Cassandra woke up feeling a heavy pressure in her lower back and a strange tightening in her stomach. It wasn’t an agonizing pain, but it felt like a silent warning that something was wrong.
She decided to stay in bed a little longer to see if the sensation would pass. It was barely nine o’clock when Edith burst into the bedroom without knocking.
“Are you going to get up now, or should I bring you breakfast in bed like a servant?” Edith asked.
Cassandra sat up slowly and leaned against the headboard. “I really don’t feel well this morning.”
“Of course you don’t,” Edith scoffed. “What a coincidence that you get sick the moment Wesley isn’t around to see it.”
Cassandra chose not to answer and walked to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. When she came out, she went to the kitchen hoping to make some tea.
She found the kitchen in a state of total disarray. Her vitamins were missing from the counter, and her school portfolio was gone from the table.
“Are you looking for this trash?” Edith asked while standing in the dining room. She was holding Cassandra’s school folder with two fingers as if it were a dirty rag.
“Those are my final exams, Mrs. Higgins,” Cassandra said while reaching out.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” the older woman said while pulling the folder away. “You act as though you are the first person to ever have a child.”
Cassandra stepped forward to grab her belongings, but Edith stepped back quickly.
“Let us be very clear about the situation here,” Edith hissed. “This house is not a resort for lazy girls.”
“My son is gone, and I am finished acting like your personal maid,” she continued. “You only married into this family for the comfort and the money.”
Cassandra felt a rush of heat climb up her neck. “I did not marry him for money, and I have worked since I was a teenager.”
“Your little salary would not even cover the cost of the diapers this baby will need,” Edith laughed.
“I will not allow you to speak to me or my child that way,” Cassandra said firmly.
“And who are you to allow anything in my own home?” Edith shouted back.
The argument exploded like a brush fire in a dry field. Years of swallowed insults and kept silences finally burst forth in a few chaotic minutes.
Cassandra demanded basic respect. Edith responded with a cruel mockery of her voice.