Chapter 7
Mana didn’t just talk down to us, she wore her contempt like a badge of honor. In the end, she even claimed she’d lost her necklace and accused my mother of stealing it.
My family might not have been well–off, but we had integrity. I never once believed my mother would steal. I was certain of it.§
But then Mana actually found the missing necklace inside my mother’s bag. She held it up and started shouting, calling my mom poor and shameless, threatening to call the police.N
I begged her not to, but Mana wouldn’t back down. Instead, she demanded that my mother get on her knees and beg.
The humiliation was too much–my mom collapsed and had to be hospitalized. Even at the hospital, she held my hand through her tears and kept repeating, “Jonas, my son, I swear I didn’t steal it. I didn’t…”
And I believed my mother. Yet, the necklace had come out of her bag. There was nothing I could say or do to prove her innocence.§ Then, a year later, during a family gathering, it all came out.
Mana had too much to drink. She laughed and admitted that she had put the necklace in my mom’s bag–on purpose.
She even bragged about it, “I just wanted to mess with her. Who knew she’d be so fragile she’d end up in the hospital?“}
I was furious. Her shamelessness pushed me over the edge–I flipped the entire dinner table.§
No one stood up for me. Not a single person in the Weiss Family said she was wrong. Even Freya, the one person I thought I could count on and who knew the truth, said nothing.N
In that moment, I had never felt so humiliated.
After we got home, Freya even scolded me for being “too aggressive.” She said that even if her sister was in the wrong, I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that.
That was the beginning of the end for me and Freya. Our relationship began to crack from that point on. Honestly, the reason Freya and I ended up like this–her precious little sister played a huge part.
That slap I just gave Mana, I had held it back for years.
“You’re actually hitting me?! I’ll make you regret this!“}
Mana clutched her cheek. She’d been coddled her whole life, the Weiss Family’s little princess. Even her parents had never laid a hand on her. Today, the brother–in–law she always looked down on had slapped her.
She couldn’t accept that fact and lunged at me like a madwoman. Her nails were long–sharp enough to cut my face without much effort. Of course I wasn’t going to hold back anymore. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to go easy on her just because she was a woman.§
I grabbed Mana by the hair and slapped her face more than one. More than ten times. I put full force on each slap.
I didn’t feel the slightest bit wrong about it. In fact, it felt good. Like downing ice–cold water on a blazing summer day, I felt pure satisfaction.
But that rush didn’t last long. The guests around us quickly pulled me and Mana apart.
Half her face had already swollen from the slaps and she was screaming like a lunatic, thrashing and yelling, “Let me go! Let me go! I’m going to kill him–kill him! LET ME GO!”
Boy, how watching her lose her mind made everything felt even better.
Part of me hoped they would let her go–so she could come at me again and I could keep slapping that smug face of hers.
“Get that animal out of here! OUT!” my mother–in–law shrieked.”
Next thing I knew, someone dragged me out of the Weiss estate.”
One of Freya’s cousins looked at me with pity in his eyes and asked, “Man… did it really have to come to this?”
I didn’t answer his question. I just said, “Do me a favor–tell Freya I’ll redraft the divorce papers. If she has no complaint, let’s get it done. Fast E
As soon as I got home, I called my lawyer and had a new set of divorce documents printed and sent to Freya.
Three nights later, I was getting home from work.”
And right there, parked outside my building, was a car I recognized.
10:30 AM & .
