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…

a low wooden stool, her body angled away from the entrance. Her posture was completely deformed. Her shoulders were severely hunched, wrapping inward to form a protective cage around whatever she was holding. Her right hand was moving with a frantic, trembling velocity, shoveling contents from the bowl into her mouth. She was barely chewing. She swallowed continue reading …