Chapter 4
1358words
Grandma opened the door, and when she saw Mom's face—haggard to the point of being almost unrecognizable—the smile on her face instantly froze, replaced by overwhelming concern.
"Katherine? My child, what happened to you?"
Grandma pulled Mom into her embrace, her wrinkled hands holding her tightly, like embracing a little girl who had suffered terrible grievances in the outside world.
As soon as Mom's body made contact with Grandma's warmth, the string that had been taut for a day and night finally snapped completely. She leaned on Grandma's frail shoulder and burst into tears, her cries filled with despair and grievance.
In the living room, Grandpa, who had been reading the newspaper, was startled. He pushed up his reading glasses, and seeing the scene before him, his face immediately darkened.
We were led to sit on the sofa. Grandma brought hot tea while Grandpa sat silently across from us, his furrowed brow and serious expression already making everything clear.
Between intermittent sobs, Mom told them everything. She spoke of the disgusting affair between Dad and Aunt Rachel, of the scene I witnessed on the guest bedroom bed, and of Dad's utterly shameless remarks.
With each sentence, Mom's body trembled a bit more, and Grandpa's face grew a shade darker.
By the time Mom reached the end, her voice had become almost inaudible, as if she had used all her strength to reveal that deeper, more unspeakable secret.
"And... all these years, he... he has often been physically abusive to me..."
Mom's head hung very low, the sentence itself carrying enormous humiliation.
"I clearly refused him, but he still... he still forces himself on me in the middle of the night... I don't even feel safe in my own home..."
Grandma suddenly tightened her grip on Mom's arm, looking at her daughter in disbelief, tears immediately welling up in her eyes.
"Child, why didn't you say something sooner!"
"I thought... I thought if I just endured it, it would pass..." Mom said through her tears. "I thought he was just going through something... I never imagined he would be with my sister..."
Before she could finish speaking, another wave of devastating sobs overtook her.
*BANG!*
Grandpa slammed his fist on the table violently, shaking with rage, the veins on his neck bulging.
"That beast!" he roared, his eyes turning red with anger. "We raised an ungrateful daughter, and let you marry a bastard son-in-law!"
I sat next to Mom, tightly holding her cold hand. Only at this moment did I finally understand what kind of pain and loneliness she had endured all these years in that seemingly perfect family.
Grandma wiped Mom's tears while indignantly saying, "I knew something was off when Rachel suddenly became so attentive! All these years, every time she came to visit us, those gifts she brought—weren't they all secretly paid for by you? She never spent a penny of her own money!"
Grandma's words were like a key, instantly unlocking the floodgates of memory. Those moments we once regarded as "family love" now revealed their hypocritical and disgusting core.
"She even told me it was money she saved from her own work, saying she wanted to take good care of us!" Grandma's voice trembled with anger. "Such a liar! A fraud!"
After hearing this, Grandpa's face had turned extremely ashen. He abruptly stood up from the sofa, paced back and forth in the living room, and finally stopped, saying resolutely: "No, I must get to the bottom of this today! I'm calling her right now and telling her to come back immediately!"
As he spoke, Grandpa picked up the phone and without hesitation dialed Rachel's number.
The phone rang for a long time before it was answered. Grandpa didn't give her any chance to speak, directly shouting in a commanding tone: "You—right now—immediately come back home! I'm giving you only half an hour!"
After saying this, he slammed down the phone, and the entire living room echoed with his heavy breathing.
In less than half an hour, the sound of the door opening came from the entrance.
Aunt Rachel walked in. Seeing the interrogation-like setup in the living room, a flash of uneasiness crossed her face, but she still put on an innocent look.
"Dad, Mom, what's wrong? Why did you call me back so urgently?"
Grandpa pointed at her, his finger trembling with anger: "You still have the nerve to call me Dad? I ask you, what's going on between you and your brother-in-law Damian?!"
Rachel's expression changed instantly. She instinctively looked at Mom and me, a flash of malice in her eyes.
She tried to deny it: "Dad, who's been spreading lies? My brother-in-law and I... there's nothing between us."
"Nothing?" Grandma pulled Mom behind her, like a lioness protecting her cub. She stared at her younger daughter, her eyes full of disappointment and pain. "Your sister saw everything! Birth control pills, hotel key cards—all the evidence is there! How long are you going to keep lying!"
Seeing that she could no longer deny it, the mask on Rachel's face was finally torn off. She screamed in humiliation and anger.
"Yes! I am with him! So what!" she shouted defiantly. "This is all your fault! Since childhood, you've always favored my sister! She gets all the good things first, and I only get her leftovers! Why does she get to attend the best university, marry such a wealthy husband, and live such a perfect life? And what about me? Am I destined to suffer domestic violence and be buried in debt?"
Her voice echoed throughout the living room, filled with twisted jealousy and resentment.
"And Damian too! He should have been mine! If you hadn't insisted on matchmaking him with my sister back then, I would be the one standing by his side now!"
"You—!" Grandpa raised his hand in anger, about to deliver a slap.
"Don't!" Grandma cried out, stopping him.
She looked at her youngest daughter before her, with a contorted face that seemed completely unfamiliar, her heart breaking as tears slid down her wrinkled cheeks.
"Rachel," Grandma's voice was not loud, but carried a heartbreaking finality, "From today on, we no longer have you as a daughter. You may leave."
Rachel was thrown out of the family home.
In the second before the door closed, she turned her head and, looking past her tearful parents, her gaze shot directly at Mom standing behind them.
Her lips curled into a cold, malicious smile.
"You think you've won?" she said contemptuously. "Damian is still on my side. Once he divorces you, I'll be his lawfully wedded wife, Mrs. Damian."
After saying this, she slammed the door shut with a loud *BANG*.
After that thunderous noise, the living room fell into a deathly silence.
Mom stared at the tightly closed door, at the direction where her sister's figure had disappeared, with no sadness or tears left in her eyes, only a chillingly calm demeanor that made one's heart tremble.
She turned around, supported her parents who were almost unable to stand steady, and calmly said to them: "Dad, Mom, in three months, it will be your golden wedding anniversary."
Grandpa and Grandma were both stunned, not understanding why she suddenly brought this up.
Mom's gaze swept over them, finally landing on Grandpa's face.
"I'd like to ask you both to help me with something."
Grandpa, looking at the cold and determined light in his daughter's eyes that he had never seen before, instinctively asked: "What do you want to do?"
Mom's lips slowly curved into an arc, a smile without a trace of warmth.
"At the golden wedding celebration, I want all our relatives and friends to see clearly what kind of people Rachel and Damian really are," her voice was calm and clear, each word like a block of ice. "I want this shameless couple to lose all face in front of everyone we know, so they can never hold their heads up again."
