My Mother-in-Law Filled My Home with Cockroaches to Tarnish My Reputation as a Housekeeper – My Retaliation Was Severe

Elara thought marriage would be her happily ever after, until cockroaches invaded her home and her mother-in-law made her life a living nightmare. But when a dark secret blurred the line between victim and villain, Elara realized that revenge was the only way out.

I’m Elara, and I’ve been married to my husband, Jacob, for about a year now. Life, for the most part, has been good, really good, actually. We settled into married life with ease, enjoying the simple pleasures of being together.

Jacob is everything I could have asked for in a husband. He is kind, supportive, and always there when I need him. But, as with most things in life, there’s a catch.

That catch is my mother-in-law, Agnes.

From the very beginning, it was clear as day that she never liked me. Whether it was the way she looked at me or the not-so-subtle digs she made, her attitude was unmistakable. I’m not sure what I did to deserve her disdain, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that she saw me as an intruder in her son’s life.

Still, she’s Jacob’s mother, and for that reason alone, I’ve tried my best to live with it. To smile through her snide remarks and keep the peace, for Jacob’s sake. But no amount of forced smiles could prepare me for what came next.

Just when I thought I could handle her passive-aggressive digs, things took a turn for the worse.

For the past month, my house has felt like something out of a nightmare. No, scratch that. MY LIFE has felt like something out of a nightmare.

It started with a cockroach here and there. One scuttling across the kitchen counter. Another creeping along the bathroom floor.

But soon, they were everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE! The kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, hell, even our bedroom wasn’t safe. I’d wake up in the middle of the night feeling a tickle on my arm, only to flick on the light and see a roach making itself at home on my bed.

We called pest control multiple times. We bought traps, sprays, you name it. But no matter what we did, the roaches kept coming back, like they had some vendetta against me. And to top it all off, my mother-in-law just couldn’t resist rubbing it in.

“Honestly, Elara,” she’d say with that sickly sweet tone of hers, “you really should take better care of the house. Jacob deserves a clean home. How can you let it get this bad?”

It didn’t stop there. One afternoon, as she sipped tea in our living room, a roach had the nerve to crawl up the wall. Agnes’s eyes followed it with a look of exaggerated horror.

“My goodness, Elara,” she gasped, clutching her chest as if she were witnessing a crime. “I can’t imagine how embarrassed you must be, living in these conditions. I never had this problem when Jacob was growing up.”

Then there was the time she “helpfully” brought over a stack of cleaning supplies, dumping them on my kitchen counter with a too-bright smile. “I thought you could use these, dear,” she said, her voice oozing with false concern. “Maybe they’ll help you get a handle on things. I’d hate for people to think you can’t keep a clean house.”

Each comment was a jab, a twist of the knife, making me feel smaller and more inadequate every time. It was as if she reveled in my struggle, her words like salt in an already festering wound.

Every time she opened her mouth, it took everything in me not to scream. I’d nod, smile, and tell her I was doing my best, but inside, I was seething. This isn’t my fault, you old witch! I wanted to shout. But of course, I couldn’t do that. Not to Jacob’s mother.

But then, the universe threw me a bone. Or rather, Agnes made a mistake. She’d come over to “check on us” again, dropping her little barbs like confetti. As she left, she accidentally left her handbag on the couch. When I went to pick it up and move it, a receipt fluttered out. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but something caught my eye.

It was from a pet store. But not just any pet store—one that specialized in reptiles. And the item purchased? LIVE COCKROACHES!

My blood ran cold. For a moment, I just stood there, staring at that stupid piece of paper in my hand. And then, slowly, the realization hit me. Agnes was behind the infestation. She’d been sabotaging me, setting me up to look like the world’s worst housekeeper.

The anger that flared up inside me was blinding. I could feel it burning in my chest, my hands trembling with the force of it. But along with the anger came something else—something darker.

I wasn’t just going to confront her. No, that would be letting her off too easily. I was going to get revenge.

I stormed out of the house, receipt still clenched in my hand, and got into my car. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew I needed to strike back. Hard. As I drove, my thoughts raced, and then it hit me. I made a quick detour to that same pet store. If she wanted to play dirty, then I’d go nuclear.

Inside, I found exactly what I was looking for—a potent animal attractant. The kind hunters use to lure wild animals from miles away. The plan formed in my head like a beautiful, terrible flower, blooming with each passing second.

When I finally pulled up to Agnes’s house, night had fallen. She lived on the outskirts of town, right next to the woods, which made this perfect. I crept around her yard, spreading the attractant everywhere. The bushes, the flower beds, even the base of the house itself. I didn’t stop there.

