I Found Out My Mother-in-Law Was Sneaking Cockroaches Into My House to Make Me Seem Like a Terrible Wife — I Made Sure She Faced the Consequences.

My name is Elara, and I’ve been married to my husband, Soren, for just about a year. Honestly, life together has been wonderful. We slipped into married life so smoothly, and I loved every little moment we shared. Cooking together, laughing late into the night, lazy mornings with coffee—those simple things made me feel like I had finally found my happy place.

Soren is everything I had always hoped to find in a husband. He’s kind, dependable, patient, and always ready to help. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, he was the one to lift the weight off my shoulders. But like with most good stories, there was one shadow over our perfect little life.

That shadow had a name: Maris, my mother-in-law.

From the very beginning, she made it clear she wasn’t fond of me. Maybe it was the sharp comments she slid into conversations, or the way she’d shoot me cold, judging stares. I could never figure out what I had done to upset her, but I always felt like she saw me as the woman who “stole” her son.

Still, she was Soren’s mom. For his sake, I tried to be polite. I forced smiles when she criticized me. I swallowed my pride whenever she compared me to herself. I told myself I just had to ignore her words and keep the peace.

But nothing could have prepared me for what she did next.

The Nightmare Begins

It started slowly. At first, I spotted a cockroach in the kitchen. I killed it and tried not to think too much of it. A few days later, I found one in the bathroom. Then another in the living room.

Within weeks, the situation got worse. Much worse.

The roaches were everywhere. Crawling across the counters, skittering on the walls, even showing up in our bedroom. More than once, I woke up in the middle of the night with the horrible sensation of something moving on my skin, turned on the light, and saw a roach right there on the bed.

I was horrified.

We called pest control again and again. They sprayed, set up traps, and assured us the problem would be gone. But no matter what we did, the roaches came back, as if they were determined to drive me insane.

And, of course, Maris just had to make things worse.

“Really, Elara,” she said one day in that syrupy, fake-sweet tone of hers, “you should try keeping the house cleaner. Soren deserves to live in a neat home. How can you let it get like this?”

I bit my tongue until it almost bled.

But she didn’t stop there. Another afternoon, while sitting on our sofa sipping tea, a roach crawled up the wall. Maris gasped dramatically, pressing her hand to her chest as though she’d seen a ghost.

“Oh my goodness, Elara,” she exclaimed. “If this were my house, I would be mortified! When Soren lived with me, we never had this problem.”

The following week, she arrived with a box of cleaning supplies, set them loudly on the kitchen counter, and smiled as if she had done me the biggest favor in the world.

“I thought you might need these, dear,” she said. “Maybe now you can get things under control.”

Every word cut like a knife. She looked almost pleased watching me struggle.

Inside, I was boiling with rage. I wanted to scream: This isn’t my fault, you cruel woman! But I didn’t. I stayed quiet, plastered on another fake smile, and told her I was doing my best.

The Discovery

One day, after another round of her smug remarks, Maris left her purse behind on the couch. As I went to move it, a piece of paper slipped out—a receipt.

I picked it up without thinking. And then my blood ran cold.

It was a receipt from a pet store. And written clearly in black ink were the words: LIVE COCKROACHES.

I froze, staring at the slip of paper. My hands began to shake.

It all made sense. The endless infestation. The way Maris always had something to say about it. The smug little smile she wore whenever she saw me cleaning.

She had been behind it all along.

Maris had been deliberately releasing roaches into my home. She wanted me to look like a failure, like a dirty, incompetent wife who couldn’t keep a decent house for her precious son.

Rage burned through me so fiercely that for a moment I could hardly breathe. But then, slowly, an idea began to take shape.

I wasn’t just going to confront her. That would be too easy. No, I wanted her to pay.

Planning My Revenge

I stuffed the receipt into my pocket, grabbed my keys, and ran to the car. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do yet, but I knew one thing for certain: I had to hit back. And I had to hit hard.

On the drive, my plan began to form. I pulled into the same pet store where she had bought the roaches. I walked through the aisles, my heart pounding with fury and adrenaline, until I found exactly what I needed.

A bottle of animal attractant—the type hunters use to lure wild animals. The moment I saw it, everything clicked into place.

That night, when the streets were quiet, I drove to Maris’s house. She lived near the woods, which made my plan perfect.

Creeping through her yard, I poured the attractant everywhere—across her grass, over the flowerbeds she loved so much, and along the walls of her house. Then, heart hammering in my chest, I slipped inside through her always-unlocked back door and sprinkled some of it inside too.

By the time I was done, the smell was strong enough that even I had to cover my nose. I slipped out, drove home, and crawled into bed with a smile for the first time in weeks.

I dreamed of chaos.

Sweet Payback

The next morning, I was still half-asleep when my phone rang. It was Soren.

“Elara, you won’t believe this,” he said, sounding shocked. “Mom’s house… it was destroyed last night!”

My eyes flew open. “Destroyed? By who?”

“Not who. What. Animals. Deer, foxes, raccoons—her garden’s ruined, the fences are broken, even the trash bins are overturned. She says the smell is unbearable, and the yard is a complete mess.”

I pressed my lips together to hide my smile. “That’s… awful,” I said gently. “What’s she going to do?”

“She’s coming to stay with us until it gets fixed,” Soren replied. “She doesn’t really have another option.”

That part hadn’t been part of my plan. But I forced myself to nod. “Of course. We’ll make it work.”

Later that day, Maris arrived, her face tight with anger and humiliation. She barely looked at me as she dragged her suitcase inside. And, as if on cue, another roach scurried across the living room floor.

“Oh, don’t mind that,” I said sweetly. “No matter what we do, they just keep coming back.”

Her expression soured. For once, she had nothing to say.

The Truth Comes Out

That night, after she had gone to bed, I pulled Soren aside and showed him the receipt. His eyes widened as he read it.

“She did WHAT?” His voice was sharp with disbelief.

“She’s been planting roaches in our house,” I explained quietly. “That’s why no exterminator could get rid of them. I found this yesterday.”

Soren stormed into the guest room and confronted her. She tried to deny it at first, but the evidence was undeniable. Finally, she lowered her eyes and muttered, “I didn’t think it would get this bad.”

“Well, it did,” Soren snapped. “You embarrassed Elara, you sabotaged our home, and you made us miserable. You’re going to pay for the pest control, and for every bit of damage. Until then, you can live with the roaches you brought here.”

Maris didn’t argue. For once, she was speechless.

Peace at Last

That night, as I lay in bed, I felt calmer than I had in weeks. Maybe revenge isn’t always sweet. Maybe it doesn’t erase the pain. But sometimes, it’s exactly what you need to set things right.

And as for Maris? Well, let’s just say she ended up with the roommates she deserved.

Roaches. Lots of them.

And I slept like a baby, finally at peace.