Around two in the afternoon, my phone rang again. This time it was Ethan, but his voice sounded very strange, as if he had been drinking.
«Mom, it’s me.»
«Ethan, where are you? Work called me looking for you.»
«I’m at a bar near the hotel. I didn’t go to work because I couldn’t sleep all night. Rebecca and I had a really bad fight.»
«What happened?»
«Susan told Rebecca about her conversation with you yesterday. Rebecca got furious because she says you humiliated her in front of her sister. She says she doesn’t want to apologize to you anymore, that she’d rather we find another solution.»
«And what solution are you going to find?»
«I don’t know, Mom. I don’t know what to do anymore. Rebecca says that if I really love her, I should cut you off completely, that as long as you’re a part of my life, she’ll never be happy.»
Ethan paused for a long time. I could hear background noise and music from the bar where he was.
«Mom, I need you to tell me the truth. Are you really never going to forgive Rebecca? Do you really prefer to lose me forever?»
«Ethan, I don’t want to lose you. You’re my son, and I love you more than my own life. But I can’t pretend that nothing happened. Your wife disrespected me gravely, and you defended her instead of defending me.»
«But Mom, she’s my wife. It’s normal for me to defend her.»
«It’s also normal to defend your mother when someone disrespects her in her own house.»
Ethan started to cry. I could hear him clearly through the phone. It broke my heart to hear him like that, but I knew I had to stay firm.
«Mom, I’m lost. I don’t know what to do. If I choose Rebecca, I lose you. If I choose you, she’s going to leave me. I can’t win in this situation.»
«Ethan, nobody is asking you to choose. The only thing I’m asking for is respect. If Rebecca respects me, if she acknowledges that she was wrong, everything can go back to normal.»
«But she says you never accepted her, that you treated her badly from day one. She says she has no reason to apologize because you started the problem.»
«Ethan, do you really believe that? Do you believe I treated your wife badly?»
There was a very long silence. I knew Ethan was struggling internally between what he had seen and what Rebecca had made him believe.
«I don’t know what to believe, Mom. Rebecca tells me one thing, you tell me another. You two see the same situation in completely different ways.»
«Ethan, I’ve known you since you were born. Have you ever in your life seen me treat a guest badly in my house? Have you seen me be rude or disrespectful to anyone?»
«No, Mom, you’ve always been very polite to everyone.»
«So why do you think I would change with your wife? What reason would I have to treat her badly if all I wanted was for you to be happy?»
Ethan was quiet again. I could hear him crying harder. «Mom, I’m scared. I’m scared of losing Rebecca, but I’m also scared of losing you. I don’t know how to fix this.»
«Son, the solution is very simple. Rebecca needs to admit that she treated me badly. She doesn’t need to humiliate herself or beg. She just needs to apologize sincerely and promise that she will respect me.»
«But she says she didn’t do anything wrong, that she was just defending herself from your attacks.»
«My attacks? Ethan, when did I ever attack your wife? Tell me one time I yelled at her or that I said something offensive to her.»
Ethan couldn’t answer because he knew I was right. In all the months Rebecca lived in my house, I never yelled at her, never insulted her, never disrespected her.
«Mom, I’m going to talk to Rebecca again. I’m going to try to make her understand that she needs to apologize to you.»
«Son, but before that, you need to go to work. You can’t lose your job over these problems. Without a job, you’ll be worse off than you are now.»
«You’re right. I’m going to the office right now to apologize to my boss.»
«Ethan, one more thing. Stop drinking. Alcohol won’t solve any problems; it will only create new ones.»
«Yes, Mom, you’re right. I love you.»
«I love you too, son. Take care of yourself.»
After hanging up, I kept thinking about the conversation. It was the first time in weeks that Ethan had admitted, even indirectly, that I was right. It was also the first time he had shown doubts about the version of events Rebecca had told him. On Tuesday afternoon, I received another unexpected call. This time it was Rebecca. Her voice sounded different, less arrogant, more nervous.
«Mrs. Miller, it’s Rebecca. Could we talk?»
«Of course. What do you need?»
«Ethan told me that you’re willing to forgive me if I apologize to you. I wanted to know exactly what you need to hear from me.»
I was surprised she was so direct. I expected more manipulation, more drama. «Rebecca, I need you to specifically acknowledge how you disrespected me. I can’t accept a generic apology for misunderstandings.»
There was a long pause. I could hear her breathing deeply, as if preparing for something difficult. «Okay, I acknowledge that it was wrong for me to tell you to leave your own house. That was very rude of me.»
«What else?»
«It was also wrong for me to move things around without asking you. It’s your house, and I should have respected your way of organizing it.»
