I’m Going to Take My Grandchildren! Just You Wait and See!

It so happens that my sister and I share a mother-in-law.

Everyone liked my husband, and he was rather sharp-tongued. He courted me, but all the while had a roving eye for my sister. When Oliver discovered my grandmother had left her flat to menot to Abigail, my sisterhe proposed to me on the spot.

At the time, my sister was already expecting, intending to marry him, hoping to tie him down with a baby. She had to tell her former lover he was the father just to have someone by her side.

My husband and I lived in a snug little house with my in-laws in the outskirts of Manchester. When their neighbours decided to sell their plot of land, my husband persuaded me to sell the flat and buy the land instead. I agreed, but it meant we had to take out a loan to build.

My mother-in-law was relentless, constantly pushing me out, nitpicking every act, spoiling her own daughter while barking orders at me. When our house was finally finished, she tore down the fence and let her dogs run wild in our garden, knowing full well I was afraid of them. She reveled in her dominion. No matter how I pleaded with my husband to speak with her, he insisted I was being dramatic.

I couldnt take it anymore. I went to court to claim my share of the house, hoping to buy a place of my own. But it became clear the only name on the deed was my mother-in-lawsnot a joint property, after all. How they made this trick work, Ill never know. I was left utterly homeless.

At that moment, Oliver discovered my sister had inherited a flat from our father and shifted his affections to her. To destroy her marriage, he revealed to her husband that he was in fact the biological father of her daughter. I divorced Oliver, and he repeated the very same scheme on Abigail as hed done to me.

During all this, I had no contact with my sister and only learned by accident they were together. Yet once Abigail realised shed been fooled too, she suggested we join forces.

We questioned the neighbours and soon learned that the mother-in-law and her son had already bought up five plots using the savings of trusting women like us. Oliver would marry, move his wife in, divorce her, and shed walk away with nothing.

We contacted the other victims and drafted a class action. But there was no one left to sue; Oliver had disappeared abroad. The mother-in-law remained and now demanded we hand over our children, claiming they were her only grandchildren.

She tried to take our parental rights, arguing that, without flats of our own, we were unfit. Yet we both had suitable housing in the endthe deficit was a result of her own deceit. After a hearing, the court ordered that we must let the children visit their grandmother, that we could not deny her contact.

The worst is that she pits the granddaughters against us. In her tale, the grandmother is always the saint, and we are painted as villains. She shamelessly shatters our happiness and stirs up trouble, urging her granddaughters to lie about smoking and drinking. They now give us ultimatumsunless we buy them the latest tablets, theyll call in social services.

Ill have my grandchildren. You just wait! my mother-in-law screams.

So what are we to do? How can we stand against her? She has caused enough misery and still refuses to rest…