Chapter 4

The moment I said it, the whole room went silent.

Every one of them stared at me like I'd said something against all decency.

Several seconds passed before my mother finally looked at me, her voice trembling.

"Jim, what on earth is wrong with you?"

"Myrtle just clawed her way back from death's door. You haven't said one kind word to her, you haven't held the baby once, and all you can think about is settling the medical bills?"

"Do you really mean it? You'd rather divorce her, give up your wife and child, than pay a single cent more?"

I looked at my mother and answered evenly.

"Mom, it's not that I won't pay. It's that we settle it the way we agreed. Splitting everything down the middle."

"Whoever spent the money covers it themselves."

"I'm not going to play the fool and eat the cost just because she gave me a child."

Myrtle's father's eyes went red with rage. He lunged forward and grabbed me by the collar.

"Jim, you animal!"

"I'll beat you to death today, I swear it!"

He drew back his fist to swing at me.

Alfred saw it and hurried over to break it up, pulling my father-in-law back.

Then he turned to me, pleading, frantic.

"Jim, look where we are. How can you still be spouting this cruel nonsense?"

"This is no time to be talking about rules and accounts. Apologize to Myrtle, now."

Tristan was watching me too, baffled.

"We've known you for over twenty years. We know you're not some man who loves money more than his own life."

"What is going on with you? Why have you suddenly turned so cold-blooded?"

I straightened my collar and spoke without hurry.

"The divorce was her family's idea. If we're separating, then naturally every expense should be settled clean, so there's no squabbling down the line."

Hearing money in my every word, Myrtle's mother looked at her daughter with unbearable pity and broke into sobbing wails.

"My poor, foolish girl. You nearly died giving him this child, and in the end he's counting out the medical bills to the last cent."

"What is there about a man like this worth holding on to?"

Myrtle's body, already so weak, swayed as if she might collapse right then.

Her face was white as she looked at me, the grief in her so heavy she seemed on the verge of breaking apart.

She was silent a long time before she finally spoke, her voice catching.

"Jim, at first I thought you asking for us to split everything was just a moment of confusion."

"So no matter how you treated me, I endured it."

"I kept thinking, once the baby was born, once you saw our child, you'd come to your senses."

"I thought the birth of this child could bring us back to how we were."

"Now I only want to ask you one thing. In your heart, are the baby and I really worth nothing at all?"

Looking at that face full of disappointment and grief, I was silent for two seconds.

In the end I only said,

"Rules can't be broken."

Five words, and the last light went out of Myrtle's eyes.

She let out a bitter laugh.

"I understand now."

I couldn't be bothered to argue with them anymore.

"I have things to do, so I'll go first."

"If you need me to cooperate with the divorce paperwork, you can reach me anytime."

With that, I turned and walked out of the room.

I'd barely stepped out when I heard a huge crash behind me.

Right after, Alfred came running up to me, frantic.

"It's bad, Myrtle jumped!"