It's you who didn't want your mother first Chapter 2

I will never, ever forgive my ex-husband, Mark.

When I was young, I fell for his sweet talk and empty promises. I married him against my parents' wishes, convinced he was my soulmate. After we were married, I emptied my savings account to help him start his construction business.

And it worked. His business took off. Soon after, I got pregnant.

The moment he heard, he moved his mother in from out of state, supposedly to "help with the baby." Behind my back, she sold her house and settled in for good. I tried to be okay with it. Then, I gave birth to a daughter.

The sweet, doting mother-in-law vanished overnight. My gentle, loving husband didn't even show up at the hospital.

Before I was even fully recovered, my mother-in-law ground sleeping pills into my food. While I was passed out, she took my baby and drove her to some distant relatives three states away, planning to give her up for adoption.

When I woke up and found Emily gone, I went into a panic. I called Mark, screaming and crying.

His voice was cold, distant. "Sarah, calm down. My mom talked to a psychic. Said the baby's bad luck for my career. Besides, she's just a girl. Let them have her. You need to focus on getting healthy so you can give me a real son."

No matter how much I begged, they refused to tell me where my daughter was. They locked me in the house, telling me they’d let me out when I "calmed down."

I broke a window and climbed out. I called the police. Once things got loud and official, they finally brought my daughter back.

I filed for divorce immediately. Mark refused.

The look in his eyes when he spoke to me was pure evil. "Divorce? And who's going to cook my meals? Who's going to give me a son? Who's going to be my mom's maid?"

After that, whenever he had a bad day at work, he'd come home and take it out on me. On both of us. He'd hit me, hit our little girl, screaming that we were curses, a pair of black cats that ruined his luck.

Eventually, he brought another woman home. She gave him the son he always wanted.

He needed to marry her to get the boy on his insurance, so he finally agreed to the divorce. The price was steep. If I wanted to take my daughter, I had to walk away with nothing. No money, no house, no car. Just the clothes on my back and my little girl.

I signed the papers without a second thought.

I can't even think about those years without feeling sick. For a long time after, I'd wake up screaming, his snarling face haunting my dreams.

Life was hard, raising Emily on my own. I worked double shifts at the diner and cleaned houses on weekends. But we had a roof over our heads, food on the table, and no one was hitting us.

I poured everything I had into my daughter. I wanted her to have the best of everything I could afford. I was terrified she would end up like me, making one wrong choice that would ruin her entire life.

So when she got that acceptance letter, that full ride, I was so happy I couldn't sleep for a week. I knew she had done it. She was going to be different. She had an education, a brilliant mind. She was going to build a life of her own.

And now, her words were like a thousand tiny knives, stabbing me over and over in the heart.

She knew. She knew everything he'd done to us.