I slipped inside — she always left the back door unlocked, trusting as ever — and sprinkled some inside too. The whole time, my heart raced with a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

By the time I finished, I was practically shaking with anticipation. I couldn’t wait to see what would happen. But for now, I went home, crawled into bed, and let sleep take me. And oh, how sweet that sleep was.

I dreamed of revenge, of Agnes’s horrified face, of the chaos I had unleashed, and I drifted deeper into that blissful darkness, savoring every second.

Then, just as I was reliving the final moments of my delicious payback, the shrill ring of the phone yanked me from my dream. I groggily reached for it, my heart pounding. It was Jacob, and from the frantic tone of his voice, I knew something big had happened.

“Elara, you won’t believe this,” he said, half laughing, half in shock. “Mom’s house was… attacked last night!”

I sat up in bed, trying to sound groggy. “Attacked? By who?”

“Not who—what. Animals. The whole yard was swarmed! Deer, moose, foxes, even birds! They trashed everything! They tore up the garden and broke the fences. And the smell… God, the whole place reeks. It’s like the animals turned the yard into their personal toilet.”

It took everything in me to keep from bursting out laughing. “That’s awful! What’s she going to do?”

“She’s coming to stay with us until it’s cleaned up. She doesn’t have a choice.”

I felt my stomach drop. Great, I didn’t think this through. But I couldn’t let him hear the panic in my voice. “Oh, okay. We’ll make it work.”

When Agnes arrived later that day, the look on her face was priceless. She was humiliated, furious, and worst of all, powerless. She barely acknowledged me as she walked inside, nose wrinkling at the sight of the cockroaches that still plagued our house.

“Oh, don’t mind them,” I said sweetly. “They just won’t go away, no matter what we do.”

I waited until later that night, after Jacob and I were alone, to show him the receipt. He stared at it, his face hardening as the truth sank in.

“She did WHAT?” he exclaimed, disbelief giving way to anger.

“Apparently, she’s been planting roaches in the house this whole time. I found this after she left yesterday,” I said, handing him the damning piece of paper.

Jacob stormed into the guest room, confronting Agnes right then and there. She tried to deny it, but the receipt was undeniable. She stammered out an apology, her face going red with shame.

“I didn’t think it would go this far,” she mumbled, eyes glued to the floor.

“Well, it did,” Jacob snapped. “And you’re paying for the pest control and all the damage you caused. Until it’s done, you’ll have to live among the cockroaches YOU brought into our lives.”

As I listened to their exchange, a smile tugged at the corners of my lips. Sure, I hadn’t planned on Agnes moving in, but at least now she was getting what she deserved.

Lying in bed that night, I felt a deep, dark satisfaction settle over me. Revenge might not always be sweet, but sometimes, it’s just what you need to get by. And as for Agnes? Well, let’s just say she’ll be sleeping with the roaches tonight.

And for many nights to come.

The real reason Jennifer Love Hewitt vanished from Hollywood

As one of Hollywood’s hottest young stars of the 1990s, Jennifer Love Hewitt was poised to become a celebrated actor with respectable adult performances for decades to come.

But in 2015, the star of the hit TV show Ghost Whisperer, the “it girl” who tabloids loved, ghosted Hollywood, leaving fans speculating on the reason behind her disappearance.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Jennifer Love Hewitt was one of the biggest teen stars of the nineties. I mean, who didn’t fall for Jennifer Love’s Hewitt?

According to me, she possessed the most captivating smile, and there was something truly heartwarming and genuine about her presence.

After appearing in several TV commercials, Hewitt, now 44, had her big break when she was only 10 with the Disney Channel’s Kids Incorporated (1989 to 1991).

The show, about young people who perform in a rock band, served as a launching pad for many celebrities, like Fergie of the Grammy-winning band Black Eyed Peas, Mario Lopez, of Saved by the Bell and Access Hollywood, And Eric Balfour who had starring roles in 24 and Haven.

Of course, also Hewitt, who was later cast as a regular on the popular TV drama Party of Five, where she starred with an ensemble cast of Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell, and Lacy Chabert.

When Party of Five ended after six seasons in 1999, Hewitt then went on to star in touchstone films of the 1990s like the teen horror franchise I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997 and 1998) and the teen drama Can’t Hardly Wait (1998). 

Jennifer Love Hewitt attends “The Greatest Show on Earth” 125th Edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Opening Night Performance to Benefit Variety – The Children’s Charity on April 27, 1995 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

In 2001, Hewitt starred as the daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s character in the film Heartbreakers, an appearance that Roger Ebert critiqued in his review as Hewitt spending “the entire film with her treasures on display, maybe as product placement for the Wonderbra.”

Hewitt, who’s had a turbulent relationship with the media since she started filling out as a woman, said in a 2018 interview with LA Times, “It wasn’t actually until later, in the time when I took the step back, that I went “ugh.” It’s the worst–that’s not what I want to be remembered for.” She continued, “I don’t want my kid to Google me one day and see ‘She looks terrible’ or ‘She has big boobs and she’s hot.’ I don’t want that to be who I am.”

