Chapter 3
My phone buzzed.
It was a text from an unknown number.
The text read: [Sophia, it's Eric. Don't push me. If you blow things up, it's not going to end well for you. You're a woman, if you get divorced, people will gossip and your reputation will take a hit.]
It was a threat.
He was threatening me now.
I stared at the message and suddenly found the whole thing incredibly sad.
This was the man I'd loved for five years and married for two.
I replied with four words.
I replied: [See you in court.]
Then I blocked his number.
I stood up and walked into the bedroom.
The room was empty, too, only the bed remained.
I lay on the bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
I didn't sleep a wink that night.
The next day, I went to work as usual.
As soon as I got downstairs, I spotted a familiar car.
It was Eric's car.
He was leaning against the door, looking exhausted with dark circles under his eyes. As soon as he saw me, he came running over. "Sophia."
Eric grabbed my arm. "Let's talk, Sophia."
I yanked my arm free, glaring at him. "There's nothing to talk about."
"Do you really have to be this ruthless?" Eric's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a trapped beast.
Just then, another car pulled up beside us.
The doors opened, and Richard and Emily got out, along with a pale woman in a wheelchair, wiping away tears.
It was my mother-in-law, Margaret White.
The whole family had shown up.
They were about to stage a full-blown family soap opera right outside my office.
*****
Margaret was sitting in a wheelchair, with Emily pushing her.
She was dressed in old, faded clothes, her hair neatly combed, but her face was sallow, her lips cracked, and tears streamed down her cheeks like beads from a broken string.
Anyone who saw her would feel sorry for her.
Eric rushed over, worry written all over his face. "Mom, why are you here? It's windy out."
Margaret didn't even glance at him. She fixed me with a tearful stare. "Sophia..."
Her voice was hoarse and weak, like she could stop breathing any second. "Sophia, I know you're angry.
"Eric was wrong, he wasn't thinking straight, and he didn't even talk it through with you.
"But everything he did, he did for an old woman like me."
As she spoke, Margaret started coughing violently, clutching her chest and struggling to catch her breath.
Emily hurried over, patting Margaret's back and glaring at me the whole time. "Sophia. Look what you did to Mom. She has a heart condition, she can't take this kind of stress. Didn't you know?"
Richard's face was grim, his voice cold, like he was judging me. "Sophia, look at your mother-in-law, she's like this. What else do you want from us?
"We're family. Why do you have to bring all this drama to your workplace and let everyone watch us make fools of ourselves?"
The four of them closed in around me, boxing me in.
One played the bad cop, the other the good cop.
One played the victim, the other piled on the pressure.
They were in perfect sync.
People in passing cars and pedestrians started pointing fingers and whispering, all gossiping about us.
The security guard at the company entrance noticed the commotion too.
I took them all in.
Eric's face was a picture of the right amount of worry and guilt.
Emily looked smug, like she thought she had every right to be there.
Richard's expression was all impatient and controlling.
Finally, I looked at Margaret.
She was still crying silently, and those wordless tears cut deeper than anything.
She was always like that.
Every time Eric and I argued, as soon as she started crying, he'd instantly switch sides and start blaming me for being selfish and not considerate of her condition.
In the past, I'd always cave and give in.
But today, as I looked at her tear-streaked face, I felt nothing at all.
Honestly, it was almost comical to me.
"Mom." My voice wasn't loud, but it was clear.
"Are you an actress or something?" I asked.
Margaret's sobs caught in her throat, frozen mid-cry.
She stared at me blankly, as if she didn't understand what I'd said.
Eric was the first to react, snapping angrily, "Sophia. How could you talk to my mom like that?"
"Am I wrong?" I turned to him, my eyes cold as ice. "Your whole family shows up at my office first thing in the morning, staging this pity party, to pressure me into giving in, right?
"You use your mom's illness, your so-called devotion, your dad's authority, and your sister's twisted logic to try and guilt-trip me.
"Eric, aren't you all exhausted by this?"
My voice wasn't loud, but every word landed like a nail, hammering straight into their hearts.
The crowd of onlookers kept growing, all eager to watch the drama unfold.
I didn't care at all.
"Since you all love airing our dirty laundry in public, let's lay everything out in the open," I said.
I turned to Richard. "Dad, you call caregiving a daughter-in-law's duty. But five years ago, when my mom was hospitalized and I wanted to quit, who said, 'A woman needs her career. Just hire elder care'?"
Richard's face turned beet red.
Then I turned to Emily. "You call me heartless? For five years, Mom's caregiver cost 2,000 dollars a month. Did you pay a dollar? Besides free weekend meals and Instagram posts, did you ever help?"
Emily's face flushed, then went pale, her lips quivering, she was totally speechless.
Finally, my gaze landed on Eric. "And you, Eric.
"You're always going on about how it's all for your mom, all for this family.
"Tell me, do you even know when your mom had her last physical? Do you know what blood pressure meds she takes? Or that she's allergic to penicillin?
"You have no clue.
"All you ever do is dump everything on me.
"Because I'm your wife, I'm supposed to sacrifice everything, give up my own life, so you all can look good and pretend to be the perfect, dutiful family?
"Why should I?"
My rapid-fire questions cut through their act like a knife, ripping off every mask of hypocrisy and stripping away all their pretenses.
They were stunned into silence, their faces falling one after another, each more embarrassed and awkward than the last.
Margaret, who'd been silent all this time, suddenly clutched her chest, let out a loud cry, and collapsed out of her wheelchair. "Oh, my heart..."
Eric and Emily scrambled in panic, frantically rushing over to help her.
"Mom. Mom, what's wrong?" Eric cried out.
"Call an ambulance." Emily screamed.
Richard jabbed a finger at me, his hand shaking with fury. "You... you heartless witch. If anything happens to your mother-in-law, I swear I'll make you pay."