“Excuse me, but I meant your truly special pieces. The ones you keep for VIP clients.”
Her expression changed slightly.
“Those pieces are very expensive, ma’am. They start at $50,000.”
Her tone implied I couldn’t afford them.
“Perfect,” I replied. “Show them all to me.”
I took out my platinum credit card and placed it on the counter. The saleswoman’s eyes widened.
As I was examining a spectacular diamond necklace, I heard familiar voices near the entrance. It was Ashley with Carol, apparently also out shopping.
“We can’t let her go to Europe,” Ashley was whispering. “Ethan is a wreck. He hasn’t slept in days.”
“I’ll handle it,” Carol replied with determination. “That woman just wants attention. We’ll make her an offer she can’t refuse.”
They approached the counter where I was, but they didn’t see me immediately because my back was to them as I tried on the necklace.
“Excuse me,” Carol said to the saleswoman. “We’re looking for something special for a family reconciliation. Something to show how much we value someone.”
The saleswoman, who was now treating me like royalty after seeing my card, pointed toward the basic display cases.
“We have some beautiful pieces over there.”
I turned around slowly.
“Carol, what a coincidence to find you here.”
Ashley gasped when she saw me wearing the diamond necklace. It was a spectacular piece that glittered like fire under the jewelry store’s lights.
“Stephanie,” Carol stammered. “What… what a surprise.”
The saleswoman looked at us, confused.
“Do you know each other?”
“Oh, yes,” I replied with a smile. “We’re family. Or at least that’s what they thought.”
Carol turned red.
“Stephanie, what a beautiful necklace. It must be very expensive.”
Her voice was strained, trying to keep up appearances.
“$65,000,” I replied casually. “But I like it so much, I think I’ll take it.”
Ashley swayed on her feet.
“Sixty-five thousand on a necklace…”
Her shock was delicious. This was the same woman who had told me I didn’t need much money.
Carol tried to regain her composure.
“Stephanie, since we’re here, I’d like to talk to you. Ethan is very sorry. He hasn’t eaten in days. He can’t work. Ashley is suffering a great deal, too.”
Her words sounded rehearsed, as if she had practiced this speech.
“What a shame,” I replied, examining some sapphire earrings. “But I’m sure that you, as his real mother, will be able to comfort him.”
The saleswoman was following our conversation with fascination. She had probably never witnessed a family drama in her exclusive boutique.
Ashley approached me desperately.
“Please, Stephanie. Ethan confessed everything to me. He told me you adopted him when he was little, that you gave up everything for him. I didn’t know the whole story.”
Her tears seemed genuine, but they came far too late.
“Ashley,” I said gently, “three weeks ago at your wedding, when you publicly humiliated me—where were these tears of regret? When Ethan asked me for more money the next day, where was this understanding of my sacrifice?”
She couldn’t answer. Carol intervened quickly.
“Stephanie, we understand we made mistakes. That’s why we’re here. We want to make peace. We want to buy you something beautiful as a symbol of our apology.”
She gestured toward the display cases.
“Choose whatever you like, we’ll pay.”
The irony was exquisite. They were offering to buy me a gift with my own money indirectly, since everything they had came from Ethan, and Ethan had lived off my resources for years.
“How generous,” I murmured. “But I’ve already chosen what I want.”
I pointed to the necklace I was wearing.
“$65,000,” Carol whispered, her face losing its color. “That’s… that’s a lot of money.”
Her reaction revealed the truth about their supposed wealth: if they were really as affluent as they pretended, $65,000 wouldn’t be that much.
“It’s not much to me,” I replied. “In fact, I think I’ll also take these earrings and this bracelet.”
The total came to $120,000. Ashley sat down in a chair, overwhelmed. Carol was trying to maintain her dignity, but the shock was evident.
The saleswoman processed my purchase with professional efficiency.
“Will that all be on one card, ma’am?”
“Yes, please.”
The sound of the machine processing the transaction filled the tense silence. Carol and Ashley stared at me as if I were an alien.
