As I was bustling with preparations, the doorbell suddenly rang.

“Yes, come in,” I said as I opened the door, only to be shocked by the sight before me.

There she stood, dressed in flamboyant clothes, with a large suitcase in tow.

Noticing my voice, my husband peeked out.

“Mom, you’re early.”

While my husband greeted her with a smile, my mother-in-law didn’t even glance at me.

Unable to hide my confusion, I asked, “Early? What do you mean?”

Just as we were about to leave for our honeymoon together, what could her large luggage imply?

Could it be that she intended to stay at our house during our honeymoon?

Tormented by this thought, my husband cheerfully announced, “It’s a surprise. Mom is coming with us.”

“Really?”

As my husband clapped his hands in joy, a strange sound escaped me in surprise.

“What are you thinking?”

I pressed, “Wait, what does this mean?”

I asked in shock, and my husband declared happily, “It’s a surprise. Mom is coming along.”

As I stood unable to hide my bewilderment, my husband proudly put his arm around his mother’s shoulder, saying, “It’ll be more fun with Mom along.”

Seeing this, my mother-in-law smiled smugly at me.

As I incredulously asked, “Wait a minute, isn’t a honeymoon supposed to be just for the couple? Shouldn’t we at least have discussed this beforehand?”

I tried to keep calm despite the confusion.

Even as I was certain I wasn’t wrong, my husband seemed to doubt my words.

Why can’t we understand each other? I wondered.

Furthermore, my mother-in-law, seemingly enjoying my distress, hummed to herself.

Why must such discord arise on the day we leave for our honeymoon?

“Doing something like this as a surprise, what were you thinking?” I demanded angrily.

To which my husband replied, “It’s fine because I paid for everything, right?”

Noticing my astonishment, he frowned.

“No, it’s not fine.”

Could it be that his offer to pay for the trip wasn’t just to comfort me, but to silence any objections about bringing his mother along?

“Wait, that’s not going to work,” I objected, causing both my husband and mother-in-law to become visibly displeased.

“Why won’t it work?” my husband asked.

And my mother-in-law childishly taunted, “Tanya doesn’t want to travel with me, does she?”

I felt a headache coming on.

“The issue isn’t about that. Glenn, what about your mother’s plane ticket? Is the hotel booked?” I questioned, causing my husband to look perplexed.

“Ah, I thought we could book it later.”

“That’s impossible. When do you think we booked our tickets and hotel?” I raised my voice.

Did he really think this could go smoothly without any planning?

Though I tried to avoid luxury, the hotel we chose was decent. Especially now, during a major holiday period, there’s no way the flights and hotels have availability now.

As I pressed the issue, my husband naturally reached out.

“Then could you give me all your tickets?”

For a moment, I couldn’t grasp the meaning of his words and asked for clarification, to which he repeated, annoyed.

“If there’s no ticket for my mother, then give me yours. I paid for the trip, so I have the right to do that.”

What’s happening? What am I being told?

“My mother went through the trouble of preparing, so I’ve decided that this trip will be just her and me. We’ll go with you some other time. That should be fine.”

The ease with which my husband favored his mother left me unable to follow.

Does he think it’s okay if I’m not there?

I’ll say it again. This is our honeymoon, just for me and my husband.

Being forced to hand over the plans to my mother-in-law, who appeared out of nowhere, is something I cannot accept.

He says his mother prepared for it, but that doesn’t matter.

If he wants to maintain peace, his mother should step back.

Yet I was utterly dismayed as my husband continued to tell me to give up.

Actually, I was going to keep this a secret.

Suppressing a headache, I sighed deeply.

“Actually, my father is covering the cost of this trip, not you. So it’s strange for you to demand the tickets, isn’t it?”

Upon hearing this, my husband appeared bewildered, as if he couldn’t accept the fact.

That makes sense. He thought he had paid, which is why he could be so assertive.

“Why would your father do such a thing?” he began to question in surprise.

I stared at him coldly.

“My father decided to pay the honeymoon expenses as a gift so we could save up for our future. He had even told me to keep it a secret, considering my husband’s pride.”

“Why did you keep this a secret from me?” my husband raged, his face turning red with anger.

My mother-in-law, too, seemed shocked to learn that my father had funded the trip.

And as I listened to my husband’s angry voice, my heart rapidly cooled.

I had endured my mother-in-law’s nagging and my husband’s bias towards her for too long, and I finally ran out of patience.

“If you two want to go, then return the money to my father and cancel the reservations. Please arrange your own funding and start over.”

Ignoring my husband and mother-in-law’s attempts to stop me, I quickly grabbed my bags and left the house.

This was no joke.

It was not right to use my father’s money for people like them.