Chapter 2 – The Suitcase
Chapter 2 – The Suitcase
Later that night, Daniel helped Emily into bed.
She apologized again.
"I'm sorry I embarrassed your family."
Daniel gently brushed a strand of hair from her face.
"You didn't embarrass anyone."
"They embarrassed themselves."
Emily finally admitted the truth.
Every day while Daniel worked twelve-hour shifts, Patricia criticized everything she did.
She wasn't allowed to rest.
She wasn't allowed to nap.
She cooked every meal, cleaned every room, washed everyone's laundry, and was constantly reminded that she was "only a wife."
Daniel felt sick.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want to come between you and your family."
Daniel stood silently.
Then he walked into the closet.
He pulled out a large suitcase.
Emily blinked.
"What are you doing?"
"We're leaving."
"But this is your parents' house."
He zipped the suitcase shut.
"Exactly."
Thirty minutes later, he carried their luggage downstairs.
Patricia stood in the hallway.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Daniel looked around the house he had spent years helping to pay for.
"I'm taking my wife somewhere she'll be treated like family."
"You would abandon your own mother?"
"No."
He opened the front door.
"I refuse to abandon my wife."
May you like
The door closed behind them.
Patricia had never imagined her son would actually leave.
