3.
My mother's mind was never whole. After she married my gambler of a father, she got beaten every single day.
If the food wasn't good, she got beaten.
If he lost at the tables, she got beaten.
The old bruises never had time to fade before the new ones took their place.
And even so, she tried her best to raise me. She copied what parents in normal families did, sent me to school, put money aside for my tuition.
Later I earned scholarships and signed up for every boxing class I could, learned boxing, learned kickboxing, and the day that gambler tried to raise his hand against her again, I hit him, blow after blow, until he couldn't fight back.
Later I became a boxing coach and worked even harder for the money, bought my mother a house, gave her a life she could finally live in peace.
I thought I had already saved her for the child I used to be.
I never imagined that in the end, because of me, she would be kneeling on the ground again.
"Mom—"
My voice shook and I couldn't stop it.
My heart felt like a fist was squeezing it.
She lifted her head slowly. Her eyes were so clear, and right now they were full of blame turned inward.
"Hope, Hope, Mommy made your husband angry. Mommy's saying sorry to your mother-in-law."
"They said if I kowtow, if I kowtow, your husband can go see you."
"Mommy did something wrong."
"You did nothing wrong!"
I held her tight against me and the sobs broke out of me before I could stop them.
"They're the ones who did wrong, they're the ones who did wrong!"
"That husband is bad. We don't want him anymore, we don't want him."
There was a puzzled softness in her voice. "We don't want him? But he's so good. He isn't like your daddy. He doesn't hit people."
"But if Hope doesn't want him, then we won't want him."
The people watching listened to the nurse's explanation, then heard the plain childlike way my mother spoke, and they understood exactly what was going on.
They were furious on our behalf in an instant.
"What kind of people are that family? Isn't this bullying, plain and simple?"
"It's a sin. The wife's having a baby, his own mother drags her feet over some superstition and won't let him go, then turns around and blames the wife's mother for bullying her?"
"Honey, better you see them clearly now than store up more heartbreak for later."
Back at the bed, the doctor tended to the wound on my mother's forehead.
She didn't even know how long she'd knelt there kowtowing. The big lump on her forehead had already split open.
The blood trickled down along her nose to the corner of her mouth. It was a sight that turned my stomach.
*
Everard cleaned himself and my mother-in-law up after their little scene.
Flora suggested straight off that they all go have fun at some trendy hotspot.
She took my mother-in-law around eating and drinking, coaxed her until she was beaming, and in that moment her contempt for me hit its peak.
"Ah, if only our Everard had married you back then."
"But it doesn't matter. The helm-child's been born anyway, so once she breaks the curse for you, Godmother will have Everard cast her off."
Everard's face darkened. "Mom, what nonsense are you spouting?"
"Hope and I are doing just fine. She just had a baby for me. Why on earth would I divorce her?"
He was already losing his patience.
"Are you two done or not? If you're not done, then stay here and enjoy yourselves. I'm going to the hospital. She just gave birth, and that mother of hers is simple in the head, how is she supposed to take proper care of her?"
This time it was my mother-in-law's face that soured.
She glowered, muttering under her breath.
"I made that idiot mother of hers kneel and apologize. I don't believe for a second she still doesn't want a divorce."
I looked at my sleeping mother, pulled one number out of the blocked list on my phone, and dialed it.
"Help me get divorced, and I'll fight for you."
"You can cut my annual pay by ten percent. And if you're afraid I'll run, you can come find me right now in Room 702, Harmony Women's Hospital."
"Drive over—"
The voice on the other end was eager, delighted.
"Wait for me. I'm on my way."
I was about to hang up when Everard's call came through.
I didn't answer. I tossed the phone aside and looked at the baby beside the bed, the way you'd look at a stranger.
