That day was the breaking point. Over a trivial matter, Mom Atun accidentally bumped Melaa’s designer handbag, splashing it with a few drops of tea, and Melaa flew into an uncontrollable rage. Vicious insults poured from her mouth without restraint, calling Mom a “rotting old hag” and “an ungrateful old woman.” Words weren’t enough for her. Melaa swung her hand and struck Mom hard across the cheek. Dad Sutarjo, who suffered mild paralysis from bone degeneration, could only let tears roll down his cheeks from his wheelchair, unable to defend his wife.
The sharp crack of the slap echoed through the old house, shattering its silence. Mom Atun’s left cheek reddened instantly, leaving finger marks that slowly darkened to purple. The middle-aged woman clutched her burning cheek in stunned disbelief, her eyes wide. It wasn’t the physical pain crushing her chest, but the humiliation inflicted by her own daughter-in-law in the home where she had raised her children.
“Melaa!” Elzaya screamed as she came running from the kitchen. The plastic bowl in her hand slipped and struck the wooden floor with a loud clatter.
Elzaya rushed to her mother and wrapped her arms around Mom Atun’s frail, violently trembling body. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Have you gone crazy?! How dare you slap Mom?! Are you human or a demon?!”
Melaa stood straight with her chin raised, not the slightest trace of regret on her beautiful face. Instead, she casually shook her hand as if she had just brushed away some dirt. “That’s why you’re supposed to use your eyes!
“This bag cost tens of millions, and it was bought with Dino’s money! Do you think it’s easy to take care of leather like this?! This shameless old woman just carelessly dripped that cheap tea all over it!”
In the corner of the room, Dad Sutarjo groaned loudly. From his wheelchair, the old man struggled with all his strength to move his body, one leg completely immobile. His stiff fingers gripped the wheelchair handles until his knuckles turned white. Tears burned down his sunken cheeks, flowing freely along with his overwhelming helplessness. His slightly crooked mouth moved as he tried to force out words defending his wife, but only broken, heartbreaking groans emerged.
“Melaa... you... need... to be taught...” Dad Sutarjo rasped, the words trapped in his throat.
“Dad, don’t bother joining in with all that groaning!” Melaa snapped mercilessly, pointing straight at him. “Know your place! The two of you are nothing but burdens in this house! If it weren’t for Dino, you’d already be abandoned on the streets!”
“That’s enough, Melaa!”
A deep voice thundered from the front door. Dino stood there, his face deathly pale. He had just stepped inside to retrieve documents he had left behind, but the scene in the living room struck him like a brutal blow: his mother was hunched over, clutching her reddened cheek; his sister was crying hysterically as she hugged their mother; and his father was sobbing in his wheelchair.
The moment Melaa saw Dino arrive, her expression changed completely. She shifted her position, grabbed her own wrist, and grimaced in pain, tears welling in her eyes within seconds.
“Mas Dino... help me...” Melaa broke down in a pitiful sob. “Mom and Elzaya deliberately tried to ruin my bag, Mas! When I calmly confronted her, Mom tried to hit me, so I only held her hand back! But Elzaya started yelling and tried to gang up on me!”
Elzaya stared at Melaa in disbelief at such an obvious lie. “That’s a lie! Mas Dino, Mbak Melaa slapped Mom first! Look at Mom’s cheek! Look!”
Dino stood frozen. His gaze moved from the slap marks on his mother’s trembling, tearful cheek to his wife’s face covered in fake tears. Caught between a son’s conscience and his wife’s manipulation, the tension in the old house reached its most critical peak.
Dino stepped forward, his head feeling crushed beneath a ton of weight. Every step creaked across the old wooden floor, as though it too were screaming beneath the tension burning through the room. His eyes shifted between the deep blue bruise on his mother’s left cheek, the clear outline of fingers stamped across it, and Melaa’s face drenched in theatrical tears.
