Her In-laws.

She woke up swamped in her light pink covers, rubbing her eyes as the bright sunlight hit them, she glanced over at her clock to see it was 09:08 AM.

Her sleepy eyes were quick to snap open and she threw off her bedcovers and stood up from the bed at a lightning-bolt speed.

"I woke up late!"

Darling screamed to herself knowing what consequences awaited her actions.

She ran into the bathroom without seeing the need to waste time and freshened up as quickly as possible.

Having been married to her husband for more than three years, she was used to doing all the chores around the house. She would wake up as early as seven and go to bed as late as ten.

While getting ready, she could already imagine the stares and glares she would receive from her in-laws for failing to wake up early to get the morning chores done.

It wasn't that she woke up late on purpose, Throughout last night she had been cleaning and washing and never found time to rest and by the time she was done, it was past ten.

Her sister-in-law came home with a feast last night and the whole house was wining and dining except her who had to do all the cleaning and couldn't complain.

But it was fine because Darling was already getting used to it and she didn't mind doing those things for as long as her husband was happy and wasn't complaining.

She was done preparing, she wore a beautiful purple floral gown and her dark short hair was brushed down in place while her bangs fell on her forehead.

Her dark eyes stared at her own reflection in the mirror while a beautiful smile appeared on her heart-shaped lips, making her look like a fairy princess you would only see in books and stories.

Darling didn't see any need to waste time admiring herself and she quickly stepped out of her bedroom. Unlike other couples that shared bedrooms with each other, it was different for Darling and her husband, Stanley.

He had claimed he needed his own separate room because he needed to concentrate on work to which Darling agreed to without complaining. But it's been three years now and they still slept separately.

"It seems you are beginning to grow wings, being more daring than ever." Her mother-in-law's voice reached her ears from behind as she stepped out into the spacious living room.

She turned around and smiled nervously with a small bow murmuring her morning greetings but instead of responding, Mary her mother-in-law pointed her index fingers with her hands straight towards the kitchen and said.

"My daughter is in the kitchen doing the dishes and what are you doing? Isn't that supposed to be the job of the wife to clean up the entire house?" She said, her aged face twisted in an angry frown as she stared in dissatisfaction at her daughter-in-law.

But instead of arguing with her mother-in-law, Darling quietly ran towards the kitchen to meet Stella standing before the kitchen sink and was doing the dishes.

Stella was her husband's younger sister, a fair-skinned tall and slender girl. She was quite a beautiful lady and the pride of the family.

Both Darling and Stella never got along because it seemed Stella couldn't stand her presence at all which Darling didn't mind one bit.

"Good morning, Stella." Darling greeted and didn't even bother waiting for a response because none would come, she looked around the kitchen while thinking of what to prepare for breakfast and an idea struck her.

She would prepare chicken tacos and mushroom baked eggs with squished tomatoes for breakfast. Though this wasn't their regular kind of breakfast, she decided to do something different today.

However, just before she could walk past Stella towards the inner part of the kitchen, she felt someone grasp her hand roughly, stopping her from making any movement forward.

She paused and turned to see who the person was even though she already had a slight idea.

It was Stella, her soapy wet hands wrapped themselves around Darling's arms, stopping her from taking any step forward.

Darling gave Stella a questioning gaze to which Stella rolled her eyes at before saying, "Do you want to pretend like you don't see me here? Doing the dishes which is supposed to be your job as my brother's wife?"

Stella asked, her hands still wrapped tightly around Darling's arms. But Darling had no time to argue or fight with anyone this morning.

"You can leave the dishes if you don't want to finish them. Moreover, it's almost done, you can just round up and leave. It's not like you feed from my acknowledgement every morning, I can clearly see you." Said Darling with a sigh and tried to get her arms off Stella's hold.

Stella felt anger boil in her blood and bones, she ticked her jaws and glared hard at Darling before letting go with force and she stomped out of the kitchen without even completing the dishes.

Darling was used to these things and wasn't even the least bothered, she looked down at her arms where Stella held to see the wet patches on the sleeves of her dress.

She then proceeded to just complete the dishes that were already finished, just a couple of cleaning here and there were needed for everything to be in place.

Afterwards, Darling made breakfast as quickly as she could. The last thing she ever wanted was anyone who would scream in her face that she was slow and couldn't make a quick breakfast which was 'a wife's duty.'

Within a few minutes, she was done and served breakfast on the dining table and the family of four sat on their various seats.

Right now there was her parents-in-law, Stella and herself seated in the dining, she couldn't see her husband anywhere and was tempted to ask but couldn't.

Maybe he already left for work or was busy with something inside his bedroom. She thought to herself and went ahead to eat her breakfast.

"What is this load of garbage?!" Mary spat, startling everyone present in the dining.