I (Kaori) live with my husband, Shinichi, and our 3-year-old daughter, Karin. We shared a home with my parents-in-law and my husband’s grandmother. Whenever Great-Grandma got overbearing and started meddling, my mother-in-law was always the one to step in and shield us. On the flip side, she was constantly the target of Great-Grandma’s nasty remarks. According to my husband, his mother always insisted they “leave her be,” so no one knew how to help her. Four years went by like that until my father-in-law suddenly passed away. That’s when my mother-in-law filed for a “Termination of Marital Family Relationship” and moved out of the family house for good!
After filing the paperwork to cut ties with her in-laws, my mother-in-law looked surprisingly refreshed, her face calm and at peace. She took the time to answer each of our questions, one by one. She seemed delighted that we were so caught off guard, calling it a “total success.” Then, she admitted she had been “waiting for this moment for a long time” and began to tell her story. We all thought she had simply snapped and fled because she couldn’t take Great-Grandma’s bullying anymore after my father-in-law died. But as she spoke, I realized there was a completely different side to her actions. I listened intently to everything she had to say.