After the wedding rituals were completed, Mrs. Sharma cleaned the house, exhausted, and fell asleep, even though her son Amit and daughter-in-law Priya had long since retired to their rooms. But the next morning, she woke up at 5 a.m. and began cleaning again, the house still covered in dust and oil. But it was 10 a.m., her back bent, yet there was still no movement from upstairs.

Just then, she called out from downstairs: “Daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law, come down and cook. Daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law.” There was no response for a long time, so she called out again: “Daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law, get up.”
Since her legs ached, she couldn’t stand upstairs and couldn’t stand there, calling softly, but still received no response. Exhausted and angry, she picked up a stick kept in the corner of the kitchen and went upstairs to teach her daughter-in-law a lesson.

As soon as she reached upstairs, she was panting: “What kind of daughter-in-law is this? Newly married and clueless, lying in bed all afternoon. Get up!” With that, she pulled the blanket away, but was shocked to see blood on the bedsheet…

As soon as she reached upstairs, she was panting, and her anger had reached her mind. Her stick was tightly gripped in her fist, ready to teach her daughter-in-law a lesson she would remember forever.

“What kind of daughter-in-law is this? Newly married and clueless, lying in bed all afternoon. Get up!” she said, her voice stern. Without waiting for her daughter-in-law to respond, she immediately reached out and pulled the quilt away.

Her eyes widened. The stick slipped from her hand and fell with a ‘crack’ on the wooden floor. She was stunned.

On the stark white sheets of the wedding night room, there wasn’t the dirt or blood she’d imagined… instead, it was a wet, spreading stain of deep red, with white feathers scattered all around. The scene resembled the scene of an animal slaughter!

Even more horrifying was that her daughter-in-law, Priya, was huddled in a corner, her face pale, lips trembling, clutching something tightly under the thin sheet that remained. And her son, Amit, sat naked on his back, panting, his sleeves stained red, and his eyes were filled with exhaustion, panic, and a hint of extreme fear.

The mother-in-law took a step back, her hands trembling over her mouth, and she couldn’t speak: “Oh my God… what is all this?!”

Amit immediately turned back, nearly falling over when he saw his mother at the door. Priya burst into tears and buried her face in the pillow.

Amit quickly began to explain, his voice faltering, a hint of helplessness: “Mom… it’s not what you think! It’s not blood! Last night… I had a severe allergic reaction!” He pointed to his chest. Indeed, red spots had appeared on Amit’s skin, swollen like bee stings.

“I’m allergic to this new feather quilt and feather pillow! It was so itchy and burning, I was scratching all night!” Then he pointed to the red spot on the sheet. Only then did his mother-in-law realize it wasn’t thick like blood.

“And… and this is chutney! The tomato chutney you made for the samosas last night! I was itching unbearably, so Priya… Priya remembered that as a child, you used to say that applying ice and salt water or… or tomato chutney to insect bites helps with relief. Priya panicked, she couldn’t understand anything in the middle of the night. She ran to the kitchen, found your leftover tomato chutney, and brought it upstairs and started applying it all over my body!”

Priya broke down in sobs: “I… I saw Amit ji having trouble breathing… I was afraid he was going into anaphylactic shock! I didn’t know what to do except run to the kitchen and get anything that would cool his skin… I forgot to call you… Mom… please forgive me!”

Amit reached out and hugged his wife, his face filled with anguish and exhaustion: “We both scraped off the chutney that had dried overnight, cleaned our bodies, and changed the sheets. But it wasn’t completely clean! We both couldn’t sleep a wink all night, exhausted and worried, and only now can we sleep… Mom, please forgive me!”

The mother-in-law stood like a stone statue, the anger on her face turning to surprise, then to extreme pity. The stick she had brought to beat her daughter-in-law lay alone at her feet.

From the goddess of wrath to the ‘culprit’: She was angry at her daughter-in-law for being lazy, but it turned out she was saving her son’s life. And the feather quilt she had gifted her son was the cause of it all!

From ‘nightmare’ to heartbreaking truth: The horrific scene on the sheets wasn’t a disaster, but the marks of a wedding night filled with care and love for her husband.

She bent down and picked up the stick, not to hit him, but to support her tired legs. She came closer, touched her son’s shoulder, then looked at her daughter-in-law with a fondness she’d never seen before.

“Priya… daughter… Amit has grown so much, but his stupid allergy hasn’t gone away! You must have suffered so much on your wedding night… daughter, I apologize.” She looked at the stained sheet, then turned to Amit:

“Son, quickly bathe your wife and tell her to rest. I’ll go downstairs and have someone bring her another quilt and bedding. I’ll wash these things myself!”

As her mother-in-law, Mrs. Sharma, was wiping the tomato sauce stains from the bedsheets, she suddenly noticed something else… something that was neither sauce nor feathers.

