Chapter 1

1: 1

My sister-in-law was the most fragile-hearted person alive.

After I got pregnant, my breathing got heavy, and one day I let out a tired sigh on the couch.

Instantly her fingers twisted together and the tears came.

"Maria Sullivan, is there something about me you can't stand? Why are you sighing at me? Is my just being alive getting in your way?"

Once, I casually took out the trash she'd left sitting by the bedroom door.

She climbed straight up onto the rooftop.

"You look down on me because I don't have a job, because I don't earn money, so you threw out my trash to make a point. If you want me gone, just say it!"

The whole family walked on eggshells to protect that fragile heart of hers, and forced me, a pregnant woman, to smile and grovel to her every single day.

Until the day my water broke, and I was crawling across the floor in agony, reaching for my phone to call for help.

She decided I was implying she hadn't mopped the floor clean enough, broke down, and smashed my phone.

"The first time in my life I try to learn how to mop, and you have to go and wet yourself on the floor just to humiliate me! You're trying to drive me to my death, aren't you!"

I hemorrhaged and died with my baby still inside me, and there she was, fainting into tears in front of the whole family.

"I was just too sensitive, too scared, I didn't mean it..."

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she made her big scene up on the rooftop.

My mother-in-law was down on her knees beside her, frantic.

I didn't spare either of them a glance. I packed my bags and went straight back to my parents' place.

Whoever wants to suffer this can suffer it. I'm done playing along.

...

"Maria, where are you off to with a suitcase and a belly like that?"

A few of the older women I saw every day around the complex were sitting on the bench, and one of them asked as I came down.

I didn't slow down. I answered without thinking.

"My parents' place."

For a second the noisy air went quiet.

One of them, the one close with my mother-in-law, couldn't hold back. She got up and walked briskly over to me.

"Why would you go back to your parents' out of nowhere? Did you have some kind of fight at home?"

From the doorway of the building came a small, pitiful, wounded sob.

"Cheryl Chavez, there was no fight. It was just one-sided bullying."

Peggy Stephens had come down from upstairs at some point.

After all that dying-and-living up on the rooftop, she looked a wreck, her eyes ringed red like someone had beaten her down.

"I'm the one being bullied. My sister-in-law wants me gone."

Cheryl glanced at my face and quickly smoothed it over.

"Don't talk nonsense. You two get along so well, why would she want you gone?"

Peggy bit down on her lip at once, the picture of misery.

"My sister-in-law is terrifying. She plays the perfect game where you can't even accuse her of anything."

"She keeps the whole house running so perfectly on purpose, won't let me lift a finger, even rushes to throw out the trash by my door before I can, all so I'll feel ashamed, like I have no right to exist here."

As she spoke, the tears rolled down.

"I know I don't have a job, don't earn money, and I still eat and live here. I know I'm a burden. But I've been trying. The world is hard on women in the workplace, is that my fault too?"

The other women closed in around us.

Someone murmured, "It's not easy for the girl either. Her brother has a wife now, and she's stuck in the middle, an outsider on both sides."

The way the others looked at me changed.

That familiar suffocating weight filled my chest.

It had been exactly like this last time.

All Peggy had to do was well up, trot out her I've-done-my-best, I've-tried-so-hard routine, and everyone would fill in the rest of her grievance for her.

And me. When I said I hadn't bullied anyone, all they did was nod along, yes, yes, yes.

When I said she was just too fragile-hearted, they said she was still young, I should be patient with her.

When I said no matter what I did she took it as an attack, they said the girl was only sensitive.

And in the end I died with my baby, lying cold in the morgue, and they were still discussing whether I'd bullied her so hard, day in and day out, that I'd triggered her into breaking down and smashing my phone.

This time, I wasn't going to waste a single word.

"Do you mind not crowding me. Let me through."

Peggy's crying paused.

She lifted her head, biting her lip hard beneath those red, wept-out eyes.

"Maria, do you really hate me that much?"

I said, "At least you know yourself."

She flinched like the words had cut deep, stepped back half a pace, her eyes full of hurt.

"But all I want is to stay in my own home. I used to live here too. Just because my brother got married, this isn't my home anymore? What did I even do wrong?"

Rage surged up through me, and my belly cramped along with it.

I let out a long breath. I couldn't be bothered to argue a single point with her.

"You did nothing wrong. You're right about everything."

"Move!"

Hearing that, the women crowding around me stepped in again to make peace.

Peggy rubbed her eyes and forced a smile onto her face.

"Cheryl, everyone, please stop."

"My sister-in-law is only making things hard for me on purpose. She won't really leave."

"Don't worry. I'll keep trying to win her over with love, until she likes being around me and stops wanting me gone."

I looked at her coldly.

"I don't need to be won over."

"And I will never like being around you."

With that, I grabbed my suitcase and walked.