“You live off my son. You’re just a lazy nini with a laptop.”
That’s what my mother-in-law told me. In my own kitchen.

From the outside, I probably did look useless. Old T-shirt, hair in a messy bun, always at home, always in front of the same 14-inch laptop. No badge, no commute, no office. Just coffee, pajamas… and a tech company I secretly built from scratch.

That “toy” laptop runs Innovatec, one of the biggest IT companies in the country. I’m the founder and CEO. But in this house, I was just “Javier’s wife who does nothing”.

Only my husband knew the truth. I asked him not to tell his mother. I thought it would keep the peace. I didn’t expect it to turn into my own personal test of patience.

Everything exploded the day Beatriz, my sister-in-law, got her first job.

Fresh graduate, 3,000€ a month. My mother-in-law almost fainted from pride.
“See, this is what a real woman looks like,” she shouted at dinner. “High heels, office job, salary in her account every month. Not like someone who sits in a corner wasting electricity.”

Beatriz smirked at me across the table.
“Don’t be jealous, cuñada,” she said. “When I buy my first designer bag, I’ll let you touch it. Maybe you’ll feel what success is like.”

I wanted to open my laptop right there, log into the banking portal, and show her the line where I signed off her contract. Yes, Innovatec is my company. Yes, she had just been hired by me.

Instead, I stayed quiet and passed her the rice.

The humiliation didn’t stop at dinner.
One evening after her first week, she came home complaining about her “super intense marketing meeting”, kicked off her heels, and shouted from the sofa:

“Carmen! Bring me hot water for my feet. And massage them. My hands are tired from typing real reports. You only move from bed to laptop all day, you must have plenty of energy.”

I was kneeling on the floor, drying her feet, while she bragged about “our mysterious CEO” – a woman she imagined as her role model. Elegant. Powerful. Nothing like “women who just stay home and watch series”.

She had no idea she was literally talking about me.

Payday was the cherry on top.
Her first 3,000€ landed in her account and she screamed like she’d won the lottery. She ordered an expensive seafood feast “for the three of us”: herself, her mother and my husband.

When I reached for a plate, she blocked the chair with her hand.

“Sorry, cuñada. I only paid for the people who actually contribute to this family. You eat from Javier’s salary already, don’t you think that’s enough?”

I watched them eat. The marisco she bought with the bonus I personally approved. I went to bed hungry that night, but strangely… calm. Because I knew something they didn’t: next week, Innovatec would hold a big town hall. For the first time, the CEO would appear on stage in person.

Me.

The night before the event, Beatriz shoved a cream blazer into my hands.
“Carmen, iron this perfectly. No wrinkles. Tomorrow I’ll finally meet our big boss. I need to look like I belong next to her, not like… this.”
She waved her fingers at my old house dress.

The next morning, after they left, the house went silent. I locked my bedroom door, opened the hidden part of my wardrobe, and pulled out my navy suit. Italian cut. Small gold Innovatec pin on the lapel.

I looked in the mirror. Same woman. Different armor.

Downstairs, my driver and my COO were waiting in a black sedan. As we drove to headquarters, he told me casually, “Your sister-in-law just checked in. She’s busy taking selfies with the event poster.”

In the packed auditorium, Beatriz grabbed a seat in the third row, front and center. She wanted to be in the CEO’s line of sight. She got her wish.

“Please welcome the founder and CEO of Innovatec… Mrs. Carmen.”

The lights hit my face. I saw it in slow motion: the water bottle slipping from her hand, her jaw opening, her eyes going from confusion… to horror. For a second, our eyes locked. I gave her the same polite smile I always gave at home.

Then I spoke to the whole room, but really, to one person.

“Some people,” I said, “earn 3,000€ and suddenly feel like they own the world. They laugh at those who work from home in old clothes with ‘just a laptop’. They forget that sometimes, that laptop is the reason they get paid at all.”

You could hear a pin drop.

I didn’t say her name. I didn’t need to. Later, as we left the auditorium, my COO leaned toward her and whispered, “The director asked me to remind you not to forget the iron tonight. She prefers comfortable clothes at home.”

That afternoon, I arrived home in my suit, with the company car still idling outside. Beatriz was already there, on the floor, sobbing in front of her mother.

The moment she saw me, she crawled to my feet.
“Please… don’t fire me,” she cried. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

My mother-in-law stared between us, frozen. “What is going on?”

“Mamá,” Beatriz choked, “Carmen is the CEO. Innovatec is hers. She’s been paying our bills. I’ve been barking at my own boss.”

The color drained from my mother-in-law’s face.

I told Beatriz, calmly, “I won’t fire you. Your performance is bad, your attitude worse, but I’m a professional. You’ll finish your trial period. From now on, earn your salary at work — not by looking down on people at home.”

Then I turned to my mother-in-law.
“The house tax? I paid it. The hospital bills? I paid them. The electricity you say I waste with my laptop? I’ve been paying that, too. I don’t need your gratitude. But I will no longer accept your disrespect.”

That night, no one shouted for hot water. No one mocked my laptop.
They finally understood that the “nini” they despised was the one holding the roof over their heads.

Tell me honestly:
Was I too soft for giving her another chance, or would you have fired her on the spot? 💭