My in-laws were wealthy. Very wealthy.
And somehow, they never seemed to have their wallets when the bill arrived.
It was their thing. Restaurants, birthdays, family dinners—someone always “forgot” something. A wallet left at home. A card that suddenly didn’t work. An urgent phone call at exactly the wrong moment. Everyone knew it, but no one ever said it out loud.
So when they invited my mom to my mother-in-law’s birthday dinner while my husband and I were abroad, I felt uneasy. I warned her gently.
“They do this thing,” I said. “Just… be careful.”