“Mas... you believe me, right?” Melaa sobbed even harder. She hurried over to Dino and wrapped both arms around his arm in a protective gesture. “My hand hurts, Mas. Mom held it earlier. I only wanted to protect the bag you gave me. You know how much I value the things you give me, right? But Mom and Elzaya cornered me...”
“Mas Dino! Use your brain!” Elzaya shouted, her restrained sobs erupting into uncontrollable fury. “Mbak Melaa slapped Mom! Mom didn’t hold anyone back or try to hit anyone! That cheap bag only got a few drops of tea on it, and this monster immediately swung at Mom’s face! You still want to believe this pathetic act?!”
“Elzaya, shut up!” Dino barked. But his shout lacked conviction. His voice trembled violently. He looked at his mother. “Mom... were you really going to hit Melaa?”
The question slipped from Dino’s mouth like an ice-covered dagger driven straight into Mom Atun’s heart. The middle-aged woman slowly raised her head. Her tear-filled eyes looked at her only son—the boy she had carried for nine months, nursed, cared for night after night through high fevers, and proudly praised to the neighbors when he managed to find work in the city.
Now that son stood before her, asking whether the mother who had given birth to him was heartless enough to hit his own wife.
Mom Atun answered with no words. She only formed the bitterest smile of her life. She released a trembling, heavy breath, then slowly shook her head. “Gusti Allah boten sare, Dino... Allah is never asleep, Son...” Mom Atun’s voice was faint, nearly drowned out by Dad Sutarjo’s groans from the corner.
“Dino... you... ungrateful... child...” Dad Sutarjo whispered from his wheelchair, his breath ragged. His sunken face flushed dark red with suppressed emotion. His stiff right hand tried to rise, pointing straight at his son. “Your mother... gave... birth to you... Dino...”
“Dad, don’t bother talking!” Melaa cut in quickly, interrupting him before Dino could waver. “Mas, see? The three of them have banded together to gang up on me! I can’t stand living here! If you won’t defend your own wife, then I’m better off leaving this house!”
Melaa deliberately released Dino’s arm and turned her back, pretending to head toward the bedroom to pack her things.
“Melaa, don’t! Don’t leave!” Dino panicked. His deep fear of losing Melaa, and of being branded a failed husband by her wealthy family in the city, dragged all his reason and conscience into the deepest abyss. He grabbed Melaa’s wrist and pleaded with her to stay, then turned toward his mother and sister with a forced angry glare.
“Mom! Elzaya! Can’t you go even one day without causing trouble?!” Dino shouted, venting all his frustration on the people who loved him most. “Melaa’s stressed living here! She’s used to a comfortable life! You should be more understanding and take her feelings into consideration! Why make such a huge fight over something this trivial?!”
Elzaya looked at her brother with undisguised disgust. “Mas Dino... you’ve truly lost your mind. You’re defending the woman who just slapped Mom? You’re trading Mom’s dignity for this manipulative woman?!”
“That’s enough, Za!” Mom Atun interrupted as she slowly rose. Her frail body swayed slightly, but Elzaya quickly steadied her. Mom Atun rubbed her bruised cheek with her fingertips. She looked straight at Dino without anger, only profound spiritual exhaustion.
“Enough, Za... don’t continue,” Mom Atun said softly, though her voice felt ice-cold. “Your Mas Dino has made his choice. This house is no longer a welcoming place for Dad and me.”
Mom Atun approached her husband’s wheelchair and slowly pushed its slightly rusted metal wheels toward their room at the back of the house—a small room that had once been used as a grain-storage shed, where they had lived ever since the master bedroom was handed over to Dino and Melaa.
Melaa smiled faintly, hiding a triumphant smirk as she rested her head against Dino’s chest. “Thank you, Mas... you’re the only one who understands me.”
Dino hugged Melaa tightly, but a vast emptiness stirred coldly inside him. The image of the finger marks on his mother’s cheek continued to haunt his increasingly poisoned mind.