It was a thin red envelope, tucked under the mattress. She pulled it out curiously; inside was not the wedding gift money, but a one-way plane ticket to a foreign country in her son Amit’s name, dated two months later.

She clutched the ticket tightly, her eyes suddenly filled with more suspicion and worry than ever before. Why had her son hidden this ticket? Did this trip have anything to do with the future of their newly-born relationship?

Holding the red envelope in her hand, Mrs. Sharma, the mother-in-law, felt a chill run down her spine. Her face was no longer motherly, replaced by one of utter confusion and suspicion.

A one-way plane ticket to Singapore… dated two months later…

She furtively glanced upstairs, where the sound of running water in the bathroom had died down, signaling that her son and daughter-in-law would be leaving soon. She quickly tucked the ticket into her pocket, trying to remain composed in the face of the stains on the sheets.

“Why did he hide it? Is he… planning to leave his wife? Or is he thinking of something else?” A series of questions raced through her mind.

When Amit and Priya came downstairs, they both looked more composed than before. Amit saw his mother washing the sheets and immediately ran over:

“Mom, let me do it! Why are you washing them yourself?” Her mother-in-law turned, her face suddenly unusually serious.

“I have to wash it. I’m washing it so I can wash away all the secrets you’ve hidden in this room.” Amit and Priya looked at each other, a little nervous in their eyes.

“What…what secret?” Priya asked stammering. Without a word, the mother-in-law reached into her pocket, quickly pulled out a red envelope, and threw it directly on the kitchen counter in front of the two children.

“What is this?” A terrified silence fell over the kitchen. Amit looked at the ticket, then at his mother, her face turning from nervous to despair. Priya lowered her head, and tears began to flow from her eyes again.

“Mom…I…” Amit tried to speak. His mother-in-law interrupted him, her voice now as cold as ice:

“Don’t call me Mom! It’s only the first night since the wedding, and you’ve already bought a one-way ticket. Were you going to leave? Do you still care about me, this family? Why did you have such a grand wedding and then treat someone else’s daughter like this?”

Amit clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and finally looked his mother in the eyes, as if he had decided to face the truth: “Mom… this isn’t about me running away. This is work I have to do. You know… my company has an important project going on with a partner in Singapore…”

“Work?” his mother-in-law sarcastically demanded. “What kind of work is that that you had to hide even from me, your new wife, and buy a ticket to go alone?”

Suddenly, Priya looked up, grabbed Amit’s hand, and said to her mother-in-law in a trembling but firm voice: “Mom, I beg you not to blame Amit ji! I bought that ticket!”

Everyone’s attention turned to Priya.

Priya tried to swallow her tears and began to tell the truth:

“Actually, this project is very important for Amit ji’s career. But he turned it down… so that he could fulfill his duty to you and me, so that all the wedding rituals could be completed. He was afraid that you would feel lonely, and I would feel that I was being away from my husband so soon after the wedding.” She pointed to Amit, who stood silently, his eyes red.

“I secretly contacted his boss and begged him not to miss this opportunity for Amit ji. The boss said that if Amit ji goes, he’ll get a chance to be promoted to Regional Director… It’s an opportunity that comes once in a thousand years. I want Amit ji to go, I want Amit ji to succeed.”

“But… why did you hide it?” my mother-in-law asked, trembling.

“Because I know… Amit ji will never agree if he finds out I arranged everything. He’s a very emotional person. He promised you he’d stay home to take care of you after the wedding… So I mustered up the courage and secretly bought the plane ticket, and two months later, when everything was settled, I would present it to him and force him to go. Mom, please forgive me!”

The room fell silent again. The mother-in-law looked at Amit, then at Priya. They had two children, one who sacrificed her career for the family, and one who agreed to stay away after the wedding night to give her husband a chance to succeed.

Tears welled up in the mother-in-law’s eyes. These tears weren’t of anger, but of regret and extreme emotion.

She stepped forward and embraced Priya and Amit.

“Daughter-in-law… Daughter… you’re so wonderful! I misjudged you… misjudged both of you! You’re not lazy, but a good wife and an ideal daughter-in-law. This stick… I almost hit my own daughter-in-law, mistaking her!”

The mother-in-law let go of the two children and looked at the plane tickets on the table; her eyes had completely changed.

“Okay. I agree! Amit, you have to go. But not alone. Priya, you’ll go with him too!”

Amit and Priya looked at their mother in surprise.

“But… Mom, what will you do?” Amit asked worriedly. Her mother-in-law smiled, a warm and kind smile:

“I’m old now, I can take care of myself. And what’s more… I’ll fly there to see you both in a while! This ticket isn’t a separation; it’s a ticket to open the door to the future for both of you. Don’t be afraid. Your happiness is most important.”