I could never have imagined that the joy of bringing my newborn home would be overshadowed by such a strange and hurtful moment. When my mother-in-law, Karen, saw me feeding my son Noah, she froze, screamed, and demanded that we take him back to the hospital. What could have caused her to react that way?
To be honest, I think I should have seen it coming. Karen had been acting strangely throughout my pregnancy, asking intrusive questions and making passive-aggressive comments.
But I never thought she would go so far as to say what she did that day.
Jake and I recently had a baby boy, Noah. After years of struggling with infertility, holding him in my arms felt like a miracle. The road to this moment had not been easy.
Endless visits to doctors, failed treatments, and sleepless nights spent wondering if we would ever become parents had taken their toll. When Noah finally arrived, we wanted to enjoy every second of his newbornhood, but my mother-in-law, Karen, had other plans.
We didn’t often share our struggles with our family. It was too painful to go through, and, to be honest, we didn’t want to deal with questions or pity. Karen only knew that we had been trying for a long time, and she seemed genuinely happy when we announced the pregnancy.
The thing is, Karen has always been difficult. She’s the kind of person who likes to be in control and hates surprises, so our announcement about the pregnancy wasn’t exactly on her terms.
‘Are you sure now is the right time?’ she asked at dinner after Jake and I broke the news. “Thirty is still so young, Bethany. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
I glanced at Jake, hoping he would say something, but he just smiled weakly and squeezed my hand under the table.
‘Mum, we’re fine. We’ve been planning this for years,’ he replied, trying to keep it light.
Karen just shrugged. ‘Well, I guess it’s your decision.’
Her tone was dismissive, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t think we were ready. Jake and I were financially stable and had been married for five years. What more did she want?
Throughout my pregnancy, her behaviour became increasingly strange. She asked me overly specific questions about my doctor’s appointments, such as what tests were being done and why.
‘Isn’t that an awfully early ultrasound? What are they looking for?’ she asked suspiciously.
As a result, I began to dread her visits, especially when she made passive-aggressive comments about my decision to work part-time.
‘It must be nice not to have to work so hard,’ she would say, raising an eyebrow as if I were relaxing on the beach instead of preparing for the birth of our first child.
One evening, around six months into her pregnancy, she cornered me in the kitchen while Jake was barbecuing outside.
‘You know,’ she began, ‘you really don’t look pregnant. Are you sure everything is okay with the baby?’
I didn’t know how to respond.
‘Well, I’m short,’ I said cautiously. ‘My doctor says everything is fine.’
‘Hmm,’ she muttered. ‘I just hope you’re being honest with yourself. And with everyone else.’
That comment stuck with me.
I chalked it up to her controlling nature and her need to be involved in every aspect of Jake’s life, but it seemed very strange to me.
Jake dismissed it when I mentioned it later.
‘You know how she is,’ he said, kissing me on the forehead. ‘Don’t let her get to you. You’re doing great.’
After Noah was born, I hoped her attitude would change. I thought the birth of her first grandchild would soften her.
But when she showed up unannounced two days after we brought Noah home, any hope of starting over with her vanished.
I was in the nursery, breastfeeding Noah, when she walked in without knocking.
‘I just couldn’t wait to meet him,’ she said.
But as soon as her gaze fell on me breastfeeding Noah, her expression changed. Her face contorted with horror that I can only describe as horror. She froze in the doorway, unable to say anything.
Finally, she did. And what she said was completely unexpected.
‘Take him back to the hospital! Right now!’ she shouted.
‘What? What are you talking about?’ I asked, holding Noah close to me.
She completely ignored me, pointing at Noah as if he were an alien.
‘Something’s wrong! You have to fix it before it’s too late!’
She spun on her heels and rushed out of the house, slamming the door so hard that the walls shook.
Jake ran in a few seconds after the door slammed shut.
‘What happened? Is Noah okay?’ he asked, his eyes darting between me and the door to the nursery.
I was still shaking as I held Noah close to my chest.
‘Your mum… she just… she yelled at me to take him back to the hospital,’ I stammered. ‘She said there was something wrong with him and that we needed to “fix” it.’
‘What? Fix what? What is she talking about?’
‘I don’t know!’ I cried. ‘She didn’t even look at me, Jake. She just pointed at Noah like there was something wrong with him.’
He sat down next to me and put his arms around my shoulders.
‘Baby, Noah is perfect. You know that. Mum… she’s just…’ He faltered, clearly trying to find the right word. ‘She’s being ridiculous.’
But the ridiculousness wasn’t entirely clear.
Karen’s reaction wasn’t just rude or bossy. It was much worse than that.
As much as I wanted to believe Jake’s assurances, her words kept echoing in my head. Something’s wrong… Fix it before it’s too late.