Afternoon gave way to evening. The sky above the village turned a silvery orange beneath low-hanging clouds drifting across it. Inside the cramped back room, which smelled of damp wood, Mom Atun was pressing a wet cloth to her cheek. Beside her, Dad Sutarjo lay on a rough wooden bed.
Elzaya sat beside her father’s bed, holding his stiff fingers as they continued to tremble rhythmically.
“Za...” Mom Atun called while wringing the compress cloth into a tin bowl.
“Yes, Mom?”
“Don’t tell Mbak Riana anything, okay...” Mom Atun pleaded quietly. “Your sister has a lot on her mind with work in the city. I don’t want Riana rushing home and causing an even bigger commotion here.”
Elzaya clenched her fists on her thighs. Her eyes reddened with frustration. “Mom! Mbak Riana is the oldest child! She has the right to know that her mother was slapped and screamed at like this! Mas Dino can’t be counted on anymore, Mom. He’s become Mbak Melaa’s slave!”
“I said don’t, Elzaya,” Mom Atun said firmly, her low voice filled with emphasis. “Have mercy on your sister. Let this remain a family matter for now. Besides, your college admission results will be announced soon, won’t they? You need to focus. Don’t let your thoughts get scattered.”
Elzaya bit her lower lip tightly until she tasted blood. It was so unfair. Her mother was always thinking about everyone else’s feelings and her children’s futures while her own heart was being torn apart by a shameless daughter-in-law and a disobedient son.
Without Mom Atun’s knowledge, Elzaya reached into her skirt pocket. She secretly took out her smartphone, its screen cracked. Her fingers moved quickly as she opened her messaging app. She could no longer bear this burden alone.
Mbak Riana... please come home. This house has become hell. Mbak Melaa is getting crazier, and Mas Dino just stands by doing nothing.
The message sent with two check marks. It took less than ten seconds for Elzaya’s phone screen to light up, displaying “Mbak Riana” as she tried to call. Elzaya immediately silenced the ringtone, rejected the call, and quickly typed a reply:
Don’t call yet, Mbak. Mom might hear. Anyway, if you get a day off or can take leave from work, you have to come home right now. Mom needs you.
Across the city, in a fifth-floor office carpeted wall to wall and filled with the clatter of keyboards, Riana gripped her phone tightly. Her previously calm face hardened at once. She stared sharply at the phone screen, where the written conversation had just ended. The bad feeling that had crossed her chest that morning had now been completely confirmed.
Riana rose from her desk, shut off her computer without hesitation, and strode toward her supervisor’s office to request emergency leave.
“What’s going on, Riana? Why so sudden?” her supervisor asked upon seeing the leave form she placed on his desk.
“My family back home needs me, sir. There’s an urgent matter that can’t wait,” Riana replied firmly, without the slightest hesitation.
As the eldest child, trained since childhood to be independent and protect her younger siblings, Riana never hesitated to make difficult decisions. She knew her sister Elzaya’s character well. Elzaya would never have sent such a desperate message if the situation in their old house wasn’t truly on the verge of collapse.
Night fell over the village. Crickets called back and forth behind the banana trees beside the house. In the living room, Melaa lounged on a plush sofa—the new sofa Dino had bought with his credit card the previous month—while carefully filing her nails. In front of her, a flat-screen television displayed a city entertainment program.
Dino came out of the kitchen carrying a glass of warm milk Melaa had requested. He gently placed the cup on the glass table.
“Here’s your milk, sweetheart,” Dino said softly as he sat beside his wife.
Melaa took a small sip, then set it down with an irritated sigh. “It’s not sweet enough, Mas. But whatever. Better than making me ask your mother to prepare it again, only to be accused of bothering that old hag.”
Dino winced. Hearing his mother called such a horrible name sent a stab of discomfort through his chest, but he chose to keep it buried. “Melaa... about what happened this afternoon... are you really okay?”
Melaa turned and stared sharply into Dino’s eyes. “What do you mean, asking that? You still doubt me, Mas? You think I made the whole story up?”
