My Ivy League Daughter-in-law Forced Us To Give A 10-minute Speech In French To Humiliate Us. She Thought We Were Uneducated Dropouts. Wait Until She Finds Out My Husband Is Actually A Ceo. Am I The Jerk?

The Truth Behind the Success

“Learning everything he needed on his own, not attending school was trivial to him. My husband and I met by chance through our work and, knowing the similar hardships I faced, he stepped in to assist with my family’s business.”

“Thank you so much for helping our family. I can’t express my gratitude enough.”

“If you’re thankful, why not work with us? It would be reassuring to have someone who’s faced the same challenges on board.”

“That’s how I started working at my husband’s company and continued working even after we got married until my retirement. Since the company also had overseas operations, thankfully both my husband and I became fluent in French.”

I finished off by saying to Aubrey with a smile: “It was the bride who asked us to deliver this speech in French at this wonderful venue. She set up this opportunity so that my husband and I, who only completed middle school, wouldn’t be looked down upon by her and her highly educated friends, including those who graduated from prestigious universities like Harvard.”

From her reaction, even though she requested the speech in French, she probably couldn’t fully understand it. Likely she didn’t grasp the entirety of our previous speeches either. Her earlier outbursts seemed to stem from her disdain for seeing us speak French fluently.

As I waved cheerfully, Aubrey waved back timidly. Her usual sarcastic remarks were gone and she remained silent and looked down for the rest of the event.

Fallout and Regret

The guests from my eldest son’s wife’s side seemed to have understood the speech much better than she did. Their smiles from moments ago instantly faded. Aubrey’s parents appeared just as distressed and the festive mood quickly shifted.

After the ceremony, they rushed over to us, informing us about their professional ties with my husband’s company. As we were about to leave the venue, they stopped us while forcefully making my eldest son’s wife, who was still in her beautiful dress, apologize. They too apologized profusely. We desperately tried to calm them down.

“My daughter behaved very awful and we are truly sorry.”

“It’s okay. Even in family, everyone’s different.”

“I had no idea. I did not see that coming.”

“Well, I bet you never really listened to what I said. You were so proud saying ‘black hen lays a white egg’.”

When I revealed what happened in front of her parents, they both turned beet red and glared at their daughter. The complexion of my eldest son’s wife worsened even more. “We’ll make sure she reflects on her actions. We’ll discipline her properly to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

“That’s fine. She’s now a part of our son’s family. She mentioned wanting to distance herself from us.”

To add insult to injury, my eldest son’s wife finally had tears in her eyes. Her parents seemed pretty intimidating, but that’s none of our business. Furthermore, I heard that even her friends had cut ties with her because they had believed the baseless rumors. “Saying we thought you had terrible in-laws with just a middle school education.”

She must have felt embarrassed for getting caught up in all that. “Why is this happening to me? If Tyler had told me, none of this would have happened.”

“I did tell you they were earning enough to build a house and didn’t need any financial help. They even paid for all of my college tuition.”

“Yeah, you never really listened to me either.”

With those cold words, Tyler turned his back on her. Though usually mild-mannered, Tyler was at his wit’s end with this situation and was even considering divorce. Abandoned by her relatives, friends, and even by my eldest son, Aubrey found herself completely isolated.

Broken Bonds and New Beginnings

A few days after the ceremony, though seriously contemplating divorce, it seemed like they were still trying to work things out in their marriage. Abandoned by my eldest son, Aubrey seemed to work tirelessly as if she had transformed into another person.

“Violet, can we please let bygones be bygones and get along again?”

“I don’t recall us ever getting along in the first place.”

She seemed to be acting remorseful in front of Tyler, but toward us, she often came up close pretending to apologize. Unfortunately, I’m the type to hold a grudge, so I pretended not to notice her intentions of trying to mend her relationship with my eldest son and our family, and I kept my distance.

“Who do you think was suggesting we should cut ties?”

“Oh, come on, quit playing dumb and just help me out, will you? Always nagging. You’re the most spiteful person.”

“Why thank you. Your trying to make a spectacle out of an old couple’s French skills was quite a move as well.”

Not liking my retort, a frustrated Aubrey glared at me with her unapologetic attitude. Our relationship might indeed be severed soon, even if it put her in a difficult position. I wondered where her high pride came from. She seemed to look down on us and was reluctant to reflect on her actions.

Recently, a relative who had recorded the wedding sent us the footage. When it got to my speech, we clearly saw the surprised face of the bride and burst out laughing.

“You know, school isn’t the only place to learn. Maybe I should try learning something new.”

“Why not? Maybe I’ll join you.”

We decided to head to a bookstore together to look for some study materials.