"Mommy won’t let anyone bully you."
Lilith, ever the actress, held her daughter close as tears streamed down her face as she said, "Mario, I know that Tara and I have disrupted your life, but our home is under renovation and we truly have nowhere else to go. …"
Mario's expression darkened instantly. He grabbed my arm roughly as he growled, "What’s wrong with you? You’re an adult and you’re picking a fight with a child?"
"Apologize to Tara right now, or no one is sleeping tonight!" he threatened.
His grip tightened painfully on my wrist and Mario's face twisted in a menacing scowl to threaten me.
[They usually waited until after the baby had been born to show their true colors]. I had once read that line online, but back then, it hadn’t resonated with me. After all, Mario had been so good to me. His act was so good that it had covered up all the warning signs.
However, those words had now been like a bullet to my chest. I was the fool, the clown in this tragic circus.
"Release me!" With a gloomy face, I yanked my arm free from Mario's hold and asked, "Why should I?"
Then coldly I added, "She's the one who has no discipline and touched my things without permission!”
I stormed into my room, settled my baby down and started unpacking my hospital bag.
This was the first time I had ever gotten angry at Mario. Even after giving birth and finding out about his ex-wife and daughter, I only felt devastated. I never confronted him directly even once.
Mario was momentarily stunned by my outburst, but he quickly recovered and followed me.
"Kelly, don’t think that just because you gave birth, you can throw a tantrum at home! Before, I tolerated you because of the baby. However, now? What right do you have to act out? Apologize now! Or I take the baby!"
Mario's heartless words chipped away at the last remnants of my delusions.
He was not the man I thought I had married. I felt he was so unfamiliar and terrifying.
I trembled with rage, my limbs suddenly felt weak.
A stinging sensation built up behind my eyes and before I could stop them, tears spilled down my cheeks. However, then something even worse happened. A cold sensation between my legs.
Panic surged through me as I looked down. Turned out, I had wet myself.
"Auntie peed herself! Ha ha ha! Even though she is an adult. Daddy, Mommy, look!"
Tara Lombardi's laughter rang out. It was shrill and piercing. Mario looked at the growing stain on the floor, wrinkled his nose and scoffed, "Ugh. It stinks."
Lilith, who was standing behind Mario while holding Tara in her arms, crunched up her face in disgust and asked, "What’s wrong with your wife? Peeing herself in front of everyone? How can anyone live here now? It's so filthy."
The three of them stared at me from top to bottom like I was an animal in a zoo. Their mocking, sneering and belittling in their eyes stifled my breath.
"Daddy, hurry! Drag Auntie to the bathroom! She’s still peeing!" urged Tara.
Mario must have found the situation embarrassing too because, in a flash, he rushed over and grabbed me.
As he dragged me, my stomach slammed into the corner of a table. A sharp pain shot through me and I gasped and cried out, "Mario. It hurts!"
He ignored me and shoved me into the bathroom. I instinctively reached for the door handle, but he slammed it shut and held it down.
"Did giving birth make you forget how to use the toilet?" he asked. "Then stay in there and relearn it!"
I clutched my stomach as I tried to stand on my feet, but then I heard it. It was the sound of the door being locked from the outside.
"Open the door … Mario! Open the door!" I yelled.
Panic crashed over me like a tidal wave. When I was little, my mother and I had been trapped in an elevator. I had watched her die right in front of me. Ever since that time, I suffered from severe claustrophobia.
Mario knew about this and yet he still locked me in.
My breaths came in ragged gasps. My limbs went numb. My vision blurred.
Outside, his voice floated through the door. "Come on, Tara. Daddy will take you and Mommy to stay in a five-star hotel."
