After the wedding rituals were finished, Mrs. Harrison spent hours cleaning the house. Exhausted, she finally went to sleep. Her son Daniel and his new wife Emily had already gone to their room long before that.

The next morning, Mrs. Harrison woke up at five. She began cleaning again because the house was messy with dust and oil stains from the celebration. By ten o’clock her back ached and her waist felt stiff from bending all morning. Yet there was still no movement from upstairs.

She called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Emily! Emily, come down and start cooking.”

No answer.

After waiting a while she called again.

“Emily, wake up!”

Still nothing.

Her legs hurt and she didn’t want to keep climbing the stairs again and again. But irritation slowly replaced her patience. Finally, she grabbed a wooden stick from the corner of the kitchen and headed upstairs to “teach the new bride some manners.”

Panting as she reached the top, she muttered angrily.

“What kind of daughter-in-law sleeps until noon right after getting married? No respect at all!”

She pushed open the door.

“Get up!” she shouted.

Then she pulled away the blanket.

And suddenly she froze.

Dark red stains were scattered across the white bedsheet.

For a moment the stick slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.

Her heart began pounding.

“This… this is blood?” she whispered, her voice trembling.

Then she noticed Emily curled up in the corner of the bed, unconscious. Her face was pale, her lips dry, and her breathing shallow.

Mrs. Harrison screamed.

“Daniel! Daniel!”

Ignoring the pain in her back, she rushed out of the room.

Daniel ran upstairs in panic. When he entered, his mother pointed at the bed with shaking hands.

“What happened to your wife?”

Daniel rushed to Emily’s side.

“Emily… Emily, open your eyes!”

There was no response.

Then Emily let out a faint groan.

“M-mom… it hurts so much…”

When Daniel tried to lift her, he saw blood near her waist and legs.

Mrs. Harrison’s anger instantly turned into fear and regret.

“Daniel, call an ambulance!” she cried.

Daniel grabbed his phone with trembling hands.

Both of them sat beside Emily until the ambulance arrived.

Mrs. Harrison kept repeating through tears,

“I thought she was just being lazy… how could I have known…”

Emily fainted on the way to the hospital.

Doctors rushed her inside immediately.

After a while a doctor came out with a serious expression.