A narcissistic, entitled aunt seeks to create the "perfect" life for her daughter by pitting her against her cousin, Cindy. Always comparing the two, the aunt seeks outrageous ways for her daughter to stand out by spending money she doesn't have. She goes as far as even conspiring against her own mother who is in declining health. But once her plot is exposed, Cindy and her mom get the perfect revenge.
Pitted Against Each Other From The Start
Sibling rivalry is one thing, but carrying it over into adulthood with narcissistic and entitled actions is another. Cindy’s mother never had a problem with her sister Sharon nor her niece, Maggie. Sharon, on the other hand, was a different story. Sharon wanted Maggie to be better than Cindy in any and every way that she could. Her narcissism drove her greedy and selfish actions. Sharon controlled every aspect of Maggie’s life until one day, Maggie got her revenge. Cindy shares her account on how her selfish Aunt Sharon made her cousin Maggie’s life miserable through her compulsive need for control and success.
The story of Maggie, Cindy and Cindy’s mother’s revenge on their entitled aunt/sister actually begins years ago. Cindy’s mom is the oldest of four children. She had Cindy a few months before her youngest sister, Sharon, gave birth to Cindy’s cousin, Maggie. From the day she brought Maggie home, Sharon groomed her to be the most perfect little princess today’s society can offer: a beauty pageant kid.
Sharon wasted no time getting Maggie’s hair done and raised Maggie to only wear dresses and very dainty shoes. Sharon had a full-time job as a grocery store cashier but she also received child support from Maggie’s father, who was serving in the Air Force. She spent thousands of dollars on making sure her perfect little princess was always beauty pageant ready. Money was power and Sharon wanted the world to know she had it. Maggie basically became the image Sharon wanted their lives to portray.
Right from the start, Sharon did everything she possibly could, and spent close to everything in her wallet, for Maggie to be better than Cindy. As Cindy and Maggie grew older, Sharon made her perfect little pageant princess compete with Cindy regardless of the difference in their classes. Cindy was an entire grade level above Maggie, yet Sharon made sure to push Maggie to her limits. Both Cindy and Maggie were excellent students. They lived in different states, but Sharon would call Cindy’s mom once a month and would ask detailed questions about report cards. If Cindy’s mother told her that she had earned all A’s, Sharon would inflict various punishments until Maggie had just as good grades, or better. Everything was a competition for Sharon, and Maggie losing was not an option.
At first, Sharon would belittle her own daughter with taunts. Then she would deny buying Maggie any cookies, toys, etc., until her grades “improved.” When the girls started hitting our growth spurts, Sharon would make Maggie wear old dresses and shoes that were way too small until her grades “improved.” Sharon’s cruel actions and taunts made life difficult not only for Maggie, but also for Cindy and her mother.
Troublesome Childhoods & Grandmother’s Health
And such as the life of one living in another’s shadow, Maggie grew to resent Cindy. She would often do petty things to get Cindy into trouble, like breaking their Grandma’s doll collection, breaking dishes, the whole ordeal. Maggie even fought her a couple of times when Cindy refused to be bullied. Cindy knew it wasn’t her cousin’s fault for being this way, but the way her Aunt Sharon was raising her instead.
Cindy’s mom realized how out of hand things had gotten. She stopped discussing grades and comparing the two girls with Sharon and the tension between families seemed to subside. That is, until Cindy and her mother moved back to their hometown, where Sharon lived, and enrolled in the same school as Maggie. Big facepalm moment. Cindy knows this may not seem like the wisest choice for all parties involved, but circumstances were out of their control as their Grandma’s health began to decline. Cindy and her mother wanted to be close by and help in any way they could.
But Grandma’s declining health didn’t slow Sharon down. Cindy recalled that since her mom wouldn’t discuss grades with her Aunt, Sharon would volunteer at school functions to sneak a peak at Cindy’s report cards (which in no way, shape, or form sounds legal at all). If Sharon saw that Cindy’s grades were better, Maggie would receive yet another form of punishment until she was better than her cousin.
Sharon’s compulsive need for control and competition even escalated into their college years. Cindy ended up dropping out of college after three semesters as she had developed a drinking problem and had to undergo a few months of treatment. When news of Cindy’s dropping out reached Sharon it was like sweet music to her ears. Sharon used Cindy’s illness as a leverage to maintain her streak of competition by calling Cindy’s mom to report how well Maggie was doing in college before snidely pointing out that Cindy was no longer in college and that her illness was an embarrassment to the family. Sharon would do everything in her power to belittle Cindy and her mother.
No matter what Cindy did, Sharon had to have Maggie accomplish more to prove she was better.
By the time Cindy recovered from her incident and returned to college, their Grandma’s health had rapidly declined. She was moved into a local nursing home due to dementia-related problems that had advanced from her diagnosis when the girls were in high school. Cindy’s mother, being the eldest child, quit her job to spend every day at the nursing home, talking to their Grandma, reading to her, etc. Cindy’s mom wanted to have their Grandma returned to the comfort of her own home, but Sharon refused. While their Grandma’s health declined from her original diagnosis, Sharon schemed and secured the power of executor of the estate. This meant that she had the ability to place their Grandma in a cold, lonely home despite her siblings’ protests. It also meant that Sharon technically had ownership of Grandma’s home and the land on which it sat.
Sharon was gaining the power and lifestyle she’s always craved.
