First Married Day, Mother-in-Law Shamed Me; We Flipped Tables

The first day of my marriage, I'd barely sat down when my mother-in-law came over carrying a plate of tough old celery.

Livvy, house rules. For the first three days, a new bride eats nothing but celery.

It's what makes a dull mind sharp. Your degree doesn't match my Jarvis Simmons's, so from now on you'll need to work twice as hard at everything.

The older brother chimed in from the side, sipping at the top-shelf whiskey I'd brought.

"That's right. And don't touch that braised fish. Fish makes you stupid, and the babies you have later will come out stupid too."

I looked at my pregnant sister-in-law beside me. There was only a small dish of pickled scraps in front of her, and she sat with her head down, her face gone blank.

Then I looked at that plate of celery, roots still on, dirt not even washed off, and I turned to Jarvis.

"Is this what you think too?"

He nudged my arm and dropped his voice.

"My parents are retired professors. There's a lot you could learn from their rules."

"Just eat it. When my sister-in-law married in, she ate a whole plate. Don't be ungrateful."

I smiled, picked up a mouthful of celery, and slid it into my mouth.

A satisfied grin spread across the mother-in-law's face. "There, that's more like"

Before she could finish, I shot to my feet, grabbed the tablecloth, and swept every dish straight into the sink.

"Mom, this celery really works. I can't sit still at all now."

The smile vanished from her face, replaced by something ugly.

"You dare. Thirty years of teaching and I've never seen anything so ill-bred."

The father-in-law sat squarely at the head of the table and let his eyes flick over me.

"In a family like ours, we hold to rules and decorum."

"You've come through this door, so you'll keep this house's rules."

Gregory Simmons, the older brother, set his glass down hard and turned to Jarvis with a sneer in his voice.

"Jarvis, this is the fine wife you picked? First day married and she's already climbing over your head."

"Can't keep her in line? Fine. Your big brother will do it for you."

Jarvis stood beside me, his face flushed red, and forced a smile in his mother's direction.

Then he turned and grabbed my hand.

"Livvy, stop making a scene."

"Mom and Dad are old, and they mean well. What's wrong with a younger person going along with them?"

"Just apologize to them and we can put this behind us."

I stared at his face. My lips were curved, my voice gentle, exactly the way it had been when we were dating.

But the hand clamped around my wrist had gone white at the knuckles, the bone grinding into me until it hurt.

I wrenched my hand free and locked my eyes on his.

"You make me eat a plate of celery with the roots and dirt still on it, not even washed, and you call that a rule?"

"Jarvis, did you know all along what they were going to do today?"

His eyes slid away. He didn't deny it.

And all at once I understood why, the whole time we were dating, he'd never brought me home for a meal, never let me meet his parents.

The father-in-law set his face and coughed twice, then lifted his chin at the sister-in-law.

"Those who won't be taught must be punished. Eldest boy's wife, go bring out the bitter melon left over from last week."

She flinched all over and instinctively looked at Gregory.

Only after he gave an impatient nod did she push herself up, cringing, and walk slowly toward the kitchen with her big belly.

Before long she came back carrying a large plate of bitter melon.

The edges of the slices had already turned black, the sauce thick and stringy. It had clearly gone bad.

She set the plate in front of me, her head bowed low, and murmured to me.

"Just bear it, sister. This is a woman's lot."

The mother-in-law folded her arms across her chest and tilted her chin high.

"Suffering is a blessing. Clean this plate and I'll pretend today never happened."

I looked down at the bitter melon, already grown over with white fuzz, and I laughed.

"You want me to eat this?"

I sent the plate flying with one slap of my hand, and the juice splattered all over her.

"Did you all get your brains slashed to pieces on some bulk-deal app?"

She shook with rage.

Jarvis couldn't hold his face together any longer and shoved me hard.

"Enough. Get in that room and think about what you've done."

I staggered back two steps, and before I could steady myself Gregory had already come around from the side.

They didn't give me a single chance to fight back, dragging and hauling me into the bedroom, then locking the door.

I pounded on it and shouted.

"Jarvis, open this door."

But it was the mother-in-law's smug voice that came from the other side.

"Lock her in for a day and she'll be tame by tomorrow. That's how we broke in the eldest boy's wife, isn't it?"

I froze where I stood, shaking all over.

Then, from beyond the door, came a smothered scream, and the dull thud of a belt striking flesh.

"You useless idiot. I told you to set an example and you couldn't even manage that. When she flipped the table, why didn't you stop her?"

"You can't even carry a plate straight. Are you hoping to see this family humiliated?"

Gregory's shouting came through the door, each burst followed by a muffled grunt from his wife.

I pounded on the door.

"Gregory, she's pregnant. Why are you hitting her?"

No one out there answered me. Only the mother-in-law's voice, drifting past, not near and not far.

"Go easy. Don't hit the belly. It might be a boy."

Madison had stopped crying out. Only a stifled, choking sound came through faintly now.

I turned and searched the bedroom for my phone, but I went through everything and couldn't find it.

I remembered clearly. My bag had been sitting on the bay window ledge, my phone inside it.

When had they taken it?

