Ten Minutes Before Grandma Was Pushed Into the Crematorium

1: 1

Ten minutes before they wheeled Grandma into the crematory furnace, Adam James, the boyfriend I'd loved for five years, sent me a transfer over text.

The amount: two thousand dollars.

There was a long voice message with it:

My mom's blood pressure spiked and she collapsed. I'm at the ER and I can't get away.

Use this to buy Grandma a nicer urn."

I stared at the transfer box on the screen, my palm going numb.

Grandma was the only person in this world who ever loved me.

Last week, from her hospital bed, she'd held Adam's hand.

His eyes had gone red as he swore to her.

"I'll be good to her for the rest of my life. I'll never let her suffer even a little."

But now Grandma was about to become ash.

And he wouldn't even show up to see her off, all for one flimsy excuse.

The memorial needed a high-resolution photo of Grandma for her ID portrait, and the original file was on Adam's tablet.

I took a deep breath and unlocked the tablet he'd left in the car last night.

The screen refreshed.

The system auto-synced a photo his phone had taken one minute ago.

The photo wasn't of an ER at all.

It was an ultrasound scan from the OB-GYN department of a private hospital.

On the scan, the patient's name was his childhood friend, the one he publicly called his "buddy," Rosamond Fox.

Below it ran a line of diagnostic text:

"Two gestational sacs, approx. eight weeks."

In the last half-second, Adam's ecstatic voice had recorded too:

"Rosamond, it's twins! I'm going to be a dad!"

So he wasn't at the ER being a devoted son at all.

He was using the time set aside for my grandmother's funeral to be with another woman, welcoming a new life.

I screenshotted the scan, turned off my phone, and dropped it into my bag.

Then I turned, lifted Grandma's portrait, and walked straight toward the crematory room.

This time I wasn't only sending Grandma off.

I was sending off five years of us too.

...

By the time I got back to the apartment holding Grandma's urn, I didn't even have the strength left to cry.

All I wanted was to collect the things Grandma had left in the second bedroom.

And then vanish from Adam's world.

I pushed the door open. The overhead light in the living room was off.

Adam was sitting on the edge of the couch, rubbing Rosamond's calf.

His voice was soft.

"The doctor said the first three months are the most dangerous.

"You shouldn't have come out here alone today. What if you wore yourself out?"

Rosamond leaned against his shoulder.

"I wanted to share the baby's first kicks with you right away."

I stood in the shadow of the entryway, watching this pair of star-crossed lovers.

Then I flicked on the ceiling light.

A flash of panic crossed Adam's face.

"You're back? Why didn't you knock?"

He shot to his feet and stepped in front of Rosamond.

"Didn't I tell you my mom's in the hospital, in critical care?

"Rosamond came by out of kindness to help me find something."

Rosamond hid behind him, her eyes falling on the box in my arms.

She clutched her stomach and shrank back.

"Adam! My stomach hurts so bad! That box! It reeks of death."

Adam's face changed, and he rushed over to hold her.

"Monica Henson, are you insane?"

He pointed at the door and snarled.

"Get that cursed thing out of here, now!

"Rosamond's weak right now, she can't take a scare like this.

"Are you not satisfied until you curse her into losing the baby?"

I held the box, my fingertips white from gripping it.

"This is my home."

My voice came out hoarse.

"And this is my grandmother."

"Don't you dare use Grandma to pressure me!"

Adam cut me off.

"I sent you two thousand dollars. Isn't that enough?

"My mom's fighting for her life in the ER and I can't get away!

"Can you not be this selfish, picking a jealous fight at a time like this?"

He said it so righteously, as if I were the guilty one.

Seeing me stand there unmoving, Rosamond sobbed.

"Adam, let it go. I know Monnie's always minded our relationship.

"I should just leave. Don't let me come between the two of you.

"Baby, Mommy's taking you home!"

That word, baby, hit a nerve in Adam.

The last shred of patience in his eyes when he looked at me was gone.

