Good mother-in-law

"Mommy, where is that woman?"

Angelina, who was sipping her tea, was surprised by Kevin's question. She glared at her only child with a questioning look.

"What do you mean?" Angelina asked, trying to make sure she understood.

"Of course I mean that woman, Rasha. Why are you in such a daze?" Kevin looked annoyed in response to his mother.

"You don't usually act like this. Why are you looking for Rasha? She's in the garden of the back mansion," Angelina said in a suspicious tone.

Kevin looked flatly at his mother. "What's wrong with me asking where my wife is? You've always told me to stay close to her. But now you're surprised when I look for her."

"Of course I'm surprised. But never mind, I'm too lazy to argue with you," Angelina said and went back to sipping her tea. "Don't you yell and scold her again, I'll keep an eye on you."

"Suit yourself, I just want to see her," Kevin said as he walked away from Angelina.

* * *

"What are you doing, watching me here?" Rasha immediately asked the question when she sensed Kevin's presence behind her.

Kevin cleared his throat softly. He thought if he stayed there, he might not be noticed by Rasha.

"I thought you didn't notice my presence here, but it's good that you do. Am I bothering you?" Kevin asked in an awkward tone.

Kevin's tone was a mixture of unfamiliarity and awkwardness. Rasha exhaled slowly. She actually still didn't like Kevin. But because she still respected Kevin as the son of the person who saved her life, she didn't want to be rude.

"What's wrong? You didn't bother me at all. I'm actually not busy." Rasha looked at Kevin with a faint smile.

Kevin replied. "That's good then. Sorry about earlier."

"Which one? I didn't understand what you said." Rasha tilted her head and looked at her husband with a surprised look.

"You forgot? We argued yesterday and I blamed you. Yeah I don't think I did anything wrong, but you don't deserve the blame either. So let's call it a draw, we're both right," Kevin said.

Rasha's expression changed. Her eyes widened, then her eyebrows dipped in an astonished look.

"It's nothing to think about. And... why do you bother apologizing, it's not like it's just you."

"Oh, me apologizing doesn't mean I care. I just don't like my quiet house getting a bad atmosphere because of what happened yesterday. Oh, and I actually want to take a vacation." Kevin deliberately dangled the word at the end to make Rasha ask.

Rasha moved her head, tilting slightly and looking at Kevin. "So?"

"I asked you to come along. I don't want you to refuse, my mom is coming too. She'll go berserk if you're left alone," Kevin said. "Actually it's not an invitation, I'm just telling you. Because before you said yes I had already bought a ticket for you."

"Gosh, why so sudden? I don't want to trouble you all." Rasha shook her head and chuckled. "Can't I not come? I get dizzy when I have to travel far."

"No, you have to come. Even if you refuse, my mother will ask you to come. Do you want to refuse my mom's wishes?" Kevin showed a little subtle threat.

Rasha's face looked sour. She was honest about her dislike of vacationing. She preferred to relax at home, and she was pregnant.

"But I'm pregnant, I get tired easily---"

"Don't argue, I'm not making stupid preparations. I've already prepared a doctor for that. Never mind, I don't want to argue. You better shut up and do what I say," Kevin said.

Luckily Rasha was used to Kevin's yelling, she just kept quiet and looked at her husband with a flat stare. She actually didn't want to be in this family either, but her mother-in-law loved her too much.

She took the chair beside her and sat down. She often thought of running away from there, but her mother-in-law would be cruel and probably hurt. Dealing with Kevin's behavior was already very tiring, Rasha didn't want to kill herself by disappointing a creepy woman like Angelina.

"I don't know if I should feel lucky or unlucky for marrying that guy, but at least you weren't born into difficult circumstances," Rasha said with her hand around her belly. "I hope once you're born, we can both get out of this place."

A hand touched Rasha's shoulder, Rasha was startled and turned her head, she saw her mother-in-law standing with a worried look on her face.

"Why are you saying that? What really happened?"

Rasha was silent, she had trouble swallowing her saliva. Her throat felt dry, she didn't know the context of her mother-in-law's question.

In Rasha's mind there was a suspicion that her mother-in-law was thinking about Rasha's pregnancy which was not Kevin's doing. But she was troubled by other conjectures, she didn't know how to react. All Rasha could do was keep waiting for a response from her interlocutor.

"Rasha, what's wrong, tell me? I know that Kevin is behaving badly. I'm very uncomfortable when there is fighting and making you feel unhappy here."

Angelina then sat next to Rasha, her hand clasped Rasha's hand and gave Rasha persuasion. Angelina was very protective of her daughter-in-law's feelings, no matter if it was against Kevin's will. For Angelina, her priority was her pregnant daughter-in-law.

"N-no, I'm fine, what Mommy heard earlier is actually not a big thing. I do have a bad habit with my words, I apologize," said Rasha.

Rasha would rather be labeled as a woman who likes to speak harshly and has a bad personality than for her mother-in-law to know that what she thought all along was wrong.

"Rasha, I've told you many times. Why do you always argue? Why do you always give in and apologize? Hiding Kevin's bad behavior and condoning it is not a good habit. You should learn something from me."

Angelina ran her fingers through her daughter-in-law's hair. "You have to be firm, I'm happy with your marriage also because I want to teach Kevin to be more responsible to women. He's very bad at it."

"No need to think about that, Mommy. I don't want you to worry about it, Kevin and I are fine," Rasha said with a shady smile.

"Huft, you always do that. Hm, Mommy wants to know what Kevin told you. He seemed to be in a hurry," Angelina asked again.

Rasha sighed. She didn't want to tell her mother-in-law about Kevin's plan to take her on a vacation, but she knew that Angelina would find out eventually.