I stood at the window and looked out. Ten-some floors down, and this new complex was almost empty, hardly anyone moved in.

All I could do was force myself calm.

Time crawled by. I watched the sky outside go from deep blue to solid black.

A whole day, and all I'd eaten was that one bite of celery at noon. My stomach had long since gone hollow, my throat parched.

Around midnight, I heard a faint scraping at the door lock.

The door opened a crack, and a hand reached in, pushing through two dinner rolls.

I yanked the door open. Madison was standing there.

Her left eye was swollen high, the corner of her mouth split open, her whole body poised to bolt at any second.

"Livvy, eat, quick. Don't let them hear."

I didn't take the rolls. I grabbed her wrist.

"Madison, are you all right? Is the baby okay?"

She shook her head, tears sliding down without a sound.

"Just bow your head."

"Mom says she'll make you eat raw eggplant tomorrow. Says it'll teach you to be meek, to have respect for your elders."

"If you don't eat it, she won't let you go."

"Listen to me. Bow your head, and you'll get through it. That's how I got through it back then."

That hurt worse than any beating or curse.

She wasn't telling me to endure. She truly believed it, that this was how a woman was supposed to live.

I opened my mouth to speak, and a hand shot in from behind her.

It grabbed her hair and wrenched her back.

"Well, well. Sneaking around in the middle of the night. What are you up to?"

Gregory had appeared in the doorway at some point I hadn't caught.

He seized Madison's hair and yanked her backward.

The back of her head cracked against the corner of the hallway wall with a dull thud.

Then Gregory raised his foot and kicked her in the small of the back.

"I think you've had too many pickled scraps, sticking your nose in other people's business!"

I rushed forward to pull Gregory off her, but he shoved me away and locked me back in the bedroom.

"Say one more word and I'll finish her off tonight."

I pressed myself against the door and heard Madison being dragged back to her room, and Gregory's low cursing.

My nails dug into the wood of the door until blood seeped from my fingertips.

All night, I sat against the door, and not one bite of that roll went down.

When the sky was just going gray, the door finally opened.

The mother-in-law walked in carrying a plate. On it wasn't just raw eggplant, but a slab of liver still bleeding at the edges.

She thrust the plate forward and gave me a cold smile.

"Second daughter-in-law, marrying into a well-educated family like ours, your ancestors' graves must have smoked with luck."

"And yet you had the nerve to egg my eldest daughter-in-law on to steal. Shows you're not with us in heart."

"Now eat this liver and eggplant."

"It means you'll serve the Simmons family gladly from now on, and it'll teach you some respect for your elders."

"Eat it all, and yesterday's business is over and done."

Behind her, Jarvis held my phone pinched between two fingers, waving it in front of me like he was teasing a cat.

"Livvy, look what you've done to this house."

"I'll hold onto the phone for now. Wouldn't want you doing something stupid on impulse."

He stepped closer and stroked the top of my head, wearing a look that said "this is hard on me too."

"Eat all this, own your mistake properly. Once Mom and Dad are happy, life will go smoothly from here."

Back when we used to fight, he always had this same unhurried tone.

Making you feel like you were the one being unreasonable, like backing down would open up the whole sky.

It was only today that I saw clearly. There was no tenderness in his eyes, only the smugness of a man who'd gotten his control.

I stared at the phone in his hand, and suddenly thought of something else.

"Jarvis, where's my bag?"

Besides my phone, my bag held my savings card.

He seemed to catch what I was thinking. The corner of his mouth curled up slowly, and he pulled a card from his pocket.

"You mean this?"

The blood rushed to my head all at once.

That card held five hundred thousand dollars, savings I'd scraped together over years of late nights and overtime.

"When did you take it?"

Jarvis spun the card between his fingers, smug all over his face.

"New bride comes into the house, of course the money gets handed over for the family to manage."

He flipped the card over between his fingertips and waved it at me.

"Careful and thrifty, that's how it's done. I even peeled the garlic for you. Aren't you touched?"

The father-in-law strolled over from the living room, hands clasped behind his back, wearing the look of a man stating the obvious.

"It's the rule. The man handles the outside, the woman the inside. Once you step through the Simmons door, you're a Simmons."

I lunged to grab the card back.

But Jarvis was faster. He wrenched my arms behind me and shoved me hard onto the bed.

He pinned me down, leaned in close to my ear, his voice light as air.

"Stop fighting. It won't do you any good."

I choked down my fury, let out a cold laugh, and tested his hand.

"You don't know the password. The card's useless to you."

Gregory leaned against the doorframe, contempt written all over him.

"Sis, did you forget? After the ceremony my brother said he needed your phone to check the guest list."

"While you weren't looking, we already moved the money out."

My whole body went rigid.

At the time I'd been changing into my toasting dress, Jarvis sitting off to the side with my phone in his hand.

He'd said he was going through the guest list, asked whether I wanted to move my uncle's table closer to the front.

I'd answered a word or two without thinking, never noticing what he was doing, even bragging to my mother about how thorough he was.

My mother had smiled and said I'd found myself a good one.

Now, coming back to myself, a chill crawled up my spine. I couldn't stand to imagine the man beside my pillow scheming against me like this.

