Chapter 1

After my shift ended, I went straight out to run food deliveries.

By the time I got home it was already past two in the morning.

My head was pounding. I checked my blood pressure. The top number was already 180.

I looked for my pills and found the bottle empty.

I woke my wife. "Give me fifty bucks. I need to buy my blood pressure medicine."

She hated being woken up. She shot me a glare, and when she opened her mouth the smell that came out was like an open sewer. "Did you write the request form?"

I had no choice. "I'll write it now."

She snapped at me. "Even if you write it now, you're not getting it. We'll talk after I've had my sleep!"

She shoved me out of the bedroom and locked the door behind her.

Grief and anger churned in me. I felt like I was about to die right there. Then I saw the coin jar sitting on the shoe cabinet.

So I took fifty dollars, dragged my body, which felt like it could give out any second, to the 24-hour pharmacy, bought the pills, and only felt a little better after I took them.

When I got back home, all I could do was sleep on the couch.

But somewhere in my sleep, I suddenly felt cold. I opened my eyes and saw my wife holding a basin.

She had just thrown a basin of cold water over me.

And I saw a lot of people in the room. Neighbors. The building manager. And the police.

And my mother.

Seeing that I was awake, my wife pointed at me and started screaming. "A man who can't provide for his family, and he steals my money too. Officers, can't you haul him off to jail?"

1.

My wife pointed at the coin jar on the shoe cabinet, white spit gathering at the corners of her mouth.

"That's the money I've been saving for our son. You've got the nerve to steal even that?"

"A man who's sunk as low as you, you'd be better off dying out on the street!"

The neighbor lady, cracking sunflower seeds, asked, "You two split the money that carefully in your house?"

My wife sneered.

"Back when he controlled the money, I had to write a request form to spend a single cent."

"If Everard Lawrence was in a good mood, he'd approve it. If he wasn't, he'd turn me down."

"Now I control the money, and the old rules don't change. He wants to spend, he writes a request form!"

The old man from next door frowned. "Then it serves you right. How you treat other people is how they treat you back."

My mother couldn't help asking, "Everard, what did you take the money for?"

"I got home from deliveries last night and my top number was 180. I was out of blood pressure medicine."

I took out the telmisartan I'd bought the night before.

"What?"

"You buy medicine and that means you don't have to write a request form?"

"So back when you controlled the money, why did I have to write a request form just to buy sanitary pads?"

My wife screamed with her hands on her hips.

I had nothing to say.

My mother hurried to soothe her. "Renee Pruitt, sweetie, forgive him this once. It was for medicine after all. High blood pressure can kill a person."

Renee pointed at my mother and threatened, "So you want to take charge, is that it? Fine. From now on, you handle everything in this house, and I'll handle nothing. You raise the kid, you do the school runs!"

My mother went silent at once, gave me an apologetic look, and turned and walked out.

Renee turned back to the police. "Officers, I have just one demand. Take the thief away!"

"Ma'am, you're husband and wife, and it's only fifty dollars. This is a bit much, isn't it?"

"Besides, this doesn't amount to a criminal offense. Even if he'd stolen from a stranger, it would be a verbal warning at most, or a fine."

A male officer explained.

Renee wasn't happy, but she didn't try to argue the officers in circles. Instead she laid out her terms.

"Fine, don't take him away!"

"Then he admits his mistake in front of the whole complex!"

"And he has to apologize to me three days running!"

The officer looked over at me, clearly uncomfortable. "In a case like this, writing a pledge should be enough, right?"

"No!"

"If you won't handle it, I'll go down to the station myself!"

Renee sneered.

I let out a sigh, stood up, and said, "I agree."