CHAPTER 2: THE TRUTH BREAKS
“She’s lying to you,” my mother insisted, her voice rising. “She’s manipulating you—”
“Then why is she terrified of you?” I shot back.
Silence.
A crack in the illusion.
Megan’s tears rolled silently into the pillow. “I didn’t want you to know,” she whispered. “I thought… I thought I could handle it until the baby came.”
My heart dropped into my stomach.
“Handle what?”
Her lips trembled.
“She comes when you’re at work.”
The room went cold.
“She says I’m weak. That I’ll be a terrible mother. That I’m trapping you… ruining your life.”
My hands curled into fists.
“And the bruises?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Megan closed her eyes.
“She… ‘helps me learn discipline.’”
The words shattered something inside me.
I stood up so fast the chair behind me crashed to the floor.
“You touched my wife?” I said, my voice shaking with something dangerous.
My mother scoffed. “Oh please, don’t act dramatic. I was correcting her. Someone has to—”
“Get out.”
She blinked.
May you like
“What?”
“GET. OUT.”
