The Punishment for Being Late
I was still groggy from an emergency appendectomy, so my father-in-law answered the phone.
He grabbed the familys heirloom medical kit and raced into the storm to save the childbut died in a horrific highway pile-up.
By the time his body was brought to the hospital, it was too late. Nothing could be done.
"Mike, you have to save Olivia's baby If she loses it shell never be a mother again"
Even in his final moments, my father-in-law only thought of the child in her womb. He died with his eyes wide open, unpeaceful.
Grief-stricken, I took the kit and rushed to the clubonly to find Olivia and her friend Mason arm-in-arm, toasting.
"Well, Liv," Mason drawled, smirking. "Looks like your husband doesnt love you that much. Whats your bet-losing punishment?"
Olivia, flushed with wine, draped herself over him playfully.
"Dont worry," she purred. "Hed crawl through hell for meeven if it rained knives!"
Shock and rage washed over me. I stormed forward and grabbed her arm.
"I thought you were miscarrying! How can you drink?"
Olivias face turned icy. She splashed red wine in my face.
"Wishing a miscarriage on me? Disgusting! Cant you see were just playing a game?"
She kissed Mason, then glanced back at me.
"And that," she said, "is your punishment for being late."
1
Fury tore through my chest.
"Olivia, you're playing games with our unborn child's life?" I choked out. "Your father was worried sick about you. He was in an accident on his way here!"
I couldn't bring myself to tell her he was dead, terrified of what the shock might do to her.
Olivia snatched the medical kit from my hands, her voice sharp.
"It's Mason's birthday. We're celebrating. You didn't even bring a gift, and you show up clutching my dad's emergency kit? What are you doing, bringing your bad luck here?" she snapped. "Look at you, a complete mess. You call yourself a man?"
My eyes burned, my fists clenching and unclenching at my sides.
"You need to come to the hospital with me. Something's happened to your father."
Mason, enjoying the drama, chimed in with a lazy smirk.
"What's with that look? Like you're about to explode. You don't like what she said? You going to hit her?" he taunted. "She's just celebrating my birthday. You have to curse your own kid and your father-in-law over it?"
The contempt in his eyes was naked.
I knew he was provoking me, trying to make Olivia angry so I'd be humiliated in front of everyone.
In the past, to keep the peace, I would have bowed my head and apologized like a pathetic dog.
But my father-in-law's last words were still echoing in my head.
She can never be a mother again.
For a woman, losing the ability to have children is a uniquely cruel fate. This wasn't the time for me to play the clown for their amusement. I just needed to make sure Olivia and the baby were okay, and then get her to the hospital to see her father one last time.
"Olivia, come with me to the hospital. To see your dad!"
It was the first time I hadn't groveled before her in public. The onlookers smirked, waiting for the show.
As expected, Olivias red lips parted, and the venom poured out.
"Stop using my dad as an excuse for everything! We were playing a game. Is that a big enough deal for you to start wishing death on him?" she sneered. "You were too pathetic to show up on time, so I lost the game and had to take the punishment. Instead of apologizing, you come here and ruin Mason's birthday party. For a grown man, you're incredibly petty."
The room erupted in laughter.
"Look at you, you pathetic loser. You don't deserve a woman like Olivia."
"She's a saint for not only marrying you but agreeing to have your baby!"
"If I were married to Olivia, I'd worship her. If she told me to die, I wouldn't hesitate for a second!"
"You're just some poor kid who married up, Mike. Who gave you the nerve to piss her off today? You're playing with fire!"
I'd heard the same insults for two years. I could recite them by heart.
Ignoring them, I reached for Olivia's wrist, wanting to check her pulse. If it was steady, a dark part of me wanted to tell her, right then and there, that her father was dead.
And that it was her fault.
Seeing me reach for her, Mason slapped my hand away with disgust.
"You really think just because she's pregnant, she's yours for good? Let me tell you something, she's a modern woman, not some property you own!"
Mason always knew exactly which buttons to push.
Her face flushed with anger. A second later, her palm cracked across my cheek.
"Get off me!" she shrieked. "You think you're worthy of touching me?"
She wiped the hand that had struck me on her dress, as if she'd just touched something filthy.
Mason laughed. "Since you're clearly not here to celebrate, how about you get the hell out? And I mean crawl."
The memory of a time she'd actually forced me to crawl out of a party flooded back, a humiliating fire that burned away the last of my sanity.
My fist, clenched tight, shot out and connected with Mason's mocking face.
"You son of a bitch," I roared. "You can play any game you want, but you don't joke with people's lives! You killed my father-in-law! I'll turn your birthday into your death day!"
2
My punch was fast and vicious. Mason staggered back, blood pouring from his nose.