"You... you transferred all of it?"

"Your payment password, your birthday plus your lucky number, it was way too easy."

Right on cue, the mother-in-law pushed the plate of raw liver a little closer.

"You don't have a single cent now. What's left to be stubborn about?"

"Be a good girl, give the Simmons family a grandson. That's worth more than anything."

The father-in-law nodded.

"Whatever you earn from now on gets handed over too. Family shouldn't draw lines between what's yours and what's ours."

I turned my head away from the reeking liver, my gaze passing over Jarvis to the far end of the hallway.

Madison was coming out of the bedroom, dragging one leg as she shuffled toward the living room for a drink of water.

Gregory turned his head, glanced at her, and frowned in disgust.

"Walks around like a ghost. Just looking at her is bad luck."

Madison said nothing. She lifted the cup carefully, her hand shaking so badly the water spilled across the table.

She hurried to wipe it with her sleeve, terrified of making any noise.

Seeing me watching her, Jarvis came closer, his tone softening.

"Livvy, you're a smart woman."

"Look at the state your brother's wife is in. Why insist on going the hard way?"

He reached out to touch my face. I turned aside from it, staring dead into his eyes.

"Jarvis, where did that five hundred thousand go?"

Jarvis went still for a beat, then his smile came back.

"That's family business. Don't trouble yourself over it. Once your attitude's straightened out, I'll explain it to you myself."

The words were barely out when a dull thud came from the living room.

Madison had dropped to the floor, both arms wrapped tight around her belly.

Gregory passed by her, annoyed she was in his way, and kicked her leg aside.

"Move. You're blocking the way."

Madison bit her lip and shrank silently toward the corner of the wall.

Not satisfied, Gregory bent down and spat at her.

"If you can't push out a son next month, I'll make sure you don't even get slop to drink!"

Madison's face was ghost-white, her forehead slick with cold sweat.

And then, on the floor beneath her dress, a wide patch of red bloomed out.

"She's bleeding!"

I shoved Jarvis aside and rushed to Madison's side.

Her face was chalk-white, her lips drained of color, her whole body trembling.

"Jarvis, give me your phone, we need an ambulance."

Jarvis stood where he was and didn't move.

Gregory only glanced down, curled his lip, and didn't so much as furrow his brow.

"A little blood won't kill her."

"She wouldn't even let them tell us the sex at the checkups. From the look of this one it's just another money-losing burden. Better it's gone, saves us the trouble."

"I can put another one in her tonight."

The mother-in-law walked over, took one look at the blood, and actually nodded.

"Exactly. She can't even sit still with her pickled scraps, has to come out in the middle of the night to fuss over people."

"She had this coming."

Madison's fingers clutched the hem of my clothes, her lips trembling as she murmured.

"Livvy, I'm fine. If I just bear it, it'll pass."

Gregory nudged her shoulder with the toe of his shoe.

"Get up and mop the floor already. That blood stinks."

Jarvis blocked me again, thrusting that plate of liver up in front of my face.

"Olympia, I'd worry about yourself first if I were you."

"You don't eat this liver tonight, you don't set one foot out that door."

I knelt on the floor, watching the blood still spreading beneath Madison's dress.

Then I looked up at the ring of people standing around me, and felt nothing but how absurd it all was.

I stood up slowly and, out of nowhere, started to laugh.

"Rules, is it? Fine."

Jarvis saw the smile at the corner of my mouth and instinctively stepped back.

"What are you doing?"

I reached out as if to take the plate of liver.

Jarvis blinked, then grinned, smug all over his face.

"There you go. See how much easier this is."

I brought my hand up and slammed the plate of liver square into his face.

Bloody juice splattered across his head and face.

He screamed, both hands over his face, body pitching backward.

I followed it up with a kick, driving my foot with everything I had into the softest spot below his belt.

Jarvis shrieked and dropped to his knees, and both his phone and mine slid out of his pocket.

Gregory caught on and came charging over.

"You're fucking asking to die!"

I snatched up both phones and spun into the kitchen, my hand reaching for the knife block on the counter. The instant my fingers touched the handle, I saw the two green onions beside the cutting board.

And I thought of Madison, hollowed out by years of his mind games.

I grabbed the cleaver in one hand and the two green onions in the other.

When Gregory rushed into the kitchen, I held the blade out in front of me.

He jerked to a stop.

"Are you insane?"

"Back off."

He looked at the knife in my hand, instinctively pulled his neck in, and took two steps back.

I turned sideways, squeezed past him, and hurried over to Madison.

I crouched down, set the cleaver beside my knee, and pressed one of the green onions into her hand.

Madison stared at me, blank, her eyes empty.

My own eyes were red as I gripped her hand tight.

"Madison, eat more green onion. You fight your way up."

"You eat pickled scraps every day, so you sit idle and take the beatings. Today you get up and fight!"

"You don't stand up right now, and you and the baby in your belly both end here."

Madison stared dully at the pool of blood beneath her dress, and in those empty eyes, all at once, there was light.

She bit off a big mouthful of the raw green onion.

The sharp, stinging juice made her eyes stream, but she forced it down anyway.

Then, with a scream, her eyes changed.