Chapter 2: The Night Everything Changed
"Let her go."
My voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
The words sliced through the kitchen like a blade.
My mother's fingers froze in Anna's hair.
For the first time in months, I saw genuine surprise flicker across her face.
She slowly turned toward me, her expression shifting into practiced innocence.
"Oh, sweetheart," she said softly. "She insisted on helping with the dishes. I merely—"
"Stop."
I took another step forward.
Anna looked at me with swollen eyes, silently begging me not to make things worse.
That broke me even more than seeing her cry.
I walked straight to her, gently pulled my mother's hand away from her hair, and wrapped my arm around my wife's trembling shoulders.
Her body was freezing.
Not just cold.
Freezing.
Her hands were almost blue.
"What happened?" I whispered.
Anna hesitated.
My mother answered for her.
"She's exaggerating. Pregnancy has made her emotional."
I looked into Anna's eyes.
"Tell me."
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"She... she wakes me every night."
The room became impossibly quiet.
"She says pregnant women shouldn't sleep too much."
Another tear fell.
"She makes me clean the kitchen... wash clothes by hand... scrub the floors..."
Every sentence felt like another punch to my chest.
"I didn't tell you because..." she sobbed. "...because she promised she'd leave if I said anything. I knew you'd never forgive yourself."
I slowly turned toward my mother.
"You've been abusing my wife."
She folded her arms.
"I've been teaching her how to be a proper wife."
"You call this teaching?"
"I call it discipline."
She didn't even try to deny it.
Instead, she smiled.
"The girl is weak. She cries over a little cold water."
Anna suddenly gasped.
Her knees buckled.
A sharp pain twisted across her face as both hands flew to her stomach.
"D-Daniel..."
Then water rushed onto the kitchen floor beneath her feet.
My heart stopped.
"My water..."
May you like
She collapsed into my arms.
The baby was coming.
