Chapter 2

Myrtle Pruitt was the best woman I had ever known.

Beautiful, gentle, clever, kind.

One look, and I was gone.

After we married, no matter how late I worked, she always waited up, a lamp on and a table of food, until I came home.

When I ran a fever, she stayed awake all night, wiping me down with a towel again and again to bring the heat down.

When my business failed and I was buried in debt, she handed over every cent of her savings, smiling as she said,

"It's fine. I'll carry it with you."

Every holiday, she had gifts ready for my parents in advance, more thoughtful about them than I was, and I was their own son.

Those scenes ran through my head one after another, and the pressure in my chest grew heavier.

Alfred was about to keep pushing when my phone suddenly rang.

It was my mom.

The moment I answered, her anxious voice came through.

"Jim, where are you right now?"

"Get to the maternity hospital, fast. Myrtle just gave birth!"

I gave a flat "oh," and said, unhurried,

"I'm in the middle of a card game. I can't get away."

Then my dad's furious roar came from beside her.

"A card game matters more than your wife and child?"

"Get over here right now!"

I sighed and said, helpless,

"When she's discharged and comes home, I'll see her and the baby anyway."

"No need to make a special trip."

That only made my dad angrier.

"You worthless little bastard!"

"Myrtle nearly killed herself giving you a son, and you won't even come to the hospital?"

"I'm telling you, if you don't show your face today, I'll cut you off. No father, no son."

And with that, he slammed the phone down.

Alfred and Tristan heard it and got to their feet at once.

"Come on, come on, forget the cards. Get to the hospital, we'll go with you."

They didn't wait for me to refuse. One on each side, they hauled me up out of my seat and pushed me into the car.

Alfred drove hard the whole way, and we reached the maternity hospital fast.

The second I walked into Myrtle's room, I saw my parents and my in-laws gathered around her bed.

Beside it was a bassinet, and inside it lay a tiny baby.

The instant I saw the child, I froze for a moment.

His face looked almost exactly like mine as a boy.

While I was staring at the baby, lost in it, Myrtle's mother came up to me, her eyes red.

"Jim, what did any of us ever do to you, that you'd torment Myrtle like this?"

I looked at my mother-in-law's stricken face.

Then I looked at Myrtle on the bed, pale and weak.

And I asked, not understanding,

"Mom, how exactly have I tormented her?"

She stared at me as if I'd lost my mind.

"When her water broke, you left her there alone and went out to play cards, and you still have the nerve to ask how you tormented her?"

"Jim, do you have any conscience at all?"

The whole thing baffled me.

"Mom, Myrtle was the one with no money for the fare. That's the only reason I left."

"How is that my fault?"

At that, Myrtle's father rushed over, grabbed me by the collar, and bellowed, beside himself,

"You've got the nerve to bring up the fare?"

"Jim, the child in my daughter's belly was your own flesh and blood!"

"You're her husband, the baby's father. This is how you take responsibility for them?"

I felt worn down by it.

"Dad, it isn't like that."

"Myrtle and I agreed long ago, we split every expense down the middle. She had no money for the cab herself. I couldn't just cover it for her, could I?"

I thought I'd explained it clearly enough, but hearing that only made him angrier.

"You split expenses with your pregnant wife?"

"Jim, back when you were chasing Myrtle every way you could think of, why didn't you mention splitting things then?"

"When your business failed and you were drowning in debt, and she handed you every cent of her savings, why didn't you mention splitting things then?"

"Now she can't work because she's pregnant, money's needed everywhere, and you split it with her? Are you even human?"