“No... that’s not what I mean,” Dino cut in quickly, taking both her hands. “I just... I just feel guilty about Dad and Mom. Mom’s cheek is badly bruised, Melaa. Her left cheek is red and blue...”
Melaa yanked her hands from his grasp. She laughed coldly, the sound dripping with contempt. “Oh, so you feel sorrier for your mother than for your own wife? Mas, you’d better remember! Who stayed with you in the city? Who boosted your status in front of your factory friends? Me! My family is respected, Dino! If I didn’t love you, why would I live in this old shack?”
“Yes, I know... I know, sweetheart...” Dino lowered his voice, pleading for her approval.
“If you really know and understand that, prove it!” Melaa demanded challengingly. “Tomorrow we’re going to the notary’s office in the city. We’ll transfer the land and house certificate into your name. After that, we’ll renovate this old house, tear down that smelly, stuffy back section, and build a modern home fit for the two of us!”
“But... if we tear down the back section, where will Dad and Mom live?” Dino asked, startled.
Melaa smiled crookedly and stood, folding her arms across her chest. “The little front room near the garage should work, right? Or if it’s too small, Elzaya can find a boarding room near her campus. Besides, they’re old, Mas. They don’t need a lot of space. All they need is a bed and a bathroom.”
Dino fell silent. Memories of his childhood suddenly flashed before his eyes. He remembered how his father, Dad Sutarjo, had gone hungry for days while working away from home so he could send money to buy the finest teak wood to build this house. He remembered how his mother, Mom Atun, always welcomed him at the front door whenever he came home from school, with a warm smile and a glass of sweet iced tea.
But those memories were quickly swept away by the fear Melaa had planted in him—the fear of divorce, the fear of losing the beautiful, extravagantly dressed woman he had proudly shown off to his friends.
“Well, Mas? Are you brave enough to take a firm stand for our future, or do you want to live off your parents forever?” Melaa whispered beside Dino’s ear, injecting his mind with another dose of poisonous arrogance.
Dino nodded slowly, his movements stiff like a wooden puppet pulled by strings. “Yes, Melaa... tomorrow... tomorrow we’ll handle it in the city.”
The darkness deepened as everyone in the house began falling asleep. In the back room, an old glass-sided oil lamp glowed dimly, casting dancing yellow light across the wooden walls.
Mom Atun woke to the faint sound of movement beside the bed. She slowly sat up, felt through the darkness, and found her husband sitting on the edge of the mattress.
“Dad... why are you awake? Does something hurt?” Mom Atun whispered gently as she adjusted the sarong covering his shoulders.
Dad Sutarjo didn’t answer. The old man pointed toward the old teak wardrobe standing stiffly in the corner. His trembling fingers indicated the locked bottom drawer.
“The key... Mom...” Dad Sutarjo whispered, struggling to articulate the words.
Mom Atun froze. “The key to the certificate drawer, Dad?”
Dad Sutarjo nodded slowly but firmly. His eyes, usually dulled by illness, now shone with intense emotion.
“Dino... is... blind... Mom... We... must... protect... this house...”
Mom Atun clasped her hands. She understood exactly what her husband feared. Dino’s change in attitude and Melaa’s increasingly inhuman behavior pointed clearly to one thing: control of their property.
Carefully, Mom Atun went to the side of the bed and took a small string of keys from inside the folds of their foam mattress, then unlocked the wardrobe drawer. From inside, where it smelled of mothballs and old paper, she removed a thick brown envelope tied with red cloth cord.
Inside was the certificate of ownership for the land and this teak house, authentic proof of Dad Sutarjo’s decades of blood, sweat, and suffering.
“Keep... it, Mom... Don’t... let... Dino... take it...” Dad Sutarjo said in a heavy, hoarse voice. Tears once again slipped from the corners of his wrinkled eyes. “This... is... for... you... For... Riana... Elzaya...”
Mom Atun hugged the brown document to her chest. The ache crept back up her throat. How tragic their fate was: at an age that should have been filled with peace and the rocking of grandchildren, they instead had to defend their property from their own son, poisoned by his wife.
