Just Mum says youve become odd, he muttered.
Ah, Mum says, Emily snorted, recalling the fresh argument that had erupted over the kitchen table. How could her motherinlaw, Margaret, possibly accuse her of being rude right after the latter had begun to speak about her own painful past? Probably for the hundredth time.
Margaret, could we change the subject? Emily asked, her tone polite but firm.
Margaret, midmonologue about the miscarriages shed suffered in her youth, choked on her own words and stared at the young woman, bewildered.
Emily, Im only trying to support you, she protested.
Thanks, but I dont need support from someone whose empathy is as thin as a wafer, Emily retorted.
Are you calling me stupid? Margarets eyes welled up.
On any other day Emily might have tried to smooth things over, perhaps by slipping out of the house with a fabricated work call or a sudden meeting shed just remembered. She would have invented an excuse to escape Margarets endless stories about her tragic past, but grief is a strange beastespecially the kind that rewires the whole body during pregnancy.
By the fifth month, Emily had gone from a softspoken, patient soul to a woman who rolled up her sleeves and asked, in the blunt, nononsense way that her family knew her for, Wheres the horse and the cottage, and whats the plan? She then tackled the problems she could solve.
What should I call you, when youve already told me a hundred times you dont want to discuss your failed motherhood? she snapped.
I have a friend whos a highfunctioning autistiche might break into a sudden dance in a supermarket or miss a joke, but even he knows that bringing up such topics with a pregnant woman is sheer idiocy.
So Im not only being called a dullard, Im also what? An idiot? This is how you treat me for trying to be kind. Ive never heard a kind word from you
Yes, youd better have something kind to say! Emily snapped, slamming the front door shut. She breathed out, inhaled, and smiled, feeling completely satisfied with herself.
She hoped the silence would last a few weeks, or better yet, forever. That hope was shortlived; the clash with Margaret sparked a fresh set of problems.
Thomas, Emilys husband and Margarets son, sat silently at dinner, lost in thought. Emily tried her usual small talk, but Thomas responded in monosyllables, his mind clearly elsewhere.
She never linked his silence to the mornings argument with his mother. Perhaps he was swamped at work, or something else weighed on him that he didnt want to share to avoid worrying her.
A few days later, Thomas finally broached a different subject.
Emily, have you ever heard of postnatal depression? It can affect pregnant women too, cant it?
Maybe its not technically postnatal, but I dont think Im depressed, do I? she replied.
Honestly, if it would reassure you, I could see a psychiatristprovided you go with me and explain why my behaviour made you suspect this depression, Thomas offered.
Emily laughed, Just Mum says youve become odd.
The memory of the earlier fight resurfaced. Could Margaret really have accused Emily of being rude after the latter had mentioned her own sad history, perhaps for the hundredth time?
Thomas, Ill be blunt: if anyone needs to see a specialist, its your mother. Do you know what she told me?
I know you two are always at odds. She thinks youre deliberately giving her a hard timelike with advice about a hair mask or sending a parcel to the wrong address
What are you on about? Emily asked, genuinely confused.
Thomas reminded her that a few weeks earlier his mother had bought the same hair mask Emily kept on the shelf and claimed Emily had suggested it to her. Margaret then used the mask and accused Emily of steering her toward a bad product while keeping the good oneone that supposedly made her hair growhidden for herself.
What? Thomas, you clearly dont get these womens things, Emily snapped. If you understood, youd see the trick.
In three minutes Emily explained why she could never have recommended a mask meant for naturally healthy hair to a woman who bleached, dyed, and treated her hair with harsh chemicalswhat the locals now call a bioperm, which still wrecks hair health.
She pulled up her phone, opened the message thread with Margaret, and showed Thomas the exact address shed given her when she needed to collect a parcel from his friend.
Right, I get it now. Im sorryI shouldnt have trusted Mums word. She was normal once, but you two fought over what again?
She started bringing up her past trauma again Emily sighed. I understand shes endured terrible loss, even four times in a row before you came along, but constantly reliving it, especially when Im trying to cope with my own pregnancy, is exhausting. Im not here to listen to everyone elses woes.
Are you saying shes trying to poison me? Thomas blurted, clearly angry. He later called his mother for a serious talk, then returned home and told Emily that they would no longer maintain any relationship with Margaret.
Emily felt a quiet relief. The motherinlaws erratic behaviour had finally worn her out, and the attempts to smear Emily in front of Thomas had never succeeded.
Thomass relatives kept bashing him, saying hed traded his mother for a stranger. He would only scoff, replying, My childs mother isnt a stranger. If Mums at fault, ask her.
Its always the offender who gets judged, not the degree of kinship. Not everyone agrees with Thomas, but hes set in his view.
Now the only question lingering is why Margaret felt the need to drive a wedge between her son and his pregnant wife. The answer remains elusive.
Its a classic tale of a mother who cant share her son with another woman. She didnt have to shareshe lost him entirely, and shes responsible for it. No one should blame Thomas or Emily.
At least she could have let us see the baby, the extended family complained. Grandmothers only get the joy of spoiling grandchildren in old age, and a wayward son robs them of that.
Then stop forcing your grandparents on your grandchildren and your spouses, Thomas retorted. Lets see how long your strong marriages survive that pressure.
He seemed to take a perverse pleasure in trading barbs with relatives online. Perhaps he even regretted that nobody else would pick up the slack of looking after his mother, leaving him to push her off the conversation altogether.
Thomas knew his mother disliked him, and he finally understood why things had turned sour. He couldnt fix the past, so after a few pointed remarks to his relatives warning them not to meddle, he cut off contact completely. That also meant any help they might have offered vanished, finally letting the loving ones stay away from his family.
Now their little boy grows up in peace and quiet. Thomas and Emily do everything they can to preserve that calm throughout his early years, hoping it will last as long as possible.
When school starts, theyll teach him how to speak up and answer properly, because Emily, even after pregnancy, still has a set of teeth that never left, and Thomas shows no sign of losing his modesty.
Modesty these days only helps you get a ride on someone elses back; its of little practical use.
Emily feels fortunate she recognised this early, before it was too late to shed the parasites of all kinds that had latched onto her life.
In the end, the story reminds us that letting go of toxic relationships, however tangled, is the first step toward a healthier futurefor ourselves and for those we love.
