Heinry clicked his tongue in annoyance, shot a quick glance at Wanda, who was still sleeping in the bedroom and warned me.
"Take good care of Wanda until I get back. If anything happens to her, you won’t see our daughter this week."
I lowered my head and said nothing. Only after Heinry left the house did I go into my daughter’s room, gripping my phone tightly.
[I have to take my daughter with me. Can you help me?]
The reply came fast. [Okay, I’ll help you.]
But just as I sent the message, Wanda suddenly pushed open the bedroom door. Her face was dark with morning anger and she shouted at me in a commanding tone.
"I’m hungry. Go make me something light to eat."
"The maid will be here soon. Just ask her."
Wanda gave a cold laugh, running her fingers through her hair.
"The maid’s already been fired. You’re just stuck here with nothing to do. Cooking for me isn’t too much to ask."
"Why should I do that? Are you simply useless, or just sick in the head?"
Her eyes flashed with fury as she waved my father’s diary in her hand.
"Don’t say no too quickly, Wilson. Make me upset a little bit and I’ll take it out on you."
My body shook. Clenching my teeth, I couldn't help but walk straight to the kitchen. That whole day, Wanda dragged me around to shop and then forced me to cook for her.
By the afternoon, I was so exhausted that I collapsed on the sofa. Unfortunately, she wasn’t about to let me rest.
"I’ve got some packages. Go pick them up for me."
To my shock, there were nearly seventy of them.
I had to borrow a cart and made trip after trip until I finally piled them all by the door.
The moment I opened the door, the sharp smell of burning smoke immediately hit my nose.
"Wanda, what are you doing?"
"You were too slow with the packages, so I started a little fire for fun."
"What are you burning? You do know the smoke can set off the alarm, don't you? Are you trying to burn the whole house down?"
Anger surged through me at her recklessness and quickly rushed forward to stop her. "What on earth are you doing?"
When I saw her holding the last page of my father’s diary over the fire, my eyes instantly filled with tears.
"What are you making a fuss about? I’m using the fire pit, so there will be no danger. Look, aren’t the flames pretty?"
"Wanda! What is that you're throwing into the fire?"
She frowned, covering her ears.
"Shut up! Can't you just stop yelling? You can see for yourself, it’s just your father’s diary. What a useless pile of junk. Better to burn it."
As she spoke, she tossed the last page into the fire.
"No!"
I shoved her aside in panic and reached into the flames. Ignoring the searing pain, I grabbed what was left of the diary.
"Yoanne! What are you doing?"
Heinry had just come home. His face was dark as he walked over and then he slapped me hard across the face.
"Heinry, my legs hurt! This woman is losing her mind and she’s trying to kill me!"
I clutched the half-burned diary tightly, my cheek stinging from the slap, my right hand scorched and throbbing from the fire.
"Yoanne, must you be so cruel? Hurting someone just over a piece of paper?"
"A piece of paper, you said?"
I tried to hold back the ache in my chest. A bitter laugh escaped me as tears streamed down my face.
"She burned my father’s diary, Heinry. You know how much it meant to me. And now you call it just a piece of paper?"
I looked at my father’s handwriting on the fragile page. My fingers tightened until the paper crumpled. My back slid against the wall as despair filled my eyes.
Heinry lifted Wanda into his arms and shot me a cold glance.
"You won’t see your daughter this weekend. You don’t deserve to."
With that, he slammed the door and walked out.
I stared blankly at his fading figure, whispering into the empty room, as if falling into an endless abyss.
"Just one more week and I’ll get to see my daughter. Heinry, from now on, you’re the one who won’t see her."
