The Mother-in-Law Cut Off Her Daughter-in-Law’s Hair and Sent Her to a Temple — Years Later, Her Regret Came Too Late

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The very first words Margaret ever addressed to Lena were not a greeting, but a judgment—spoken with a polite smile that carried no kindness, and delivered in front of relatives who chose not to hear.

“So,” Margaret said lightly, her gaze sweeping Lena from head to toe, “a girl without money or connections. How exactly do you expect to be useful here?”

Lena laughed nervously, telling herself it was a test. She believed that if she worked harder, spoke less, learned faster, she would eventually be accepted. For months, she rose before dawn to clean the family shop, cooked meals that went unacknowledged, memorized routines and preferences as if her survival depended on it—because, in truth, it did.

What Lena failed to realize was that Margaret’s resentment had nothing to do with mistakes. It stemmed from Lena’s very presence.
Margaret had already chosen a wife for Evan—the daughter of a wealthy associate, a match discussed long before Lena ever entered the picture. Lena’s marriage was not just disappointing; it was a public loss of control, one Margaret could not forgive.

At family gatherings, Margaret avoided direct insults. Instead, she favored implication—commenting sweetly on how love without money was childish, how modern marriages were impractical, how women without assets had nothing to rely on when everything fell apart. Evan sat silently through it all, caught between fear and guilt, his silence wounding Lena more deeply than any remark.

The breaking point came while Evan was away on a business trip. Without witnesses, Margaret’s presence felt heavier. When Lena accidentally knocked over a bottle of cooking oil, watching it spread slowly across the floor, Margaret’s restraint finally fractured.

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