Chapter 2
At seven that evening.
My phone rang.
It was Eric.
I picked up the phone but stayed silent.
On the other end came his furious voice. "Sophia. What the hell is this? Why did you change the locks?"
I listened to Eric's angry questions, keeping my tone calm. "Eric."
"Don't you love making decisions for me?
"Then this time, I'll make one for myself.
"Let's get a divorce."
There was a dead silence on the other end.
It was a silence so heavy, it felt like the world had stopped.
After about half a minute, Eric's voice finally came back, incredulous and almost mocking. "Divorce? Sophia, have you lost your mind?
"Over something this small?
"Who do you think I asked you to quit for? It was for my mom, for our family."
His voice got louder, sounding hurt and misunderstood.
"How many times have I told you? My mom isn't well, and that caregiver doesn't care. If you come back and take care of her yourself, we can relax. You're a daughter-in-law in the White family, so isn't looking after your mother-in-law what."
"Is that supposed to be my duty?" I repeated his words, feeling a blaze of fury rising inside me.
"Eric, I married you, I didn't sell myself to you.
"My job, my life, those are mine to control.
"You forged my signature and forced me to quit. And you think that's your right too?"
"I... I really had no other option," Eric stammered. "If I'd talked it over with you, you definitely wouldn't have agreed. I only did it to keep the peace at home, so I had to take matters into my own hands."
"For the sake of family harmony?" I let out a cold, mocking laugh.
"So your so-called family harmony means throwing away my career and my life, all to cater to your dad and your sister's selfishness, right?"
"How can you say that about my dad and my sister?" Eric snapped, as if I'd hit a nerve. "They're trying to do what's best for my mom."
"They're looking out for themselves.
"Your dad fired the caregiver to save a few bucks.
"Your sister doesn't have to take time off work, so it's no skin off her nose.
"And you get to look like the perfect, dutiful son.
"The three of you get to walk away happy, while I'm the one you put on the chopping block, to be carved up whenever you feel like it."
"Sophia. Why do you have to be so cruel with your words?" Eric's voice shot up, his anger and embarrassment tangled together.
"I'm telling it like it is."
"Open the door right now. We need to talk face to face."
"There's nothing left to say," I replied, my voice flat. "This house belongs to me. I don't want you here."
"Yours? Sophia, we're married. Do you even know what marital property means?"
"I know exactly what it means," I answered coolly. "That's why I've already had a lawyer freeze all our marital assets. As for this house, the deed is in my name alone. It's my pre-marital property. Legally, it has nothing to do with you."
The line went dead silent again.
This time, I could hear his harsh, uneven breathing through the phone.
He probably never thought I'd actually go this far. Not me, the one who always played nice.
"You... you froze the assets?" His voice trembled.
"Yeah."
"You're really going through with this?"
"Eric, the second you forged my signature, that was the end for us."
"You started this, so I'm finishing it. That's only fair."
With that, I hung up.
My phone started ringing again right away.
I didn't answer.
Then came a flood of WhatsApp messages.
Eric, Richard, and Emily, all of them blowing up my phone.
I opened the "One Big Happy Family" group chat.
Eric was tagging me.
Eric: [Sophia, open the door.]
Eric: [What the hell are you trying to do?]
Eric: [Can you stop with the drama already?]
Richard sent a harsh voice message, "Sophia, what attitude is this? Do you have any respect for your elders? Eric resigned on your behalf for your own good, so you could fulfill your role as a daughter-in-law, and now you're making a scene?"
Emily jumped in too.
Emily: [Come on, Sophia, that's not cool. Eric's worried about Mom, don't you have any sympathy at all? Do you even know how tough it was for Mom to raise him? Now that she needs you, you're going to turn your back?]
Emily: [Why are you so hung up on your career? A woman's real job is to support her husband and raise the kids.]
I stared at their messages, watching them twist the truth and act like they were completely in the right.
Looking back, these past five years felt like nothing but a complete farce.
Everything I had sacrificed for this family meant less to them than those words: a dutiful daughter-in-law.
I didn't reply.
Without a word, I took a screenshot.
Then, I left the group chat.
I blocked each of them, one after another.
And like that, the world went quiet.
I leaned against the cold wall, staring at the empty room.
There were no tears.
Only a hollow emptiness remained after the release.
I always thought marriage was supposed to be about teamwork, about having each other's back.
I believed Eric loved me, he couldn't stand up to his family sometimes.
I kept making excuses for him.
I kept backing down for him.
But today, I finally saw the truth.
He wasn't weak.
He simply never had my back.
To him, Eric, his dad, his mom, and his sister were the real family.
And me, Sophia? I was always an outsider.
Another outsider he could sacrifice for his family's benefit, whenever they needed it.