"Get out!"

He grabbed a fistful of my collar and shoved me toward the door.

I had the urn in my arms.

In the struggle, a plastic bag hanging from my wrist dropped to the floor.

The bag fell open, and a pair of little wool booties rolled out.

Grandma had made those in her final days.

Holding on to her last breath, she'd knitted them stitch by stitch.

All because Adam had once stood at her bedside, eyes red, and lied to her.

"Grandma, Monica and I are trying for a baby next month. You have to hold on to hold your great-grandchild."

Grandma believed him.

When she'd pressed the booties into my hands, she'd smiled and said,

"Save these for our Adam's child."

But now those booties had rolled to Rosamond's feet.

Rosamond shrieked in fright and stomped down hard on them.

"What is this thing! Does it have some dead person's germs on it?"

Seeing that, Adam.

Kicked the booties out into the stairwell.

"Monica, you really are vicious."

He looked at me through gritted teeth.

"You brought this thing here on purpose to disgust Rosamond, didn't you?"

The door slammed hard in my face.

I was locked outside, Grandma's ashes cradled against me.

In the dark, I slowly crouched down and picked up the wool booties.

The tears fell before I could stop them.

Adam, to protect another woman's twins.

You ground the booties Grandma knitted for your future child into the dirt with your own foot.

I wiped my tears, took out my phone, and opened the social media feed of Adam's mother.

Just ten minutes ago, this mother supposedly fighting for her life in the ER.

Had posted a fresh selfie of herself sipping coconut water on a beach in Miami.

The caption read:

"My daughter-in-law is so good to me. Not only is she carrying twins.

"She even booked me a tour package to get me out here to relax."

Since all of you love putting on a show this much.

Then I'll build you a stage, and I'll bring every last one of you down in disgrace.

2: 2

I saved the screenshot of Adam's mother.

Grandma's death certificate and household registration were still in the drawer of the second bedroom.

Without them, I couldn't go to the station to close out her records.

I unlocked the front door again.

The apartment was quiet. Adam seemed to have taken Rosamond into the master bedroom.

I headed for the second bedroom, and the moment I pushed the half-open door, blood shot straight to my head.

Rosamond was standing at my nightstand, an old wooden box in her hands.

It was the only thing Grandma had left me.

An ordinary jade bracelet.

And right now Rosamond was holding it up against her own wrist.

She was even muttering to herself.

"This junk the old woman left behind is so tacky. Total bad luck."

"Put it down."

I stepped forward, my voice ice-cold.

Rosamond startled.

She didn't set the bracelet back where it belonged. Instead she let her wrist go slack on purpose.

The bracelet hit the tile and broke into three pieces.

Almost the same second the jade shattered, Rosamond clutched her belly.

And let out a scream.

"Ah! It hurts!"

She let herself sink to the floor, tears spilling out.

"Monnie, I was only trying to help you put her keepsake away. Why did you push me?"

Footsteps came down the hall.

Adam rushed in and saw Rosamond collapsed on the floor.

He crossed the room in a few strides and shoved me aside.

The small of my back slammed into the corner of the table. The pain made me see stars.

"Monica, is there no end to this with you!"

Adam roared, pulling Rosamond into his arms.

"How many times have I explained it to you!"

"Rosamond got taken in by the wrong man. The scumbag who got her pregnant ran off!"

"She's got severe prenatal depression right now, and as her good friend all I can do is look after her a little more!"

"Why do you have to keep going after a pregnant woman?"

Hearing all this, I just felt sick.

"She smashed my grandmother's bracelet."

I pointed at the broken jade on the floor, my voice flat.

Adam glanced at the shattered jade, and something guilty flickered in his eyes.

"It's just some cheap piece of rock, a few dollars off a street stall, isn't it?"

He jabbed a finger at my face and cursed.

"Rosamond was kind enough to help you tidy up, and you actually shoved her?"

"If something happens to the baby in her belly, what are you going to pay with?"

