I’m Noriko Suzuki, 48. I lost my parents when I was little and grew up in an orphanage. I worked hard at a global company, built assets through real estate investment, and retired early at 45. Now I live peacefully in the suburbs with my husband, Hironari (50).
But everything changed when my sister-in-law, Yumi (42), contacted me. She asked me to check in on her husband Atsuki’s mother, Kagawa (79), who lives nearby—and without asking me, she gave out my phone number as an emergency contact. I told her I couldn’t take care of Mrs. Kagawa, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.
When my sister-in-law heard that I pushed back, word reached my mother-in-law, and she called me for the first time. She sounded polite, but what she said was anything but.
She kept insisting I should look after Mrs. Kagawa because I’m “a stay-at-home wife with time and living nearby,” and even brought up my background and career, hinting that “someone capable should handle it.” Then she implied that because I didn’t grow up in a “normal family,” I don’t understand when to refuse family duties—that I can say no only because I don’t know what family is supposed to be.