The Trap

Leora PoV

"You're trying to poison me!"

I stared at the salad bowl that Lizzy was pointing at, wondering why there was peanut sauce in the bowl.

"I didn't do it, Lizzy. I just added Thousand Island dressing to the salad," I argued in a shaky voice.

Lizzy cried as her face started to swell.  Peter looked at me angrily and rushed to pick up Lizzy, who immediately hugged her by the neck.

"Are you crazy, Leora?"  snapped Moira, my mother-in-law.  "You must have done it on purpose, right? You're jealous of Lizzy, right?"

"No!"  I argued desperately.  "She added the peanut butter herself to slander me!"

Slap!!!

My cheeks were hot and my head was banging, when Moira slapped my cheek hard.  She put her hands on her hips with a bright red face, while next to her Eva laughed sarcastically at me.

"You are so mean," cursed Moira loudly.  "You should be grateful that my son still recognizes you as his wife, even though you are completely useless. You can't even give him a child!"

My tongue is numb.  I really wanted to say a lot of things that I had kept in my heart, but my subconscious mind forbade me.  I'm sure it won't end here.

"Tell Peter to divorce her, Mom," Eva said to her mother.  "If Lizzy were Peter's wife, we would live happily. She is rich and royal, different from this poor and orphaned woman!"

My heart was cut when I heard Eva's cruel words.  All they had been talking about was Lizzy.  They never considered my feelings at all.

Moira stood up and pushed me hard.  "Go to your room and don't dare come out until Peter comes home! If anything happens to Lizzy, I will personally take you to the police station on charges of attempted murder!"

Like criminals, Moira and Eva locked me in the room.  I sat on the bed for the past six months I had mostly slept alone, because Peter preferred to sleep in another room or in Lizzy's apartment.

The woman was Eva's friend.  She and Peter had liked each other in high school, but then Lizzy moved to Canada with her parents and soon there was news that she had married a rich businessman.

I thought Peter had gotten over his heartbreak with Lizzy by the time we met.

Our chance meeting at a bazaar where I helped my younger siblings at an orphanage sell, made me fall in love with him.

Peter proposed to me just eight months after we started dating and from the start of the marriage, Moira and Eva never liked me.  They regretted why Peter married the poor and orphaned me.

One year of our marriage went well.  Peter loved me and always tried to make me happy, even though at that time our situation was ordinary.

Then, when Peter was accepted to work at a multinational company.  With his intelligence and skills, his career rose quickly.

From an ordinary employee, in one year he had become a successful deputy director of marketing. He was liked by company officials because he was considered to have succeeded in many large projects.

Peter bought a bigger house and decided to bring Moira and Eva to live with us.  Since then, my life, which was originally calm, began to turn into war.

Moira and Eva always tried to slander me in Peter's eyes and like he was blind, Peter trusted his mother and sister more.  Then, Lizzy's arrival back to the Riviera, made my battlefield a real hell.

Peter seemed to be crazy about his old love and supported by Moira and Eva, he started treating me like trash.

He never touched me again and started being rude more often.  Slaps, kicks and punches have become daily food for me.  Plus the insults and anger from Moira and Eva, I can no longer count how many millions of liters of tears I have shed in the last two years.

I wiped away my tears and took a letter that I had hidden in the dresser drawer, read it carefully and put it back. I'll give it to Peter when he gets home.

Without realizing it I fell asleep.  I saw a figure dressed in white in my sleep, apparently a white-haired man, waving at me.

When I was trying to reach the man's hand, suddenly a stinging pain in my head made me open my eyes in panic.

I held my hair that I thought was going to fall off my scalp and looked at Peter who was pulling hard.

He grabbed me by the hair from the bed and threw me on the floor.

"Damn woman!"  shouted Peter with a bright red face.  "You almost killed Lizzy!"

He crouched down next to me, still with my hair in his hands.  My tears flowed, not only because of physical pain but also mental pain.

"I didn't do that, Peter," I said with a lump in my throat.  "I never even buy peanut butter!"

Peter let go of my hair and threw my head back.  "You're so mean, Leora! And the only thing Lizzy asked about when she woke up was you! She was worried you'd feel guilty and said it wasn't your fault. She said she shouldn't have eaten the salad because she already suspected you put nuts jam in it."

I know that this was all planned by Lizzy.  Maybe helped by Moira and Eva.  Peter was so blind to believe those women.

"Why don't you believe me, Peter? Why don't you try to investigate first before believing what your mother, Eva, and Lizzy say?"  I asked while wiping away the tears that continued to flow.

Peter raised his hand and I reflexively raised my arm to protect my face from his slap.

He snorted harshly.  "Don't bring my mother into this! You should be aware of yourself. You are nothing compared to Lizzy. I should have divorced you a long time ago!"

I lowered my hands and looked at him with misty eyes.  I think I've had enough of all this humiliation.

"Then let's get a divorce!"  I said firmly.