When Daniel’s wife hands him a small box at Christmas dinner, he sees it’s a cruel Christmas present from his daughter, Rachel. While Amelia is her stepmother, Rachel has been nothing but horrible to her, ignoring her past. Daniel has no choice but to teach her a lesson. But does he go too far?
I knew something was off the moment I glanced at my wife during dinner. She was quiet, too quiet, and when I asked her if everything was okay, she just gave me a tight smile and shook her head.
But I could tell.
Something was eating away at her, and she was trying not to reveal it while we had guests sitting at the table with us.
“Come on, Amelia,” I said. “Tell me, what’s wrong?”
She finally cracked after the third time I asked. She pushed a small box across the table.
“This was your daughter’s gift to me, Daniel,” she said.
I opened the box, confused.
At first, I just stared at it, trying to wrap my head around what I was looking at. Then the meaning hit me like a punch to the gut.
Amelia had spent the past two years fighting through breast cancer. The woman had undergone brutal treatment to still be here with us and she was now sitting at the dinner table on Christmas Day, blindsided by a teenage girl’s cruelty.
She didn’t say anything else. She just got up and walked into the kitchen. I heard her start to cry, and that’s when my rage kicked in.
I stood up so quickly that the chair nearly tipped over.
“Rachel!” I barked from across the table.
My 16-year-old daughter blinked, all wide-eyed innocence on her face.
“What, Dad?” she asked.
I stormed over to her side of the dining table, which was covered in the Christmas spread that Amelia had been working on since dawn.
“What the hell were you thinking giving her this?” I shouted.
I held the box up like it was evidence at a crime scene.
Rachel folded her arms, rolling her eyes like I was the one being unreasonable.
“It was just a gift. God, she’s so sensitive, Dad. I mean, really.”
“You think this is funny, Rachel? Seriously?” I asked, my voice low.
She shrugged and put a forkful of turkey into her mouth.
“She needs to chill. It’s just a bra.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My wife, who’d welcomed Rachel into our home with open arms despite the cold shoulder she’d received for years, had spent days making Christmas special, only to get slapped in the face with this.
Amelia had spent thousands of dollars on Rachel’s Christmas presents, getting her the makeup kit she had been hinting about for months, the designer handbag she wanted, and the pair of Doc Martens with the sunflowers.
And for what?
To be treated like this?
“You did this on purpose,” I said, shaking the box at her. “You thought it would be funny to mock her. After everything she’s been through, this is an entirely new low, even for you.”
Rachel scoffed.
“It’s not such a big deal,” she said.
“Yes, it is,” I glared, fists clenched at my side. “And you know it.”
When Rachel realized that I wasn’t letting this slide, her attitude shifted. She turned defensive, making herself the victim.
“It’s not my fault she’s so uptight. Everyone acts like she’s fragile or something, Dad. She was sick, but she’s not sick now. She’s fine now.”
Those words were the final straw. I could feel something snap inside me. It was an overwhelming fury I couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You’re cleaning up everything after our guests leave. All the decorations, the dishes, the trash. Everything! Since you think being cruel is so funny, you can spend the rest of your Christmas cleaning.”
“What?!” Rachel shrieked, her face twisting in disbelief. “You can’t make me do all that! I’ll just leave. I’ll phone Mom or Cody!”
“You will do it, Rachel,” I said. “And you won’t be leaving until it’s done. Don’t try and contest it.”
Her phone was already in her hand, texting her stepbrother to come pick her up. She thought she could outsmart me? She had no idea how far I was willing to go this time.
I know it seems like I’m being a harsh father. And to an extent, I agree. But Amelia had been through hell and back during her surgery and recovery. My wife had fought tooth and nail to make it to the other side.
And now she was here, in remission and finally back to herself, and Rachel decided to pull this stunt?
It was ridiculous. And so disappointing. I couldn’t believe that my daughter had turned into someone I couldn’t recognize anymore.
It made me sick.
Rachel had been the sweetest child until her mother, Celine, and I divorced. But we had divorced on good terms, we just needed to go our own ways because we weren’t as compatible anymore.
Celine even cared for Amelia. When Amelia was fresh out of surgery, it was Celine who came over every few days to help me with laundry and cooking.
So, what was Rachel’s problem?
When her stepbrother, Cody, showed up, I met him at the door.
“She’s not going anywhere, Cody,” I said firmly. “But you’re more than welcome to come in and have some dessert.”
