Chapter 3

"Percy, are you insane? Why did you smash my phone?"

I didn't even get to finish.

He walked his mother to the couch, then turned on me, resentment thick in his voice.

"Eleanor, my mom just posted one video. Do you have to push her until she can't take it anymore?"

"Have you even watched it? That whole video is me—"

"So it's you, so what? Nobody cares. All anyone cares about is that Baby Noah was born. Nobody's paying attention to whether you were in frame or not."

His tone was flat with impatience. He pointed at his mother. "Apologize, Eleanor. Don't make me say it a third time."

I looked at this man I'd loved for five years, and a cold sadness rose up in me.

"Percy, I never knew you could be this blind."

"In that video, Baby Noah shows up for one second. Everything else is me getting my milk started and nursing him."

From the couch, my mother-in-law cut in. "So I filmed you, so what? You married into the Lambert family. I can't even film you now?"

I stared at her face, so full of spite. "No. That's my body. You violated my privacy."

She glared back, offended. "Ugh! Aren't you precious. Son, I think I'll just go back home. She's never going to think I'm good enough."

Percy grabbed my wrist and dragged me forward, gripping hard.

"Let go. You're hurting me."

His grip was strong, wrenching at my incision until it burned.

"Percy, let go of me. Your mother secretly filmed me and put it online. That's against the law. You should be making her delete the video and apologize to me, not swallowing her lies and turning on me. I just gave birth—"

Percy flung me off. I stumbled and dropped to my knees on the floor.

The wound, yanked hard, began to seep blood, thread by thread.

The pain tore a cry out of me.

My mother-in-law glanced at me. "Son, what are you doing? Now she's going to pin some new crime on me."

Percy stepped on my hand and gave the order. "Eleanor, you apologize to my mother, properly, and this whole thing ends here."

I pulled my hand back from the wound and shoved hard at his foot.

"Percy, she's the one in the wrong. Why should I be the one apologizing?"

He looked at me, past the edge of his patience. "Mom just snapped a quick video. There was no malice in it. Do you have to blow it up into some huge thing?"

"First you call her a thief, now you say you'll take it all the way."

"Are you seriously going to call the police and have her arrested?"

My mother-in-law grabbed Percy's arm, playing terrified. "Son, she actually wants me arrested. I really don't dare stay here. Hurry up and take me home."

I held back the pain. "As long as she won't delete the video, calling the police to have her arrested isn't off the table."

My mother-in-law clapped a hand over her mouth in fear. "Son, did I hear that right? She actually wants to send me to prison."

Percy looked at me, exasperated. "Eleanor, my mom meant no harm. She just took a quick video, that's all."

"We're family. Do you really have to do this?"

The familiar line made me let out a cold laugh.

"Whether she meant harm or not, she knows perfectly well. And so do you."