The daughter-in-law slept at her husband’s house until 11 in the morning. The mother-in-law picked up a stick to scold her, but she was shocked by what she saw on the bed…
After the wedding, Mrs. Sharma had exhausted herself cleaning the house and gone to sleep, while her son Amit and daughter-in-law Priya had gone to their room much earlier. The next morning, she woke up at 5 a.m. and resumed cleaning because the house was still dusty and greasy. By 11 a.m., her back ached, and there was still no sign of activity upstairs.
She called from downstairs, “Daughter-in-law, come downstairs and cook! Daughter-in-law, come!” After waiting in silence for a long time, she called again, “Daughter-in-law, wake up!” But Priya, whose legs ached, did not want to climb the stairs, so she stood downstairs, calling softly—but still received no response. Exhausted and frustrated, she picked up the stick from the kitchen corner and went upstairs to teach her daughter-in-law a lesson.
As soon as she reached the top of the stairs, she gasped, “What kind of daughter-in-law is this? Newly married and completely lazy, lying in bed all morning. Wake up!” Saying this, she pulled back the blanket—and froze in terror at the blood on the bedsheet.
When she fully removed the blanket, her eyes fell on deep red blood spread across the sheet. Her breath caught, and the stick slipped from her hands to the floor. “Oh God… what… what is this?” she stammered.
Priya lay unconscious on the bed, her face pale, lips dry, and beads of sweat on her forehead. Her breathing was very slow. Panicked, the mother-in-law shook her shoulder.
“Priya! Wake up! What have you done to yourself?”
But Priya did not respond.
Then her eyes fell on empty medicine strips on the corner of the bed. Her heart raced. She tremblingly checked Priya’s pulse.
“Oh… this girl… this…”
At that moment, she shouted loudly—
“Amit! Amit! Come upstairs quickly!”
Amit was downstairs in the drawing room, talking on the phone. Hearing his mother’s panicked voice, his heart sank. He ran up the stairs.
“What happened, Mom? Why are you shouting so loudly?”
As Amit entered the room, he saw the blood-stained bedsheet and froze.
“This… what is this?”
Mother’s voice choked with tears,
“I thought she was just sleeping… I… I picked up a stick to wake her… but seeing this…”
Without waiting for his mother to finish, Amit lifted Priya in his arms.
“Mom, call an ambulance! Quickly!”
Mother ran downstairs frantically, her hands shaking, struggling to dial the number.
“Oh God, what have I done… if something happens…”
Within minutes, the ambulance arrived. Neighbors came out. Someone whispered,
“New daughter-in-law… looks like the mother-in-law’s tyranny has begun.”
Mother heard this, but had no strength to respond.
In the hospital’s emergency ward, doctors immediately took Priya inside. Amit sat outside, holding his head and crying.
“This is all my fault… I didn’t even ask her why she wasn’t getting up…”
Mother slowly approached him, her eyes red.
“Son… I didn’t know… I thought she was just lazy…”
For the first time, Amit glared at his mother in anger.
“Lazy? Mom, she’s been silently enduring everything for three months. Waking up to clean with you in the morning, exhausted at night… and you never asked if she was okay?”
Tears rolled down mother’s cheeks.
“How was I supposed to know…”
Then the doctor came out.
“Who is the patient’s husband?”
Amit stood up immediately.
“That’s me.”
The doctor sighed deeply.
“The patient has lost a significant amount of blood. And…”
Amit’s heart skipped a beat.
“And what, doctor?”
The doctor said softly,
“She was pregnant… but now…”
Amit felt the ground slip from under his feet.
“What… what did you say?”
Mother stood silently in the background, unable to speak. The doctor continued,
“We suspect she had been in pain and weakness for several days. Timely treatment wasn’t given. Her condition is critical.”
Amit’s mind went blank. He remembered last week when Priya had quietly said,
“Amit, I feel very tired… and have lower abdominal pain…”
And what had he replied?
“Just adjust a little, Priya, mom doesn’t like anyone skipping work.”
Amit punched the wall in frustration.
“How big a sinner I’ve been…”
Mother broke down crying.
“Son… I treated her not as a daughter-in-law, but as a servant…”
At that moment, the nurse came out.
“The patient is regaining consciousness.”
Amit ran inside. Priya’s eyes were half-open. She weakly whispered,
“Amit…”
Amit held her hand.
“Priya… I’m here… forgive me…”
Tears rolled down Priya’s face.
“I endured so much… but never said a word…”
Mother standing outside heard this and something inside her broke.
But the doctor’s next report shook everyone further…
The doctor’s next report seemed to freeze the entire room. Amit, his mother, and relatives outside all fixed their eyes on the doctor’s face. The doctor closed the file and said seriously,
“The patient has been under continuous physical and mental stress. She has severe blood loss, and the most concerning fact…”
Amit asked nervously,
“What is the most concerning fact, doctor?”
The doctor paused and said,
“She has had two miscarriages before. This was her third pregnancy… and if timely rest, care, and emotional support had been given, things might have been different today.”
Hearing this, Amit’s mother’s eyes widened.
“Two times…? But she never told us…”
The doctor answered directly,
“Many women don’t speak because they are never given a chance to.”
These words hit the mother-in-law like a hammer to the chest.
Amit sat down, stunned. He remembered every morning his mother shouting,
“Daughter-in-law, sweep the floor.”
“Daughter-in-law, why are the dishes still lying there?”
“Our daughters-in-law never rest.”
And Priya’s silence every time.
