The death of Pech Lim Song and Vathana’s conditions to Teck for joining him in Phnom Penh had left her vulnerable to the whims and wraths of her mother-in-law, Madame Pech, who, since her husband’s assassination, demanded she be called by her own name, Sisowath Thich Soen. In November the woman had descended upon Vathana amid the refugees, verbally berating her. “Bonjour! One hundred thousand riels?! To whom? While these people live like...like...this!” Vathana had not answered but stood absorbing the abuse, thinking, Abuse given, like love, does not lessen that held by the giver but increases it, and with abuse it becomes self-damaging. “Bonjour? Perhaps, silly stupid girl, perhaps some to your own pocket? Three months, indeed!” Two months later, as Vathana, eight and a half months pregna
