"Vivi and I are finished. She isn't moving in. And you won't be holding a grandson."
My voice came out dead calm.
"The one who can't have children isn't Amy. It's me."
My mother's gasp echoed off the walls.
"Find a new place to live. Didn't I buy you a condo across town? Move there."
"This is Amy's home. Mine and hers. If a single item of hers goes missing, I will hold you personally responsible."
My mother swayed, clutching her chest. My sister barely caught her before she crumpled.
"What... what did you say?" Her voice climbed to a shriek. "How can a man be unable to have children? It's clearly that jinx's fault!"
"And you want me to move out? I gave birth to you! Now that you're successful, you want to toss your own mother aside?"
"What do you mean 'yours and hers'? A home without a mother isn't a home!"
I looked at her.
Really looked at her.
And felt nothing but a vast, desolate emptiness.
Even I found my own mother suffocating. I could only imagine the hell Amy endured for four years.
"When I wasn't home, this is how you spoke to her, isn't it? Calling her a jinx? Mocking her for being barren?"