Chapter 5

After I spoke up in the family group chat, Sophia quieted down for a while.

I went ahead and bought two plane tickets, saying we wouldn't be driving back this year and everyone should fly.

My mother-in-law called me, hinting none too subtly about having children.

In our five years of marriage, I'd been too focused on work to think about kids.

Eric and I had agreed before marriage to wait until my career was stable before discussing children.

The workplace is already challenging for women, and pregnancy is an unavoidable hurdle.

Many capable women enter the workforce with the potential to climb the ladder into leadership or even higher decision-making roles.

But because of childbirth, they're forced to give up promotion opportunities.

I didn't want that. I wanted to reach the top, to make all my years of hard study worthwhile.

With Sophia's stunt, it felt like all my efforts had been reduced to a joke.

My mother-in-law was very direct: "You've been married for five years now. If you don't have a child soon, where will my son show his face?"

"People in the neighborhood are calling him infertile. You may not care about face, but I do!"

I couldn't help but wonder if she and Sophia had planned this together.

One tries to get me fired, then the other pushes for a baby.

Back and forth until I'm a full-time homemaker preparing for pregnancy, completely removed from my career.

Even my boss was tentatively asking if I was planning to have a child.

I was at my wit's end, wondering if I'd been cursed. What on earth had possessed me to marry into this family?

I snapped and cursed at my mother-in-law: "Nag nag nag, is nagging all it takes to have a baby?"

"If you're such an expert, why don't you go work at a fertility clinic? Apparently you can make babies just by talking!"

It was the first time I'd ever talked back to her like that. She immediately burst into tears.

She called her son right away, saying I was bullying her and had cursed her to die.

She even claimed I looked down on their family for being poor and said they weren't good enough for me.

I listened to her twisting my words, feeling a surge of satisfaction.

You didn't expect this, did you? Your son was standing right next to me the whole time.

What a brilliant performance!

Eric's face cycled through various shades as he placated his mom and hung up.

I'm sure being called "infertile" by his own mother didn't feel great.

But he's so obsessed with saving face that he refuses to get checked at the hospital, insisting the problem must be with me.

I'm happy to play dumb. After all, I don't want kids anyway.