money, have someone from your house come out and pay. Don’t waste my time.”

Eleanor, scared, called Jessica but her phone was off. She called Ethan, he didn’t answer either. In the end, she had to take off the gold ring she was wearing and give it to the taxi driver as payment.

“Take this for now. I’ll buy it back from you tomorrow. How miserable, making such a fuss over a few dollars.”

The taxi driver took the ring, muttered something and left, leaving Eleanor stranded in front of the locked gate of the house. She tried to put her finger on the fingerprint sensor. Beep beep beep. The red light flashed: Data Not Found.

“What the hell?” Eleanor pounded on the iron gate.

At that moment Mike, the head of the security team, came out of the guard house which was previously occupied by the old janitor I had fired.

“Who are you looking for, ma’am?”

“What do you mean who am I looking for? I’m the owner of this house. Open the gate for me right now! And who are you to be here?”

“I’m sorry ma’am, the owner is Mrs. Elizabeth Grant. Mrs. Grant has given orders not to allow strangers to enter. I ask you to leave.”

“I’m her mother-in-law! Are you crazy? Call Elizabeth right now!”

“Mrs. Grant is not at home, and according to the list of authorized persons she has provided, your name is not on it. We have packed your belongings and left them in that corner. Please take them with you.”

Eleanor looked in the direction he was pointing. Seeing several cardboard boxes piled up in a corner of the sidewalk, she became enraged and lunged at the security guard, but Mike pushed her away with a slight gesture causing her to almost fall.

“Please don’t make a scene. We are just following orders. If you continue to cause trouble, we will call the police.”

Eleanor, humiliated, sat on the ground and began to cry and scream. But in this rich neighborhood with its high walls and gates, no one cared about the scene an old woman was making.

At 7:00 p.m., Jessica returned from partying. She was drunk and a friend dropped her off at the gate. Seeing her mother sitting dejectedly next to a pile of boxes, Jessica slurred, “Mom, what are you doing sitting there? Why don’t you go inside? The mosquitoes are eating me alive.”

“Go inside? Your dear sister-in-law has thrown us out on the street. She’s changed the locks, canceled the cards, and put these thugs at the gate.”

Jessica sobered up instantly, ran to the gate and began to pound on it with force.

“Elizabeth! Come out right now! By what right do you throw us out? This house belongs to my brother!”

Mike came out again and gave her the same cold explanation. Jessica, furious, took out her phone to call her friends to beat up the guards, but when she turned it on she received a message from the bank: “Your credit card has been blocked at the request of the primary holder.”

Then a message from the bar owner from before: “Honey, your card didn’t go through. We’ve kept your Chanel bag as collateral. Bring us the money tomorrow to get it back.”

Jessica screamed in despair. She was used to a life of luxury, of spending without control. Now without a penny in her pocket, alone on the street in the middle of the night, she began to understand the meaning of helplessness.

But the biggest blow was yet to come. Eleanor’s phone rang. It was from Mass General Hospital. She answered quickly hoping for good news about the operation.

“Hello doctor, you have the kidney right?”

“Good afternoon Mrs. Grant. We are calling to inform you of the cancellation of your kidney transplant surgery scheduled for next week.”

“What? Cancelled? What do you mean cancelled?” Eleanor’s voice trembled.

“The financial guarantor of the operation, Mrs. Elizabeth Grant, has submitted a request to withdraw the file and suspend payment of all costs. Therefore we are forced to cancel the surgery. Please come to the hospital to process the discharge of your outpatient file.”

The phone fell from Eleanor’s hands. She collapsed on the ground, her face as pale as death. Her only hope for life had just been snatched away by me. She clutched her chest gasping; a heart attack was imminent.

“Mom! Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Jessica ran to help her.

“She killed me… Elizabeth has canceled the hospital expenses… they’re not doing the transplant anymore…”

Hearing this, Jessica’s legs also trembled. Mother and daughter hugged each other crying inconsolably in the cold night of the rich neighborhood.

I was in my penthouse enjoying a steak and wine dinner when the phone rang. It was Jessica’s number. I answered and put it on speaker while I calmly cut a piece of meat.

“Tell me, sister-in-law.”

