But after hearing what his sister said, he coldly glared at me. "Can't you just behave? Do you always have to make trouble? She's my mom. You're supposed to be filial. What's wrong with giving her the money? What's yours is mine."
Ignoring my desperate pleas, he turned and told her the PIN: our wedding anniversary.
Looking at Robert's indifference and his mother's smug face, for the first time, I felt regret.
Was the man I gave up everything for really worth it?
2
To support myself and provide nutrition for the baby, I started doing part-time work, packing parcels at the delivery point downstairs in our neighborhood.
Fortunately, the owner, seeing that I was a pregnant woman working to earn money, thought my husband had passed away and treated me kindly.
Perhaps due to malnutrition during the pregnancy, the baby was born prematurely.
On the day I gave birth, Robert brought his mother and sisters to the hospital and pressured me to transfer the ownership of my property to his illegitimate child with another woman.
It was only then that I discovered Robert had another family outside.
I refused, and that very afternoon, his mother took my 200,000 dollars and went on a family vacation.
When I called Robert, all I received were insults.
I couldn't reach him, and I felt too ashamed to call my parents for help.
I had no choice but to borrow money from friends to pay the hospital bills.
After returning home, I had to learn how to care for the baby by following online tutorials.
With no food left in the house and no money, I resorted to cooking expired instant noodles.
This continued until his family returned from their vacation.
But they still didn't leave me alone.
They forced me to do housework during my postpartum recovery and to pack parcels to support the family.
When they found out that my difficult labor had left me unable to have more children, they publicly cursed and berated me on the street.
They even laid hands on me.
It was after this incident that I seriously began considering divorce.
But I didn't have a penny to my name, and Robert had already transferred all our money to his mother.
Divorcing him would mean walking away with nothing, and without the means to support my baby, I had to put my plans on hold.
I hadn't expected that my continuous concessions would only lead to further humiliation.