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My stomach sank and my face went numb as I opened the gift addressed to me. It contained the small Christmas stocking I had hand-stitched for my stepmother two years before. I couldn't believe it: Once again, she had wrapped and returned something that I had made especially for her. This was no oversight, I suspected, but a deliberately hurtful gesture. It felt like a slap in the face.
My husband gave a look of surprise as he grasped what had happened. “Say something,” he urged.
“I can’t,” I whispered. “I don’t want to ruin everybody’s Christmas.” My dad, grandparents, children, and siblings with their spouses were all there. I didn’t want to make a scene—at least, not then.
Wagging Tongues. Later that evening, though, it was satisfying to replay the incident and share my hurt with my brothers and sisters. All of us had a strained relationship with our stepmother—for twenty years, we had felt that she was trying to undermine our already distant relationship with our father. Mean and destructive gossip about her had become one of our favorite pastimes.
“I can’t believe she gave you back something you made!” said my sister. “She only does it because you let her. She’d have the scene…
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