I was sleeping with a 39.5°C fever when my mother-in-law poured cold water on me and ordered me to get up and welcome the guests: that’s when I did this…
My temperature was 39.5°C, my whole body ached, my throat felt as if it had been burned with sandpaper, my head was splitting, and there was a loud ringing in my ears. I decided to at least doze off a little, wrapped myself in a blanket to forget this hellish pain for a moment. It seemed that sleep was the only salvation.
At first I had strange, heavy nightmares—as if I were wandering through sticky mud and someone was pulling me deeper by the hand. But suddenly a stream of icy water splashed into my face. I jerked, gasped, barely opened my eyes and saw a silhouette above me.
“Are you still sleeping?!”—a sharp, hoarse voice pierced my ears.
It was my mother-in-law. Her face was stone, her lips pressed into a thin, almost white line. Her hands were clenched into fists. She stood over me as if she had caught me doing something shameful.
“Get up!” she almost screamed. “The guests will arrive in an hour! Everything must shine! Clean up, set the table! Don’t sit here like a lazybones!”
I wanted to say something, but I simply had no strength. Instead, I slowly sat up, tried to wipe the cold water from my face, feeling a slight tremor running through my whole body.
“Mom… my temperature is 39.5… I can’t even lift my head…”—my voice was weak.
But she just waved me off.
“Oh, stop it! Everyone gets sick. I was sick too, but I still did everything! Don’t you dare embarrass me in front of the guests!”
At that moment something inside me broke. Her words were not just cruel—they were indifferent, cold, like the water she had just poured on me.
And then I did something after which my mother-in-law begged me in panic to forgive her, but I didn’t care. 
Continuation 
I slowly got out of bed. My legs were trembling, the world was floating before my eyes. But I walked past her without saying a word. My phone was on the nightstand—I grabbed it and right in front of her dialed 103.
“Hello, ambulance? I feel very bad… the fever is almost forty, severe weakness, pain in my throat and head… yes, the address is…”
My mother-in-law, hearing this, exploded:
“What are you thinking? Our guests will be here in an hour!”
“You have guests. And I have inflammation and a fever. And this is my apartment.” I said this out loud for the first time, calmly and clearly, without my usual excuses.
While I was packing my bag, she was rushing around the kitchen, mumbling something about a “crazy daughter-in-law.” But when the ambulance arrived twenty minutes later, I was already ready. The doctor took my temperature, looked at my throat and said:
“We’re going to the hospital. This is serious.”
I took my jacket and before leaving, looked at my mother-in-law:
“When I return, neither you nor your guests should be here. And you will never come here again without my permission. Never.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but I closed the door behind me.
