The heavy scent of wet earth from the previous night's rain still lingered in the morning air. In a quiet village stood a sturdy, classically designed teak house belonging to Sutarjo and Atun. The house had stood for more than four decades, silently witnessing the growth of their three children: Riana, Dino, and Elzaya. Once, every corner of the house had been filled with warmth, laughter, and the mouthwatering aroma of the home-style cooking Atun prepared.
But the wheel of life kept turning, and that warmth slowly evaporated without a trace after a new family member arrived.
Melaa Wijaya. That name now hung over the Sutarjo family home like a black cloud.
Melaa was a beautiful woman from the city who always dressed in luxury. About eight months earlier, she had married Dino, the family's second child and only son. When they first met, Melaa had presented herself as graceful, polite, and loving. But it had taken only a few weeks after the wedding for that sweet mask to come completely off.
That morning, sunlight streamed through the gaps between the wooden windows in the living room. Sutarjo, an out-of-town trader who now suffered from bone degeneration in his left leg and skin cancer in his left arm, sat quietly in his beloved old wheelchair. His trembling fingers slowly turned a tin cup filled with warm unsweetened tea.
Beside him, Atun, a middle-aged woman with a gentle face and wrinkles that spoke of a life filled with hardship, was busy sweeping the slightly dusty wooden floor.
"What are you cooking today, dear?" Sutarjo asked, his voice hoarse and halting from the illness he suffered from.
Atun stopped sweeping and looked at her husband with the most sincere smile she could manage. "Today I'm making sayur lodeh with chayote and fried tempeh, dear. The tempeh from the market was still really fresh this morning. Would you like me to get your rice now?"
Before Sutarjo could answer, the harsh clack of high heels striking the wooden floor shattered the peaceful morning.
Melaa emerged from the master bedroom, the largest room in the house. It had once belonged to Sutarjo and Atun, but Melaa had gently 'claimed' it by insisting that she needed a spacious, air-conditioned room. She wore a bright red silk nightgown. Her face was still bare of makeup, but the lines of irritation were already clearly etched across her forehead.
"Ugh! Can't you be quiet? Some people are trying to rest! It's barely morning and you're already making noise talking about cheap food!" Melaa snapped, folding her arms across her chest. Her eyes glared at Atun, who immediately stopped what she was doing.
Atun pressed a hand to her chest, startled by her daughter-in-law's sudden outburst. "Ndok Melaa... I'm sorry if your Dad and I disturbed you. I was only asking what your Dad wanted for breakfast."
"Well, you don't have to use such loud voices!" Melaa cut in quickly, without the slightest respect. "And sayur lodeh again? Tempeh again? This house is turning more and more into a nursing home every day! Just so you know, I'm used to nutritious food from restaurants, not coconut-milk dishes that raise my cholesterol! The smell of shrimp paste from the kitchen even gets into my room and makes my expensive clothes smell musty!"
Sutarjo clenched his hands in his lap. His chest rose and fell as he struggled to contain the suffocating pain of hearing his own daughter-in-law treat his wife like a servant.
"Melaa... this is our house. Mom is only cooking breakfast for the family."
"Oh, Mr. Sutarjo, please don't start throwing around that 'our house' nonsense!" Melaa interrupted in an unbearably mocking tone. "If it weren't for Dino working himself to the bone at the city factory to pay the electricity bill, the water bill, and buy rice for this house, this old place would have already collapsed! So try to have a little self-awareness and remember who's supporting you now!"
The words struck Sutarjo directly in the pit of his stomach. The old man lowered his head deeply. His physical paralysis made him feel utterly helpless. Once, he had been the one to finance the family's entire life, educate his children until they graduated, and build this house with the sweat of his own brow. But now, with disease eating away at his body, his daughter-in-law saw him as nothing more than a free burden.
Seeing that her husband was hurt, Atun hurried toward Melaa, her eyes beginning to glisten. "Ndok Melaa, please don't talk to your Dad that way. He's sick... If you don't like sayur lodeh, I'll make you a fried egg, or I'll buy something else outside with my savings..."
Melaa merely snorted and turned her face away in disgust. "Don't pretend to care! Go on, get to the kitchen! Don't block my way!"
At that exact moment, Elzaya, Dino's youngest sibling, emerged from her room. She had just graduated from high school and was waiting for the results of her college entrance selection. The young woman wore simple clothes and had intended to go to the kitchen to help her mother. But she stopped when she saw her mother bowing as she swept away tears and her father slumped helplessly in his wheelchair.
