Part 7
"Elena, please," Jason's voice cracked through the small speaker of my phone.
The anger was draining out of him, replaced by the desperate terror of a man who suddenly realizes he has walked into a trap of his own making.
"It was just dinner. It was a joke! My mother is old-fashioned, she has high standards. You're overreacting!"
"A joke," I repeated.
"Yes! A stupid family joke! We didn't mean anything by it. Lily is fine, see? She's probably fine right now. You can't destroy our entire life over a spilled bowl of soup!"
I looked at Lily.
She had a bit of red jam from the tart on her chin.
She looked up at me, saw me watching her, and instantly reached for a napkin to wipe it away, her movements hurried, anxious.
Even now, miles away from that dining room, she was still trying to prevent the anger of adults.
The psychological damage was already there.
And he called it a joke.
"Jason," I said, my voice dropping an octave. "When you married me, you thought you were rescuing a girl from a simple background. You never asked about my family’s holdings. You never wondered why our rent was always paid a year in advance, or why the landlords never bothered us."
He swallowed hard on the screen, his chest heaving.
"I let you believe what you wanted to believe because I wanted to see who you were when you thought you had the upper hand."
I paused, letting the weight of my words settle over him.
"And last night, I saw exactly who you are. You are a coward who allows an old woman to bully a toddler. You are a man who takes pleasure in the humiliation of his own blood."
"Elena, please, we can talk about this. Let's go to counseling! I'll make my mother apologize!"
"It's too late for apologies, Jason."
"You can't just leave me with nothing!" he screamed, his face reddening again. "I built that company!"
"You built it on my foundation," I said. "And today, I took my bricks back."
I closed the app.
I locked the phone.
I took a deep breath, picked up a napkin, and gently wiped the rest of the jam from Lily's chin.
"Ready to go, sweetie?"
May you like
"Where are we going now, Mama?"
"To our new home," I said. "A place with no old rugs, and no rules about dropping food."