The rest of the day passed in a fog of anxiety.
I kept checking on Noah, looking for any sign that something might really be wrong. Had his colour changed? Was he breathing normally?
He seemed perfectly healthy, just as the paediatrician had said, but Karen’s panic stuck in my mind. What if she had seen something I hadn’t?
Jake tried calling her several times, but she didn’t answer. Each missed call only added to our frustration and confusion.
‘Why isn’t she answering?’ Jake muttered after the fifth attempt. ‘If she’s so concerned, she could at least explain herself.’
That evening, after several hours of silence, my phone buzzed with a message from Karen.
You can’t hide the truth forever. You’ll regret it when it all comes out.
I stared at the screen, trying to make sense of her words. Hide the truth? What truth? And what did she mean by ‘you’ll regret it’?
When I showed the message to Jake, he was furious.
‘This is crazy,’ he said. ‘I’m going to call her again. She has no right to scare you like that.’
The next morning, he finally got through to her. I listened from the sofa as he paced around the living room, his voice getting louder by the minute. I could hear Karen through the speaker.
‘Mum, what are you talking about?’ he demanded. ‘What truth? Why did you say something like that to Bethany?’
At first, Karen evaded his questions, repeating vague warnings that we would regret it if we didn’t listen to her. But Jake didn’t let her off the hook this time either.
‘Stop talking in riddles!’ he snapped. ‘If you have something to say, just say it!’
And finally she did.
‘Bethany was never pregnant,’ she said. ‘This child is not yours.’
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Karen continued, her tone becoming harsher as she presented her so-called ‘evidence.’
‘She hardly looked pregnant,’ Karen said. ‘Did you see her at family dinners? Always in loose clothing that hid her stomach. And where are the photos, huh? She didn’t post a single photo with her stomach showing. Not one.’
Jake’s face reddened with anger.
‘Are you kidding me?’ he shouted. ‘You think she faked the whole pregnancy? What planet are you living on?’
‘She didn’t want anyone to know,’ Karen insisted. “It’s obvious! You two must have adopted the child, and she’s just too ashamed to admit it. I’m trying to protect you, Jake. You…”
‘Stop it, Mum,’ Jake interrupted her and hung up the phone.
‘She’s completely lost her mind,’ he said, running his hand through his hair. ‘What’s wrong with her, Beth? How could she even think something so… so crazy?’
I had no answer. Her accusations had turned my world upside down. Karen wasn’t just difficult.
This went far beyond her usual controlling tendencies.
She sincerely believed that I had faked my pregnancy and lied to Jake about Noah’s origins. Such absurdity made my head spin.
Jake sat down next to me and took my hand.
“Beth, listen to me. This is her problem, not yours. You haven’t done anything wrong, and you don’t owe her anything.”
I nodded, tears blurring my vision. ‘What if she tries to make this into something bigger? What if she tells the rest of your family? I don’t want to constantly defend myself against something so ridiculous.’
He squeezed my hand tightly. ‘We won’t let her drag us down, okay? Noah is our son, and that’s all that matters. If she can’t accept that, she’ll be out of our lives.’
I wanted to believe him, but a knot of anxiety formed in my chest. Knowing Karen, this wasn’t the end of it.
I couldn’t sleep that night. Every time I closed my eyes, Karen’s words echoed in my head. Bethany was never pregnant. This child is not yours.
The conviction in her voice chilled me to the bone, and I couldn’t help but wonder how far she was willing to go to prove her delusion.
The next morning, as I held Noah in the nursery, I tried to focus on the joy of having him home. His tiny fingers wrapped around mine, his soft breathing filling the silence of the room. But Karen’s accusations kept ringing in my head.
Soon Jake joined me.
‘We won’t be in contact,’ he said firmly. ‘She crossed the line, and we won’t let her back in until she apologises and accepts Noah.’
I wanted to believe that by cutting Karen off from the world, I would solve everything, but deep down I knew it wasn’t over yet.
She wasn’t the type to admit she was wrong, and the thought of her spreading her lies to the rest of Jake’s family made my stomach churn.
Later that day, Jake told me about his conversation with his sister, who had called after hearing about Karen.
‘She’s already planting seeds,’ Jake told me grimly. ‘She told Serena she’s sure you’re hiding something, but Serena didn’t believe her.’
The thought of Karen dragging other family members into her delusion made my blood boil.
‘She can say whatever she wants,’ I said firmly, ‘but I won’t let her have power over us anymore.’
Jake put his arms around my shoulders.
‘We’ll get through this together, Beth,’ he said. ‘She won’t control our lives anymore.’
For the first time in days, I felt a glimmer of hope. Karen could continue her paranoid campaign, but Jake and I were a team, and I knew nothing could separate us. Not even her delusions.