"Melaa! Why are you always yelling at Mom and Dad?!" Elzaya cried, no longer able to hold back the anger she had buried for months. "This is our parents' house! You're only a daughter-in-law here, so why do you act like you own everyone?!"
Melaa turned slowly and looked Elzaya up and down with utter contempt. "Oh, this ungrateful youngest child has decided to speak up? Hey, Elzaya, you're nothing but an unemployed freeloader in this house, a snot-nosed kid who still belongs in middle school! You still eat here and ask Dino for spending money! Don't play the hero! If you don't like seeing me here, then you're the one who should leave this house!"
"You're the one who should know your place!" Elzaya shot back, her voice trembling as she held back tears. "Dino changed after he married you! He used to be a devoted son, but now he just sits there every time he sees you humiliate Mom and Dad!"
"Enough, Za... That's enough, sweetheart..." Atun quickly cut in, taking Elzaya by the arm. Her frail body trembled. She did not want a major fight to trigger another stroke in her husband. "Don't make this any worse, sweetheart. Mom's fine..."
Melaa smiled crookedly, pleased with her victory. "You heard your mother! Children should stay out of adult business!" Without the slightest hint of guilt, Melaa headed toward the bathroom, deliberately stomping her feet so hard that fine dust fell from the old wooden ceiling.
Elzaya hugged her mother tightly. The young girl's tears broke loose against her mother's shoulder. "Mom... how long do we have to keep giving in to Melaa? Why is Dino becoming more and more blind to the way his wife treats us?"
Atun could only stroke her youngest child's back while holding back the pain in her own chest. "Be patient, Za... Be patient. Your Dino may just have a lot on his mind at work. All we can do is pray that Melaa's heart will be opened by Gusti Allah..."
But Atun's prayers and patience seemed to crash against a cold, solid wall. In another part of the city, Riana, the eldest child in the family, sat at her desk at the private company where she worked as an administrative staff member. That day, Riana felt deeply uneasy. A feeling in the heart of an eldest daughter told her that something bad was happening at the village home.
Riana picked up her smartphone and dialed the number for the house. No one answered the first call. The second was answered on the fifth ring.
"Hello... Assalamu'alaikum, Mom?" Riana greeted her softly from the other end of the line.
"Wa'alaikumsalam... Riana..." Atun's voice came through the phone. Although her mother tried to sound normal, Riana knew her too well not to hear the hoarseness and overwhelming exhaustion in her voice.
"What are you doing, Mom? Why do you sound like you've been crying? Dad's okay, right, Mom?" Riana asked in quick succession, her worry shooting upward.
There was a brief silence on the line. Atun swallowed the bitterness in her throat before answering. "Your Dad's fine, dear... I just... I just have a bit of a cold, that's all. That's why my voice is hoarse. How are you doing in the city? Is work going smoothly?"
Riana leaned back in her office chair and massaged her temples, which were beginning to ache. "Work's fine, Mom. But I'm worried about you and Dad. How's Dino? Is Melaa treating you and Dad better now? Does she still lose her temper all the time?"
Atun let out a quiet sigh, trying to ignore the pain in her chest. "Ndok Melaa is fine, dear... She's just still adjusting to village life. Don't worry, okay? Just focus on your work there. Don't think about things at home..."
Riana sighed in frustration. She knew her mother always tried to hide her suffering so she would not burden her children. "Mom, if anything happens, you have to be honest with me, okay? I'm the eldest. I won't just sit back if anyone dares hurt you or Dad, no matter who it is!"
"Yes, dear... I know. All right, I need to get back to the kitchen. Take care of yourself in the city."
The call ended. Riana stared at the dark screen of her phone, her heart growing even more uneasy. She thought about how drastically things had changed at home ever since Dino had brought Melaa into the family as his wife.
Dino, her younger brother, had once been loving, dutiful, and always respectful toward their parents. Now he had transformed into a cold and passive man. Melaa had succeeded in binding him with emotional manipulation, a luxurious lifestyle, and the inferiority she had instilled in him.
Melaa came from a family in the city that claimed to be wealthy, so Dino felt he had to obey his wife's every demand to keep her from leaving him.
But neither Dino nor the family knew that Melaa was hiding a major secret. She had not entered the Sutarjo family out of genuine love for Dino, but as part of a concealed plan to seize the only asset owned by his village family, regardless of how many tears and how much suffering her elderly parents-in-law would have to endure.
