Chapter 3

I don't know if it was because my words had struck a nerve, or if she felt guilty knowing I had discovered her affair with Mr. Johnson. But I actually enjoyed a peaceful month after that.

My mother-in-law would leave right after breakfast every day. She no longer asked me to bring her lunch. When she came home, she would just lock herself in her room. We barely even crossed paths.

On my birthday, Daniel called early in the morning to apologize for not being able to come back due to work. In the afternoon, I received flowers he had sent.

The card on the flowers had our favorite poem from college. Reading it brought back all the sweet memories from those days.

"You shameless woman! Daniel's not home, don't tell me these flowers are from some lover of yours!"

My mother-in-law was looking for trouble again, but I wasn't worried at all this time.

"Mom, Daniel had these delivered to me."

Margaret sneered, "Hmph, making my son waste money buying you flowers!"

I couldn't be bothered to argue with her. I picked up the flowers, intending to go back to my room, when she called out again: "You ungrateful girl, you don't even care that I've been made sick from all your nonsense! Hurry up and take me to the hospital!"

I immediately became concerned. She had seemed fine earlier - how could she suddenly say she was sick and needed to go to the hospital?

"Mom, are you okay? Where are you feeling unwell? I'll go get the car keys right away!"

"What car? Gas is so expensive these days. The hospital's not far anyway, just push me there in the wheelchair!"

My mother-in-law insisted, so I had no choice but to take her in the wheelchair.

On the way, she said she had diarrhea and an on-and-off fever. The symptoms sounded like the flu to me, but I didn't dare take any chances. Elderly people have weaker immune systems after all. If it developed into something more serious, Daniel would be so worried.

At the hospital, after hearing about the symptoms, the doctor had an odd expression. He told me to take my mother-in-law for a blood test first. A few hours later, when I saw the test results, I was shocked.

It was AIDS.