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!

My tears dried up and I forced myself to control my emotions and deal with my mother-in-law’s afterlife with great pain.

Samson had blocked me.

I didn’t want to see him, either, so I called him on a public phone.

“Mom is gone, cremation on Friday…”

“Samantha! Go to hell!”

The heavy rain stopped temporarily.

The sun came out and the air changed from humid to dry.

The dead couldn’t be resurrected.

I looked at the layout of the house.

Although only one person was missing, it was no longer a home, but a lifeless concrete cage.

I wanted to leave this sad place, taking my own things and my mother-in-law’s ashes.

On the coffee table was the divorce agreement I had signed.

I didn’t know when Samson would come back.

I didn’t want to wait for him.

But I met Samson again.

He hurriedly opened the door and entered the house. Before anyone came in, the voice had arrived first.

“Mom, where is your jade bracelet? Give it to me quickly! I’ll put it on Tamara! She has not been sleeping well recently and always has nightmares. I heard that jade can calm the mind…”

Samson stopped talking halfway because he saw the black and white portrait of his mother-in-law.

“What does this mean?”

I looked at Samson’s face full of doubts.

I used to be fascinated by his every smile and frown.

Now I just thought he was disgusting!

Samson and I were college classmates.

I was introverted and socially anxious in college and I hardly communicated with others.

Not to mention my classmates, even the girls in the same dormitory thought I was a freak.

I never thought of explaining or changing.

Because the unbearable past was a shackle that I couldn’t get rid of.

I felt inferior and felt that I didn’t deserve to live a normal life.

But Samson was like a light shining through the clouds, illuminating my dark life.

He was the class monitor and often organized group activities.

Seeing that I was not sociable, he took the initiative to invite me and encourage me, making me from introvert to cheerful.

I smiled more and was no longer regarded as a weirdo by people around me.

I fell in love with him.

But I didn’t dare to confess, not only because of my past, but also because Samson had a girl he liked, the school beauty, Tamara.

I didn’t expect to be favored by Samson at all, as long as I could look at him a few more times from a distance.

But when she graduated, Tamara chose to marry a 50-year-old foreign man in order to immigrate.

Samson was angry, collapsed and got drunk. He was still crying on the street at 12 o’clock in the evening.

I was worried about him and I always took care of him. I used my weak body to carry him drunk again and again.

He was moved by me. He said I was the best. Then we fell in love.

He took me home and met my mother-in-law.

After getting the support and encouragement of my mother-in-law, we got married.

I thought I was the happiest woman in the world. I had a husband I loved. I had the whole galaxy.

She was the best mother-in-law in the universe!

The most difficult mother-in-law-in-law relationship for other women was incomparably warm and tolerant and comforting for me.

What else was I not satisfied with?

I just hoped I could be happy like this forever.

Be filial to my mother-in-law and had another lovely child.

When we were preparing for pregnancy, my mother-in-law suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

I discussed with Samson that we should not have children for the time being because my mother-in-law needed more care.

I didn’t want to neglect my mother-in-law because of the child.

My mother-in-law used to love me as her daughter. Now I had to take care of my sick mother-in-law as her daughter.

When people got old, they were like old children. Especially when they were confused.

My mother-in-law often got into trouble and was a little willful.

Not only was I not annoyed, but I also thanked God for the opportunity to take care of my mother-in-law.

I cherished this opportunity to repay my gratitude.

Samson was very moved and said that it was his luck to marry me and it was my mother-in-law’s blessing.

He said he would not let me down.

But before I could hear the words, Tamara came back with scars all over her body and tired.

She cried and said that the foreigner was a pervert, alcoholic and violent.

She had divorced.

She regretted it and hoped to be forgiven by Samson.

Samson completely forgot Tamara’s betrayal and rushed up like a moth to a flame.

He was always available, caring for her, forgetting to eat and sleep and staying out all night.

Not only did he forget me, his legitimate wife, but he also forgot the oath he made to me.

He also forgot my mother-in-law, who had Alzheimer’s disease.

After the divorce, Tamara found out that she had an ectopic pregnancy. Samson had no choice but to accompany her to have an abortion and to take care of the confinement period after the miscarriage.

For ten days and a half month, not to mention people, there was not even a phone call.

I was disappointed and sad. It was not that I hadn’t thought about divorce, but I still couldn’t bear to leave my mother-in-law.

I had been enduring.

I thought that being wronged was nothing, as long as I could make my mother-in-law better.

But now my mother-in-law was dead!

She died on the way to urge Samson to go home!

I hated myself!

If I divorced Samson earlier, my mother-in-law would not be in trouble, right?

I hated Samson even more!

He killed not only his mother, but also my mother!