Chapter 2
Victor lunged for the phone.
My mother stepped back.
I moved in front of her without thinking.
“Don’t touch her.”
His eyes flashed.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“Anna.”
He said my name like a warning.
For five years, that tone had worked.
It made me apologize when I was right.
It made me quiet when I was hurt.
It made me explain his bad behavior to myself until I could barely recognize the truth.
But not that night.
Not with my mother shaking behind me.
Not with frosting on the floor and his threat playing in my ears.
Victor looked at Ruth.
“You recorded me?”
My mother swallowed.
“Yes.”
“You miserable old woman.”
I stepped closer.
“Say one more word.”
His mouth tightened.
“You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“I think we do,” I said.
He laughed then.
Cold.
Ugly.
“You think five thousand dollars matters? You think some little video changes anything?”
My mother’s voice trembled.
“It wasn’t just five thousand.”
Victor froze.
I turned to her.
“Mom?”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much?”
She lowered the phone.
“Over two years… almost forty thousand.”
The room tilted.
Forty thousand dollars.
My mother’s savings.
Her emergency fund.
The money she kept for medication, rent, repairs, old age.
I stared at Victor.
“You told me we were struggling because business was slow.”
He said nothing.
“You told me we couldn’t help Mom when her furnace broke.”
His jaw tightened.
“She offered.”
“No,” my mother said.
“You threatened.”
Victor’s eyes cut to her.
My mother flinched, but this time she did not step back.
“You said if I told Anna, you would make her believe I was trying to ruin the marriage. You said she would choose you because she was your wife.”
My throat closed.
Victor looked at me.
“Anna, she’s confused.”
There it was.
The second weapon.
First fear.
Then doubt.
“She’s seventy-one,” he said. “She gets emotional. She misunderstood.”
My mother’s face crumpled.
I had heard enough.
I picked up my phone.
Victor’s expression changed.
“Who are you calling?”
“My lawyer.”
His laugh died.
“What lawyer?”
“The one Mom and I met last week.”
The color left his face completely.
Behind me, my mother whispered, “Anna…”
May you like
I squeezed her hand.
“It’s time.”
