I went back to my parents' place for the holiday. At dinner, I made a point of avoiding the shellfish.

Mom noticed right away. "Are you pregnant?"

I was about to nod when she snatched up her chopsticks and hurled them at my face. "What do you think you're doing having a baby? Get rid of it!"

"If you don't have time, take a day off work. Getting rid of a baby doesn't take that long!"

I stared at her, stunned, and asked her why.

That only made her angrier. She flipped the entire table over. "You're seriously asking me why?!"

"You know perfectly well I'm having surgery in September, and you just had to go and get yourself a due date right then. You did this on purpose!"

"Your father's getting old. He can't handle the strain, so don't even think about dumping this on him!"

"And your brother and Daisy Lawrence just booked their trip. You can't expect them to cancel and waste that money!"

"But you? All you have to do is get rid of the baby and take care of me. Simple!"

A wave of nausea crawled up my throat. It took me a long time to realize she wasn't joking.

What she didn't seem to know was that her rare blood disease surgery depended on one thing: my baby's cord blood.

...

"Look at the state Mom's in, and you're just sitting there playing deaf and dumb?" Cornelius Dickerson tapped his finger against the table, the rhythm sharp, impatient, dripping with condescension. "You're young. You can have as many kids as you want."

"But you only get one mother. How is this even something you need to think about?"

Think about?

Even if the cord blood weren't the thing that could save Mom, this was still my child.

Was I not allowed to think about it?

I pulled myself together, looked Cornelius dead in the eye, and said, word by word: "What about you? Can't you just cancel the trip?"

"Is Mom's surgery really less important than your vacation?"

Before Cornelius could fire back, Daisy shot to her feet. "What's that supposed to mean, Sylvia Dickerson?"

"That's our belated honeymoon trip!"

"I bet you've hated me from the start. You don't want Cornelius going anywhere with me, so you got pregnant now on purpose!"

"Fine. If you won't even let me have a honeymoon, then we're getting a divorce!"

The word divorce drained the color from Mom's face.

She yanked me aside, her voice a furious hiss. "What is wrong with you? Why can't you just want what's best for your brother?"

"Are you not going to stop until you've driven him into a divorce?"

Then she swiped at her tears. "I'm going to be living with your brother when I'm old. This one time I need you to take care of me, and you can't even do that?"

"Your father's health is bad. I had no other choice but to ask you."

"No, that's not it!" I cut her off. "Mom, I can't terminate this pregnancy. The baby can—"

Before I could finish, Daisy rolled her eyes and let out a laugh. "A married-off daughter who comes back here every chance she gets to mooch off the family."

"Now the second someone asks her to pitch in and look after her own mother, suddenly she's not interested."

"Wants everything, gives nothing. How shameless can you get?"

Shameless.

The word landed in my ears, and something inside me surged upward, hot and violent.

I thought of the night six months ago when Mom had come home with that diagnosis report.

This same living room. I'd sat here the entire night without eating or drinking, scrolling through my phone until the screen burned my fingers, searching for any treatment, any path forward for a rare blood disease.

Cornelius had glanced at the report and said, light as air, that if it couldn't be cured, then don't bother trying.

I was the one who fought him. Screamed myself hoarse saying no.

And I was the one who, every two or three days after that, made the trip back here, never once walking through that door with less than five hundred dollars' worth of fruit and supplements in my hands.

I kept telling myself that if Mom could absorb even a little more nutrition, if her body could feel even the slightest bit better, it would all be worth it.

Until one day, I saw the photos in a secondhand marketplace.

Bird's nest supplements that retailed for three or four hundred dollars, listed at eighty. Unopened imported protein powder, listed at fifty. Daisy was the one selling them.

I didn't make a scene. I just went to my mother and told her she should keep those things for herself.

But instead, she turned around and lectured me. "Daisy's not doing anything wrong. I can't stand the taste of that stuff anyway. Might as well trade it for a little cash."

"She's willing to stay here and keep me company. Do you have any idea how much pressure that puts on her? When my condition gets worse, I'll be depending on them to take care of me. Don't you understand that?"

"She married into this family and does the job you should be doing as my daughter. You can't even be grateful, and now you have the nerve to criticize her?"

I lay awake the entire night after hearing that, convinced I'd overstepped. Convinced I'd been too controlling and hadn't considered Daisy's situation. Convinced I'd failed as a sister-in-law.

So I gave Daisy a credit card with a three-thousand-dollar monthly limit. It wasn't much, but I thought it might at least ease some of her burden.

And now she was calling me a freeloader.

I snapped back to the present and looked at my mother before I could stop myself. "Mom, is that what you think too?"

Her eyes turned even colder. "What? Is anything Daisy said wrong?"

"Every time you come over, you eat a meal, then get up and leave. If that's not mooching, what is?"

"Besides, you've always been sharper than your brother. A surgery this serious, I need you by my side to feel safe."

