Chapter 6 - The Agonizing Ride
When Doña Carmen’s luxury SUV honked impatiently in the driveway thirty minutes later, I could barely stand. I had managed to drag myself to the front door, leaning heavily against the wall, clutching my coat around my oversized, restricted belly.
She didn't get out to help me. I had to painfully navigate the front steps alone, gasping with every movement. When I finally pulled the passenger door open and collapsed onto the leather seat, she looked at me with unvarnished disgust.
"Good lord, Valeria, look at the state of you," she sneered, putting the car into gear. "You look like a homeless woman. Did you even brush your hair?"
"It hurts, señora," I whimpered, pressing my hands against the thick fabric of the girdle. "It feels like I'm burning inside."
She aggressively merged into the heavy Viaducto traffic, completely ignoring my tears. She had adamantly refused to take me to the private hospital where Diego had our premium insurance policy.
"We are going to the General Hospital," she had stated over the phone. "I am not having Diego pay thousands of pesos for a private emergency room just because you have some gas or false cramps. You spoiled modern girls need to learn to endure."
Throughout the entire drive, she didn't stop lecturing me.
"Everything hurts you," she scolded, keeping her eyes on the road. "I honestly don't know what is wrong with your generation. Women in my day gave birth at home, alone, and the very next day we were washing our husband’s clothes by hand. You are made of glass, Valeria. Everything is a drama."
I squeezed my eyes shut, biting my lower lip so hard I tasted copper.
"If you want to know the truth, I think you're faking half of this," she continued, her voice dripping with venom. "Diego told me you were pouting last night. You are just doing this to punish him because he works hard and comes home late. You are incredibly manipulative."
Every time the heavy SUV hit a pothole in the asphalt, a fresh wave of agony radiated from my lower back to my pelvis. The girdle was suffocating me, pressing my bruised ribs into my lungs.
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"Please... just drive faster," I begged weakly.
"Don't tell me how to drive my own car!" she snapped back. "Just sit there and be quiet. You are embarrassing the family name."
