gift<\/em>, and now you want it back because I made it valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut she wasn\u2019t bluffing. She actually called the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the officers arrived, she waved the title in their faces. \u201cSee? Proof! It\u2019s mine!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officers turned to me. \u201cMa\u2019am, do you have any documentation proving this was given to you as a gift?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My heart sank\u2014I didn\u2019t. All I had were months of receipts, bills for the parts, and photos of the restoration process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when I handed those over, one officer raised his brow. \u201cYou invested thousands of dollars and months of labor into restoring this. That means the car has increased value<\/em> because of your work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe second officer turned to my MIL. \u201cIf you truly wanted it back, you\u2019d have to reimburse her for every cent\u2014and then some. Do you have $15,000\u2013$20,000 on hand?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her smug expression faltered. \u201cW-what? No! I\u2019m not paying her. That car is MINE!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer shook his head. \u201cThen I suggest you settle this in civil court. For now, the car stays where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stormed out, red-faced and shrieking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That night, my husband came home, his phone buzzing nonstop with angry messages from his mother. He sighed, rubbing his temples. \u201cI can\u2019t believe she did this. What are you going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I smirked. \u201cI\u2019m going to do what any mechanic would do\u2014I\u2019m going to drive<\/em> it. And every time she sees me behind the wheel, she\u2019ll be reminded that the car she mocked me with is now my greatest triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnd that\u2019s exactly what I did. Every Sunday, I made sure to cruise right past her house, the engine purring like a dream, the polished paint glistening in the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her face in the window was priceless\u2014pure rage and regret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the moment I could walk, I was obsessed with cars. My dad, a semi-professional racecar driver, nurtured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1722,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions\/1722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}