The wallpaper in Chloe’s nursery was a labor of love. A delicate, hand-painted mural of whimsical forest creatures and towering trees, it was a creation that had taken her months to complete. It was for her future child, a small, intimate space filled with the promise of new life. So when her husband’s sister, a woman named Vanessa, and her twin boys came to visit, she was on high alert.
Vanessa was a woman who believed that her children could do no wrong. They were allowed to run wild, to draw on walls, and to make a mess. Chloe, who had a deep-seated fear of clutter and chaos, had asked Vanessa to keep the boys out of the nursery. Vanessa had promised to do so, her words a hollow reassurance.
The inevitable happened. Chloe was in the kitchen, preparing dinner, when she heard the telltale sound of a crayon scraping against a wall. She rushed to the nursery, her heart in her throat. The twins were standing in front of the mural, their hands covered in the bright, vibrant colors of permanent markers. The beautiful trees were now covered in jagged, meaningless lines, and the whimsical forest creatures had been given black, scribbled-on faces.
When she confronted Vanessa, her sister-in-law’s face was a blank mask of unconcern. “Oh, kids will be kids,” she said with a shrug. “It’s just a wall. You can get it redone.” She offered to pay for the damage, but the money would never be able to replace the hours of painstaking work that Chloe had put into the mural.
The revenge was a quiet, insidious one. Chloe, a woman who rarely spoke her mind, had a secret. She was a master baker, and she had spent a lifetime perfecting her craft. She had been asked to bake the cake for Vanessa’s son’s upcoming birthday party, a cake that was to be the centerpiece of the event. Chloe, with a grim determination, agreed to bake the cake.
The cake was a masterpiece. A beautiful, three-tiered creation, it was decorated with intricate swirls of frosting and colorful sugar flowers. But the day of the party, as Vanessa was cutting into the cake, she discovered the truth. Chloe had not used ordinary flour. She had used rice flour, which gave the cake a dry, gritty texture that was almost inedible. The cake was a disaster, a public humiliation for Vanessa. The revenge was not about money, but about a quiet, public humiliation that left Vanessa with nothing to say.
