In order to save my marriage, my mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s disease went to look for my husband, who didn’t come home at night.

She got lost in the storm.

I cried and begged my husband to look for her together, but he was busy accompanying his first love to have an abortion.

“Samantha, that’s enough! Tamara just experienced a divorce and an ectopic pregnancy. She has no one to rely on and only I can take care of her. Is it a crime for me to live with her? Please be kind! Have some sympathy! Don’t always use my mother as your trick! Mom loves you so much, but you curse her to get into trouble. You are really an ungrateful person who is worse than an animal!”

After my husband blocked me, my mother-in-law’s body was found.

My love also died with my mother-in-law.

——

After persevering in making the 25th call, Samson finally answered.

“Samantha, that’s enough! If you keep bothering me, I’ll block you! Tamara just had an abortion and needs quiet and rest! I don’t want to hear your damn ringtone again! I don’t care what you say! Even if the earth explodes, it’s not as important as Tamara’s health and mood!”

My husband’s words were colder than the storm outside.

But I didn’t care about being sad and asked anxiously, “Have you seen Mom? She went to find you! It’s raining so hard, I’m afraid something will happen to her! She has Alzheimer’s disease!”

In this world, my mother-in-law was the person closest to me.

Let alone Samson, my own mother was not even one ten-thousandth as good as my mother-in-law!

After my mother-in-law got Alzheimer’s disease, she was awake for a short time and most of the time she was confused.

But she always cared about me in her heart.

Samson hadn’t been home for more than a week and he had been accompanying Tamara without sleep and food.

I was depressed, helpless and angry and could only cry silently alone.

I didn’t expect my mother-in-law to see it in her eyes and feel pain in her heart.

In her rare lucid moment, she carefully wiped the tears from my face with her rough hands.

“Samantha, don’t cry. Mom will help you find that bastard and let him live with you. I’ll make him leave that vixen!”

I thought my mother-in-law was just saying it casually, but when I got home from work in the afternoon, she was gone.

During this period, the city suffered torrential rain that had not been seen in a hundred years and the water in many places was more than one person high.

It was too dangerous for my mother-in-law with Alzheimer’s disease to go out in such a situation!

She didn’t even have a mobile phone!

I was so upset that I called the police immediately.

I had to tell Samson about such a big thing, but he didn’t even give me a chance to speak.

The police and the fire department had sent people to look for her, but there was still no news at 10 o’clock in the evening.

I didn’t blame them. There were dangers everywhere in the city now and they had been very hard.

People were like this. The more you thought, the more you thought about the bad things.

“Mom, don’t let anything happen to you... Don’t let anything happen to you…”

I didn’t bother to take my umbrella and rushed out of the community again, shouting heartbreakingly on the road that looked like a river.

“Mom! Mom, where are you? Come back soon!”

A sharp ring rang and the police called.

“Ms. Graves, we found the body of an elderly person who had drowned in the culvert. His facial features were severely damaged. Please ask the immediate family members to identify him. We may need to test DNA…”

The damn rain finally stopped, but my tears poured down.

“No! Mom, don’t let anything happen…”

I ran to Tamara’s community crying and I didn’t know how many times I fell along the way.

My arms, face and neck were scratched by debris in the water and blood was dripping.

I almost fell into the sewer with the manhole cover missing.

But I didn’t care about these at all. My mother-in-law only had one son, Samson and I wanted to take him to the police station!

And Samson, just as he claimed, blocked me decisively when I called him for the 26th time.

Fortunately, Samson rented Tamara’s house. I had seen the contract and knew the specific address.

“Open the door! Samson, I know you are in there!”

I banged on the door, but the person inside refused to come out.

I was already at my wits’ end.

I kicked, pushed and banged my head, crying hysterically. “Samson! Open the door! I beg you! Mom is in trouble!”

I continued, “I’m not here to catch you cheating! You and your first love can do whatever you want! I don’t care! Go see Mom!”

I made so much noise that the neighbors all came out and pointed at me.

Even the security guards were alarmed.

The people inside finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

The door opened and Samson yelled at me with twisted features.

“Samantha! Are you crazy? What are you doing? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? If I had known you were a shrew, I would never have married you!”

He continued, “I’ll say it again! Tamara just had an abortion, she needs my care! We are innocent! Her child is from that bastard ex-husband! It’s not my child! The timing doesn’t match! You——”

It was only then that Samson noticed my embarrassment, the wounds on my face and the blood on my body.

Samson actually laughed. “Samantha, stop acting miserable, okay? You know I hate hypocritical women the most!”

At this moment, Tamara appeared in a super short lace nightgown.

She was pale and apologetic. “Samson, why don’t you go back? I can do it alone. Anyway, I’m used to being helpless... no one loves me…”

She started crying and covered her belly with her hands, looking miserable. She was obviously the hypocritical mistress!

But Samson was like a blind man. He immediately helped his first love up and his tone was full of pity. “Silly girl, how can I bear to leave you?”

He didn’t even want to look at me. He just turned his back and said coldly to me, “Go quickly, go back and take care of your mother-in-law! Don’t you often say that she is closer to you than your own mother? The weather is bad, she is old and confused, can you rest assured that she is alone at home?”

It was a pity that Samson still remembered that he had a mother! “Samson! Mom may have an accident! Now the police want us to identify her!”

I trembled when I said, “Let’s go quickly, okay?”

“Shut up!” Samson got angry. He pointed his finger at my nose. “Samantha! Are you a beast? You even cursed my mother to trick me back home!”

