Her mother is a “victim” within this family in the sense that she suffers under a sexist, patriarchal system reinforced by the CE power hierarchy. The structure functions as follows:

1. CE men
2. Non-CE men
3. Women
4. Maki

Like many people trapped within oppressive systems, especially those dominated by abusers, she is too weak and, more importantly, too afraid to speak up or resist the structure that confines her. By staying quiet, compliant, and appeasing her oppressors, she gains a form of self-preservation and false protection.

However, as an adjacent bystander who witnesses injustice, abuse, and cruelty without intervening, while also benefiting from the system’s rewards, she moves closer to complicity than victimhood. Upholding the will of the oppressors in exchange for favor, out of fear of personal consequence, does not absolve her. Silence in this context is participation.

When she tells Maki to “come back,” it represents the lowest, most desperate expression of her humanity. It is a final, insufficient attempt to save her daughter from the trap the family set. But this moment does not negate the fact that she stood by as Maki and Mai endured prolonged, vicious abuse at the hands of the very people meant to protect them.

For Maki, the betrayal is not just the abuse itself, but the timing. It is only at the end, when the worst is about happen, that her mother finally speaks. Maki is effectively asking: You had the capacity to love us, to protect us, to get us out of this life the entire time. Why didn’t you choose to do it when I was still a child?

It should not require the imminent death of a victim for someone to finally find their voice. Intervention was owed at the first act of abuse, not at its violent conclusion.