Chapter 8: The Breaking Point
Ethan showed up at my house one evening.
He looked exhausted. The confident, arrogant man I had seen at the hospital was gone.
He stood on my porch and said, “Victoria, please. Let me talk to Emily. I just want to explain.”
I didn’t open the door.
“Explain what, Ethan? How you locked your pregnant wife in a guest house? How you and your family beat her? How you threatened to kill her during childbirth?”
He flinched.
“I never wanted any of that. My mother… she pushed too hard. I just wanted Emily to understand our family’s expectations.”
I looked at him through the screen door.
“Emily is not your family’s property. She is my daughter. And from this moment forward, you will have no contact with her or your child unless a court orders it. Do you understand me?”
Ethan stared at the ground.
May you like
Then he nodded once and walked away.
I watched him go and felt nothing but cold resolve.
