3.

My mother's mind was never whole. After she married my gambler of a father, she got beaten every single day.

If the food wasn't good, she got beaten.

If he lost at the tables, she got beaten.

The old bruises never had time to fade before the new ones took their place.

And even so, she tried her best to raise me. She copied what parents in normal families did, sent me to school, put money aside for my tuition.

Later I earned scholarships and signed up for every boxing class I could, learned boxing, learned kickboxing, and the day that gambler tried to raise his hand against her again, I hit him, blow after blow, until he couldn't fight back.

Later I became a boxing coach and worked even harder for the money, bought my mother a house, gave her a life she could finally live in peace.

I thought I had already saved her for the child I used to be.

I never imagined that in the end, because of me, she would be kneeling on the ground again.

"Mom—"

My voice shook and I couldn't stop it.

My heart felt like a fist was squeezing it.

She lifted her head slowly. Her eyes were so clear, and right now they were full of blame turned inward.

"Hope, Hope, Mommy made your husband angry. Mommy's saying sorry to your mother-in-law."

"They said if I kowtow, if I kowtow, your husband can go see you."

"Mommy did something wrong."

"You did nothing wrong!"

I held her tight against me and the sobs broke out of me before I could stop them.

"They're the ones who did wrong, they're the ones who did wrong!"

"That husband is bad. We don't want him anymore, we don't want him."

There was a puzzled softness in her voice. "We don't want him? But he's so good. He isn't like your daddy. He doesn't hit people."

"But if Hope doesn't want him, then we won't want him."

The people watching listened to the nurse's explanation, then heard the plain childlike way my mother spoke, and they understood exactly what was going on.

They were furious on our behalf in an instant.

"What kind of people are that family? Isn't this bullying, plain and simple?"

"It's a sin. The wife's having a baby, his own mother drags her feet over some superstition and won't let him go, then turns around and blames the wife's mother for bullying her?"

"Honey, better you see them clearly now than store up more heartbreak for later."

Back at the bed, the doctor tended to the wound on my mother's forehead.

She didn't even know how long she'd knelt there kowtowing. The big lump on her forehead had already split open.

The blood trickled down along her nose to the corner of her mouth. It was a sight that turned my stomach.

*

Everard cleaned himself and my mother-in-law up after their little scene.

Flora suggested straight off that they all go have fun at some trendy hotspot.

She took my mother-in-law around eating and drinking, coaxed her until she was beaming, and in that moment her contempt for me hit its peak.

"Ah, if only our Everard had married you back then."

"But it doesn't matter. The helm-child's been born anyway, so once she breaks the curse for you, Godmother will have Everard cast her off."

Everard's face darkened. "Mom, what nonsense are you spouting?"

"Hope and I are doing just fine. She just had a baby for me. Why on earth would I divorce her?"

He was already losing his patience.

"Are you two done or not? If you're not done, then stay here and enjoy yourselves. I'm going to the hospital. She just gave birth, and that mother of hers is simple in the head, how is she supposed to take proper care of her?"

This time it was my mother-in-law's face that soured.

She glowered, muttering under her breath.

"I made that idiot mother of hers kneel and apologize. I don't believe for a second she still doesn't want a divorce."

I looked at my sleeping mother, pulled one number out of the blocked list on my phone, and dialed it.

"Help me get divorced, and I'll fight for you."

"You can cut my annual pay by ten percent. And if you're afraid I'll run, you can come find me right now in Room 702, Harmony Women's Hospital."

"Drive over—"

The voice on the other end was eager, delighted.

"Wait for me. I'm on my way."

I was about to hang up when Everard's call came through.

I didn't answer. I tossed the phone aside and looked at the baby beside the bed, the way you'd look at a stranger.

4.

By the time Everard reached the hospital, his mother and Flora were still dragging their feet.

There was a note of injury in Flora's voice.

"Everard, even if you won't think about this doom that's hanging over me, you have to think about Aunt Patricia."

"She's already upset because of your wife and her mother. At least wait until today's over before you go."

Everard's buddies chimed in on Flora's side.

"He's right, Everard. Your mom's still fuming."

"Now's a bad time to see her."

Everard's steps came to a stop.

Flora was already lifting a triumphant little smile when it froze on her lips.

"If you don't want to come, then go on your own. I never asked you to follow me."

"And once this doom of yours is broken, you can keep your distance from my family. My wife doesn't need the aggravation of looking at you."

Two sentences, like a bolt out of a clear sky.

Flora's eyes went red with anger.

"Everard, I'm your foster sister. We grew up together. How can you throw me out over her!"

Seeing that he wouldn't be moved, she turned to his mother.

"Aunt Patricia, look at him."

"After all these years between us, do I really mean less to you than Hope Brady?"

"If Hope hadn't stolen him out from under me back then, I'd be the one married to Everard right now."

"Shut your mouth!"

Everard's shout drew stares from half the hospital.

It took him a long moment to force the emotion down before he spoke again.

"Flora, do you really want me to spell it all out?"

"Did you ever actually like me, or did you only like me once I could make money and things got better for my family?"

Back when his mother fell ill, she'd needed chemo.

Tens of thousands a session, and his father had run off with the money and a mistress.

Life had been about to crush him.

He'd gone to Flora to borrow money, dropped to his knees in front of her, begging only for one chance to save his mother.

And she'd humiliated him.

"Everard, if I lend you this money, I'm never getting it back."

"You know my parents didn't leave me much. I need it for traveling, for going out and having fun."

"Aunt Patricia's illness eats money like crazy, and even if she's treated she won't have many years left. You'd be better off keeping the money and spending it on yourself."

The humiliation had bored into his ears, one line after another, and he hadn't stayed. He'd turned and walked out.

With nowhere left to turn, he'd thought of taking out a loan. But just as he was reaching for it.

A hand pressed down over his phone.

"That road's a bottomless pit. If you can stay off it, stay off it."

"You've got two good hands and two good legs. Why would you borrow like that?"

He'd crouched down, clawing at his own hair, in agony.

"My dad took all the money. My mom's in chemo. I don't have any money left, I don't have any money."

"I don't want anything to happen to my mom. I don't."

That person had simply tossed him a card. "The PIN ends in six. Take it, get your mother treated, and pay me back whenever you can."

His mother had finally gotten her treatment, and because she'd been in decent health to begin with, after a few rounds she'd pulled through.

That was when he'd really come into her orbit.

He learned she was a boxer.

He started going to watch her fights in his free time, dressing her wounds when she got hurt, and later, through her, he came to work at a club.

Life had started looking up. He gave his mother a better life, and he fell in love with the woman who'd saved her.

Just when things had finally settled, Flora reappeared.

She'd turned sweet, well-behaved, coaxing his mother into smiles.

"After a while I figured, if you want to come back, then come back. What mattered was that my mom was happy."

Patricia was stunned. "Son, what are you saying? You're saying Hope Brady paid for my treatment?"

"That money for the treatment, wasn't it Flora's?"

Flora let go of his arm, guilt keeping her head down.

Just then a nurse caught sight of the group and walked briskly over to Patricia, her voice all business, with a touch of distance.

"You're Miss Hope Brady's mother-in-law?"

"Is Miss Brady's husband here? Do you want the baby kept in the hospital, or taken home to be cared for?"

"If you keep the baby here, at least one family member has to stay, since the baby needs to be fed."

Everard's heart lurched. He grabbed the nurse's arm.

"What do you mean one family member has to stay? Aren't the baby's mother and grandmother both here?"