"And you...." Miss. Rick said turning to me.
Fear constricted my chest, forcing me to take a shaky breath as I looked up at her.
"You are still not pregnant yet; I got pregnant with Liam after meeting Liam's father once, but you... You barren bitch!" Miss Rick said, storming towards me. She raised her hands, and I bent my face, expecting the impact, but the clicking sound of heels and shrilly feminine sound approached us and stopped her mid-action.
"Mom, let her be today," Emily, Liam's sister said, while she approached us. "You know Nicholas is around, we have to be good. " She continued, pulling Miss Rick by her arm. Miss. Rick glared at me before stepping away, and almost immediately, her face metamorphosed into a smile.
Of course a fake smile.
"Rest up, we need to rest for tomorrow," Miss. Rick said to Liam, leading him upstairs but not before stopping to glare at me and said. "You should've come earlier because you need to clean up the pantry."
" Were you waiting for him? Liam is not your driver. Next time, you must come earlier; you have a lot to do." She hissed loudly.
I frown immediately, "the pantry? I could do that tomorrow. I need to rest." I protested, looking at Liam to speak, but he looked away and left; my heart fell as I stared at his back as he walked up the stairs.
"Rest? In a house built by my son? You should think again. Start with it now so that you'll be done by 12 at least. You won't want to wake everyone." She ordered before turning on her heels and walking up the stairs.
"Babe, you can't possibly be serious, your sister is there sleeping while I'm here working my ass off, and you don't see a problem with it," I complained to Liam when his mom woke me up in the morning to prepare breakfast.
"It's not like you have anything that you are doing. Emily still has to go to school today, but you stay at home all day doing nothing." He said, arranging his sleeping arrangements to go back to sleep.
" Because you asked me to. I used to work at my dad's company, but you....." I couldn't finish what I was saying before he snapped at me.
"I was helping you. You were not fit to handle the pressure from the company, and that was why I asked you to merge it with my company, so you should be grateful for that."
" I want to get back to work. I'm tired of being at home all day; I'm tired of your family talking down on me like I'm nothing." I demanded.
" Yes, you will, but that'll be after you give me a child." He said storming out of the room.
Tears pricked my eyes; Liam would take every opportunity to remind me of our childless state like it was my fault. He has cut off all sorts of intimacy at his mother's words and only sleeps with me on my ovulation, which I don't even enjoy, thanks to his complaints of me being barren and all.
After wallowing in my situation for some time, I wiped my tears and went downstairs to prepare breakfast.
"Get me coffee; I need to wake up," Emily said while painting her nails as I was passing while on my way to the kitchen.
I swallowed the pain in my chest, wondering how I had tolerated this insolence for so long from a girl I was older than.
"And what.. " I swallowed the anger that wanted to burst out and walked to the kitchen to make the coffee.
I had worked blindly as a maid to make them happy but I did not realize how I had been taken for granted.
"Do you want to get me killed,? What is this poison that you just served me?" Emily shrieked after tasting the coffee after I had served her.
"What is wrong with it?" I asked.
"You are asking me that? There's absolutely nothing that you can do appropriately." She yells as she flings the hot mug of coffee at me.
I jumped back but it was too late as a bulk of the hot coffee landed on the back of my hand and legs, scalding me.
I yelped and immediately turned to get ice from the kitchen to use on it when she yelled and grasped my scaled hands.
"Are you trying to walk out on me?" She increased her voice, to draw the attention of everyone while applying pressure on my hands.
I restrained the urge to scream but instead raised my hands to slap her, but my hands were caught in the air.
"What do you think you are trying to do, trying to slap my precious daughter?" Miss Rick said, glaring daggers at me.
"No ma'am, I ... I.." I immediately shake my head.
Precious daughter? So I'm not someone's precious daughter too. I bemoaned myself.
" So I'm now blind?" Miss. Rick asked her eyes going back and forth between us.
"I just begged her to make me coffee because you know she's good at it but instead she walked out on me,"
"Hot coffee spilled on me, and I wanted to get it under water, but instead, she held me back, refusing to let go," I explained.
"Mom, I just asked her to make me coffee, and she made it bitter and hot, obviously out of anger. I was angry and was complaining to her to remake it, but instead, she got angry and slapped the coffee out of my hand, and some of it spilled on her, and she's blaming it on me." Emily whined.
I sighed heavily. That's how it has always been, watching every day as a girl I'm way older than accusations on me.
" So it's now a crime to ask my brother's wife to make me coffee?" She asked.
And everyone looked at me with their judging eyes, believing her lies. It has always been like this,
I shake my head, "No, it was a mistake. It won't repeat."
" You are so lazy and wicked, there's nothing you can do well. You can't even clean well. We make your life good for you by letting you marry our son and give you a better life but you can't even appreciate it." Liam's mother complained, successfully painting an image of the useless and ungrateful person of mine just because I married their son.
I swallowed the tears that were threatening to spill out, refusing to give them the pleasure of knowing they hurt me with their words.
"I'm married to Liam because he loves me, and I'm tolerating all your excesses because I love Liam. " I said before storming up the stairs.
They all seemed surprised that I talked back for the first time before bursting into laughter.
" I love Liam," Emily said, mimicking me.
" You think you have grown right, you now talk back at me? Don't worry I'll teach you manners today." Deborah, Liams mother said before they launched their attack on me, hitting me repeated over the face.
It was Liam's father who heard the commotion and saved me from them.
"If you are tired of being with my brother, leave. There are many woman out there who are ready to take your place. You should be happy since you aren't even qualified to lick my boot not to talk to living under the same roof as me." Emily snickered before storming up the stairs.
Tears stung the corner of my eyes before they streamed down my face. I rolled myself into a ball and cried my eyes out.
Kelvin, Liam's father helped me to my room where I packed my bags and went back to I and Liam's house.
It was later that night that Liam burst in the room, shaking me awake.
"What is the meaning of that stunt you pulled today? You beat my mom? What disrespect! I wondered why I married you. You have absolutely no respect for me. You can't even make the home happy. My mother had high expectations of you but you can't even meet them" Liam burst, a snarl curled his lips.
" So that's the first thing you would ask me after hearing how your mother nearly sent me to my early grave. Yes, I'm never good enough for you. I work like a slave to please your mother but she's never satisfied. Liam look at me, when was the last time I took care of myself, all because your mother blocked my account. I have tried Liam, I'm tired." I said, raising my clothes to show him my body, that was full of palm prints.
"You brought it upon yourself, I want you to call my mom right now and apologize to her ," he said, bringing my phone to me.
" Never! I would never apologize to her, she was the one that...." I shot, my eyes blazed with fury.
" If you don't apologize to her, I will never come back to this house," he said, cutting me off before walking out of the room. The resounding sound of his footsteps and banging of the door echoed through the house.
A cold realization hit me. He didn't even care to know what happened but instead accused me of being the cause of the whole thing.
Days passed and Liam didn't come back home, my injuries were pretty much healed.
Desperate time required desperate measure, and I decided that it was time to put them in their place
I picked up my phone and called him and he picked after some rings.
" Hello, " his cold nonchalant voice came through the phone.
"Hello, where are you? I'm sorry. Can you come back home? I will call your mom and apologize." I pleaded, my voice cracking with emotions.
" Okay." He said and the beeping sound indicated that he dropped the call.
I called Deborah and apologized, but she instead cursed me out before Emily took over the phone and continued cursing me out.
I wiped away the tears that blurred my vision after I dropped the call. I slipped back into the duvet and cried as pangs of sorrow hit me.
My ears kept ringing with their words. "Barren woman."
It's not my fault that I lost our child, Liam killed our child.