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 Morning After

The next morning I drove back to the Brooklyn house. I didn’t get out immediately but stayed watching for a moment. The scene in front of my house looked like a battlefield after a storm.

Eleanor lay huddled on a piece of cardboard covered with Ethan’s jacket. Jessica was sitting leaning against the wall with a haggard face; the makeup from the night before had smudged making her look like a clown. Ethan and Laura were sitting together on the curb, looking exhausted and defeated. They had spent the entire night outdoors enduring the cold and dew. They were probably still there hoping I would soften and open the door for them, but they were mistaken. They themselves had killed my compassion long ago.

I honked the horn with a long shrill blast. The sound startled them all. Eleanor scrambled to her feet rubbing her eyes. Ethan and Laura jumped up, staring at the approaching luxury car. I rolled down the window, took off my sunglasses and looked at them with glacial coldness.

“Good morning everyone. How was the night under the stars? Was it romantic like something out of a movie?”

Ethan lunged at the car banging on the window. “Elizabeth! Get out now! How long do you plan to torture us? My mother is dying!”

I opened the door and got out of the car calmly. The security team immediately surrounded me preventing Ethan and the others from getting close. I stood in the middle of the driveway separated from them by the sturdy iron gate like a queen observing her prisoners.

“Torture you?” I laughed scornfully. “I haven’t tied your hands and feet. You have legs, you can find a motel or a hotel to stay in. Why do you insist on sticking to my gate like flies? Oh I remember, you have no money. Blocked cards, no cash. What a tragedy for the wannabe high society.”

Laura, her voice from the cold of the night, whimpered. “Mrs. Grant, please. If you’re angry take it out on me, but don’t make Mrs. Eleanor and Professor Grant suffer. She is very weak. Let her come inside to rest a little.”

I turned to Laura who was still trying to play the role of a holy martyr.

“Shut up. You have no voice or vote here. You say don’t make them suffer? It was you who destroyed this family and threw them out on the street. You used my money to buy bags, dresses, to go to spas and make yourself pretty to seduce my husband, and now you come with remorse?”

I took a thick folder from my purse and threw it through the bars of the gate at their feet.

“Look, these are your expense statements for the last six months with the supplementary card Ethan secretly opened for you. $3,000 for a Gucci bag. $10,000 for a weekend at a resort. $500 a week at restaurants. In total almost $40,000. With that you could have rented a luxury apartment for the whole family for a year.”

Hearing the figure of $40,000, Eleanor’s and Jessica’s eyes lit up. They scrambled to pick up the folder. Eleanor trembling flipped through the pages of the statements. Her face changed color.

“You dared to use my son’s money to buy designer bags?” Eleanor turned to look at Laura with fury. “When I asked you for money for medicine you always made excuses, and he gives you all this money?”

Jessica also shouted, “Tramp! I asked Ethan for $100 for a dress and he scolded me for being a spendthrift, and you dare to spend money like it’s nothing?”

Laura scared backed away stammering. “No, it’s not like that ma’am. It was Professor Grant who bought them for me. I didn’t ask him to.”

Ethan in the middle didn’t know who to defend. He wanted to protect his mistress but he feared the wrath of his mother and sister.

“Mom, Jessica, calm down! Everything has an explanation!”

“Explanation? What explanation is there?” I interrupted. “Go on, tear each other apart. I just came to give Ethan some news. This morning my lawyer will file for divorce in court. Since you committed adultery and misappropriated community assets for your mistress, I will demand the division of property that I am entitled to by law. And the bad news for you is that with this evidence you will leave with empty hands.”

Ethan looked at me pale and horrified. “You dare?”

“Why wouldn’t I dare? Who do you think I am? I am Elizabeth Grant. If I could raise you up, I can also sink you into the mud. Enjoy your last moments as a university professor because very soon you’re going to be very famous.”

With that said I turned and entered the house, ordering the guards to close the gate tightly, ignoring the screams and insults of the family I left behind. I entered my beloved house which from now on would be free of traitors.