On My Promotion Day, My Son Hid Gold Bars in My Gift

After three years of grinding for the company, the boss finally decided to promote me.

Then, at the celebration dinner, two gold bars turned up inside the gift basket of local specialties I'd brought for him.

Everyone started whispering, saying my promotion had obviously been bought.

They sneered at the boss too, hinting he was on the take, that anyone with enough cash could climb the ladder.

He was so furious he slapped me across the face and stripped me of my position on the spot.

I dragged myself home in a daze, and just outside the door I overheard my mother and my son talking.

"I hope your father won't blame me for being so hard-hearted. I only did it for the good of this family."

"Grandma, it's not your fault. I'm the one who put the gold bars in there."

"Dad's always holding Uncle Nathan Delgado down at work. If he really got promoted, then Uncle Nathan never could."

"I just want Uncle Nathan to be happy. Then he'll buy me presents."

My wife came out of Nathan's room in a sexy nightgown, worn out but with a satisfied look on her face.

"Keep it down, all of you. Nathan just fell asleep."

My son went over and hugged her. "Mommy, Grandma said you've got a little brother in your tummy, is that true?"

"Yes. But you can't tell your father, understand?"

"Why not?"

My son asked Bernice Harding with that innocent little face.

She sighed and reached down to touch her belly.

It was still flat there. She must not have been pregnant long.

"Because he's what your uncle and I couldn't have. Our regret, made real."

"He's not your father's at all. If your father found out, he'd get angry and hit Uncle Nathan, and throw him out too."

The moment my son heard about someone hitting Nathan, he bristled like a hedgehog.

"No. Nobody's allowed to throw Uncle Nathan out. He's closer to me than Dad is."

"Dad's just annoying. All he does is work and make money. He never spends time with me or Mommy. I hate him!"

Standing outside the door, I heard every cruel word of it.

I felt hollowed out, every organ scooped away, the blood in my veins frozen, no feeling left anywhere.

My mother lifted my son into her arms. "Toby Abbott, now you remember. Don't ever tell your father about this, oror this family falls apart too."

My son nodded obediently, then wanted down so he could run into Nathan's room.

He said he only felt safe sleeping next to Uncle Nathan.

After he left, Bernice glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Mom, doing this to Lucas Dickerson isn't it too cruel?"

"He's your real son, after all. Nathan's only the son of the man who saved your life."

"Bernice, Lucas isn't fragile like Nathan. If he understands me, he'll accept my decision."

"His father saved my mother's side of the family. Now that our benefactor is gone, it's only right that I take care of his son."

"But I never thought Lucas would keep pushing Nathan down at the company, tripping him up at every turn, even forming little cliques to freeze him out. If Lucas had really been promoted and become Nathan's boss, there's no way he wouldn't have made Nathan's life hell."

When my mother finished, she looked down at Bernice again. "You don't need to worry about a thing. Just rest and have the baby for him."

"After all, you always regretted not choosing Nathan. Carrying his child this time can make up for that regret." With that, my mother went into her room to rest. My wife smoothed down her nightgown, turned, and went into the kitchen to make a bowl of egg noodle soup.

And me, I'd already been knocked flat by the cruel truth, collapsed on the ground.

So it was my own family who'd branded me with that bribery scandal.

For the sake of one adopted son, they hadn't hesitated to do this to me.

I don't know how to describe the grief of that moment. Tears had already blurred my eyes.

What I couldn't accept was that Bernice was carrying Nathan's child.

And that she'd put my own son up to slipping the gold bars into the gift basket.

My mother knew too. Not only did she not stop it, she stood by and watched me get saddled with the cuckold's horns and the ruined name.

In that moment, it hurt so much I could barely breathe.

Me, holding Nathan down at the company? Me, isolating him, leaving him helpless?

He was the one who loafed around, drawing a paycheck without doing a thing, dragging the whole team down until we couldn't hit our numbers.

As the one in charge, how was I supposed to not straighten him out?

I never imagined he'd measure a decent man by his own petty heart and claim I was persecuting him.

And my whole family chose his side, trusting him completely, all of them stabbing me in the back together.

In the middle of all this, I got a message from a friend: Lucas, are you really not going to consider coming to work for me? Your skills are wasted at that company.

He was right. With my abilities I could fly a lot higher.

I'd only been chained to this small place because of my wife and son.

And now they'd gone and made the choice for me.

I pushed the door open, and she came out at the sound.

Because I was so angry, I'd forgotten to change my shoes.

The moment Bernice saw them, she looked like she was facing an enemy at the gate.

"Hey, why did you come in without changing your shoes?"

"Go change them, now. Nathan's a neat freak. He can't stand even a speck of dirt"

I said nothing. I only stood there, my reddened eyes fixed on her.

I hadn't known that she'd once had feelings for Nathan too, and that unable to have that love, she'd gotten pregnant with his child to make up for the regret.

Meeting my red eyes, Bernice went blank for a second.

"Lucas, youwhat's wrong with you?"

"Weren't you at your promotion dinner tonight?"

"Why do you look like your whole world's ended?"

She knew perfectly well what had happened to me, and she was still pretending she didn't.

I didn't answer. I walked straight in and sat down on the couch.

Somewhere along the way, the home I'd once been proud of had lost all its warmth, and now it only made me want to run.

Bernice's eyes stayed locked on my leather shoes, like I was dirtying Nathan's floor.

My mother came out of the room too, and seeing me standing there hollow and broken, she went right on playing innocent.

"Son, didn't you get promoted? Why aren't you happy?"

I slowly turned my head and looked at her, shaking with fury.

The next second, I hurled the two gold-plated silver bars down at their feet.

"Why am I not happy? Don't you already know?"