The crowd immediately grabbed me, pulling me away as Olivia rushed to Mason's side.
"Mase, are you okay? Does it hurt?"
The raw concern in her eyes was something I had never seen directed at me. She gently dabbed at the blood on his face like he was some priceless treasure, terrified of hurting him.
Then she turned, grabbed a beer bottle, and slammed it into my stomach.
The impact landed directly on my fresh surgical incision. Stars exploded behind my eyes, but the physical agony was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.
A cold sweat broke out on my forehead, but Olivia didn't seem to notice.
"Mike, are you insane? You hit Mason? If you can't live like this anymore, then let's get a divorce!"
To make sure I didn't "go crazy" again, several men in the room pinned my arms behind my back, holding me like a criminal. I struggled, humiliation fueling my strength, but it was no use.
Defeated, I took a deep breath, trying to keep my voice steady.
"Your father was killed in a car accident trying to get here to help you. He's at the hospital right now, waiting for you to see him one last time. If you just come with me to see him, I'll sign the divorce papers immediately."
Olivias eyes blazed. It was clear she didn't believe a word.
She slapped me again, once on each cheek.
"Mike, I am ordering you to get on your knees and apologize to Mason!" she commanded. "If you don't, I'll tell my father you wished death on him!"
Someone kicked the back of my knees. Already weak from the pain in my abdomen, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the floor.
Laughter filled the room.
"I thought you had a backbone for a second there! Look how fast he kneels!"
Mason's taunt was met with a chorus of agreement.
"We were just playing a game, and you get so bent out of shape you curse your own father-in-law to death. And after Dr. Adler treated you like his own son!"
"He took you in and this is how you repay him? What an ungrateful bastard!"
...
I felt a warm wetness spreading from my abdomen, and the room began to spin. All I could hear was "Dr. Adler, Dr. Adler," and all I could see was his face as he died in front of me.
"Olivia! If you don't believe me, just call the hospital! Why would I lie about something like this?"
When she forced me to my knees, whatever was left of my love for her died. All I wanted now was to make sure her father didn't have to face the end alone.
For a moment, she hesitated.
She pulled out her phone, about to make the call, but then Mason let out a low groan.
She immediately dropped her phone and rushed to his side. "Mase! What's wrong?"
Mason touched his nose, which had already stopped bleeding, and looked at her with lovesick eyes. "My nose it's really throbbing"
"He must have broken it. Mase, we need to go to the hospital!"
Mason just pointed to his own lips with a playful, possessive smile. "I'm a big boy, I can handle a little pain. All I need is a kiss to make it better."
He shot a triumphant, challenging glance at me.
"Although," he added, "I'm afraid someone might lose his mind and try to kill me."
Olivia glared at me, then, without a shred of hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him.
Mason immediately pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. From my knees on the floor, I could clearly see the thin strand of saliva that connected their lips as they parted. I felt nothing. No anger, no jealousy. Just a vast, cold emptiness.
When they finally broke apart, Olivia was blushing like a bride, her eyes soft and dreamy.
But the moment her gaze met mine, her expression turned to ice.
"This is your punishment for being impulsive," she said coldly. "I hope you've learned your lesson. Next time, I don't know if there will be anything I can do to make it up to him for you."
3
The room erupted in laughter again. Everyone understood her meaning.
This time it was a public kiss. Next time, it would be her in his bed.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "Are you really not going to the hospital to see your father one last time?"
Furious, Olivia picked up her phone to call her dad, but she also aimed a kick at me. She put so much force into it that she lost her balance, and the phone flew from her hand, its screen going black as it hit the floor.
Mason was quick, catching her by the waist before she could fall.
"Liv, calm down. Getting angry isn't good for you. Remember, you're pregnant!" he soothed. "For my sake, just let him go. I don't want my birthday to be ruined by all this negativity."
His magnanimous words only seemed to make Olivia angrier, her chest heaving. But wrapped in his arms, she slowly calmed down.
"See?" she said, looking at me with contempt. "That's the difference between you and Mason. You broke his nose, and he's still defending you. But you throw a tantrum over a simple game!"
She turned to Mason. "Mase, have security escort him out. I don't want to see his face again."
With Olivia's permission, Mason was more than happy to grind me into the dirt. He signaled for the guards.
Her kick had torn my wound open. Blood was now steadily seeping through my shirt.
"Liv, I think something's really wrong with Mike!" one of the girls finally pointed out.
I used to be tough. Now, even in the dim light of the club, my face was as white as a ghost's.
Olivia didn't even glance at me. "Don't worry about him. He's faking it."
As I was dragged out and dumped into the pouring rain, the club behind me was still alive with music and laughter. The pulsing beat mixed with the drumming of the rain, sounding like a funeral dirge, mocking me for ever thinking I deserved better.
