Sarah dropped her kitchen towel when she heard the sudden loud baby crying.
Her heart started pounding fast inside her chest as she rushed back inside.
She ran straight into the dining room from the quiet kitchen hallway area.
Laura was sitting back down, casually dabbing her bright sweater with a napkin.
She looked completely unbothered by the screaming infant sitting right beside her.
Sarah instantly gathered crying baby Maya up into her warm protective arms.
She held the trembling child close and checked her small arms for injuries.
Maya buried her wet face straight into her mother's soft blue sweater collar.
Sarah noticed a light red mark forming on Maya's tiny left wrist skin.
Her stomach turned over with intense shock and deep protective motherly anger.
She looked up from her crying daughter straight into Laura's cold eyes.
Sarah: Did you actually hit my baby daughter right now?
Laura: It was barely anything, so stop being so dramatic!
Sarah: Look at her arm, Laura!
Laura: She grabbed my expensive sweater with her sticky chocolate hands!
Sarah: She is just a baby!
Laura: I simply snatched the plate away before she ruined my clothes!
Sarah: You shook her chair so hard she bumped herself!
Laura: Maybe you should teach your kid basic manners at the table!
Sarah gasped at the sheer rudeness coming from her sister in law.
Her hands trembled violently as she cradled her quiet, sobbing baby daughter.
Laura picked up her fork and calmly ate another bite of dark cake.
She showed zero remorse or concern for the upset child crying right nearby.
Sarah felt tears of deep frustration burning behind her tight closed eyelids.
She had tolerated Laura's constant insults about their modest suburban life for years.
She had ignored the cruel comments about their family home mortgage and vehicles.
But seeing her tiny daughter distressed was a line no mother could cross.
Heavy footsteps suddenly echoed loudly from the hardwood floor hallway outside.
Mark walked into the room carrying two folding wooden chairs in his arms.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his tearful wife.
He dropped the folding chairs onto the soft floor carpet with a thud.
The loud noise made Laura jump slightly in her heavy dining room chair.
Mark looked from his crying baby daughter to his sister's cold face.
A dark look of furious anger immediately swept over his handsome face.