Money was hard to earn, but what about life? Was money more important than a human life?
And what did he mean, “you don’t earn money”? I used to earn more than him at my job. But when my older sister-in-law fell ill, there was no one to take care of her or the child, so I had to quit.
Even so, I still did some part-time work in my spare time to help with the household expenses.
Even my older sister-in-law, though sick, would still push herself to do some handicrafts to help bring in extra money for the family.
I stared at Mike. “Your parents passed away early and it was your sister who raised you. Her school grades were better than yours, but she chose to drop out and work so she could support your studies. Your marriage, the house, the car, even the bride price she gave me—all of it, she saved every penny herself.”
“Just like you, I lost my parents when I was young. After having a child, there was no one to help take care of them, so she quit her job to help us with the child so I wouldn’t have to give up work.”
“You know, I always see her as my mother. Do you even have a conscience? You owe everything you have now to her.”
“Did I ask her to do that? She kept saying ‘an older sister is like a mother’ and she wanted to help. Do parents raise children to get something back? If it’s about payback, I don’t need her care. And if it were me with this kind of illness, I wouldn’t want you to take care of me either.”
I couldn’t hold back my anger anymore. I slapped him hard.
“You hit me?” Mike shouted, then kicked my stomach, knocking me to the floor. After that he kept punching and kicking me. “Who do you think you are, daring to hit me?”
My body hurt, but my heart hurt even more. Tears kept falling as people around us came to pull him away, but he kept shouting.
“Stop pretending to be a saint! She’s my sister. If I want to spend money on her, I will. If I don’t, no one can tell me otherwise. I’m not her father!”
“Mike, are we short on money?” I glared at him. “The old house is about to be demolished. We’ll get at least 1,5 thousand dollars from it.”
“Zerra, you finally said it,” he snapped. “I knew you were after the demolition money. You want to play the good person with that money? Dream on.”