Chapter 1

I came home through a hundred-and-two-degree heat, and my daughter wasn't there.

My husband said it like it was nothing. "Dolly Abbott's running a fever, so I sent her downstairs."

"My sister's coming to do her postpartum confinement here tomorrow. I need to disinfect the rooms so Dolly doesn't pass anything to her."

I stared at him. "It's blazing out there and she's burning up, and you threw her out?"

He frowned. "You're supposed to sweat a fever out anyway. What's the problem?"

"Don't worry, I already worked it out with the after-hours daycare in the complex. Dolly can stay at their place for the next few days."

"They'll come pick her up in a bit. I'll pay them a hundred a day for room and board."

"Relax. The second she's better, I'll bring her home."

I nearly passed out from the fury of it. "Dolly's sensitive, and she's a little girl. She's always been scared of strangers. She's five years old. How could you do that to her?"

He looked put out. "Mavis Henson, what gives you the right to throw a fit? I'm doing this for you, aren't I?"

"Once my sister gets here, you'll be looking after a new mother, looking after a newborn, cooking for my parents, plus Dolly on top of it all. It'd run you into the ground."

"So I spend a little money to send Dolly off for a while. Isn't that taking the load off you?"

I looked at him and couldn't manage anything but a bitter laugh.

A man who could sacrifice his own daughter. How could I trust him with the rest of my life?

Let's divorce. The apartment is my premarital property. Your family can find somewhere else to do their confinement.

......

I turned to go downstairs and bring Dolly home.

But Jasper Dickerson got angry, shouting at me. "Mavis, what's that supposed to mean?"

"My sister's coming tomorrow, and you want to drag a source of infection back into the house? What are you trying to pull?"

I said coldly, "This is Dolly's home."

"If your sister's so worried about catching something, then she shouldn't come. Besides, I never agreed to her coming in the first place."

Jasper exploded. "Why can't she come? What's wrong with my own sister staying here a few days?"

"So because I married you, I'm supposed to cut off every relative I've got?"

I let out a small laugh. "A few days... exactly how many days is that?"

Jasper said impatiently, "At least until her maternity leave's over."

"Oh," I said. "So, six months."

His brow furrowed. "What if it is six months? I'm her older brother. She could stay her whole life for all I care."

I gave a cold laugh.

My sister-in-law is named Renee Dickerson. She moved into my home before she'd even given birth last time.

She said my place was close to the hospital, convenient for the delivery.

If it had only been her, fine. But she brought her in-laws and my in-laws too, five people in all.

The apartment was never big to begin with, and it was packed to the walls.

That month I lived in hell, plain and simple.

Every morning the bathroom was occupied. I was late for work over and over, and my whole perfect-attendance bonus got docked to nothing.

Dolly was late for school too, and kept getting scolded by her teacher.

I'd come home from work drained to the bone, and still had to cook for seven or eight people.

Every time I finished in the kitchen and came back to the table, the Dickersons had already eaten their fill and left me half a bowl of broth.

The worst of it was that my and Dolly's room got taken over.

We had to sleep on the living room sofa, walled off with nothing but a thin curtain.

Those old people had no sense of boundaries. One time Renee's father-in-law actually pulled the curtain aside to see what we were doing.

It left a real scar on me. For a long time after, I couldn't sleep soundly, waking in the middle of the night to lie there tense, listening to every sound outside.

I was at my breaking point, and I had more than a few fights with Jasper over it.

That was when he trotted out that whole theory of his, that he was the older brother and had to look after his sister.

Going on about how precious family is, how you can't let yourself grow distant from your own blood.

Saying that if we helped Renee today, maybe tomorrow we'd need something from her.

He swore up and down to me that it would never happen again.

They'd already moved in, and I couldn't very well throw them out, so I gritted my teeth and put up with it.

The joke of it was, no thanks from the Dickersons ever came.

Renee had a boy, and the doctor said he had mild jaundice.

It's a common enough thing, but the Dickersons insisted it was the food I'd cooked.

Renee went further, throwing herself down and wailing that I'd made her son sick.

Jasper wore me down with his coaxing, telling me to keep the peace and not sour things too badly with the relatives.

I swallowed my disgust, bought a gift, went to the hospital to visit Renee, and pressed a red envelope with a few thousand in it into her hands.

Only then did the Dickersons grudgingly forgive me.

At the time I told myself she'd finally had the baby, that I was finally free.

I'd just keep my distance from these relatives from here on out.

Who would have thought that in the space of a single week, they'd be back to do another confinement.

This time, I really couldn't stand it anymore.

Seeing how firm I was, Jasper sighed at me. "Mavis, put yourself in my shoes for once, can you?"

"My sister just gave birth. The mother and the baby are both at their most fragile right now."

"If anything happened to either of them, that's a regret I'd carry my whole life."

"Her family's out in the countryside. Nothing's convenient out there."

"If she does her confinement at our place and something feels off with her health, how much easier it'd be to get her to a doctor."

I said coldly, "Your daughter is running a fever right now. She feels awful right now. And you're putting yourself in someone else's shoes?"

"Jasper, how did you get to be so selfless?"

I threw the jab at him and didn't say another word, just yanked the door open and ran downstairs, meaning to bring Dolly home.

When I found her, she was sitting under a tree, drenched in sweat, her face flushed red.

My heart ached as I took her hand. "Dolly, come home with Mommy."

Her mind had gone hazy. She stared at me a long time before she recognized me.

She said in a small voice, "Mommy, I can't go home. Daddy won't let me."

And with that, she fainted.