I didn’t tell my paralyzed mother-in-law that hidden cameras had been installed in the apartment, trying to understand how she would behave when no one was home 

In the evening, I reviewed the recordings and immediately threw my husband and my mother-in-law out of the house and changed the locks, because on the footage they…  Later, the neighbor said: “Ah, so that’s why they…”

I remember very well that evening when my husband came home earlier than usual. He was silent, tense, as if he had already decided everything, and all I could do was agree.

He put his things against the wall, sat down across from me, and said that his mother could no longer live alone. After the stroke, according to the doctors, she was paralyzed and needed constant care. There were no other options — she had to live with us.

At that moment, everything inside me tightened. I immediately understood that from that day on, my life would never be the same.

During our years of marriage, this very woman had been the cause of most of my tears. She never raised her voice, never caused scenes, never argued. She acted differently — in a way that always made her look like a caring mother from the outside, while I appeared to be a nervous, ungrateful daughter-in-law to whom “things always seem wrong.”

When she moved into our apartment, the atmosphere changed almost immediately. It became hard to breathe, the silence felt oppressive, and I didn’t want to stay in that house.

I took care of her mechanically, for my husband’s sake: fed her with a spoon, changed the bedding, wiped her lips with a napkin. She hardly spoke, just watched. And that look was not empty. Sometimes it seemed to me that she understood everything. Even more than she should.

After a few days, strange things began to happen. Small, seemingly random, but far too regular. I put the keys on the table — I found them in my bag. I closed the closet — in the morning the door was slightly open. I moved a chair — it was back in its old place.

My husband grew more and more irritated. He said I was imagining things, that it was all in my head. But I felt it — something was wrong in that apartment.

And then a thought came to me, one I had pushed away for a long time. I needed to know what was happening at home when I wasn’t there.

I ordered small cameras — almost invisible. I installed them during the day while my husband was at work and my mother-in-law, as usual, was sitting in the armchair staring at a single point. She didn’t even turn her head.

For several evenings in a row, I opened the app and closed it immediately. I was afraid. Afraid of seeing something I would never be able to forget.

But that evening, I finally pressed “play.”

I don’t remember how long I watched the recordings. I only remember my hands starting to tremble. Because on the screen…  Continued in the first comment 

Because on the screen, my “paralyzed” mother-in-law… stood up.

She walked across the room. Opened the closet. Rummaged through the things. Smiled.

That very evening, I threw my husband’s and my mother-in-law’s belongings out onto the stairwell and changed the locks.

And later, the neighbor said, in a completely different tone:

— Ah, that’s why they were asking my son questions… He works at a government institution. About benefits, additional payments, allowances. At the time, I thought they were just curious.

Only then did everything fall into place.

My mother-in-law pretended to be bedridden because it meant she received a higher pension, additional payments, compensation, and medications.

The worse her condition looked on paper, the more money came in. And I was a convenient, free “caregiver” who knew nothing and suspected nothing.

They needed money. They were sure I would ruin their plan, so they staged this whole performance.