“Stephanie,” Carol said finally, “you clearly have resources we were unaware of. This changes things. We could be partners in some businesses, form a real family alliance.”
Her change of tactic was so obvious, it was pathetic.
“Carol,” I replied, as I put away my new jewelry, “when you thought I was poor, you treated me like trash. Now that you know I have money, you want to be partners. Don’t you see the problem with that logic?”
Her silence was revealing. Ashley stood up, swaying.
“Stephanie, I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but Ethan does. He truly loves you. He’s considering making the video you asked for.”
That information caught my attention.
“Really? And what’s stopping him?”
“His pride,” Ashley admitted. “He’s afraid his friends and colleagues will judge him. But I told him that if he really loves you, he should swallow his pride.”
For the first time, Ashley had said something sensible. It was ironic that she was the one who understood what Ethan needed to do.
“Well,” I said, heading for the exit, “when Ethan decides what’s more important to him—my love or his public image—he knows where to find me.”
I left them there, processing my words and probably calculating how much money they had just seen leave my credit card.
That afternoon, as I admired my new jewelry in my apartment, I reflected on the encounter. Seeing Carol and Ashley in that jewelry store had been revealing. Their shock at my spending power confirmed they had never taken me seriously as a person with resources. To them, I had always been the poor relative who needed their charity.
My phone rang. It was Ethan. This time I decided to answer.
“Hello, son.”
His voice was hoarse, exhausted.
“Mom, Ashley told me she saw you at the jewelry store. She… she told me what you bought.”
There was a pause.
“I didn’t know you had that much money available for personal expenses.”
“Ethan,” I said, “there are many things about me you never knew because you never asked.”
His breathing was heavy on the other end of the line.
“Mom, I’m considering making the video, but I need to know that you’ll really forgive me if I do.”
That question revealed exactly who Ethan was. Even in his apology, he needed guarantees. He needed to know what he would get in return.
“Ethan,” I replied, “a genuine apology doesn’t come with conditions. You either feel real remorse or you don’t. You decide.”
Ethan hung up without responding.
For the next two days, I heard nothing from him. Ashley sent me a few messages saying he was reflecting deeply on the video. Carol tried to call me several times, but I didn’t answer. I had already said everything I had to say.
On the third day, as I was packing my belongings for the move to Barcelona, my phone exploded with notifications. Ethan had posted the video to his social media. With trembling hands, I opened the app to watch it.
My son appeared on screen, clearly nervous, with deep dark circles under his eyes.
“Hi everyone,” Ethan began, his voice cracking. “I need to talk about something very important. Three weeks ago at my wedding, I made the biggest mistake of my life.”
He ran his hands through his hair, visibly distressed.
“I told everyone I wanted to thank my real mother, referring to my mother-in-law. What I didn’t say that night is that my real mother, my only mother, is Stephanie Herrera. She adopted me when I was 5 years old after my biological parents died. For 45 years, she gave me all her love, her time, her money, her dreams.”
Tears began to roll down Ethan’s cheeks.
“My mom worked two jobs to pay for my private school. She gave up having her own family to take care of me. She spent all her savings on my wedding, $19,000 that she had saved her entire life.”
His voice broke completely.
“And I repaid her with public humiliation. I treated her like she was a nobody. I called her the day after the wedding asking for more money. I let my wife treat her badly. I allowed my mother-in-law to replace her. I’m an ungrateful son who doesn’t deserve the love of that extraordinary woman.”
The video continued for five more minutes. Ethan detailed specifically each of his failings, every moment of disrespect toward me. He admitted that he had known about the adoption from a young age, but had never truly thanked me for saving his life. He confessed that he had seen me as an ATM for years.
“My mother, Stephanie, has disinherited me,” Ethan continued. “And she has every right to do so. I destroyed our relationship out of vanity, for wanting to impress people who weren’t worth it. If she decides to move to Europe and never see me again, I will understand, because I broke the heart of the one person who loved me unconditionally.”
The video ended with Ethan looking directly at the camera.
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