The Plot Thickens
As the years passed, Maggie met a handsome young man named James. He was a pastor’s son. For Sharon, it was quite the match. As if their life were truly straight out of a Disney movie, the two were engaged to be wed not long after originally meeting. In fact, they were engaged just after three short months of dating. Knowing her power-seeking and need for control aunt, Cindy could tell something was up.
Cindy was tired of this feud. She didn’t want to be pitted against her cousin by her own wicked aunt’s doings. So, Cindy extended an olive branch and talked to Maggie about her upcoming wedding. Maggie, who was also tired of the feud and wanted an escape, revealed the truth behind Sharon’s actions and shared the elaborate plot that she had been scheming since Maggie got engaged.
Despite having a full time job and child support income from Maggie’s father, Sharon’s greed drove her to come up with a wicked scheme to pay for Maggie’s wedding while making sure they were still well off. Thus, Sharon was planning to take their Grandma off life support and would use the money from selling her estate and insurance to pay for a lavish wedding celebrating Maggie’s union to James.
Maggie also broke down saying he was fed up with schooling and was tired of living the life Sharon had created for her. Cindy was shocked! How could her Aunt do that to her own daughter? But Maggie wasn’t finished. She confided in Cindy that she did not want to marry James in the first place, hinting that there was something fishy about their engagement. Cindy went to her mother and told her what Maggie had said about taking their Grandma off life support. Her mom was livid. Her wicked sister would not be the cause of their own mother’s demise. Cindy’s mother called Maggie, and after expressing concerns and patching their relationship, they crafted the perfect revenge on Sharon together.
Revenge In Action
Sharon decided to host a very extravagant, over the top party to celebrate the engagement. She invited almost everyone to the party so that they could dote on the newly engaged couple that was the talk of the town. Cindy and her mother, however, went to visit their dying grandmother instead. Not that it made any difference to Sharon. She was on cloud nine all day, basking in the light of her daughter’s perfect life she has created and controlled since day one.
Sharon had organized the evening so that the parents of the engaged couple and the couple themselves could stand to tell everyone in the room how amazing their respective families were. James and his parents had already gushed their praises for Sharon, who was high on praises, wanting more and craving more of the affirmations that she had the most perfect life, the most perfect daughter, and the most perfect wedding. Then it was Maggie’s turn.
Maggie stood and gracefully thanked Sharon for raising her, thanked James’s parents for raising such a good son and then announced that the wedding was off. A multitude of gasps echoed throughout the room. Sharon’s face drained of color. For once, Sharon was speechless. Maggie took the opportunity to tell James that she did truly care for him, but could not marry him just because it was what their families expected from soon to be parents. Then she left. The room fell silent. No one could believe the Pastor’s son and Pageant Princess would have a child out of wedlock, nor that this fact had been hidden for so long. Now the quick engagement and pushiness of Sharon’s planning made sense.
Maggie exposing the truth of the matter humiliated Sharon on both a personal and financial level. She had already paid non-refundable deposits for a caterer, wedding reception hall, dress, limo, etc., and she was out of hundreds of dollars. Furthermore, Sharon and James’s parents were very against premarital intimacy, which made Maggie unexpected announcement even more appalling. Sharon, however, knew of the pregnancy and had planned to keep the pregnancy as hidden as possible with the dress she had selected, the floral arrangement, the angles in pictures, everything. The entire wedding would have been staged as if nothing was going on and Maggie was expected to remain complicit. Sharon had controlled every single aspect of Maggie’s life but she could not control this. Sharon blood was boiling. Maggie stood her ground on everything and also informed Sharon that she was dropping out of college as well, which would leave Sharon thousands of dollars in debt on student loans. This would be the scene where Sharon breaks into a vengeful song to talk about her plans and feelings while also raging at her daughter several times.
Maggie’s plans came to a screeching halt. She was livid. How could her perfect pageant princess daughter betray her in such a way?
Justice Is Served
The mother-daughter feud between Maggie and Sharon stretched for a good length of time until their Grandma unfortunately passed away. The family mourned, but Maggie showed up to the funeral looking very happy and very pregnant as she had been separated from Sharon’s cruelty. Sharon’s compulsiveness and need for control drove her over the edge. Seeing Maggie happy and making a life of her own without her in it was not what Sharon had planned. Despite nothing going her way, Sharon realized she had one leverage on the entire family and quickly developed another scheme.
After the funeral, the entire family had a reception at which Sharon called Cindy, her mother, Maggie, and other family members into a room together. Sharon smiled as she announced that she was going to sell Grandma’s estate and land, and would split up their Grandma’s life insurance policy money as she saw fit. It was the expected announcement from her and she phrased it as something their Grandma would have wanted.
But Sharon’s wicked schemes had no more power in this family. Cindy’s mother and Maggie challenged Sharon instantly. The two women announced that they were contesting her power as executor of the estate. As the facts came out that their Grandma’s diagnosis of dementia had been announced just days before Sharon secured her powerful position in the family, Cindy’s mother had consulted a lawyer to contest the decisions Sharon had made.
Cindy’s mother and Sharon ended up going to court and the matter was resolved less than a year later: Sharon’s position as executor of the estate was overruled due to their Grandma’s mental capacity at the time. This meant that, outside a life insurance policy Sharon had taken on their Grandma, she received no money directly. Maggie is paying on her student loans but Sharon is still paying off other debts from living beyond her means. Cindy’s mother agreed to let Maggie and her daughter move into their Grandma’s old house, and she and James are co-parenting.
So, in the end Maggie gained control of her life and narcissistic, entitled old Sharon got what was coming for her: epic karma.