“Yes, Dad... I’ll keep it safe. Get some rest, okay? Don’t keep thinking about it, or your blood pressure will flare up...” Mom Atun whispered as she gently rubbed his chest.
But the peace of that night was only an illusion. Behind the slightly ajar door of the back room, a shadow stood motionless in the darkness of the hallway. Melaa had just come out of the bathroom to get a drink from the kitchen, but she deliberately stopped when she saw the sliver of light from the back room.
Melaa’s eyes narrowed as she watched Mom Atun embrace the thick brown envelope. A sly smile returned to her dark-red lipstick-painted lips.
So the land certificate is in that old wardrobe drawer, Melaa thought with bubbling satisfaction. You think you can hide it from me? We’ll see about that tomorrow.
The next morning, golden sunlight swept across the village. Sparrows chirped cheerfully between the clay roof tiles, contrasting sharply with the cold, ominous atmosphere inside the teak house.
Dino was already dressed in a neat shirt, sitting at the dining table and sipping black coffee. Beside him, Melaa looked stunning in a cream-colored dress and sunglasses perched on top of her head, ready to leave for the city.
“Mas, before we leave, ask Dad for the land certificate,” Melaa whispered, nudging Dino’s arm at the table.
Dino stopped sipping his coffee. The tin cup clinked loudly against the tabletop. “Now, Melaa? Wouldn’t it be better to talk it over this afternoon?”
“It has to be now, Dino!” Melaa hissed insistently. “We have the whole day in the city. We can take care of the notary and the bank at the same time! How much longer are you going to wait? Until your mother convinces Dad to sell this house to someone else?!”
Dino drew a long breath and swallowed, the taste as bitter as the unsweetened coffee before him. He slowly stood and walked toward the back room, pressure tightening around his chest.
When Dino reached the back-room door, he found Elzaya helping her mother put clean clothes into the wardrobe. Dad Sutarjo sat in his wheelchair near the window, staring blankly out into the yard.
“Mom...” Dino called softly from the doorway.
Mom Atun turned. Her face looked pale, and the bruise on her left cheek had darkened to an increasingly pronounced blue. “What is it, Dino?”
Dino looked away from the bruise, unable to meet his mother’s eyes. “Mom... Dino wants the house certificate.”
A tense silence instantly filled the small room. Elzaya’s hands stopped in the middle of folding a piece of cloth. In the corner, Dad Sutarjo slowly turned his wheelchair, fixing his blazing eyes on his only son.
“What do you need the land certificate for, Mas?” Elzaya asked, her cold voice trembling.
Dino clenched his jaw, trying to hold his head high and look authoritative. “It’s none of your business, Za! This is an adult matter! Mom, Dino wants to transfer the house into his name. I’m the only son in this family. It’s only right that the house be transferred to me so it’ll be easier to manage when we renovate it.”
Mom Atun looked at her son in deep anguish. “Dino... your father built this house. As long as your father is alive, the certificate stays in his name.”
“Mom! Why can’t you understand?!” Dino’s voice rose as he felt cornered. “Dad is sick and getting weaker! He can’t walk or take care of anything anymore! If the certificate stays in his name, we’ll have trouble using the house as collateral for a business loan or renovation loan! I’m the one working myself to the bone to pay all the bills here, Mom!”
“Oh-ho! A business loan?!” Elzaya stepped forward and stood directly in front of her brother, her chest heaving with anger. “Or are you planning to hand it over to Mbak Melaa?! Mas Dino, are you even aware of what you’re doing?! You want to sell your own parents’ house just to satisfy your spoiled wife’s shopping obsession!”
“Elzaya! Shut your mouth!” Dino shouted as he raised his hand, preparing to slap his sister.
But before Dino’s hand could land, a thick teak cane struck the wooden floor with an ear-splitting boom.
Crack!