I was surprised she was admitting these things so easily. But something in her tone of voice told me she wasn’t being completely sincere. «Rebecca, why are you suddenly willing to acknowledge these things? Last week your sister told me you hadn’t done anything wrong.»
«Because Ethan is in a really bad place, ma’am. He hasn’t slept well in days. He’s barely eating. He’s drinking a lot. I’m afraid he’s going to lose his job or get sick.»
There was the truth. She wasn’t apologizing because she was truly sorry, but because the situation had become unbearable, and she needed everything to go back to normal.
«Rebecca, a real apology comes from the heart, not from desperation. If you’re only apologizing to me to solve your financial problems, then it’s worthless.»
«No, ma’am, it’s not just because of the financial problems. It’s also because I’ve realized that maybe I didn’t handle the situation well when I moved into your house.»
«Maybe?»
«Okay, I didn’t handle it well. I was wrong. I acknowledge that I treated you with little respect, and that caused problems between you and Ethan.»
«Rebecca, I need to know something else. Do you really love my son?»
«Of course I love him. Ethan is a wonderful, hardworking, honest man. I love him very much.»
«If you love him so much, why did you ask him to cut me off completely? Why did you put him in the position of having to choose between his wife and his mother?»
Rebecca took a long time to answer. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded smaller, more vulnerable. «Because I was jealous, ma’am. Jealous of the relationship you have with Ethan. He talks about you with so much love, so much respect. Sometimes I felt like I would never be as important to him as you are.»
That confession surprised me. It was the first time Rebecca had shown any emotional honesty. «Rebecca, a mother’s love and a wife’s love are different. One doesn’t have to compete with the other. I never tried to keep Ethan away from you. I just wanted you to respect me.»
«I know, ma’am. Now I realize that I reacted badly because of my own fears. But I really want to fix things. What do I need to do for you to forgive us?»
I told Rebecca I needed time to think, that a phone conversation wasn’t enough to solve months of problems. I told her that if she really wanted to fix things, she would have to come to my house and talk face-to-face, without Ethan present. Rebecca agreed to come that same afternoon. After hanging up, I was very nervous. Part of me wanted to believe there was a real change in her, but another part was suspicious of her motives.
Around five in the afternoon, there was a knock on the door. When I opened it, I saw Rebecca standing there with a bouquet of red flowers and a face I had never seen on her. She looked tired, without makeup, with dark circles under her eyes—very different from the arrogant woman who had lived in my house for eight months.
«Mrs. Miller, I brought you these flowers as an apology.»
«Thank you, Rebecca. Please come in.»
She sat in the living room in the same spot she had always sat when she lived here, but now she looked small, vulnerable. She kept her hands on her knees and avoided looking me directly in the eyes.
«Rebecca, I need you to tell me the truth about something. Does Ethan know you came here?»
«No, ma’am. He’s at work. I decided to come alone because I thought we could talk more honestly this way.»
I thought it was good that she had come without Ethan. It showed that at least she was willing to face the situation directly.
«Rebecca, on the phone, you told me you recognized you had acted badly, but I need to understand why you acted that way. Did you really believe I was treating you badly?»
Rebecca sighed deeply and for the first time, looked me in the eye. «Ma’am, the truth is I come from a very different family than yours. My parents divorced when I was a child. My mother always told my sister and me not to trust anyone, that everyone tries to take advantage of you.»
She continued speaking in a voice that got quieter and quieter. «When I met Ethan and he talked so much about you, with so much affection, I thought you would try to control him, to keep him away from me. I came to your house on the defensive, expecting trouble.»
«And what did you find when you arrived?»
«I found a kind lady who welcomed me, who cooked for me, who tried to make me feel welcome. But I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was an act, that deep down you hated me.»
«Rebecca, why didn’t you tell me what you were feeling? Why didn’t we talk about your concerns?»
«Because I was afraid that if I showed my insecurities, you would use them against me. I preferred to attack first, before you attacked me.»
It hurt to hear that because I realized that Rebecca had spent months torturing herself with fears that were only a product of her own insecurities. «Rebecca, I never had any intention of hurting you. All I wanted was for us to be a happy family.»
«I know, ma’am. Now I realize that all my fears were baseless. But I had already caused so much damage that I didn’t know how to fix things.»
«And why do you want to fix them now?»
«Because I see Ethan destroying himself over this situation. He doesn’t tell me, but I know he misses this house a lot. He misses watching TV with you in the afternoons. He misses telling you about his work. I also realize that if Ethan loses his relationship with you because of me, one day he will blame me. And I don’t want our marriage to be built on the destruction of his family.»
