As I celebrated another year of life, my birthday took an unexpected turn. My son Tom got angry at the gift I received from my daughter-in-law, but the situation escalated and took a turn I did not see coming.

My daughter-in-law Christine is such a sweetheart. We clicked the second my son, Tom, brought her home. She lost her mom when she was just a teen, and once she even admitted that I became a second mom to her.

Christine and Tom have been married for five years and have a little girl named Joy together. My daughter-in-law is a stay-at-home mother who also runs a small business where she sells luxury scarves made out of silk and various expensive materials.

I must mention that she also comes from a wealthy family, which, according to my son, gives her a substantial sum of money monthly. Tom has also built a successful career for himself as a mechanical engineer, so money is not a problem for either of them.

However, for some reason, my son is still very particular about the way Christine treats us, especially when it comes to spending money on me. Tom is worried that she will think I am only fond of her because of her money, but that is not true. Christine and I talk about many things, and our relationship is much deeper than what money can buy.

Fast forward to my birthday yesterday. Christine surprised me with this fancy handbag I’ve been eyeing forever but would never dream of buying for myself. I was over the moon, literally hugging it to my chest. But then, everything just flipped upside down.

Tom was absolutely livid when he saw the handbag. He kept yelling at me, telling me that he had expressed his feelings about Christine buying me expensive gifts. I tried to explain that it was just a sweet gesture that showed how much she paid attention to the things I said. But I never went out of my way to ask her to buy a designer handbag, and I never would.

What Tom did not know was that Christine had been sharing some of the challenges she was experiencing in their marriage. And looking at how outraged he was over this handbag, it painted a clear picture of why Christie was worried about their future.

The anger he felt was way more than just about this handbag; it was deeper and filled with so much sadness. However, just as I thought the drama could not get any worse, Tom yanked the bag from me, started inspecting it, and flipped it upside down, and out came a bunch of envelopes.