I’m Sachie, 55. My children have all grown up and moved out. These days, I work part-time and keep a nice, comfortable distance in my relationship with my husband. We live a pretty ordinary, unchanging life, but I’ve been looking forward to my eldest son, Hiroaki, getting married. Ah, I can’t wait to be a grandma! Every time I see a child at work or in town, they’re just so incredibly adorable.
I’m sure Shiho is a wonderful, lovely woman. Talking to her, you can tell what a sweet girl she is. But we couldn’t just let go of the hope that Mitsuki would be our daughter-in-law, so we just couldn’t bring ourselves to accept Shiho.
Then, with her miscarriage, we were overwhelmed by despair—but the emotion that came crashing down with it was this truly awful thought: “If only she’d miscarried five days earlier, she wouldn’t have married my son at all…”