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…

were several pages of handwritten text, the ink slightly blurred by raindrops.

I read it aloud, my voice steady, though my chest felt tight.

“My son. For a month, I have sat in an empty house, surrounded by silence. I blamed you. I blamed your wife. I told myself you were under a spell. But the silence is a cruel mirror, and eventually, it forces you continue reading …