“Let her go!” My mother’s scream cuts through his tirade like shattered glass hitting concrete. The sound is raw and desperate, filled with more strength than I thought she had left in her.
To my astonishment, she lunges at him, her nails clawing at his arm with feral intensity. Her fingers dig deep enough to leave angry red welts across his skin as she pulls me free from his grasp. “Don’t you touch her!” she shrieks again, her voice trembling yet resolute.
For a moment, I can only stare at her in shock. This is the same woman who has turned her back so many times before when Frank’s temper flared—who always seemed too scared or too tired to intervene. And yet here she is now, standing between us like a shield.
Frank stumbles back a step, momentarily caught off guard by her sudden feroc
