The silence between us broke when she started apologizing.
“I’m so sorry,” she blurted out before I could even start the engine. “I didn’t mean to go off on her like that. I just—she kept pushing and I—”
I turned the key in the ignition, but didn’t pull out of the driveway. I just looked at her.
She kept talking.
“I know she’s your mom and I shouldn’t have...”
She caught my expression and paused. “What?” she asked.
I arched a brow, waiting for her to admit what we both knew was true. She sighed, her shoulders dropping. “Okay. Fine. I did mean to go off on her.”
A reluctant smile tugged at my lips.
“I wouldn't have gone off on her if she would stop insulting us,” she amended, frustration flickering in her eyes. “I know I wasn't exactly wrong for standing up to her, but I don't want to upset you.”
That did it. I leaned back in my seat and let out a quiet laugh.
She stared at me. “Why are you laughing?”
“Because,” I said, turning slightly toward her, “you have no idea how long I’ve wanted someone to say all those things.”
Her expression softened instantly.
“She undermines you,” Vani said gently. “Constantly. She acts like you’re incapable of making your own decisions.”
“She’s been doing it my entire life.”
I hadn’t meant to say that aloud. The confession lingered between us.
Vani shifted in her seat, angling her body toward mine. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
I looked through the windshield at the long driveway stretching ahead. “Because it’s easier not to.”
“Easier for who?”
“For everyone.”
She shook her head slowly. “That’s not true.”
“It keeps the peace then.”
“Peace is overrated when you're the only one making sacrifices to keep it.”
I sighed as I pulled away from my parents’ house, the gates closing behind us like the final punctuation mark on an exhausting sentence.
I stole a glance at my wife in the passenger seat. She was staring straight ahead, jaw slightly tense, fingers folded neatly in her lap as if she were replaying every word exchanged with my family.
Sure, I had been caught off guard.
No one, and I mean no one, had ever shut my mother down the way she just had.
Not my father.
Not board members.
Not my sister.