Everyone in the room jumped. Dad Sutarjo was standing! The old man, who had spent years confined to a wheelchair, had managed to plant his trembling feet on the floor with the last of his physical strength and the fury exploding from his soul. He braced himself against the wheelchair and his old cane, glaring at Dino like lightning splitting a clear sky.
“Over... my... dead... body... first... Dino!” Dad Sutarjo screamed, his hoarse voice tearing through the silence of the house. His sunken face trembled violently. “You... ungrateful... son...!”
Dino took one step back, stunned to see his paralyzed father standing and shouting at him with such incredible force.
Behind Dino, Melaa watched from the hallway with her arms crossed over her chest and a contemptuous smile. “Tch, what kind of drama is this now? Mas, you can see for yourself, right? They’re deliberately trying to keep what’s rightfully yours from you! You’re the son, but they don’t count you for anything in this house!”
Melaa’s provocation rekindled Dino’s fading anger. His shame overwhelmed his humanity. Dino shoved Elzaya aside and advanced toward the old wardrobe in the corner.
“Dino! Don’t, Son!” Mom Atun screamed, trying to block her son.
But Dino, blinded by rage, yanked the bottom drawer’s handle with all his strength. The small lock snapped instantly. He reached inside and pulled out the thick brown envelope tied with red cord.
“Mas Dino! Let go!” Elzaya tried to snatch the envelope, but Dino slapped her hand away, sending her tumbling into the corner of the bed.
“That’s enough! This house will be in my name! And I’ll decide who’s allowed to live here!” Dino shouted, gripping his father’s land certificate tightly.
Melaa smiled broadly from behind the door, her eyes sparkling as she saw the brown envelope in her husband’s hands. “Good, Mas! Let’s go now!”
Seeing his property and dignity forcibly stolen by his own son right before his eyes, Dad Sutarjo could no longer withstand the emotional shock. His trembling legs suddenly gave out. The old man collapsed onto the wooden floor, clutching his chest and groaning in unbearable pain.
“Dad!” Mom Atun screamed hysterically, dropping to her knees and cradling her husband’s limp head, his lips beginning to turn blue.
“Dad! Wake up, Dad!” Elzaya sobbed, embracing her father’s rigid body.
Dino stood frozen, the brown envelope in his hand feeling like a red-hot iron bar burning his fingers. His eyes widened as he stared at his father lying helplessly on the floor.
“Mas! Come on! Why are you just standing there?!” Melaa snapped, tugging at Dino’s arm from behind. “It’s probably just an act to make you cancel the transfer! Hurry up!”
Melaa dragged Dino out of the room, leaving behind the back room filled with the hysterical screams and sobs of a mother and daughter mourning over the unconscious body of the old man.
Meanwhile, on the dusty village road, an intercity shuttle stopped directly in front of the wooden gate of the Sutarjo family home. The door opened, and a neatly dressed woman with a resolute face stepped out.
Riana.
The woman pulled her small suitcase along at a brisk pace. The foreboding in her chest intensified when she saw Dino’s sedan parked in the front yard, its engine already running.
As Riana passed through the gate, she saw Dino and Melaa hurrying out the front door. In Dino’s hand was a thick brown envelope tied with red cord—the envelope Riana had known since childhood as the place where their father’s land certificate was kept.
“Dino! Melaa!” Riana called, her firm voice echoing across the yard.
Dino stopped instantly. His face went deathly pale at the sight of his eldest sister standing rigidly at the gate, her eyes blazing with intimidation.
Melaa snorted and rolled her eyes irritably. “Ugh, another troublemaker.”
Riana approached, her gaze locked on the brown envelope in Dino’s hand before shifting to her guilty-looking brother.
“Where are you taking Dad’s land certificate, Dino?” Riana asked coldly, her calm voice cutting as sharply as a razor.
“Mbak... Mbak Riana... why did you come home without telling us?” Dino asked nervously, instinctively trying to hide the brown envelope behind his back.
“I’m asking you one more time, Dino. Where are you taking Dad’s land certificate?!” Riana’s voice rose an octave, radiating the undeniable authority of the eldest child.
