I’m Kana. I’ve been married for sixteen years to my husband, Masato. We live together with our three children: Yuma (13), Rei (11), and Takuto (8). One day, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a serious illness—and that’s when I learned that my husband had an older brother who’d been shut away at home for over twenty years. Masato promised that he wouldn’t involve me or the kids with his family, and for the past few months, our life had been peaceful. But it seems my mother-in-law has grown to deeply resent me. I blocked her right away, yet her unsettling behavior only escalated…
I thought that if my husband handled everything related to his family, the kids and I could stay out of it and live as usual. But I was wrong. No matter how many times I block her, no matter how much I try to move on and start fresh, as long as my husband remains connected to his family, I can’t truly escape it.
As long as my in-laws and brother-in-law exist—and as long as I stay with my husband—this pain will never end. I can’t keep living in fear like this. I don’t even know if I can keep my children safe anymore. I’m at my limit. I need to think carefully about what I should do next.