Larissa, who has won the lottery of having a mother-in-law, has grown to love Julia. After struggling to conceive, she relies on Julia’s support. However, months after the baby is born, her husband discovers something that makes them question exactly how Julia helped in the situation.

When I married Toby, I was lucky enough to be one of those girls who have a magical mother-in-law. Julia was everything I wanted in a mother-in-law: she was kind and loving, and she didn’t see me as just an extension of her family. On the contrary, she practically adopted me as a daughter.

“I told you so,” Toby said to me one day when I told him I was very grateful that Julia had accepted me.

“He loved you from the beginning, Larissa.”

A bride leaning on a woman | Source: Pexels
A bride leaning on a woman | Source: Pexels

Despite her age, Julia was full of life. She was constantly coming in and out of our house, ready to dive into the kitchen.

“I just want to give you something delicious to eat,” she told me when I asked her to sit down, ready to cook for her instead.

“I have nothing else to do besides meet up with the girls for a drink,” he chuckled.

We usually ended up cooking together: Toby would come home with music and laughter echoing in the kitchen.

People cooking | Source: Pexels
People cooking | Source: Pexels

My parents were on the other side of the country because I’d moved away for university, and I ended up settling here with Toby. And as much as phone calls and video calls kept me close to my family, ultimately, Julia played the role of a mother—a very close mother, in any case.

After three years of marriage, Toby and I were trying to have a child.

“I’m ready if you are,” Toby told me. “I think it’s time.”

I agreed with Toby. I was ready: I ​​wanted to be a mother.

So we started trying. And for months, we couldn’t get pregnant. And the more we tried, the more reality set in. Maybe we weren’t meant to have biological children.

A touching couple embracing | Source: Pexels
A touching couple embracing | Source: Pexels

“What do you want to do?” I asked Toby. “Keep trying?”

Toby nodded. I knew he wouldn’t ask me to do anything I didn’t want to do, but I also knew he desperately wanted to be a father.

So, heartbroken, I turned to my mother-in-law for advice. Julia took me to see a wellness coach, gave me fertility massages, and even bought Toby and me a new mattress.

“Perhaps your body isn’t getting enough rest,” my mother-in-law told me. “Perhaps you need to give your body the best possible chance.”

“Don’t you think it was a little unnecessary?” I asked Toby as we got into bed that night, testing out our new mattress.

The interior of a stylish bedroom | Source: Pexels
The interior of a stylish bedroom | Source: Pexels

“Normally, I would have said yes,” Toby admitted. “But maybe there’s some truth to what Mom said. Our mattress was awful before. Maybe something will change.”

And that’s how it was. Because not even a month later, I discovered we were pregnant. At first, I didn’t know whether to tell my husband and our family because I was so nervous about everything.

I felt that if I acknowledged the truth, I might be inviting something to happen. But it didn’t make sense: my irrational fear was selfish. Toby needed to know we were on our way to becoming parents.

“Thank goodness,” Toby said, helping me up. “Finally!”

When we were safe in the second trimester, we told our family, pleased that our baby’s growth was on track.

A pregnant couple | Source: Pexels
A pregnant couple | Source: Pexels

And then, before we knew it, our daughter, Maddie, was born.

My mother-in-law took charge, looking after the three of us as we navigated the new waters of parenthood. She cooked and cleaned, and took care of feeding Maddie early in the morning.

Julia’s presence made me feel loved, especially since my parents still couldn’t come to meet our baby.

Until Toby discovered something in our house that forever changed the way I saw Julia.

A newborn’s feet | Source: Pexels
A newborn’s feet | Source: Pexels

Toby and I didn’t mind Maddie spending the night in our bed; it made feeding her easier. But one night, Maddie’s diaper overflowed, and our bed suffered the consequences.

“You take care of the baby,” Toby yawned when I woke him up because of Maddie’s drama. “I’ll make the bed.”

I picked up my daughter and carried her to the bathroom: the situation called for a bath, not just a diaper change. Maddie cooed and pressed my tender hands against my face.

“Sweet girl,” I said. “You just have to make life difficult for Dad and me, huh?”

Meanwhile, what I didn’t know was that, while Toby was stripping our bed, he had discovered something strange stuck to our mattress.

A woman bathing a baby | Source: Pexels
A woman bathing a baby | Source: Pexels

When I finished with Maddie, she was almost asleep again. So I carried her to our bedroom, ready to put her in her crib while I helped Toby change the bed linens.

“Honey,” she said when she saw me at the door. “We can’t use this anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, putting Maddie down. “Is the mattress that bad?”

Toby seemed nervous. He had lifted the mattress so he would turn onto his side.

“No, that’s not it,” he said.

A baby in a crib | Source: Pexels
A baby in a crib | Source: Pexels

I was perplexed, watching him struggle with the words. “What are you talking about? It’s just a mattress, we’ll clean it…”

“No, Larissa,” she interrupted, her voice filled with panic. “It’s not just a mattress.”

By this point, I wasn’t sleepy and I was a little angry with my husband. Toby wasn’t a man who fumbled with his words, and yet here he was, in the middle of the night, too unsure to change the sheets.