The morning passed in that old house beneath a thick blanket of tension. And behind the tightly closed bedroom door, Melaa Wijaya smiled coldly at her reflection in the mirror, planning her next move to eliminate anyone who dared stand in the way of her desires.
Meanwhile, the sun climbed higher, sending scorching rays through the gaps in the lace curtains in the living room. The atmosphere, which had grown heated after Melaa's outburst, had now turned into a suffocating silence. Atun walked slowly toward the corner of the kitchen, her increasingly unsteady hands taking the rice container and the bowl of sayur lodeh. Whenever she remembered her daughter-in-law's words, pain spread from her chest to her throat. But as a mother, she held her tears tightly inside so her husband would not hear them.
She knew exactly how shattered Sutarjo's heart was. All his life, Sutarjo had been a respected man in the village, an honest head of the family who had never tired of working himself to the bone to raise their three children. But now, the paralysis in his legs seemed to have stripped him of all dignity in Melaa's eyes.
On the side porch, shaded by a mango tree, Sutarjo slowly pushed the wheels of his old wheelchair. The old man stared straight at the deserted village road. A gentle breeze brushed his thinning white hair. In silence, clear tears slowly rolled down his sunken cheeks. How painful it was that the house he had built with his own sweat now felt like a prison, where he and his wife were treated like unwanted parasites.
Not long afterward, the front door opened. Dino stepped inside in slightly rumpled work clothes. His face showed the exhaustion of having started his shift early at the factory. Yet instead of greeting his father on the porch or checking on his mother in the kitchen, Dino's first glance went straight to the still tightly closed master bedroom door.
"You're home, Dino?" Elzaya asked coldly as she happened to come out carrying a dishwashing bowl.
Dino stopped and looked at his youngest sibling with a furrowed brow. "Yeah. Where's Melaa, Za? Has she had breakfast?"
Elzaya held back a sarcastic smile. "Is Melaa the only one you're asking about? Aren't you going to ask whether Mom and Dad have eaten? Do you know that Melaa yelled at them first thing this morning just because she smelled the sayur lodeh?!"
Dino's expression immediately grew tense. But instead of showing concern for his parents, he let out a long, irritated sigh. "Za, stop making everything into a bigger problem than it is! Melaa's a city girl. She's not used to the smell of coconut-milk dishes or a stuffy house. You should understand that she's still adjusting to living here!"
"Adjusting?" Elzaya cut in, her voice rising. "What kind of adjustment gives her the right to call Mom and Dad freeloaders?! Are you blind now, Dino?!"
"Elzaya! Watch your mouth!" Dino snapped in a low but sharp voice, afraid Melaa might hear him. "You have no idea how much pressure Melaa has been under since moving to this village! Enough. Don't make things worse!"
Ignoring the disbelief in his sister's eyes, Dino strode toward the master bedroom, leaving Elzaya gripping the rim of the bowl with trembling fingers. Dino's blind obedience to Melaa had become a thorn digging deeper and deeper into the heart of the Sutarjo family.
Behind the locked bedroom door, Melaa welcomed Dino with a pout she had carefully arranged, ready to unleash a new manipulation so he would drift even farther from his own family. That day, a great storm had gathered over their marriage and family, ready to explode at any moment.
As soon as the master bedroom door creaked softly and locked from the inside, Melaa began her act. She had been doing her makeup in front of the vanity mirror, but suddenly changed her expression into one of utter sorrow and exhaustion. Fake tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as Dino approached and gently touched her shoulder.
"Honey, what's wrong? Elzaya said there was a problem with Mom this morning?" Dino asked, his voice instantly softening with concern.
Melaa deliberately shrugged his hand off her shoulder as though she did not want to be touched, then wiped her tears with a tissue. "You're asking me what's wrong? You should be asking your family! I'm tired, Dino! I've tried to endure living in this stuffy old house for you, but what do I get in return from your mother and sister?"
Dino let out a long sigh and sat on the edge of the bed, holding Melaa's fingers. "Tell me what really happened."
Melaa looked at Dino with a wounded expression she had carefully manufactured, the manipulation that always managed to conquer her husband. "This morning, I politely asked your mother if she could keep the smell of the coconut-milk food from getting so strong because it makes me dizzy and nauseous. But how did your mother respond? She started yelling at me and said I was an ungrateful daughter-in-law! Then Elzaya joined in, yelling at me and telling me to get out of this house! They're doing it on purpose, Dino. They want to make me so uncomfortable that I leave and we get divorced!"
