The problem started about six months after our honeymoon. We’d been trying to get pregnant, and when it didn’t happen right away, Jason started making comments—little things at first. He’d ask if I was tracking my cycle correctly, suggesting I needed to eat healthier, exercise more. When I got my period each month, I’d see…
For what? So they could raise a boy who thought hitting his grandma was a joke? No. Not anymore. I scrolled to the “Cancel Recurring Payment” button and hovered over it for a moment. My heart pounded in my ears. I could almost hear Frank’s voice, calm and steady, like it used to sound when…
I did it because I believed in education and because I wanted Ethan to have the best. I wanted him to grow up kind, humble, and smart—not spoiled and cruel. But as I opened my online banking that night and saw that tuition draft sitting there, ready for next month’s payment, something in me shifted….
I took a deep breath and reached for my laptop. I wasn’t looking for comfort or distraction. No, I knew exactly what I was about to do. You see, for the past three years, I’d been quietly paying for Ethan’s private school. Every month, without fail, I transferred the money from the savings account my…
My eyes stung, but not from tears—from the ache of realizing how much had changed. I thought about Michael, my only son. I raised him on my own after his father passed. I worked two jobs, missed meals, saved every dime so he could have the life I never did. And now, here I was,…
That night, after everyone went to bed, I sat in my little room at the end of the hall. The moonlight came through the blinds, landing right on a framed photo of baby Ethan the day he was born. I remember holding him in that picture, his tiny fingers gripping my necklace, my heart bursting…
He went out with his father to look at some land,” Rosalyn replied, settling back onto the sofa. “They’ll be back for lunch. By the way, Laura, it’s almost eleven. You should start preparing something. You know my son doesn’t like to eat late.” Laura nodded silently and began pulling pots out of the cabinet…
“Let someone else clean it,” I said firmly. “Come here now.” Rosalyn laughed in my face. “Oh, Alice, don’t be so dramatic. Laura is just helping with the chores. We’re family, right? Families help each other out.” I looked around the living room. Robert’s two sisters were sprawled on the couch watching television, their feet…
“It’s my property,” I said calmly, though I was boiling inside. “I can come whenever I want.” She smiled, a cruel, knowing smile. “Of course,” she said, walking towards me. “Though technically it now belongs to your daughter and my son, doesn’t it? They’re married. What belongs to one belongs to the other.” I felt…
I never imagined that six months later she would meet Robert, that he would be so charming at first, so different from her ex-husband. I never imagined they would marry just four months after meeting. And I certainly never imagined he would bring along this family that had now turned my daughter’s refuge into their…