PART 2: The Night Everything Changed
My mother released Anna's hair the second she saw me.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The kitchen clock ticked loudly in the silence.
Anna stood trembling beside the sink, one hand on her swollen belly and the other gripping the counter for support.
My mother tried to smile.
"You're awake," she said casually. "Your wife insisted on helping with the dishes."
I looked at the red marks on Anna's scalp.
I looked at the broken plate on the floor.
Then I looked directly at my mother.
"No," I said quietly. "You're done."
The smile disappeared from her face.
"What did you just say to me?"
I walked past her and wrapped a blanket around Anna's shoulders.
Her body was ice cold.
She immediately started crying.
Not loud sobs.
The exhausted tears of someone who had been carrying pain alone for too long.
My mother folded her arms.
"She's manipulating you again."
That sentence snapped something inside me.
"For months you've bullied my wife."
My mother's eyes widened.
"For months?" she repeated. "After everything I've done for you?"
Anna lowered her head.
She still didn't want trouble.
Even now.
Especially now.
But I had finally seen enough.
"No more excuses," I said.
Then I turned to Anna.
"Tell me everything."
She hesitated.
My mother glared at her.
And that was when Anna finally broke.
She told me about the insults.
The criticism.
The food my mother secretly threw away because Anna was "getting too fat."
The doctor's appointments my mother mocked.
The times she woke Anna in the middle of the night to clean.
The threats.
The humiliation.
The constant reminder that she would never be good enough.
Every word felt like a knife.
Because while it happened, I had been blind.
When Anna finished speaking, tears streamed down her face.
My mother scoffed.
"She's exaggerating."
"No," I said. "She's not."
Then I did something that made the entire house fall silent.
I picked up my mother's suitcase from the hall closet.
And placed it by the front door.
My mother's face turned white.
"What are you doing?"
"You need to leave."
For the first time in my life, my mother looked afraid.
"You would throw your own mother out?"
"You tried to hurt my wife."
"She's turning you against me!"
"No," I replied. "Your actions did that."
The argument woke my father.
He came downstairs confused and exhausted.
When he saw Anna crying and heard what had happened, he didn't defend my mother.
Instead, he lowered his head.
As if he had known more than he admitted.
An hour later, my mother left the house furious.
She pointed at Anna before stepping outside.
"This isn't over."
Then she slammed the door.
But for the first time in months, Anna could breathe.
I thought the nightmare was finished.
I was wrong.
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Because the next morning, Anna went into labor.
And my mother's revenge was already beginning.