"Can your dead grandmother pay for it!"

I stared at him. "Adam. Say that again."

"Am I wrong?"

Adam sneered, his gaze sweeping over my handbag on the table.

Then his hand shot out and snatched it.

"What are you doing?!"

I snapped, lunging to grab it back.

"Since you've got no sympathy at all, since you'd even hurt a pregnant woman, then there's no point in you holding on to money."

He forced my bag open and pulled out one of my bank cards.

In that account was twenty thousand dollars I'd saved from years of late nights and overtime.

The money I was supposed to use tomorrow to pay off the balance on Grandma's plot at the cemetery.

"My mom's still in the ER fighting for her life. I'm taking this to cover the bill first."

"Consider it compensation for the emotional damage you caused Rosamond today!"

He tucked the card into his suit pocket like it was his right.

Rosamond leaned into his arms and tugged at his sleeve.

"Adam, let it go. Monnie still needs that money to handle Grandma's funeral!"

"A dead person, what difference does one more day underground make?"

"My mom's the one being resuscitated, alive and breathing!"

Adam cut her off.

"Monica, the day you learn to act like a decent person is the day I give you back the card."

With that, he scooped Rosamond up sideways and walked out the door without looking back.

For one second, as she passed over my shoulder, Rosamond lifted her head from his arms.

She looked at me, the corner of her mouth curling into a taunting smile.

The door shut again, dragging a gust of cold air with it.

I crouched down and picked up the broken pieces of the bracelet.

The sharp edges cut my fingers.

But I felt no pain at all.

3: 3

In the drawer, Grandma's death certificate and household registration lay where I'd left them.

I had just tucked them into the backpack on my shoulder.

Adam came back.

"Rosamond left her pregnancy meds here. She can't handle any strain right now, so I came back for them."

His voice carried in from the living room.

He didn't even glance at me, just headed for the kitchen to fill a cup with warm water.

Now it was only me and Rosamond in the living room.

She dropped her voice, low enough that only the two of us could hear.

"Monica, do you know where that twenty thousand Adam just took off you went?"

I looked at her and said nothing.

She arched a brow, pleased with herself.

"The VIP twin-delivery suite at the private hospital. The deposit came to exactly twenty thousand."

"As for that grandmother of yours, just dig a hole out in the hills somewhere and bury her, that'll do."

"She was a worthless old woman with no one left anyway."

I couldn't hold back. I raised my left hand and slapped her across the face.

"Adam! Help!"

She let out a shriek, and then.

She snatched the sharp half-piece of broken jade I'd set on the table.

At the very moment Adam came rushing out of the kitchen.

She dragged the jade across her own forearm, opening a streak of blood.

Then she let her whole body tip backward.

Rosamond dropped down into the shards of glass, clutching her belly.

"Monnie, I know you hate me, but you can't take broken jade and try to kill my baby!"

"Rosamond!"

Adam threw down the cup in his hand and ran over.

His eyes went to the blood on Rosamond's arm, then swung to me.

"Monica, you vicious bitch!"

His eyes went red as he strode up to me.

Before I could get a word out, he clamped a hand around my right wrist.

The hand already cut open by the jade, the one I'd only just bandaged up any old way.

He put every ounce of his strength into it and wrenched it back behind me.

The pain blacked out my vision, my knees buckled, and I was forced down onto the floor.

The wound split open, and blood ran down my wrist.

"Adam! Let go!"

I ground my teeth, cold sweat soaking through the back of my shirt, my voice shaking.

"That's my right hand."

I'm a web novelist.

For five years I sat in front of a computer every single day and typed out tens of thousands of words.

I typed out our down payment with this right hand.

I typed out his respectable suits, typed out every last brick and tile of this home.

And now, for the sake of a mistress, he was breaking the tool I lived by.

"You think you have any right to talk about your hand?"

Adam didn't let go. He drove his knee down into my back instead.

Grinding my right hand into the glass shards on the floor.

