When Love Requires Letting Go

No matter how hard I tried, the shadow lingered.

Jack was poised to confront me, but Cathy intervened, pulling him away.

That night, William berated me.

"You're out of your mind. My father is right. Why are you tormenting our daughter?"

"I can't stand your mom sleeping in my bed," I retorted.

"Then how could you tolerate it before? Why are you suddenly losing it now?"

The chasm between us felt insurmountable.

I let my emotions spill forth.

"That's because I didn't know before that they slept on my bed! William, you can stand your parents in our bed, but I can't.

"I just can't stand it, okay?"

Realizing the volume of my voice, William quickly covered my mouth.

"You're insane. Why are you shouting? Why are you making a scene about this?"

I pulled his hand away and continued shouting.

"You also know this kind of thing can't be known to others. You still have some dignity. I thought you didn't want that."

William's anger flared.

He pushed me onto the bed.

"I told you not to talk nonsense. My parents are also human beings. They also have sexual needs.

"Imagine if we were in our forties and our son and his wife forbade us from having sex. Could you accept that?"

"You're insane. I wouldn't care how much noise they made during their sex behind closed doors.

"But they are not allowed to do it in my room."

"Enough. They only came to sleep with Mia. You saw it yourself. They didn't do anything."

As William spoke, he moved to remove my clothes.

I reacted instinctively to kick his stomach.

I thought, "Shit!

Men were bastards.

At this moment, he could still think of having sex."

How could I possibly comply?

I flung open the door and stepped out. Jack and Cathy were standing in the living room with displeasure.

They had obviously overheard my conversation with William.

I didn't care if they were unhappy because I had said it intentionally for them to hear.

I wondered if they would still maintain any sense of decorum at home and if they would ever commit such shameless acts again.

I picked up Mia, ready to return to my room, but Jack blocked my path.

"Yvonne, I heard what you said. You can't say whatever you please.

"Especially, you can't slander others about matters like this."

It was ridiculous!

Jack felt wronged.

"Then why did you do those things? If you do them, why can't people talk about it?"

Jack blushed.

"What did we do? Did you see us do anything?"

"Do you expect me to witness it? How shameless."

As we teetered on the brink of a full-blown argument, Cathy, still clinging to a semblance of dignity, pulled Jack back to their room.

Jack continued to mutter as they walked away.

"What did she mean? What did we do to make her so angry?"

I couldn't help but laugh at their pretense.

I might not have concrete evidence about their sex in my new house, but who else could it be if not them?