I Watched My Mother Kneel For His Family, Then I Ended His Chapter 01

I Watched My Mother Kneel For His Family, Then I Ended His Chapter 01

At the family gathering, in front of more than twenty relatives from both sides, my husband slapped my mother six times.

“It’s all your fault for spoiling her! Elva has no manners at all—she doesn’t even know she’s supposed to toast her in-laws first.”

“Now, you toast my parents for her.”

Then he made my mother get down on her knees and toast his parents.

Blood smeared my mother’s lips, but she still tried to reassure me, “Elva, I’m fine. Don’t let me come between you and your in-laws.”

Finally, both my mother-in-law and my husband were satisfied.

The next day, my husband showed up with a huge bouquet of roses to apologize.

By evening, I still hadn’t appeared. Then his father called him.

“Why did Elva revoke all the design licenses under her name?”

“Our partners are swarming our lobby! Get her back here right now!”

***

The sixth slap sent my mother lurching to the right.

The crack of her knees hitting the floor sounded louder than the slap itself.

My husband Dillen Guzman drew back his hand, straightened his cuffs, and handed a glass of whiskey to my mother. “Please drink this, and we’ll call it even.”

All that politeness in his voice, and he’d only just laid his hands on her.

My mother’s hands trembled as she reached for the glass. Blood trickled down her chin, dripping onto the collar of her light-colored dress.

Under the table, my legs were shaking uncontrollably. The chair scraped loudly against the floor as I stood up.

“Elva, if your mother hadn’t spoiled you so much, how could you be so clueless about proper etiquette?”

Dillen turned to me. His eyes were impossibly gentle, his tone tinged with helpless fondness.

He looked completely different from the man who had just hit my mother.

I took a step forward. “Dillen!”

My mother on the floor suddenly grabbed my ankle and looked up, her eyes red and brimming.

“Elva, don’t!”

“Please, I’m begging you. Just let it go.”

“It’s all my fault. I failed to raise you right. I’m apologizing for you. Just stop, please…”

Her voice was barely a whisper, yet every word stabbed deep into my chest.

Still on her knees, she raised the glass with both hands and proffered it toward my in-laws.

“Mr. Guzman, Mrs. Guzman, I failed to raise my daughter properly. I’m sorry.”

Her voice was so composed it broke me.

A look of satisfaction finally crossed my mother-in-law Frederica Guzman’s face. She accepted the glass, took a sip, and said to my mother. “Ashlyn, we’re all family. Let’s not turn this into a scene.”

Family.

I bit my tongue until the taste of blood flooded my mouth.

Over twenty people were sitting on the Guzman side. On my side, there were only my mother and me.

This so-called family gathering had been nothing but a public humiliation from start to finish.

“Oh, come on, Dillen is just doing this for Elva’s own good,” Dillen’s aunt chimed in, holding her glass to smooth things over.

“Exactly. Dillen didn’t have a choice—a wife needs to be kept in line,” Dillen’s cousin-in-law added.

I heard someone whisper, “What do you expect from someone raised by a single mother?”

My mother was still on her knees.

Nobody asked her to stand up.

In that moment, my mind went completely blank, as if something inside me snapped.

I knew that if I exploded right now, Dillen wouldn’t do anything to me. He’d just take it out on my mother again.

Five years. It was always the same.

I bent down and helped my mother up.

She was so thin—her arm felt frail, almost like a child’s.

“Mom, your lip is bleeding. Let me take care of that first,” I said flatly.

Dillen smiled and handed me a tissue, all gracious. “Go on, but make it quick. You’re not done with the toasts yet.”

I took the tissue without looking at him.

As I supported my mother toward the door, I heard glasses clinking behind me, followed by someone saying, “Dillen’s wife still needs some taming.”

The corridor lights were glaringly bright.

My mother leaned heavily on my shoulder, her footsteps uneven. Her left knee was probably already bruised.

She was still trying to talk me down.

“Elva, don’t be upset. I’m fine, really. Just go back and toast them properly, and this will all blow over.”

“I know you’re worried about me, but Dillen is usually so good to you. He just drank too much today…”

I eased her into a chair against the wall.

Squatting down, I used the tissue to wipe the blood from her lip.

“Mom, stop.”

She froze.

My hands were shaking.

I tried many times and still couldn’t wipe the blood clear.

“Mom, I’m taking you home.”

“But the dinner isn’t…”

“We’re going home.”

I stood up, took her hand, and pulled her toward the elevator.

She let herself be dragged along, not daring to say another word.

The moment the elevator doors closed, I caught my reflection in the stainless steel.

My face was pale, almost ghostly.

The drive from the hotel to our place took twenty minutes.

In those twenty minutes, my mother told me repeatedly that Dillen was really a good man at heart. I didn’t reply once.

Once inside, I had her sit on the couch and fetched the first-aid kit from the bathroom.

When the iodine swab touched the split on her lip, she winced and flinched back.

My hand froze.

I stared at the split, then at the swelling across her cheekbone.

I put the swab down, pulled out my phone, and called my best friend Celia Mitchell.

“Celia.”

“Yeah? What’s up this late?”

“Draft a divorce agreement for me.”

Silence hung on the line for a few seconds.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’ll have it ready tomorrow. Terms?”

“I don’t want anything. Just a clean split.”

“Got it.”

The call ended.

I set the phone down. My mother’s face had gone completely pale.

She had heard every word.

“Elva… You… You’re getting a divorce?”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t!” She grabbed my arm in a flash. “Elva, you’re only thirty. A divorced woman with her mother to support—what will everyone say? Where do you go from here?”

“So what if I took a little humiliation? Dillen is genuinely good to you…”

“Good to me?” I pulled my arm back. “But what about what he did to you?”

She froze.

“Elva, I… I’m fine. I just don’t want you to go through what I went through—being a single mother with no one to lean on…”

Her voice trailed off.

I knew her too well.

She had been crushed under the stigma of being a “divorced woman” her entire life, terrified that I would follow in her footsteps.

Dillen knew her too well, too.

That was why he never laid a finger on me.

He only needed to hit her, curse at her, and humiliate her.

And my mother would come to convince me to apologize on her own.

So I couldn’t push back head-on.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself.

“Mom, I was just talking out of anger.” I forced a smile. “Go wash up and sleep. The injury on your face will feel better tomorrow.”

She looked at me with lingering suspicion, but I coaxed and pushed her into her bedroom.

After the door closed, I leaned against the corridor wall and looked up at the ceiling.

Then I picked up my phone again and sent Celia a text.

Elva: [Get the agreement ready ASAP. I need it tomorrow.]

Elva: [Also, check the full list of design patents under my name that are licensed to Guzman Group.]

The reply came back almost immediately.

Celia: [Got it. You’ll have it by morning.]

I didn’t reply.

The living room light was still on. It was already half past eleven.

That was the exact moment I made up my mind.

Elva Holden, you’ve endured this for five years.

Enough.