On the first day, my mother-in-law smiled and humiliated me: “In this house you will eat the leftovers”; I didn’t raise my voice, I just obeyed every word until she had to cook alone for the whole family, and then everyone understood that the black notebook hid something much darker.

”

Colin took a deep breath.

“Mom, please,” Colin said. “That is enough, because I am to blame too, and I should have defended Taylor from the very first night, but I do not want to live in a house where everyone is afraid to speak up.”

Mrs. Tabitha closed her eyes tight. Her face wrinkled with deep weariness.

“I went through the exact same thing when I continue reading …