I looked at the impatient woman in front of me, my voice strained. “Mom, no need.”
The voice on the other end of the line paused for a moment, sounding somewhat anxious. "What's wrong? Tell me, did Gabriela do something to betray you?"
Turning away, I forced back a sob. "Don't worry, Mom, I'll handle it."
After a long pause, a sigh, tinged with age, came from the other end of the phone.
A woman who had navigated the business world for years was exceptionally perceptive when it came to matters concerning her children, yet she was also helpless.
Just like six years ago, when I endured my first beating for marrying Gabriela.
That slap clearly landed on my face, but it brought tears to the eyes of the woman nearing fifty.
"Julius, your father never suffered such hardship, how can I bear to let you suffer?"
My father had a good life, but a tragic one.
In that feudal era, under my mother's protection, he married into the Davidson Family, yet he wielded immense power within the family, dominating the region.
And on the first day he met Gabriela’s mother, she meticulously listed the virtues and habits a son-in-law should possess.
Gabriela remained silent, but my mother nearly crushed her wine glass.