SIL is actually evil…
TL,DR: SIL stole my stuff, got mad I (kind of) asked for back.
Really I just need to vent because I’ve cried about this to my husband too long now and I feel bad for him.
First of all, I am quite obsessed with owls. I have amassed quite a collection over the past 20 years. Ceramic, glass, knick knacks, stuffies, you name it if it was an owl I had to have it. In my kitchen, I had a pretty sizable shelf where I kept the ones that were of particular significance. My great grandmother also collected them, so some from her, owls given to me by friends (esp. friends who have passed, etc.), basically the ones that were dear to my heart.
So, August 2024, very active in my addiction, I get arrested for some very dumb things I did and end up serving 8 months in county jail. In March 2025 (still in jail) we end up losing our home. My husband, packs up my shelf and asks his mother to store them until we are in a better situation and I can get them back.
Fast forward to Monday, my husband and I agree to help MIL move some things from the home she shares with SIL into her storage unit. When asked about my boxes, she’s already acting shifty, “oh they are in the back, we’ll find them later…” Later into the day, about the 3rd trip into moving, SIL barges up to me and yells, “oh so you’re just taking back all of the owls!” MIL immediately gives her a death glare and the finger to the mouth shhh. MIL had hidden MY things that she gave SIL so I wouldn’t see them at her house. I said, “well no, I didn’t know you had my stuff but if you do, then yes. I’d like them back!” SIL storms off in a huff. She confronts me later in the front yard yelling about how she was given my items as payment for helping clean out our house when we lost it and how I’m stealing from her, yadda, yadda. I told her, through my tears, it was never MIL stuffs to give away in the first place an actually they are the thieves, but she can just keep it all and I don’t want anything else to do with either of them.
It just hurts really bad that she honestly thinks she’s in the right to keep my stuff. Something that doesn’t even mean anything to her but something cute to put on a shelf and actually had sentimental value to me. I’m getting over it, in the end it’s just stuff. I have 21 months sober and I’m cutting out these toxic ppl.