Helanie:
"Is that a threat?" I asked her, my body shaking with anger. The nerve of her. She was the reason all her sons were suffering, and now she was trying to scare me too?
"Oh come on, Helanie. It’s not a threat. Although, if you want to think of it that way, go ahead," she said.
She was so ignorant, almost like she was deliberately trying to get under my skin.
"You should be happy I’m even here for you as a mother figure. Your own mother fucking ran away."
The minute she said that, I don’t know what came over me. I put my hands on her and shoved her. She gasped, clearly shocked by what I’d done.
"How fucking dare you!" she screamed in my face. "Do you know I can fucking kill this baby with just a snap of my fingers?" she hissed, coming at me.
I was falling apart. I was pregnant, I’d already had two miscarriages, and now she was making everything worse. I wasn’t okay.
"That will be enough!" Someone suddenly barged in, furious.
"You would snap your fingers and kill my baby?" Norman shouted, grabbing his mother’s hand.
"No! I didn’t say that. It was her! She was trying to say I would do that!" she snapped, completely flipping the story.
But it wasn’t going to work. I could tell Norman had heard everything himself.
"Mom, you can’t just look me in the eye and lie to me. I heard you with my own ears. I heard the whole conversation," Norman said, his voice shaking with anger as he held her arm.
I stayed quiet. I think she had finally run out of excuses. There was nothing she could say now to justify herself. Nothing to defend what she’d done.
"I can’t believe my own mother told my wife she’d kill our baby. Does it never occur to you that maybe it’s time to change your ways before it’s too late? Mom!" he shouted.
I felt bad for him. His face showed he was probably remembering the baby we had lost in the past. And now, his mother had been caught threatening me. But I didn’t step in. I had no reason to calm him down. She had brought this on herself. It was better this way that he heard it for himself.
"Okay, fine. I said it!" she snapped. "I was just angry because she was being so rude while I was trying to take care of her. She’s not just pregnant with her baby or your baby, she’s carrying my grandchild! Maybe grandchildren!" she screamed.
Norman shook his head slowly. "That’s it," he said.
Not only did she freeze at his words, but even I stared at him, trying to figure out what he meant.
"You’re leaving this place," Norman said firmly.
For the first time, I felt like we were finally doing the right thing. We should’ve done it long ago. She didn’t deserve to be here acting like part of this family after everything she’d done.
"No. You’re not kicking me out for her!" she cried.
Of course, to her, it was all a competition. That was always the problem.
"I think that’s the exact reason you should leave," Norman said. "You’re no longer welcome here. You were out of our lives for a reason. And now I’ll make sure you stay out."
Then Norman started dragging her toward the door.
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