Chapter 3

Valerie got the answer she wanted, and she didn't bother to hide how pleased she was.

She even made a show of handing me a tissue.

"Crying during your postpartum recovery is bad for your eyes."

Her kindness and grace only moved Lloyd more.

He took the tissue and threw it at me.

Then he shielded Valerie behind him and said flatly to me:

"If it weren't for your health, the job of looking after Mom and Dad the whole trip would have fallen to you. Instead of thanking Valerie, you hit her. Have you thought about how you're going to apologize to her?"

But Valerie grabbed his arm and said softly:

"Lloyd, I'm really fine. Just please don't let your godparents know she has a problem with us taking the two of them out on a trip, or you'll be the one caught in the middle again."

Her voice was neither loud nor soft, pitched just right for his parents in the living room to hear.

The two of them charged to the bedroom door at once like a pair of demons and coldly demanded:

"You can't even give us a son, so what right do you have to complain about our trip?"

I stared, unable to believe a human being could say such a thing.

"Get out."

"Who are you telling to get out?"

My mother-in-law stormed into the room, hands on her hips, and started cursing me out.

Valerie deliberately lifted her chin so my mother-in-law could see the face she'd pinched red herself.

"Godmother, don't provoke her. You're getting on in years—if she slapped you, I'm afraid you couldn't take it..."

My mother-in-law's eyes blazed and she flew into a rage, rushing over to shove me.

"Christine, don't think you can walk on air just because you had a kid! She's nothing but a money-losing burden. You really think a child raises your standing around here?"

"Let me tell you, Valerie's body is all healed up now, and the moment she's willing, she can give me a big, healthy grandson!"

"Mom, what are you talking about!"

Lloyd went red in the face and told her to shut up.

"So this trip to the Grand Canyon is your baby-making trip."

"It's not like that, Christine, don't listen to my mom's nonsense..."

"What nonsense? If she can't give us a son herself, then of course we find someone who can!"

"Mom! If you keep this up, I'm canceling the trip!"

That only made my mother-in-law angrier at me, and she shoved me so hard I staggered.

By the time Lloyd tried to pull me over, my lower back had already slammed into the nightstand.

My mother-in-law shoved him away and roughly hauled me up off the floor.

"You just had a baby—what's with all this acting so fragile?"

Her fingers dug hard into my arm. The pain broke me out in a cold sweat all over, and on instinct I grabbed the water glass beside me and smashed it down on her head.

My mother-in-law touched her forehead—no blood. So she just sat down on the floor and started wailing at the top of her lungs.

"What a curse! Lloyd, look at the shrew you married! She's trying to murder your own mother!"

The noise frightened my daughter into howling.

My father-in-law immediately screamed at her:

"Cry, cry, cry! You've cried away all the good luck in this family!"

"Nothing but bad luck, just like your mother!"

Being yelled at, my daughter's crying suddenly stopped.

Her mouth was clearly open in a cry, but no sound came out.

My heart lurched, and I quickly shouted at Lloyd:

"Bring the baby to me!"

Instead he picked up my phone that he'd thrown to the floor, unlocked it, and opened the messaging app.

"Christine, you shouldn't have hit my mother!"

Then he used my account to wire twenty thousand dollars to my mother-in-law, with the note:

Apology

I had no strength to stop him; all I wanted was to see what was wrong with my daughter.

But I hurt too much to move.

All I could do was weakly beg Lloyd:

"Go check on our daughter, something's wrong with her!"