“You bitch!” Jessica’s scream on the phone was so shrill I had to grimace. “How dare you cancel my mother’s operation? Do you want her to die? Open the door right now or I’ll kill you!”

I took a calm sip of wine. “Jessica dear, watch your language. I haven’t killed anyone. I’ve just stopped giving money. Your mother’s life is your and your brother’s responsibility, not mine. Why are you blaming me if I’m a stranger?”

“Don’t be so cruel. You know perfectly well we don’t have money.”

“Oh really?” I feigned surprise. “I thought your family had principles and values, that your brother was a doctor, a genius. How is it that he doesn’t have money to treat his mother? What have you all been living on all these years? Air? Or the money of this materialistic old woman?”

“Don’t play dumb!” Jessica without arguments resorted to threats. “If you don’t open the door and start paying the hospital bills again, I’ll call Ethan to come and settle the score with you. He won’t leave you alone.”

“Great!” I laughed out loud. “I was just waiting for Ethan’s call. Call him right now. Tell him to bring his true love to save his mother. Let’s see if love can be operated on to transplant a kidney.”

I hung up and blocked Jessica’s number. Five minutes later, the phone rang. Ethan’s number. I knew it, Jessica must have called him crying to tell him everything.

“Hello my love, are you calling me for something?” I answered with a sweet sarcastic voice.

“Elizabeth, what the hell are you doing?” Ethan shouted, his voice broken with rage. “You dare to throw my mother and sister out on the street? You dare to cut off my mother’s medical expenses? Do you have a heart?”

“Ethan, calm down,” I replied calmly. “Weren’t you saying that next to me you felt suffocated like in a prison? I’m freeing you and your family. I’m giving you back your freedom to be independent and take care of each other with your noble love. You should thank me.”

“Don’t try to justify it. What you’re doing is illegal. That house is community property. You have no right to kick my family out.”

“Community property? Ethan, for someone so smart and well-read, you know so little about the law. That house was left to me by my grandparents before we got married. It’s only in my name. Have you forgotten the prenuptial agreement we signed? Assets acquired before marriage are separate property. Who I let live in my house is my decision.”

Ethan was speechless. He had surely forgotten, or wanted to forget, the agreement my parents had forced him to sign to protect my assets.

“Very well. If you’re so ungrateful, don’t blame me for being ruthless. Wait, I’m coming over there right now.”

“Come, come. I’ll be waiting for you here. And don’t forget to bring your little mistress so she can see how her real man manages when he doesn’t have his wife’s teeth to suckle from.”

Half an hour later, a taxi with Ethan and Laura screeched to a halt in front of the house’s gate. Ethan got out of the car furiously with Laura following timidly, her face full of worry. I was watching everything through the security camera system connected to my iPad.

The picture of his family was pathetic. Eleanor moaning on the ground on a cardboard box. Jessica sitting on the ground with a dirty face. Ethan disheveled with a wrinkled shirt lunged at the gate and began to pound on it.

“Elizabeth! Open the door! What are you doing hiding in there? Come out and talk to me like a civilized person!”

I activated the microphone connected to the external speaker at the gate. My voice sounded clear and authoritative.

“I’m not there so don’t bother calling. I’m in a very distant place where there is no nauseating smell of betrayal. You want to talk? Perfect. We’ll see each other in court tomorrow. Tonight enjoy the fresh air.”

“You… You…” Ethan speechless pointed at the camera.

“Oh by the way,” I continued. “Ethan, I assume you’ve already received the email from the university, right? Your project has run out of funding. You’d better start thinking of an explanation for the dean’s office. And you Laura, your scholarship has also been revoked. This semester’s tuition payment is on you.”

Hearing this, Laura burst into tears. “Ethan, what are we going to do now? I don’t have money to pay tuition. My mother back home is waiting for me to send her money.”

Ethan turned to hug Laura, but in his eyes there was no longer the confidence and protection of that afternoon, but a deep despair. He looked at his dying mother, his panicking sister, his crying mistress and the cold imposing closed gate. For the first time in his life, Dr. Ethan Grant experienced the helplessness of a man who has nothing. And this was just the beginning of the collapse of a clay idol.