Chapter 2
Leo cradled the newborn infant tightly against his chest, feeling the tiny, fragile heartbeat anchoring him to reality while his wife remained motionless on the beige sofa. The sunlit living room, usually a sanctuary of modern elegance, now felt suffocating, charged with an unspoken tension that made the air heavy. Eleanor remained seated at the minimalist dining table, her posture rigid and unyielding, displaying an eerie calmness that contrasted sharply with Leo’s spiraling anxiety. She picked up another slice of apple, the metallic scrape of the silver knife against the porcelain plate piercing the tense silence of the room.
"She’s just resting," Eleanor reiterated, her voice devoid of any maternal warmth or genuine concern. "Young mothers today think every minor discomfort is a medical emergency. A little exhaustion never killed anyone."
Leo stood up slowly, shifting the baby to one arm while his other hand instinctively reached for his phone. His eyes flashed with a dangerous mix of frustration and exhaustion. "Exhaustion? Eleanor, she is completely unresponsive! You’ve been here all week, supposedly helping us transition into parenthood, but every time I call, you dismiss her symptoms. Look at her color. This isn't normal tiredness."
Eleanor set the knife down deliberately, her cold blue eyes meeting Leo’s with a condescending glare. She stood up from the table, smoothing down her light beige dress with precise, deliberate movements. "You men always panic at the slightest sign of distress. In my day, a woman managed the household, cooked every meal from scratch, cared for the newborn, and never complained. Claire needed to learn how to be a proper wife, and sometimes traditional methods require a firm hand. She simply lacked resilience."
Leo’s breath hitched in his throat. The words echoed ominously in the open-concept space. "She made me cook everything!" Leo blurted out, the memory of the grueling nights spent hunched over the stove after grueling sixteen-hour work shifts flooding back. "Every single meal for the past month, while she was heavily pregnant and recovering, you forced her to stand in the kitchen for hours because you claimed my cooking wasn't traditional enough, while you sat right there and watched!"
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Eleanor raised her arms defensively, her expression hardening into stubborn defiance. She stepped toward the coffee table, where a stack of medical warning documents lay neatly arranged beside a half-empty glass of water. "She needed to learn how to be a proper wife," Eleanor repeated, her voice dripping with absolute authority. "A husband works, and a wife maintains the home. I was only ensuring she fulfilled her duties, for your sake as much as hers."
Leo stared at his mother-in-law in sheer disbelief. Without another word, he snatched his phone from his pocket with his free hand, his thumb trembling as he dialed emergency services. His eyes locked onto Eleanor with intense, unyielding anger. "You don’t know what’s coming to you," he whispered, pressing the phone to his ear as the first automated ringtone chimed through the speaker.
