I send my mother 1.5 million pesos monthly for my postpartum wife. Coming home early, I found my wife eating spoiled rice with fish heads. Furious, I confronted my mom, who sneered, “She doesn’t deserve better.” Then, I checked the family safe and found…

the prenatal supplements, handing them over to my mother along with a stack of currency thick enough to ensure she could plunder the finest markets in our district without ever needing to glance at a price tag.

My daily ritual became a rigid scaffolding of duty. Before the sun even considered cresting the horizon, I would stand beside our bed. I would continue reading …