Sister-in-law is a Pick-Me

My sister-in-law, Ruby Nolan, had been a part of the family for over a year. She got along very well with my parents, but her attitude towards me was somewhat lukewarm. She rarely spoke to me.

She would regularly buy gifts for the whole family but conveniently forget about me. When I came home for summer break, she would take the whole family out for a movie, leaving me to wait for them outside on the porch. During casual chats, she would deliberately bring up topics that would only be relevant to the rest of the group, leaving me out of the conversation. She would even kick up a fuss whenever my parents gave me some money for my living expenses.

I was a straightforward person, so I confronted Ruby several times in person, but every time, she looked at me as if nothing had happened and said, "I don’t hate you or anything! You're just too sensitive!"

She would then snuggle into my brother Calvin's arms and give him puppy eyes, as if a child had thrown an unreasonable tantrum at her and hurt her feelings.

My parents took Ruby’s side and said that she was too gentle to ever deliberately target me. They even warned me that if I continued to be suspicious, it would destroy Calvin’s marriage.

As a result, I often doubted myself. Perhaps I was overreacting about the entire situation. I finally learned the truth on the day I brought Vincent Turner, my boyfriend of two years, back home to meet the family.

Vincent was 6 feet tall, handsome, well-to-do, and had a charming smile. Although his parents were civil servants, he had worked hard and joined a major tech company with an annual salary of about 500,000 dollars.

He was more than perfect in my eyes. My parents were happy for me, but Ruby kept silent with a sullen face. She pulled me aside and asked a bunch of intrusive questions about Vincent. Finally, with a frown, she stared at me as if she had figured me out and said, "I don’t care if you’re dating, but why hide it from the family? Are you trying to push me out of your life?"

At this point, I was confused and retorted, "If you hadn't blocked me on social media, you would’ve seen my relationship announcement in the family group chat a year ago."

I turned around and went to the kitchen with my mother to prepare the fruit platter. When I came back out, I saw Ruby leaning over suggestively to Vincent and whispering, “You’re just playing around with Cassie, right? It would be so embarrassing if you really married her."

Vincent was so taken aback that he wanted to show his heart and soul to prove his sincerity.

However, Ruby pursed and continued, "You boys are too naive and so easily deceived. You must not be able to tell. In fact, Cassie’s nose is..."

Vincent raised his head and glanced at me, and Ruby immediately stopped talking.

I felt uncomfortable and asked, "What's wrong with my nose? Ruby, please finish your sentence."

"I’m just having a casual chat with your boyfriend. Do you have to be so jealous?" Ruby complained as she shot me a look, then turned around and went to her room.

After a while, Calvin sent me a message: [Can you stop bullying Ruby all the time?]

Less than ten minutes later, Ruby came out and grabbed my arm as if we were best friends and sat between me and Vincent like nothing had happened.

She asked Vincent all kinds of questions, most of which were about his opinion of me, including my personality, appearance, family background, abilities and so forth. She also smiled sweetly and asked Vincent to give me a rating, which made me very uncomfortable.

She seemed to regard me as cattle at an auction, while Vincent was the customer who could evaluate me as he pleased and choose whether to buy me or not.

Every word out of Vincent’s mouth was nothing but adoration and praise, but the more he praised me, the more Ruby's expression stiffened. Suddenly, she smiled knowingly at me and said, "Cassie, who’s your favorite? This boyfriend or one of the dozen or so men that you’ve brought home before? I heard that you just went out for dinner with another guy two days ago. I can’t believe you can switch partners so quickly!"

I immediately frowned and replied, "Ruby, I’ve never brought a man home before, let alone have dinner with another man just a few days ago!"

Ruby smiled and winked at my boyfriend. "Oh, yes, yes. Cassie has never brought another man home. You’re the lucky first!"

What she said made the anger I had long suppressed explode out of me. I stared at her, silent.

Ruby looked at me indifferently. After a minute, I could not bear it anymore. Something in me snapped.