He continued, “The old lady treats you better than me! You are so unfilial! You are just an ungrateful person! Get lost, I never want to see you again! If you bang the door again, I will call the police!”

After that, Samson took the giggling Tamara back to the house.

The other neighbors shook their heads and sighed, looking at me with pity and sympathy.

I didn’t care about being sad and went to the police station alone.

The cold morgue.

The cold white cloth.

The broken body.

The broken facial features.

My helpless tears.

“Mom... Mom…”

I tried to identify the face of the body.

Because it was salvaged from the water, it was not only scarred, but also swollen and deformed and it was impossible to recognize its original appearance.

I had no blood relationship with my mother-in-law, so I couldn’t test DNA.

I just looked at the figure similar to my mother-in-law and the style of clothes for the elderly was similar, so I was not sure.

Scar!

Yes!

I suddenly remembered that my mother-in-law had an old scar on her wrist. It was the scar she got when she tried to protect me from being scalded by boiling water.

I quickly rolled up her sleeves to look!

No!

It wasn’t my mother-in-law!

In just a few seconds, I seemed to have used up all my strength and was sweating profusely.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

I bowed to the body and stumbled out of the police station.

When I went out, I saw Samson, who looked anxious.

“I just went home and my mother wasn’t at home. Where did she go? Did something really happen?”

Samson’s voice was trembling.

He still had some humanity and he was still worried about my mother-in-law, so he went home to check.

“The body inside is not Mom–”

Before I finished my words, Samson had already slapped me hard on the face.

I was stunned and I turned around a few times on the spot. I felt that my right face was swollen instantly.

“Samantha! You are a rebellious and unfilial beast! Why don’t you continue to act? Tell me! Where did you hide my mother? She is so old and sick, she can’t be tortured by you like this! You are so deliberate and selfish to break up Tamara and me! You are so evil and inhuman!”

My face hurt.

My heart hurt even more!

This slap destroyed all the ties and love between Samson and me in the past!

In fact, I was extremely disappointed with him a long time ago.

I didn’t divorce before, not because I couldn’t bear to leave him, but because I couldn’t bear to leave the best mother-in-law in the world!

Especially after my mother-in-law got Alzheimer’s disease, I didn’t want to leave even more. I was afraid that if I left, my mother-in-law would suffer.

I had been enduring Samson’s indifference and betrayal.

Let him be narcissistic enough to think that I still loved him very much.

But now I couldn’t bear it anymore!

I wanted a divorce!

It was just that I didn’t know whether my mother-in-law was dead or alive and I didn’t have the energy to fight with Samson for the time being.

I just glanced at Samson coldly, turned around and walked in another direction to continue looking for the whereabouts of my mother-in-law.

Mom, please don’t get into trouble! I’ll find you and come with me, okay?

Samson was unreliable and Tamara was even less reliable!

I would support you in the future!

I didn’t want to be your daughter-in-law, I wanted to be your daughter!

“Humph, it’s hard to change your bad habits!” Samson got in the car and left.

Neither of us looked back.

I searched all night and at 5 a.m. the next day, the traffic police called.

This time it was news about my mother-in-law.

She was dead.

She didn’t die in a storm, but in a car accident.

My mother-in-law was hit by a car.

The driver fled.

The traffic police were able to find me because my mother-in-law had a photo of me and her.

My phone number was on the back of the photo.

***

“Mom! Mom! Don’t leave me, okay? Mom! It’s all my fault! If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have died!”

I lay on my mother-in-law’s body and was in agony.

My relationship with my mother-in-law started 15 years ago.

My family of origin was very unhappy.

My mother had a boyfriend, so I became a thorn in their side.

Even when I was 18 years old, my stepfather ran into gambling debts and was so mad that he gave me away as a bargaining chip...

I had been violated.

My mother didn’t allow me to call the police.

In despair and pain, I chose to commit suicide.

I happened to be discovered by my mother-in-law, who was passing by the river and she saved me.

She was a cadre of the Women’s Federation. She knew what happened to me and sent me to the hospital for treatment of my injuries.

She called the police for me, hired a lawyer for me and brought my stepfather and those beasts to justice.

My mother was angry that I had left her without a man. She beat and scolded me and severed ties with me.

It was my mother-in-law who sponsored me to go to college.

And she was very careful about protecting my privacy and never told anyone about me.

In college, I fell in love with Samson.

I had no idea about Samson’s relationship with my mother-in-law.

I didn’t tell him about the assault.

It was not that I concealed it intentionally, but because it was the most painful wound in my life.

I simply didn’t have the courage to face it.

I felt dirty.

So when we officially established our relationship, I followed Samson to meet my mother-in-law.

I was so scared and cold all over my body!

No one knew my past better than my mother-in-law!

Although my mother-in-law had helped me and she was a good person. She would not allow her son to marry a woman with such a complicated experience!

But my mother-in-law acted like a stranger and didn’t mention my past at all.

It didn’t stop me from falling in love with Samson.

Later, she held my hand behind Samson’s back and said, “Samantha, don’t be afraid. I know you are a good girl. You’re not dirty, you were just bullied. It’s not your fault. Live a good life with Samson from now on. I know you will be a good wife and daughter-in-law.”

I cried. I never thought I would receive such deep maternal love from someone who was not related by blood.

After marriage, my relationship with my mother-in-law became closer than that of mother and daughter.

She was the person I loved most in the world.

She was tight-lipped and never told Samson about my past.

Now my mother-in-law was gone.

I had severed all ties with my biological mother.

I was an orphan!