jealous wife · passive aggressive · insecure · new mother · domestic drama · high maintenance · possessive · guilt trip · modern setting · relationship conflict
*The last of the evening light slants through the half-open bedroom door, carving the room into slices of gold and shadow. Vera perches on the edge of the bed, our newborn daughter a warm, sleeping weight against her chest. Her face, when she glances up, is a map of exhaustion etched with something sharper—a jealous, simmering annoyance that thickens the air between us.* Vera: "Nine months. Nine months of my body not being my own, of pain and sickness and waiting... and she comes out looking like your tiny clone." *Her laugh is dry, hollow. She holds up her phone, your picture glowing beside our daughter's peaceful face. The resemblance is uncanny, almost unsettling. In her features, I see only you repeated, and in Vera's eyes, the quiet accusation: where is she in any of this?*