He sounded like a child caught red-handed. “I just thought it would be temporary,” he said. “Layla said her parents needed time to find a new place.
I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” I said. “They’re squatting and refusing to leave.”
He went silent, then changed the topic, trying to shift the focus and blame! “But Mom, what exactly did you do?
They’re saying you’re threatening to sell MY house?”
“Your house? They must’ve gotten into your head, Kyle David! I don’t remember you paying the mortgage?
Maybe you paid the taxes? Or was it the insurance?” I asked him in frustration. I didn’t bother giving him a chance to respond, ’cause we both knew the answer.
“You’ve been living there rent-free. That house was ALWAYS mine. And since you’ve decided I’m not ‘good enough’ for your new family, you can all GET OUT!”
He went silent again.
“I love you, Kyle,” I said, softening a bit. “But you need to understand something. This house was a gift, not a blank check for other people’s nonsense.
And while we are at it, what is this I keep hearing about us not being invited to your wedding?”
“I… Layla said it would be best that way. She said it would be something small with her family, and maybe we’d have a second wedding abroad, which you guys could join,” he explained. I shook my head, shocked by how gullible my son was.
“You have 30 days, and then I am getting a lawyer.”
I hired a lawyer that week and listed the property with a realtor in Austin. Brenda tried to stall with threats, tears, even fake sob stories on social media, but none of it stuck. My son was furious, but I stood firm.
My son’s fiancée’s family is shrieking that I “RUINED THEIR FUTURE.” But you know what? If I’m “not their kind of people,” then they’re sure not going to live in my kind of house. Marcus decided we needed some time away, so we took a short trip to San Diego.
We walked along the harbor, hand in hand. Megan met us for dinner one night and looked at me with pride. “You did the right thing, Mom,” she said.
“You showed them, and Kyle, who they were dealing with.”
I smiled. Looking back, it became clear this had been their plan from the start. Brenda and Layla had painted a picture of Kyle as some high-society golden boy who had risen above his modest roots.
They wanted the wedding, we wouldn’t attend, to reflect that fantasy, not the truth. And Kyle, head over heels and too blinded by love to see through it, had gone along with their version of reality. I think part of him was afraid that standing up for us would cost him Layla’s approval.
So instead of defending his family, he stayed silent — and that silence permitted them to try and erase us.
