**”What on earth is going on here? Where are you off to? What about dinner?”**
**”Where are you rushing like that? Someone has to cook!”**
His voice was sharp with panic as he saw what Antonia was doing after the argument with his mother.
Antonia looked out the window. Gloomy clouds hung heavy, even though spring had barely begun. In their little town up in the Yorkshire Dales, sunny days were rare. Maybe that was why the people who lived there always seemed so grim and distant.
Lately, Antonia had noticed it in herself tooshe barely smiled anymore, and the permanent crease between her brows made her look a decade older.
**”Mum! Im going out!”** called her daughter, Emily.
**”Right,”** Antonia murmured.
**”Whats that supposed to mean? Give me some money.”**
**”Since when do you need money just to take a walk?”** Antonia sighed.
**”Mum! Why do you always have to question everything?!”** Emily snapped, losing patience. **”Come on, hurry up! Thats barely anything!”**
**”Im sure its enough for ice cream.”**
**”Cheapskate,”** Emily muttered, but Antonia didnt hearher daughter was already out the door, slamming it behind her.
*I cant believe it* Antonia shook her head, remembering how sweet Emily had been before the teenage years hit.
**”Toni, my stomachs growling! How much longer?”** Her husband, Thomas, barked from the living room, sounding irritated.
**”Help yourself,”** she said flatly, setting a plate on the table.
**”Or you could bring it to me?”**
Antonia nearly dropped the pot. *What does he think I am?*
**”We eat in the kitchen, Thomas. Take it or leave it,”** she said, sitting down alone.
Fifteen minutes later, Thomas finally shuffled in.
**”Its cold disgusting.”**
**”I left it out too long.”**
**”I asked you! Not a shred of care or love in you! You know Im watching the match!”** He shoveled the chicken into his mouth, barely tasting it. **”Bland.”**
Antonia just rolled her eyes. Football had turned Thomas into someone elsebets, expensive jerseys, overpriced tickets. Never mind that hed never given a toss about sports when they were young.
Without sitting, he grabbed a beer, a bag of crisps, and marched back to the telly. Antonia stayed behind, scrubbing dirty plates.
*Wasted effort. No one appreciates it anyway.*
She was exhausted after her shift at the hospital, where she worked as a senior nurse. Patients came to her in pain, angry, sickand at home? No warmth, no comfort. Just the second shift: fetch, clean, organise.
**”Any more?”** Thomas yanked open the fridge. **”Why is there never any?”**
**”You drank it all! Am I supposed to buy that too? Have some decency, Thomas!”**
**”Oh, arent we posh now?”** He sneered before slamming the door and storming off to restock his “underground supplies” for the next match.
Antonia decided to try and sleepshe had another long day ahead. But she couldnt. Worry gnawed at her. Where was Emily? Who was she with? It was dark now, and still no sign of her. She didnt dare calllast time, Emily had screamed at her.
**”You embarrass me in front of my friends! Stop calling!”**
After that, Antonia stopped trying, telling herself Emily was nearly nineteen. No job, no interest in studyingshed finished school and was taking a gap year to “find herself.”
Just as she dozed off, Thomass loud cheers jolted her awakesomeone must have scored. Then came the drunken chatter with the neighbour whod wandered in, and soon his mate joined, turning the living room into a rowdy pub.
Late that night, Emily finally came home, clattering plates before stomping off to bed. When silence finally settled, the cat yowled for food.
**”Is anyone else in this house capable of feeding the cat, or is that just me?!”** Antonia snapped, sleep-deprived and throbbing with a migraine. She wanted them to hear, but Emily had her headphones in, scrolling on her phone. Thomas was already passed out in front of the telly, beer can still in hand.
*”Ive had enough bloody well had enough.”*
The next morning, her mother-in-laws call woke her.
**”Antonia, darling, you havent forgotten about planting the garden, have you? And we need to sort out the cottage.”**
**”I remember,”** Antonia sighed.
**”Tomorrow, then.**
Her only day off was spent labouring under Veras watchful eye.
**”Is that how you sweep? Hold the broom properly!”** Vera commanded from her perch on the bench.
**”Im nearly fifty, Vera. I think I can manage,”** Antonia shot back.
**”And wheres Thomas?”**
**”Where is he? Why didnt he drive his own mother here? Why did we have to take a three-hour coach? But no, its always about Thomas, Thomas”**
**”He works hard.”**
**”And I dont?”**
And then it began. Antonia regretted speaking up. Vera loved to lecture, loved being rightbut her fairness only ever went one way. All her life, shed doted on Thomas, while Antonia was just the tolerated servant.
They rode back in silence, sitting as far apart as possible. The next day, Vera complained to her son, and Thomas erupted.
**”How dare you talk back to my mother?!”** he roared. **”If it werent for her”**
**”What?”** Antonia folded her arms. **”What would I be without her?”** She was done. Done with the demands, the disrespect.
**”Youd still be stuck in that little clinic!”** He played his trump cardVera had pulled strings to get Antonia the hospital job. Better pay, but it cost her sanity. More than once, shed wished shed stayed in the quiet local practice. **”Where are you going?”**
Thomas froze, stunned by what Antonia did next.
What she did he never saw it coming.