Dino clenched his fists on his lap. Melaa's piercing words easily twisted the facts in his mind. His blind devotion to his wife instantly dulled his logical instincts. "Did they really say that to you?"
"Why would I lie to you, Dino?!" Melaa interrupted in a raised voice, pressing the advantage.
"I'm used to living comfortably in the city, with a clean, peaceful home. Moving here was already a huge sacrifice for me! But if your family intimidates me every day, I can't take it anymore. If you love your mother and Elzaya more than you love me, then fine! Send me back to my parents' house right now!"
That threat embodied Dino's greatest fear. His inferiority about Melaa's family background, which he believed to be wealthy and influential, made him feel that he would be the world's biggest failure if she divorced him or left him.
"Don't say that, Melaa. I love you so much. Please don't leave me," Dino pleaded in panic. He pulled Melaa into his arms, completely forgetting the fading image of his mother in the kitchen and his father mourning his fate in his wheelchair.
Melaa smiled coldly behind Dino's shoulder, a victorious smile her husband could not see. She slowly stroked Dino's back, injecting a new dose of manipulative poison into the man's ear.
"If you really love me, you have to be firm. This house needs to be transferred into your name, Dino. That way Mom and Elzaya can't threaten to throw me out anymore. Besides, Dad is already sick and can't handle the paperwork. That's the only way I'll feel safe living here."
Dino fell silent for a moment, a flicker of doubt crossing his mind about the land certificate belonging to his father. But Melaa's scheming gaze quickly eroded the last remnants of his conscience. The storm in the old house was no longer merely a clash between a daughter-in-law and her parents-in-law. It was now a grave threat poised to destroy the Sutarjo family's honor from within.
While Dino was lost in Melaa's poisonous embrace, the unease outside the room grew heavier. In a corner of the living room, Elzaya stood lost in thought, staring at the tightly closed master bedroom door. It hurt so much to see her older brother, once the family's protector, now completely submitting to a cunning woman.
With dragging steps, Elzaya approached her mother, who was tidying the dishes in the kitchen. A thin trace of tears still remained on Atun's cheeks.
"Mom," Elzaya whispered, afraid her voice might spark another outburst in the house. "Why has Dino become so harsh? Why won't he listen to us even a little?"
Atun rubbed Elzaya's hand with her rough, wrinkled fingers. "Your Dino has been blinded, Za. He feels small in front of Melaa's family. A man's pride is often the easiest doorway for evil intentions to enter through. We have to be extra patient..."
"But patience has limits, Mom!" Elzaya cut in, her voice restrained. "I'm afraid that if we stay quiet, Melaa will only become more brazen. You saw how she looked at Dad, didn't you? As if he were some useless object!"
Atun could only take a long breath, holding back the tightness in her chest. What her youngest child said was true. But as a mother, she was trapped between her love for her only son and the pain of having her dignity trampled.
On the side porch, Sutarjo still sat stiffly in his wheelchair. The midday breeze could not cool the heat building in his head. Although bone degeneration had paralyzed his body and illness was eating away at him, his hearing was still sharp enough to catch the faint whispers of Melaa from behind the bedroom window, which had not been fully closed.
Transfer the certificate into his name?
The thought struck Sutarjo's chest like a heavy hammer. This teak house was the only inheritance and proof of his decades of hard work as a trader outside Java. He had built it so all three of his children would have a safe place to return to. Learning that his daughter-in-law intended to seize the asset by exploiting Dino's inferiority slowly ignited the old man's suppressed anger.
With trembling hands, Sutarjo felt inside his pants pocket and pulled out a small brass key that he always kept carefully tucked away. It was the key to the teak drawer in his old bedroom, where the land certificate was kept.
"As long as I'm still breathing, I won't let that woman take what belongs to my children," Sutarjo whispered to himself, his aging eyes shining with an unshakable resolve.
Just then, the master bedroom door opened. Dino came out with Melaa, who now wore a triumphant smile. Melaa clung tightly to Dino's arm and looked at Atun and Elzaya with open superiority.
"Dino," Melaa said coyly, "will you take me to the city this afternoon? I want to buy some new clothes and skincare products. My headache still hasn't gone away because of the atmosphere in this house."
Dino nodded obediently without even glancing toward his mother, who stood silently in the kitchen doorway. The fracture in the Sutarjo family was no longer a minor wound but a deep chasm ready to swallow all the warmth that had once existed. And far away, Riana was packing her things, preparing to return home with the certainty she needed to put an end to this madness.