I clutched my father-in-law's medical kit, letting the storm wash over me.
If I hadn't had appendicitis, I would have been the one to answer that call. All Mason and his friends wanted was to humiliate me. He knew that when it came to Olivia, I'd lose all sense of reason, especially now that she was two months pregnant.
Fate had played a cruel joke. I was still under anesthesia when my father-in-law, in his frantic love for his daughter, rushed headlong into disaster.
He died trying to save my child. He died in my place.
The thought that I was partly responsible for his death was a guilt that threatened to drown me.
But pain couldn't kill me. My father-in-law was waiting for me to handle his final affairs.
I closed my heavy eyes and waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Olivia never showed up. Not while I was recovering, not for the funeral arrangements. It was as if she had vanished from the face of the earth.
A colleague at the hospital asked me, "Why wasn't Olivia at Dr. Adler's funeral?"
I stared at a photo on my phoneher and Mason on a beach in Bali, wrapped in each other's arms. "She had something important to do," I said quietly.
My colleague nodded sympathetically. "Of course. She just found out she was pregnant. A shock like this it's better for her to focus on the baby."
I let out a hollow laugh and didn't correct him.
The day I was discharged from the hospital, I had barely walked through the door of our apartment when she returned.
"Mike, I'm home!"
She stood by her suitcase, her eyes full of expectation.
I knew what she was waiting for.
Normally, the moment she got home, I'd rush to replace her heels with slippers, then sweep her up in my arms, carry her to the couch, and massage her feet. It was our ritual, one of the many habits born from years of love.
But ever since Mason had returned to the country as the heir to his family's fortune, she had pulled away. No more playful affection, no more casual touching. All those small, loving habits had become things she despised.
Over the last two years, I had gone from confusion to withdrawal to this. A heart of cold, dead ash.
I watched the hope in her eyes slowly fade, truly baffled by what she was thinking. Did she really believe that after forcing me to kneel, after having me beaten and thrown out like trash, after running off to Bali with her childhood sweetheart, all it would take was one sweet word to erase the humiliation and bring us back to how we were?
My eyes began to sting.
4
After a few seconds of silence, Olivia walked over to me, her eyes welling with tears.
I didn't even look at her.
She sighed, then climbed onto my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. "Are you still angry about the other day? Are you not even going to comfort your favorite wife?" she whispered.
"You know Mason's friends are all rich kids. Their games are always over the top. If I didn't play along, I'd never fit in. When you made that scene, I had to do something to smooth things over. If I hadn't, those guys could have made one call and gotten you fired, let alone blocked your promotion to attending physician."
This was my favorite position, her in my lap.
But now, all I could smell was the faint scent of a man's cologne on her skin, and my stomach churned.
I held my breath and pushed her off me.
Olivia bit her lip, looking even more wounded. "Why do you always get so angry over such small things? I'm carrying our child. If you won't even take care of me, the least you can do is not make things harder. Now I have to be the one to comfort you? You're going to be a father, Mike. Grow up."
A game. A man's life.
I was nearly killed by a kick from her.
And she thought I should just pretend nothing happened and comfort her?
"You were playing a game, so why did you have to drag me into it?" I asked, my voice flat. "If you two had ended up in bed, would you have expected me to kneel beside you and serve you?"
"You killed your own father trying to climb into some so-called high society. What gives you the right to ask me for comfort?"
At my continued "cursing" of her father, the few tears in her eyes vanished. Her beautiful face hardened.
"My father is an old man. Can't you show a little respect?" she snapped. "I can get into that circle because Mason and I have been friends since we were kids. If there was really something going on between us, would I be having your baby?"
It was the first time she had argued with me so calmly, her tone almost like a lover's quarrel. Her good mood was probably thanks to her vacation with Mason.
She opened her suitcase and pulled out a pair of expensive-looking cufflinks.
"I picked these out for you on my trip. They're for your birthday. I was supposed to be back yesterday to celebrate with you, but my flight was canceled. A day late is better than never."
How thoughtful of her to remember my birthday amidst all her fun.
As for the gift, it belonged in the trash.
I had seen these cufflinks before, on Mason's social media. They were a birthday gift from someone trying to suck up to him. He didn't like them, so he'd posted that they were free to a good home.
And Olivia had brought them back for me.
She couldn't even be bothered to spend a single penny on me, yet she expected me to be grateful for her trash.
When I tossed the cufflinks into the garbage can, her patience finally ran out.
"Mike, don't push your luck!"
Without thinking, I shot back, "Better than you, running off on a honeymoon with Mason while your father's body isn't even cold in the ground!"
Mason's social media had been filled with intimate photos of them, captioned:
"Honeymoon Day 1."
