Chapter 1
I came home from work and found my wife, who had given birth five days earlier, scrubbing the kitchen floor while my mother stood over her saying, “You live here, so you work.”
My name is Daniel, and our daughter Emma had been born less than a week earlier in a Dallas hospital.
The doctor had specifically told my wife, Sarah, to rest.
That afternoon, I left work early because she wasn’t answering my calls.
When I opened the front door, I heard the vacuum running.
Then I saw Sarah.
She was pale, exhausted, and leaning against the counter just to stay on her feet.
“Sarah?”
She immediately turned off the vacuum.
My mother, Diane, walked out of the laundry room carrying another basket.
“You’re home early.”
I stared at the cleaning supplies around my wife.
“What is going on?”
Sarah whispered, “It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
My mother rolled her eyes.
“She had a baby, Daniel. She didn’t become disabled.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
“The doctor told her not to do this.”
Diane dropped the laundry basket in front of Sarah.
“In my generation, women didn’t lie around expecting everyone to serve them.”
Sarah bent down to pick it up.
I stopped her.
“Don’t touch that.”
Mom crossed her arms.
“Stop babying your wife.”
Then I noticed Sarah’s hands were shaking.
“Where’s Emma?”
Sarah looked toward the stairs.
My mother answered first.
“She’s upstairs.”
“Alone?”
“She was crying too much, so I put her in the nursery.”
Sarah suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Daniel, I tried to go upstairs.”
My stomach dropped.
“What do you mean, tried?”
Mom interrupted.
“She needed to finish the kitchen first.”
I stared at her.
“You stopped Sarah from going to our crying newborn?”
“She needs discipline.”
That was when Sarah suddenly doubled over and grabbed the counter.
“Daniel…”
I caught her before she hit the floor.
There was blood soaking through the back of her clothes.
I shouted, “Call 911!”
But my mother didn’t move.
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Instead, she whispered, “She’s exaggerating again.”
Then Sarah looked up at me and said, “Your mother took my hospital medication away this morning.”