Melaa stepped forward, thrusting out her chest in challenge. “Hey, Mbak Riana! Don’t act like you’re in charge! Dino is the son of this family! He has the right to handle the house’s assets! We’re taking it to the notary to transfer the title!”
Riana slowly turned toward Melaa. Her sharp gaze made Melaa flinch and take a step backward.
“You be quiet, Melaa. You’re an outsider in this house who only arrived eight months ago!” Riana snapped without the slightest fear.
Before Melaa could reply, Elzaya’s hysterical scream echoed from the back of the house.
“Mbak Riana! Mbak Riana, help! Dad... Dad isn’t breathing!”
The words struck the front yard like a thunderclap. Riana released her suitcase and ran into the house without another thought, ignoring Dino and Melaa.
In the back room, Riana found her mother cradling her father’s cold, limp head on the wooden floor. Her mother’s left cheek was visibly bruised blue beneath the sunlight streaming through the window.
Riana’s eyes widened at the slap mark on her mother’s cheek and her father’s critical condition. Her chest thundered with overwhelming grief, sorrow, and fury exploding inside her.
“Mom... what happened to your cheek?!” Riana asked, dropping to her knees and touching her mother’s face.
Mom Atun couldn’t answer. She only sobbed and pointed toward her unconscious husband.
Elzaya, crying beside her mother, immediately pointed outside. “Mbak Melaa slapped Mom! She slapped Mom over some tea, and Mas Dino stole Dad’s land certificate until Dad had a heart attack and collapsed!”
Riana slowly rose. Her wet eyes turned burning red with pure rage. She turned and strode back toward the front room, her knuckles clenched so tightly they turned white.
In the front yard, Dino and Melaa were just about to get into the car.
“Dino! Melaa!”
Riana’s voice thundered through the afternoon air. Before Dino could fully turn around, she was already standing in front of him.
Smack!
A hard, decisive, full-force slap from Riana landed squarely on Dino’s right cheek. His head snapped to the side, heat searing across his face. Dino grimaced and clutched his throbbing cheek.
“That’s for the pain you caused Dad!” Riana shouted, breathing heavily.
Before Melaa could open her mouth to scream, Riana spun around, seized the collar of Melaa’s expensive dress with one hand, and shoved her backward until her back slammed hard against the hood of the car.
Bang!
“And you, you demon!” Riana stared straight into Melaa’s eyes, now filled with terror. “How dare you put your hands on my mother in this house?!”
Smack!
An even harder counter-slash landed squarely on Melaa’s left cheek, leaving a blazing red mark across her made-up skin. Melaa’s expensive sunglasses flew off and shattered on the dusty ground.
Melaa screamed hysterically, clutching her numb, burning cheek. “Mas Dino! Look at your sister! She’s trying to kill me!”
“Mbak Riana! Enough!” Dino shouted, trying to intervene as he reached for his sister’s arm.
But Riana turned and snatched the brown envelope containing the land certificate from Dino’s grasp in one swift motion his brother could not resist. She pointed straight at his face, her finger nearly touching his nose.
“Listen to me, Dino!” Riana’s voice was cold and threatening, carrying the unshakable authority of the eldest child. “Dad is going to the hospital today! And if anything happens to Dad’s life or Mom’s health, I’ll personally drag you and your cheap wife to court for assault and illegally taking control of the property!”
Dino stood frozen. His sister’s authority, which had always made her the family’s protector, completely shattered his false confidence. Deep fear appeared in his eyes as he saw the land certificate safely held in Riana’s grasp.
Melaa grimaced in pain against the car hood, clutching her bruised cheek as she stared at Riana with a mixture of hatred and fear. Control of the old house was now blocked by a solid wall named Riana—the eldest child who would never allow anyone to trample on her parents’ dignity.
Inside the house, the village ambulance siren began echoing in the distance, breaking the silence and marking the beginning of a new chapter in the Sutarjo family’s struggle to reclaim the warmth and justice stolen from their old home.