He raised his hands like I was some kind of lunatic.
“Alright, man, I don’t want any trouble,” he said. “And it’s all good. I’ll leave. I’m going to meet some friends.”
“There won’t be any trouble, Cody,” I said. “Go on, I’ll bring Rachel home later.”
I shut the door and turned to Rachel, my eyebrow raised.
Rachel lost it.
She screamed at me, tears welling up in her eyes.
“This is so unfair! You’re abusive, Daniel,” she said, using my name. “Mom’s going to hear about this!”
I stood firm, unmoved by this tantrum.
“Go ahead. Call your mother. Tell her what you’ve done. But you’re not leaving until every decoration is packed away, and every dish is clean.”
For four hours, Rachel worked angrily through her tears, grumbling the entire time.
At one point, Amelia came to me and pulled me aside, her face filled with guilt.
“Maybe this is too much,” she whispered. “Despite everything, she’s just a kid, honey.”
“She’s old enough to know better,” I said flatly. “You’ve been nothing but kind to her, and this is how she repays you? No. She needs to understand there are consequences for being cruel.”
My wife didn’t say anything after that, but I could see it in her eyes. She hated being the reason for the punishment, even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.
By the time Rachel was finished, it was well past midnight. The house was spotless, but the tension was thick enough to choke on. Rachel grabbed her coat without saying a word, stormed out of the house, and slammed the door behind her.
Not ten minutes later, I was pouring myself a whiskey when my phone rang. It was my ex.
“Are you out of your mind?” she shouted before I even said hello.
“Making her clean the whole house? On Christmas? What is wrong with you?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“She gave Amelia a bra, knowing full well what that would mean to her, Celine. You really think she shouldn’t be held accountable? You really think she doesn’t deserve to be punished?”
“She’s sixteen, Daniel!” she huffed. “Kids make stupid jokes. It’s not that serious!”
“Not that serious?” I snapped. “Celine, are you even listening to yourself? If you can’t see how wrong that is, then that’s on you. But I’m not raising her thinking it’s okay to hurt people and just walking away without any consequences.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“You’re being way too hard on her, Dan,” she said finally and hung up.
I put my phone down and sighed, feeling the weight of the day on my shoulders. I walked into the kitchen and found Amelia sitting quietly at the kitchen island, her eyes red from crying.
“Maybe I went too far,” I said, more to myself than to her.
She gave me a sad smile.
“You did what you thought was right.”
I leaned against the counter, rubbing my face with both hands.
“I just can’t believe she did that,” I said. “How could she be so heartless?”
“She’s a teenager,” Amelia said softly. “They don’t always think about how their actions affect others.”
“Darling, there’s no excuse,” I said. “Not for this. Not after everything you’ve been through.”
Two weeks later, I met Rachel at a coffee shop. I had spent the past few days wrapped up in my emotions. I knew that my actions were justified, but at the same time, I wanted to make sure that Rachel was okay.
“Dad,” she said coldly as she sat down across from me. “Why are we here?”
“I wanted to talk to you,” I said. “But let’s order first.”
Rachel looked at me, not moving for a moment. But then she picked up the menu and searched through it.
“I’ll have the waffles and a coffee,” she said.
We sat in silence until the waitress came and took our orders.
“Look,” I said. “I need you to understand why I reacted that way over Christmas.”
“Go ahead,” she said.
“When Amelia got sick, it was really bad, Rachel. As much as she went for the surgery and had chemo, there were days when she wasn’t okay at all. She wanted to give up. She used to make dark jokes about taking all her painkillers. I was scared all the time. I was terrified of losing her.”
“What? It was that bad?” Rachel asked, her eyes wide.
I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “It was the worst time of our lives. I mean, we were only married a year then. Amelia and I wanted to have another baby together. But then she got sick, and things went downhill really quickly.”
The waitress brought our food, and we sat in silence.
“I didn’t want to hurt you, sweetheart,” I said. “But your Christmas joke was so cold and callous and… it triggered me.”
“I’m so sorry, Dad,” she said, her face crumpling. “I didn’t know any of this.”
“Going forward, you have to do better, Rachel.”
She nodded and sipped her coffee.
What would you have done?
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The joy of bringing my newborn baby girl home was ripped away when I stepped into her room. Her beautiful pink nursery was destroyed, the walls repainted black, the crib broken, and all the toys were gone. But it was my mother-in-law’s cruel reason that shattered me most.
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Read the full story here.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