Sharper.

It hit me then. My mother couldn't bring herself to use a single kind word when she talked about me.

A bitter laugh escaped before I could swallow it. "So what you're saying is, Dad's too sick to help, Cornelius's honeymoon can't be postponed..."

"And I have to terminate my pregnancy to take care of you?"

She didn't see a single thing wrong with that. She nodded as if it were the most obvious conclusion in the world. "You're the eldest. Isn't it your responsibility to look after me?"

"Your brother is still young. He doesn't know how to handle things. Something as serious as surgery, I can only count on you!"

"Still young?" I lost hold of the last thread of restraint. "He's two years younger than me. He's turning thirty this year. What exactly doesn't he know how to handle?"

The words had barely left my mouth.

A slap landed square across my face.

I hadn't seen it coming. The force knocked me sideways off the chair, a high-pitched ringing flooding my ear. My cheek burned instantly.

"Sylvia Dickerson! You're talking back to me!" My mother's hand still hung in the air, her voice shaking with rage. "So what if he's thirty? Thirty means he's not your brother anymore?!"

"I was trying to have a civil conversation with you! Why do you have to be so ungrateful!"

"When it comes down to it, you just don't want to take care of me! I raised you for nothing!"

I pressed my hand against my cheek, frozen in place. "But the life inside me, doesn't that count too?"

"Mom, that's your grandchild!"

"My grandchild?" Her chest heaved violently, her voice cracking. "Did I tell you to get pregnant?!"

"Or are you saying the mother who gave birth to you and raised you matters less than the baby in your belly?"

I looked down at my stomach. This was my first child with my husband. I'd imagined the news would be cause for double celebration.

When I didn't answer, my mother took a step closer, her voice bearing down on me. "Sylvia, wasn't it you who had your husband look into this treatment plan?!"

"You know every detail of the surgical protocol. What's wrong with me asking you to be here for it!"

"So what now? You want to dump your responsibilities on your brother halfway through? Do you have any sense of duty at all!"

My heart was hammering, fast enough that it scared me.

She wasn't wrong. The treatment plan had been my doing.

The moment I'd found the research on a potential cure, I called my husband, Rhys Henson. He dropped everything on the spot and spent an entire week with me poring over medical journals until we confirmed it: this rare blood disease could be treated with a newborn's cord blood.

The success rate was high.

But only if the blood type matched.

Between me and Cornelius, I was the only match.

That was why Rhys and I had this baby.

I thought ten more months, and Mom would be saved.

I hadn't even told her about the cord blood. I was afraid she'd refuse out of concern for me.

Looking back now, that was laughable.

Concern for me?

She didn't have any.

What she wanted was for me to get rid of this baby so I'd be free to wait on her through surgery.

That was when Rhys's call came in.

Before I could answer, Cornelius snatched the phone from my hand and hurled it into the fish tank.

He stood there frowning, something threatening in his expression. "Sylvia, don't even think about telling your husband."

"What if he gets mad and refuses to do Mom's surgery?"

Mad. So he knew. He knew this would make someone angry.

Before I could react, he grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the stairs. "Just fall down yourself. That way it's an accident."

I wrenched free, fighting him. "Cornelius! That's a crime!"

He let out a scoff, contempt flickering across his face. "It's an accident. What crime?"

"Even if the cops do show up, the one they'd arrest is you, the ungrateful daughter."

Daisy leaned against the doorframe, scrolling through her phone, a lazy smile on her lips. "Mom asked you to go get it taken care of on your own. You refused. Now look where we are."

I forced myself to take a deep breath. Forced myself to stay calm. I turned to my mother. "Mom, I'll pay for a home nurse. Will that work?"

"A nurse would be more professional, more qualified to—"

She waved me off before I could finish. "A nurse? Those people are all scammers!"

"If you've got money to throw around, why not just give it to me? Your brother still needs gear for his trip."

Something heavy settled on my chest. I couldn't breathe.

It took me a long moment to find my voice again. I stared at her, disbelief written across my face. "Mom. Are you serious?"

She blinked, then stiffened her neck and doubled down. "Don't blame me. I'm going to be living with your brother from now on, so of course I have to look out for him."

"Besides, isn't your husband a doctor? You two can figure out the baby situation on your own. But my surgery is a one-time thing."

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The words tore out of me. "Do you even know that your disease needs my baby?!"

"Without my baby, your disease can't be cured!"

The room went dead silent.

But within seconds, Daisy let out a sharp little laugh. "Mom, she's threatening you."

"She's saying if you don't let her keep the baby, she won't let her husband do your surgery."

"She really knows how to twist your arm, doesn't she."

My mother's whole body shook. She jabbed a trembling finger at my face and screamed, "You! You'd threaten me over some shapeless clump that hasn't even formed yet?!"

"I'll ask you one more time! Are you getting rid of it or not!"