The Baby They Killed Was Her Only Hope

Until one day, I saw the photos in a secondhand marketplace.

Bird's nest supplements that retailed for three or four hundred dollars, listed at eighty. Unopened imported protein powder, listed at fifty. Daisy was the one selling them.

I didn't make a scene. I just went to my mother and told her she should keep those things for herself.

But instead, she turned around and lectured me. "Daisy's not doing anything wrong. I can't stand the taste of that stuff anyway. Might as well trade it for a little cash."

"She's willing to stay here and keep me company. Do you have any idea how much pressure that puts on her? When my condition gets worse, I'll be depending on them to take care of me. Don't you understand that?"

"She married into this family and does the job you should be doing as my daughter. You can't even be grateful, and now you have the nerve to criticize her?"

I lay awake the entire night after hearing that, convinced I'd overstepped. Convinced I'd been too controlling and hadn't considered Daisy's situation. Convinced I'd failed as a sister-in-law.

So I gave Daisy a credit card with a three-thousand-dollar monthly limit. It wasn't much, but I thought it might at least ease some of her burden.

And now she was calling me a freeloader.

I snapped back to the present and looked at my mother before I could stop myself. "Mom, is that what you think too?"

Her eyes turned even colder. "What? Is anything Daisy said wrong?"

"Every time you come over, you eat a meal, then get up and leave. If that's not mooching, what is?"

"Besides, you've always been sharper than your brother. A surgery this serious, I need you by my side to feel safe."

Sharper.

It hit me then. My mother couldn't bring herself to use a single kind word when she talked about me.

A bitter laugh escaped before I could swallow it. "So what you're saying is, Dad's too sick to help, Cornelius's honeymoon can't be postponed..."

"And I have to terminate my pregnancy to take care of you?"

She didn't see a single thing wrong with that. She nodded as if it were the most obvious conclusion in the world. "You're the eldest. Isn't it your responsibility to look after me?"

"Your brother is still young. He doesn't know how to handle things. Something as serious as surgery, I can only count on you!"

"Still young?" I lost hold of the last thread of restraint. "He's two years younger than me. He's turning thirty this year. What exactly doesn't he know how to handle?"

The words had barely left my mouth.

A slap landed square across my face.

I hadn't seen it coming. The force knocked me sideways off the chair, a high-pitched ringing flooding my ear. My cheek burned instantly.

"Sylvia Dickerson! You're talking back to me!" My mother's hand still hung in the air, her voice shaking with rage. "So what if he's thirty? Thirty means he's not your brother anymore?!"

"I was trying to have a civil conversation with you! Why do you have to be so ungrateful!"

"When it comes down to it, you just don't want to take care of me! I raised you for nothing!"

I pressed my hand against my cheek, frozen in place. "But the life inside me, doesn't that count too?"

"Mom, that's your grandchild!"

"My grandchild?" Her chest heaved violently, her voice cracking. "Did I tell you to get pregnant?!"

"Or are you saying the mother who gave birth to you and raised you matters less than the baby in your belly?"

I looked down at my stomach. This was my first child with my husband. I'd imagined the news would be cause for double celebration.

When I didn't answer, my mother took a step closer, her voice bearing down on me. "Sylvia, wasn't it you who had your husband look into this treatment plan?!"

"You know every detail of the surgical protocol. What's wrong with me asking you to be here for it!"