“That?”

“Look what I found,” he said.

Toby handed me a small silk bag. Inside were several herbs. I hadn’t seen the bag before.

Herbs on a table | Source: Unsplash
Herbs on a table | Source: Unsplash

“What is this? Where did you find it?” I asked.

“It was strapped into the mattress. It was under the mattress protector, so I don’t think we noticed it before.”

“Okay, but what’s it for?” I asked, confused and irritated.

“They’re fertility herbs, it has to be!” exclaimed Toby.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Listen, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I know my mother believes in old wives’ tales. What if this is one of those tales?”

A man in shock | Source: Pexels
A man in shock | Source: Pexels

“She would never do that,” I told him. “No way.”

“So where did it come from?” Toby asked flatly.

He made us sleep in the guest bedroom, where Julia slept when she stayed over. But, of course, I couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quiet my mind.

I looked at Maddie, who was asleep between Toby and me. She was perfect. Of course, it took us a while to conceive, but Maddie was our daughter through and through. She had my hair and Toby’s eyes. She was ours in every sense of the word.

But there was no doubt that he had been born shortly after Julia gave us the bed.

A couple in bed with a baby | Source: Pexels
A couple in bed with a baby | Source: Pexels

Could those herbs have helped in Maddie’s birth? But was that even possible?

I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, the familiar smell of gas reached my nose. Outside, Toby was spraying our mattress. He threw away the match as I came out the back door.

The mattress burst into flames in an instant; the fire seemed to dance with a fervor that matched the turmoil I felt inside. I tried to understand Julia’s motives. She had always been very close to us—to me—so I didn’t understand why she was hiding this from me.

I didn’t understand the meaning of the herbs, but if she had explained it to me, I wouldn’t have felt the paranoia and fear that had settled in my body since the discovery of Toby.

Two pink gas canisters | Source: Unsplash
Two pink gas canisters | Source: Unsplash

“What are you doing?” I exclaimed, hearing the fire getting stronger.

“We couldn’t keep him, love. We just couldn’t,” she said.

Toby had a deep fear of anything esoteric: anything that even hinted at the supernatural was too much for him. He would have preferred to sleep in our car than spend another night at home on the mattress.

While the mattress burned, I watched the baby monitor, seeing Maddie sleeping. The silence between Toby and me was heavy with uncertainty about what had been happening in our house.

A baby monitor | Source: Pexels
A baby monitor | Source: Pexels

Later, Julia came to prepare breakfast, as usual. My husband took the initiative, his voice firm but with an undertone of betrayal.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell us about the mattress? About the herbs?” she asked.

I poured Julia a cup of tea; despite everything we had learned, she was still one of my favorite people. I loved her like a mother.

My mother-in-law’s face wrinkled, her usual vitality replaced by a gloomy guilt.

Read also: I witnessed a man demanding his wife pay over $800 for him and his friends – I coldly took revenge on her

“I just wanted to help. I knew they were having trouble conceiving and I thought, if it worked, it wouldn’t matter how. I never wanted to hurt either of them. And least of all my granddaughter.”

“What else did you do? What’s in the bag? Besides the herbs?” Toby’s questions flew quickly and forcefully through our living room.

A cup of tea | Source: Pixabay
A cup of tea | Source: Pixabay

“Nothing!” Julia exclaimed, finally understanding Toby’s fear. “They’re just dried herbs. I can give you a list,” she said. “I’ll take you both to the shop where I bought them. It’s a small pharmacy next to my dentist. It’s a shop dedicated to natural wellness.”

“You could have told us,” I found myself saying. “How are we supposed to trust what you do now? How do we know if our baby is a miracle baby or just a result of your herbs?”

“Does it even matter?” she asked, her eyes filled with tears. “Maddie is here, and she’s ours.”

I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Of course Maddie was ours. I was just hurt that Julia had done it and hadn’t told me. I also felt compelled to be angry with her, because my husband was furious.

“I’m sorry,” my mother-in-law whispered. “I’m truly sorry.”

An elderly woman crying | Source: Pexels
An elderly woman crying | Source: Pexels

Upon hearing his words, I felt Toby soften towards me.

“We have to start over, Mom,” she said. “If you’re thinking of doing something like that again, you have to tell us first. We need to know what’s going on in our homes.”

Julia nodded and smiled at us. She seemed shocked that we had discovered the truth.

I felt conflicted: part of me was eternally grateful because I know how difficult it was for us to get pregnant. But at the same time, how could sleeping on a pile of herbs possibly help us conceive?

Toby spent the rest of the day looking for mattresses online, while Julia baked us a cake for lunch. I enjoyed spending time with my daughter.

A woman holding a baby | Source: Pexels
A woman holding a baby | Source: Pexels

Read also: Our granddaughter sent us a disgusting note demanding $5,000, so we decided to teach her a lesson

What do you think? Do you believe in natural remedies and old wives’ tales?

Subscribe to AmoMama to read the best stories from show business and the world all in one place.