"Honeymoon Day 2."
She didn't even flinch at being caught. She just stomped her high heel down on my foot, her face contorted with rage.
"Mike, I knew you were heartless, but I didn't realize your soul was black too!" she shrieked. "Mason was right! The moment I got pregnant, you showed your true colors!"
"And I actually defended you to everyone! I told them you would always love me, always treat me right! But what do you do? You curse my father to death, over and over!"
"Mason was just testing you for me, with that little game! Not only were you late, but you made a huge scene! And now I lower myself to come home and comfort you, and you're still acting like this!"
"I never should have gotten pregnant with your child! You don't deserve it!"
With that, she grabbed her suitcase and slammed the door behind her.
I shook my head and laughed, a bitter, hollow sound.
Did she really think that after disappearing for half a month, she could come back with Mason's garbage, spew a few condescending words, and I would just forgive her?
She still had me blocked. She didn't even know her own father had been buried for over a week.
Two hours later, I received a photo from Mason.
It was a medical form for an abortion procedure, signed by Olivia. Next to it was a picture of her, her face pale, but a small, triumphant smile on her lips.
In that moment, a strange lightness settled over me.
A heavy chain had finally snapped.
The baby was gone. I could no longer fulfill my father-in-law's dying wish.
This marriage was over.
5
On my father-in-law's birthday, I brought a bouquet of his favorite jasmine and white roses to his grave.
I never expected to run into Olivia and Mason there.
"Mike! Are you sick in the head?" she screamed, her eyes red with fury as she saw the name 'Daniel Adler' on the tombstone in front of me. "My father is alive and well! It wasn't enough for you to curse him to death, now you've built him a tombstone? How can you be so vile?"
She stomped on the flowers, crushing them into the dirt.
"Who is this short-lived lover of yours that you dare to bury her in the plot my father bought for himself?"
For a moment, I had no idea what she was talking about.
Wasn't she here to apologize to her father?
She continued to shriek at my confused face.
"Mike, just because I got rid of your baby, you're going to humiliate my father like this?"
"Why did you stop him from saving someone yesterday? Because of you, because you and my father refused to help, Mason's great-aunt missed her window for emergency treatment, and now she's dead!"
"You're the one who's petty and forgot your duty as a doctor, so why drag my dad down with you? He must be so consumed with guilt that he's disappeared! It serves your dead whore right!"
I was completely lost.
But one thing was clear. She wasn't here to apologize or to visit her father.
I pointed at the tombstone, my voice calm against her storm of rage.
"Your father died two weeks ago, Olivia. You didn't ask, you didn't care. Now, someone feeds you a line, and you rush here to slander his name. You're a truly filial daughter."
Mason snapped his fingers. Two large men grabbed me, holding me still.
He held a phone in front of my face.
On the screen, a video played. Two men in white coats, one old and one young, were rushing down a street with medical kits. They passed an elderly person collapsed on the ground. They seemed to argue, and then the young doctor pulled the older one away. A moment later, the young doctor was seen kissing a woman.
The builds of the men, the medical kits they looked exactly like me and my father-in-law.
The timestamp on the video was from the previous day.
Two hours after Olivia's abortion.
"If you want revenge, take it out on me! If you want a divorce, fine!" she screamed. "But my father has spent his entire life saving people! He shouldn't be consumed with guilt over your mistake! And he most certainly shouldn't have his final resting place occupied by some cheap slut!"
"Do it!" she commanded. "Dig up that bitch's ashes! I'm going to scatter them to the wind myself!"
One of Mason's men produced a shovel from his car.
I struggled, roaring, "Olivia! That's your father's grave! You can't do this!"
Seeing my distress only fueled her hatred.
"No wonder you don't care about me anymore! This woman has stolen your soul, even in death!" she spat. "Since you care so much, then I'll make sure to destroy her completely! This is the price you pay for betraying me and humiliating my father!"
I snatched a shovel from one of the men and swung it wildly. "Anyone who touches that grave, I swear to god, I'll take you down with me!"
But it was five against one. They quickly overpowered me, pinning me to the ground and beating me mercilessly.
The others, including Olivia, began to dig.
When she finally pulled the urn from the earth, her face was twisted into a triumphant, grotesque smile.
I used the last of my strength to plead with her. "Olivia, don't! Those are your father's ashes!"
But she wasn't listening.
I watched, my eyes burning, a taste of blood rising in my throat, as she opened the urn and threw my father-in-law's ashes into the wind.
"See that, Mike?" she shrieked. "That's what happens when someone tries to steal my father's grave!"
As she raised the empty urn to smash it on the ground, a furious voice boomed from behind us.
"Olivia! What are you doing?"
"What have you done to your father's grave?!"
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