He looked at me, disgust filling his eyes.

"You actually took broken jade to a pregnant woman's belly?"

"Do you have any idea what Rosamond's baby means to her!"

"If she loses that baby, I will ruin this hand of yours today, no question!"

The broken glass drove deep into my palm.

Rosamond leaned against the side of the couch, pretending to sob.

While she watched me pinned under his foot.

Her eyes were full of a winner's gloating.

"Adam."

I gave up struggling and let the blood spread across the floor.

"You'd better just kill me outright today."

"Otherwise, you'll pay a price you can't afford for what you've done."

Adam glanced at the frail-looking Rosamond and kicked me aside.

"Lunatic. You can sit here and think about what you've done."

"The day you kowtow and apologize to Rosamond is the day you get to stand up again!"

He took out his phone and dialed 911.

The ambulance arrived downstairs soon after.

Adam scooped Rosamond up sideways in his arms, a woman with nothing but a scratch on her arm.

Before he left, he locked the front door, shutting me in with the wreckage all around me.

With my left hand, I opened the playback of the living room security footage.

The whole thing, Rosamond's little performance and Adam's violence.

I exported it in full and backed it up to the cloud.

4: 4

Two a.m., the emergency room at downtown General.

The doctor used tweezers to pull the shards of glass out of my palm, one piece at a time.

"Severe dislocation of the right wrist joint."

He studied the X-ray, his brow drawn tight.

"You won't be able to carry anything heavy with this hand from now on. And your range of motion will be badly affected."

I looked at my right hand, wrapped into a lump of white gauze, my eyes dry and aching.

"It doesn't matter, doctor."

My voice was hoarse.

"I probably won't need to work my fingers so hard on a keyboard anymore."

After I left the hospital, I stood in the cold wind by the street.

Once I had the money, I went alone to the cemetery and handled every part of Grandma's funeral.

I watched them lower Grandma's urn into the grave.

"Grandma, from now on Monnie only has herself."

"Watch from up there, and see how I settle the score for you."

Just then, the phone in my pocket started to buzz.

I pressed answer and, without thinking, started the recorder.

"Monica, where are you? You've been making a scene all night. Have you calmed down yet?"

I said nothing, listening to the steady beep of a machine on the other end of the line.

"Rosamond had a terrible scare last night. The doctor says she has to stay in a VIP room to save the pregnancy."

Adam's voice was full of blame for me.

"I already put your twenty thousand down as her hospital deposit."

"Don't be so ungrateful. Rosamond is a poor woman who got abandoned."

"As her good buddy, was I supposed to just stand by and watch her suffer?"

I listened to his lies, and a mocking curl came to the corner of my mouth.

When I stayed silent, Adam only got more impatient.

"All you have to do is bring some nutritional supplements to the hospital and apologize to Rosamond."

"The money for Grandma's grave, I'll borrow five thousand from a buddy and cover it for you first."

"Adam."

I finally spoke, my voice calm.

"Grandma is already buried."

The line went noticeably still.

"Where did you get the money?"

"That's not something you need to worry about."

I gently ran my hand over Grandma's headstone.

"You take good care of Rosamond Fox and her twins. Whatever you do, don't leave that hospital."

With that I hung up and dropped his number straight into the blocked list.

Back at the apartment.

I packed up everything that belonged to me and shipped it out.

Before I left, I stood in the empty living room.

Sunlight slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows, sharp and glaring.

Last night's surveillance footage. The recording of Adam and Rosamond's affair and that ultrasound. The severe injury report from the ER. And the screenshots of Adam's mother posting from her vacation in Miami.

I put it all together into one complete post.

The title I kept simple:

My boyfriend of five years crippled my hand for his mistress's twins, and stole my grandmother's burial money.

I pressed send.

As a web novelist with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The moment my post went out.

It was bound to set off a tidal wave online.

I tossed the apartment keys onto the bloodstained coffee table and turned to pull open the front door.

"Goodbye, Adam."