Janice stepped forward with all the fake grace she could muster, her voice dripping with syrupy superiority.
"Amara, you're married now. That means you're gone for good, like water down the drain. There's no way to scoop it back up. How dare you even consider registering my nephew under your name? You married into our family, and you married far away. What if one day you decide to take off with the baby? My brother is then left with nothing. You need to try to understand where Mom is coming from."
I stared at her, not even bothering to hide my disgust.
She kept going, completely oblivious.
"Also, my brother didn't care that you were an orphan. He still married you, despite having no family left. You should be grateful for that. Now that you've given him a son, just be content and live quietly. That land of yours in the mountains isn't worth much anyway. Just let Paul submit it to the state and be done with it."
Oh, I could see the greed flicker in her eyes plain as day.
So I looked her right in the face and said coldly, "You keep saying a married woman is like water down the drain. So what does that make you? Some stray bitch sticking her nose in business that isn't hers?"