My Mother’s Lies Made the Man I Loved Leave

“Everyone, come and see! This damned dog actually wants to look at my daughter’s private parts. Those are for her future husband to see. If you look, how will she ever get married? Who knows what filthy thing you’ll do in there? You want to take advantage of my daughter and still make me pay? May you die a beautiful death!”

The hallway descended into chaos, and doctors and nurses tried to push the stretcher forward while my mom and the others pulled it back.

In the midst of the quarrel, I was thrown from the stretcher, my body crumpling to the floor as I vomited a mouthful of blood that splattered across the tiles.

Everyone froze in shock.

Startled leaders of the hospital rushed over, calling urgently for several chief doctors. At last, they managed to get me, already slipping into shock, onto the operating table.

When I woke again, a full day and night had slipped away.

My mom, like a child caught in the wrong, spoke in a sickly sweet tone. “Millicent, I’m sorry. I didn’t know your condition was so serious. I thought gynecological problems were nothing but minor illnesses.”

I studied her carefully, as though seeing her for the very first time.

Behind her seemingly guilty eyes flickered smugness, satisfaction at my misfortune, and even a faint trace of irritation, irritation that I had survived.

Was she dissatisfied because I had not died?

Having brushed against the gates of hell, my voice was steady, frighteningly calm. “So, was it a gynecological disease?”

She looked at me with tearful eyes, as if she were the one who had been most grievously wronged.

“Are you blaming me? Was it wrong that I feared you’d never marry if a man looked at your private parts? Everything I did was for your own good.”

Once again, cloaked in those same words, “for my own good”, she wounded me.

And I endured, because she was the only family I had. But she never treated me as her daughter.

“Go. When I’m discharged, I’ll move out.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue, but when I buried my head beneath the quilt, she fell silent and reluctantly walked out of the ward.

Three days later, I was discharged and returned home.

The moment I stepped through the door, the living room was brimming with people.

My mom, pretending as though nothing had happened, tugged me inside.

“How could you not tell me you were discharged? I would’ve had your uncle pick you up.”

That Blake, with his battered second-hand Alto that burned through a thousand dollars in gas per kilometer, I wouldn’t dare ride in it.

My silence didn’t faze my mom. She turned cheerfully to a gaunt man seated on the sofa.

“Hayden Rodriguez, this is my daughter. Are you satisfied?”

He grinned, his cheekbones jutting sharply, his face nothing but skin stretched over bone.

My scalp prickled as I turned to my mom in shock. “Mom, what is this?”

Her eyes glinted as she answered, “You said I never cared for you? Well, I’ve found you a husband. He’s Kiersey’s friend, we know his family, and he’s gentle and reliable. With Hayden, I feel completely assured.”

“I even checked the dates; today is lucky. Forget the engagement, just marry straightaway and go to your bridal chamber.”

Gazing at his sickly gray face, I thought for an instant I must be seeing things.

“Oh, sister, look, Millicent is so happy she’s frozen in place.”

Anne picked up a wine-red wool coat, reaching to wrap it around me. I snapped back, recoiling as if a current had jolted through me.

My eyes locked on the man, his neck swollen with lumps, blotches marring his skin from throat to limbs.

Then my gaze shifted to my cousin, crouched low in the corner like a quail too frightened to move.

It struck me like lightning. My body went stiff as I turned to my mom, spitting each word like venom.

“He has AIDS, and you’re forcing me to marry him?”

Her face turned pale, but Blake charged forward, shoving me roughly. “AIDS? What nonsense! Would your mom ever harm you? If she says marry, then you’ll marry.”

“Natasha!” My whole body shook as I roared her name. “Have you lost your mind? I am your daughter. Your own blood!”

Her body trembled, her voice softening. “Millicent, Mom already asked around. AIDS patients can still live for twenty years at most. Hayden swore to me he’d take good care of you. Just stay by Kiersey’s side, won’t you? Blake has only Kiersey as a daughter. Mom can’t stand to see her left alone.”

“Millicent, what’s the point of saying so much? We’ve already got her bank cards. Once she goes off with Kiersey, no more burden. Then you can easily find yourself a second spring.”

He yanked my hand roughly, dragging me toward the room.

Hayden followed close behind like a shadow.

I clutched the doorframe, my whole body trembling, eyes burning with wrath. “Mom, you promised my dad you would protect me. If you do this, he won’t forgive you, even in the afterlife!”

My mom’s lips quivered, unease flashing faintly, yet when my cousin sobbed softly, she turned from me as if I were nothing.

Blake bound my limbs with bedsheets, then struck my cheek with a malicious pat. “You’re no different from your short-lived dad, fated to be nothing more than a stepping stone for my family. To be buried with my daughter, consider that the greatest blessing of eight lifetimes.”

Taking advantage of his arrogance, I sank my teeth deep into the tiger’s mouth of his hand, tearing away flesh.

His scream echoed, his eyes bloodshot with rage as he struck me over and over until his strength finally drained. He spat in my bloodied face and left in fury.

Hayden shed his clothes, crawling toward me with a twisted grin. “Wife, welcome to the world of AIDS.”

I couldn’t move, helpless as he tore at my clothes, tears of despair slipping silently from the corners of my eyes.

Just as despair swallowed me whole, a stern shout burst from the front door. “Police! We’ve received a report that someone here is being illegally detained.”