In 2002, she co-starred with Jackie Chan in the spy parody Tuxedo, where she was mostly covered up, oftentimes wearing the superpower-holding tuxedo.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ross McCall at the World premiere of ‘The Break-Up’ / Shutterstock

Returning to TV in 2005, she played Melinda Gordon, a woman who communicates with the dead, in Ghost Whisperer.

Though the show failed to earn the respect of critics, it still had a loyal following. Hewitt said she was crushed when Ghost Whisperer was abruptly canceled in 2010, leaving viewers hanging.

“For me, it was a total shock… I thought our next season probably would be the last, just because the show had been on for a really long time,” she said. “It’s hard to come up with new things that will keep people intrigued, but I never thought in a million years that was going to have been our last season.”

In 2012, Hewitt earned her first Golden Globe nomination for her starring role in the Client List, where she plays a single mother, who makes a living as an erotic masseuse to support her children.

Wikipedia Commons / lukeford.net

While filming Client List, Hewitt, also a singer, met her first and only husband, Brian Hallisay, who in the show plays the deadbeat dad to her on-screen children.

In real life, Hallisay is a great husband and father of three. The two married in 2013 and had their first daughter, Autumn, days after they wed. The pair then had Atticus in 2015, and Aiden in 2021.

Having worked tirelessly since she was a child, Hewitt slipped away from the spotlight in 2015, explaining that she needed time to be a wife and mother.

“There was a lot going on in my own life that just felt like I needed some space and some time to kind of be. I’ve really enjoyed the break, and I feel like now, the last few months, having gone back into acting, it’s really done a beautiful thing for me in that it’s made everything that I do in my acting/entertainment life not less important but less like, ‘It’s everything all the time,’ like it used to be.”

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In her time away, Hewitt was also trying to heal from the death of her mother, who was 67 when she died of cancer in 2012, a loss she says still “feels very raw.”

During this challenging period in her life, Jennifer made the decision to leave Twitter as well. For some reason, she faced a great deal of hate on the platform.

Being pregnant, she couldn’t handle all the negativity and hostility, so she chose to step away from Twitter, which caused quite a stir.

”Unfortunately with all the negativity people choose to send on twitter as well as threats to their own well being I’m sad to say Twitter is no longer for me,” Jennifer wrote in 2013.

Jennifer Love Hewitt is seen on October 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by SMXRF/Star Max/FilmMagic)

Since starting her career in 1989, Jennifer Love Hewitt has embarked on an incredible transformation journey, both physically and emotionally.

Unfortunately, she has also experienced the downsides of Hollywood, celebrity status, and objectification by tabloids. Some online media outlets went too far and made some really derogatory and harsh comments when bikini photos of Jennifer were leaked, highlighting her weight gain. Some of these outlets commented on her bikini pictures, saying things like “I know what you ate last summer.”

Jennifer could handle the tough comments, but she worried about how the pictures and headlines were impacting other girls struggling with their body image.

Jennifer Love Hewitt arrives at the FOX Summer TCA 2019 All-Star Party at Fox Studios on August 7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)

In a powerful response, she directed a message to all the ”girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist” and instructed them to “put on a bikini, put it on, and stay strong”.

The Ghost Whisperer star encouraged them to proudly wear a bikini, stay strong, and embrace themselves as they are. Jennifer has gone through several weight journeys, sought the help of personal trainers, and strives to live a healthy lifestyle.

Today, she “never looks at the scale” and she doesn’t count calories. The 90’s star looks healthier than ever and remains active on social media and regularly shares updates about herself on her Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Kenneth Choi in the Breaking Point episode in 2020 / Getty Images

In 2020, following a three-year hiatus, Hewitt returned to work with “renewed energy and vigor,” appearing in the TV series 9-1-1, that follows the lives of first responders.

Starring as Maddie Buckley, a former nurse turned 911 operator, the show–now in its eighth season–gave Hewitt a platform to develop her profile, from one where she was earlier typecast as a symbol, to a mature, seasoned actor.

jenniferlovehewitt/Instagram

“I also feel like I have new things to pull from as an actress that I didn’t have before. I think it’s so odd as actors that we, especially kid actors, which I was, we’re expected to pull from all these life experiences that so many of us haven’t had,” Hewitt told the LA Times. “I feel like I acted for a lot of years from my heart, but not really, truly understanding some of the things that I understand now.”

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 25 years since we fell in love with Jennifer Love Hewitt’s infectious smile on Party of Five!

As the mother of three, it’s great she’s found the balance between work and family life, and we look forward to seeing her in even more mature roles in the future!

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