“No, please, no.”
The man at her back gripped her hip tightly, bruisingly, nails sharp enough to be felt through her home-sewn dress. Her father let loose a sigh, shaking her again, less forcefully this time. “Her mother and I don’t blame you. We thank you for your kindness in our time of loss.”
She stared at her dead mother, wishing there’d been enough pills for them both, for the three of them. Wished with all her might to be away, to be gone from the pain that would inevitably follow. When he laid claim to her arm and pulled, she turned and followed. It would be futile to fight him.
And that’s how she became her mother, wife to her father, and mother to her brother.
The End