Chapter 1

My name is Stephanie Plum, soon to be Manoso. My fiancée and I have been dating for close to a year, but I known him for five years. He was married when we first met to a woman named Rachael, they were more roommates with benefits than an actual married couple. To hear Carlos tell the story Rachael was starting to realize he was getting close to cutting the cord on the marriage and started forgetting to take her pills. Next thing he knows she is announcing that she is pregnant. Rachael is the most self centered, selfish person to ever walk the face of the earth. If one person should not be a mother it would be this woman. About six months after Julie was born Carlos and I went out to dinner and he confided in me that he had hoped Julie would change their relationship and help Racheal to grow up, but it didn't and he was leaving her. He wanted not only a better life for himself but he knew deep down in his heart that Julie deserved better than what would happen if they stayed together just for her sake. He told me that same night the he loved me and had loved me for five years, and once everything had settled down he hoped I would give him a chance to date me.

To be honest in the five years I had known Carlos he had always come across as a pompous jackass, but Julie really seemed to soften him around his edges. I wasn't completely opposed to the idea, but he need to get his ducks in order first. I would not be someones mistress.

In the months to follow Carlos officially filed for divorce and custody of Julie. Momma Manoso was not happy about this situation at all. She thought their problems could easily be fixed and even went to the point of asking if the only reason he was leaving Rachael was because I was pregnant. As much as Carlos tried explaining their problems they kept falling on deaf ears. Rachael went to Momma Manoso and said that she believed a lot of their problems stemmed from working and not being able to keep the house clean so Momma Manoso went and spent two solid days cleaning their house and doing laundry trying to get Carlos to move back in.

After the divorce was finalized Carlos asked me to marry him. His Dad, Manuel, was thrilled saying he never really cared for Rachael and felt that I would be able to give him the family life he deserved. Momma Manoso, or Maria as I call her because I can't bring myself to call her Momma Manoso said "Well we figured it was coming, lets hope this one last longer".

This brings us to present day. I am rushing home from work to the house that Carlos and I bought together. We have three months before the wedding and just moved everything into the house over the weekend. Carlos calls me at work and tells me his parents are bringing Julie home and that they would be staying for dinner. I had a mild panic attack over the phone but said that would be fine (I would explain to him the whole thing about giving notice when guest are coming to the house later). I got off work and went straight home to cook dinner and even baked a cake for dessert.

Dinner went off without a hitch. I was so happy to see Julie and she had started calling me Stephie since Stephanie is a mouth full for a one year old. Maria had sent a suitcase home with Julie that has some clothing in it, and as I got to the bottom of the suitcase I found little meals for children. I yelled at Carlos to come here for a minute and asked him if he had sent these to his parents before we started moving and he said no, but he would call his Mom and see what was going on.

"Momma, why did you sent food in Julie's suitcase?" I heard Carlos ask.

"Momma I assure you that went Stephanie went grocery shopping she bought food for Julie, you do not need to send food. She is not going to let your granddaughter starve." He paused for a second, "Yes I understand you think you were trying to be helpful but it's very insulting and you really should apologize to Stephanie next time you talk to her."

Finally I saw Carlos just hang up his phone, never said goodbye or anything else.

I came up behind Carlos and put my arms around his waist and laid my head on his muscular back and started feeling the tension release from his body.

"You wanna talk about that one?" I asked.

"Not really, Momma is crazy. She didn't think you'd buy food for Julie since you had never been a mother so she wanted to make sure Julie had food here." He said.

"SHE WHAT?!" I screamed.

I was beyond words at that point. I started doing my imitation of a fish not even really being able to form full words let alone sentences in my head. How was I going to be a part of his family when my soon to be mother in law doesn't even think that I will feed her granddaughter?

***Not many stories have Carlos' mom as being mean. What do you think? This is actually based on a true story that happened when my husband and I first got married **