At that moment, Priya weakly called from inside the ward,
“Amit…”
Amit ran inside. Priya’s eyes showed fear, pain, and years of suppressed suffering.
“Did the doctor tell you?” she asked softly.
Amit’s voice broke.
“Yes… I know everything now.”
Priya closed her eyes.
“So what difference does it make now?”
Amit held her hand.
“It matters, Priya… it matters a lot. I was blind.”
Then mother entered. She stood by the bed, unable to muster the courage to speak.
Priya opened her eyes and for the first time looked directly at her mother-in-law.
“Mom…”
Hearing this, her mother-in-law burst into tears.
“Don’t call me Mom… I don’t deserve that.”
Priya’s voice trembled.
“I never complained… I thought things would improve over time… but every day, I felt like a burden in this house.”
Mother-in-law sank to the floor.
“I didn’t see you as a daughter-in-law… I saw you as a shadow of my youth.”
Amit was shocked.
“Mom, what are you saying?”
Mother-in-law tearfully opened her past—
“When I came to this house, your grandmother treated me the same way. From morning to night, work, not a word of love. I vowed I would never treat my daughter-in-law like that… but slowly, I became exactly what I hated.”
Silence filled the room.
Then the nurse came in and said,
“The patient should not be given too much stress.”
But the story didn’t end there.
That evening, another person arrived at the hospital—Priya’s mother. Seeing her daughter’s condition, she was furious.
“Look what you’ve done to my daughter?”
She pointed at Amit’s mother.
“Newly married, a sick daughter-in-law, and you treated her like a servant?”
Amit intervened,
“Aunty, the fault is all ours…”
But Priya’s mother did not stop.
“Fault? My daughter lost three pregnancies, and no one thought to take her to a hospital even once?”
The doctor present also supported,
“If the family had come first, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Amit’s mother was now overwhelmed with shame.
The next day, Amit made a firm decision.
He told his mother,
“Priya will stay at her mother’s house until she fully recovers.”
Mother nodded.
“Yes… that’s right.”
But the real twist came when the doctor called Amit aside and said,
“One more thing… the reports show that this wasn’t caused solely by work.”
Amit’s heart raced.
“So then?”
The doctor said in a low voice,
“Some medicines were deliberately given to her that should not be taken during pregnancy.”
Amit froze.
“Who gave them?”
The doctor showed the file,
“These are not herbal, but hormonal medicines… and someone at home must have given them.”
One name echoed in Amit’s mind…
The doctor’s words hammered in Amit’s ears—
“These medicines shouldn’t have been given during pregnancy… and someone at home must have given them.”
Amit’s mind went to his mother. His hands shook.
“No… it can’t be…”
He immediately called his mother. In the hospital corridor, they faced each other. Mother’s eyes were swollen, but her face still showed fear and guilt.
“Mom… I need to know the truth,” Amit said heavily.
“Who was giving Priya these medicines?”
Mother remained silent. Her silence was the biggest answer.
Amit raised his voice,
“Mom!”
Mother broke down crying.
“I… I was the one…”
Amit was stunned.
“You…?”
Mother said tremblingly,
“I thought these medicines were for strength… a neighbor gave them. She said, ‘She works too much, give her these, it will make her body strong.’ I didn’t know…”
Amit closed his eyes in pain.
“Mom, giving medicines to a pregnant daughter-in-law without consulting a doctor?”
Mother grabbed the floor.
“I made a huge mistake… I just wanted the housework to get done… I forgot humanity…”
At that moment, Priya’s mother also arrived. She had heard everything.
“Mistake?” Her voice trembled.
“My daughter lost three pregnancies… and you call it a mistake?”
Mother sat with her head down.
“If it had gone to the law, I might have been punished… but I was truly unaware…”
Amit said firmly,
“Whether unaware or intentional—damage has already been done.”
In the following weeks, Priya gradually began to recover. But her spirit was broken. She clearly told Amit,
“I cannot go back to a home where my voice was never heard.”
Amit said without hesitation,
“You will never be forced.”
One day Amit went with his mother to Priya’s parental home. His mother folded her hands in front of everyone.
“I have not come to ask for forgiveness… because forgiveness doesn’t fix everything. I have come to accept the truth.”
She looked at Priya.
“If you can ever call me Mom—I will consider myself fortunate. And if not… I will accept every decision of yours.”
Silence filled the room.
Priya spoke for the first time in a calm, strong voice,
“I do not want revenge. I want justice—for myself and for all daughters-in-law whose voices are suppressed in their homes.”
She made one condition—
“If I return, household work will be divided. My health, my choice, and my voice will be respected. And if not—I will live separately.”
Amit immediately said,
“I agree.”
Mother also nodded.
“Me too.”
A few months later, the house had changed.
By 5 a.m., it wasn’t just the mother-in-law waking up—Amit also woke up.
Sometimes Priya was in the kitchen, sometimes mother, sometimes Amit.
Work was no longer a burden—it became a shared responsibility.
The biggest change was in the mother-in-law. She now told the women in the neighborhood,
“A daughter-in-law is not a servant. And silence is not tolerance—it is fear.”
A year later, the doctor’s report came.
Priya was going to be a mother again—this time with care, love, and respect.
Amit held her hand and said,
“This time, everything will be different.”
Priya smiled—not out of obligation, but with self-respect.
And mother…
Every night before going to bed, she would say just one thing—
“If I could turn back time, I would first be a human… and a mother-in-law later.”
Lesson of the story:
A house that runs on a daughter-in-law’s silence will eventually collapse.
And a house that learns to hear her voice—only that can truly become a family.