My mother and Bernice were startled by my sudden roughness, a flicker of panic crossing their faces.

"I told you a long time ago, my company runs clean. The thing the executives hate most is people buying their way into favor with money."

"And you two put gold bars inside the local specialty gift I brought them, and the whole company saw it."

"Everyone was mocking me, saying I got promoted by bribery. My boss was furious, and he stripped my position on the spot."

The moment I finished, the tears broke loose again.

"Do you know how long I spent working toward that promotion? Three years."

"I didn't dare rest on weekends. I went to close partnership deals until I threw up blood. I had no time to take my son to the amusement park. All I wanted was to earn more to keep this family fed."

So when I heard my son complain that I never spent time with him, did either of you ever think about how helpless and how much pain I was in?

What I can't accept is that I didn't need to pull any tricks to get promoted, and yet my own family, just to keep it from happening, killed that hope outright.

My mother and Bernice exchanged a glance.

To keep the pregnant Bernice from getting upset, my mother chose to take the blame alone.

"I didn't know your boss would open the packaging right there in front of everyone."

"I only put those two gold bars in out of goodwill. I just wanted your boss to give you more responsibility."

"It's your own fault for being useless. A position handed right to you and you lost it. Absolutely stupid."

Seeing that I still hadn't changed my shoes, she added one more thing.

"Go change your shoes, now!"

"Don't bring your moods home for your family to deal with. Do you hear me?"

Our argument had gotten loud enough to wake my son and Nathan.

They opened the door and came out, and only then did I see that Nathan was wearing the new pajamas I'd just bought.

What made me laugh at myself even harder was that his pajamas and Bernice's, and my son's too, looked like a matching family set.

"You put on my pajamas. Did you think to say a word to me first?"

Nathan blinked, then finally looked down at himself.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"My own pajamas weren't dry yet, so Bernice brought over a set for me to wear."

"I didn't know they were yours. If it bothers you, I'll take them off right now and give them back."

And with that he made a show of starting to strip them off, until Bernice stopped him with a cry.

"Nathan, don't you dare take them off!"

"That set is a gift from me to you."

Nathan's face was all wounded feeling, but his hands didn't stop moving.

"No, I can't wear someone else's clothes."

"My older brother is in the middle of his temper right now. If I keep wearing his clothes it'll only make him angrier."

"I've got nowhere to live as it is. If he throws me out, I'll be on the streets."

Hearing that was like a knife going into my mother's heart.

She walked over and gripped Nathan's hands, her voice full of tenderness.

"Nathan, this will always be your home. Without my say-so, no one gets to drive you out!"

"Listen to me, don't take them off."

Nathan looked at me with a face full of difficulty, then looked at my mother.

"Mom, but, this, this"

My mother understood at once, then turned her head and glared at me, fuming.

"Lucas, what are you doing standing there like a fool? Say something!"

I gave a cold little laugh. "And what exactly am I supposed to say to him?"

Her face was pure fury. "Apologize, obviously!"

"Ha! Apologize?"

My laugh was bitter, and both my hands clenched into fists.

"I thought you meant telling him he shouldn't have egged you on to hide gold bars in my gift basket, shouldn't have coached my son to turn away from me, and above all shouldn't have slept with my"

Slap. A blow landed across my face and cut off the rest of what I was going to say.

I turned my head back to look at Bernice, and only then did I see the old kiss mark below her neck.

She was the one who'd hit me, all because I'd cursed their beloved Nathan.

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

"None of this is anything like what you're saying, and you're twisting black into white."

Nathan hurried over and planted himself between us.

"Brother, stop fighting, both of you."

"It's all my fault, I'm the one who set off your argument!"

"But I still have to tell you one thing, brother. I truly did not egg Mom on to put gold bars in your gift basket, and I never coached Toby to turn away from you!"

"If you really believe I did it, then I'll kneel down and apologize to you!"

And with that, he actually knelt to me.

Bernice and my mother were both frightened by the move and rushed to stop him.

"Don't kneel, you haven't wronged a single person."

My son was crying too, running over in short quick steps to hit and kick at me.

"I hate Daddy, I hate Daddy!"

"Get out of here, this isn't your home, Uncle Nathan is my daddy!"

I crouched down to stop his fists, and looked at this boy I'd treasured with a heart full of grief.

"Do you still remember who carried you to the hospital in the rain when you had a fever? I wrapped the raincoat around you so you wouldn't get wet, and came home soaked through myself and fell sick."

"Do you still remember that little designer suit you wanted? Daddy had no money, so I sold the car to buy it for you."

"It isn't that Daddy doesn't love you. It's that a father knows what responsibility means!"

But my son wouldn't hear a word of it, set on driving me out for Nathan's sake.

"I won't listen, I won't listen. If you don't leave, Uncle Nathan will leave."

And when it was my turn to be in trouble, my mother and Bernice just stood there, obedient and still.

They let me be cast out by my own son, and never stepped in to stop it.

By the look of it, they all wanted me gone.

After they threw me out, I didn't leave. I stood there like a fool, waiting to see if any of them would feel a flicker of guilt and come out to bring me back in.

But no one came looking for me. Instead, I heard Nathan pick up a call from his boss.

"What? I've been promoted?"

"Yes, yes, of course. You're putting me in Lucas's position?"

"Thank you, sir! Thank you so much!"

My mother was overjoyed. She said she'd go grocery shopping tomorrow and cook a celebration for Nathan's promotion.

Bernice stroked her belly and leaned into his arms to kiss him.

My son bounced around, saying how wonderful it was, how wonderful.

Every single one of them was happy for Nathan's promotion. Only I was left forgotten at the door, swallowing every drop of the humiliation.

That was when it hit me why my mother had tucked gold bars into that gift basket. She'd been paving the road for Nathan all along.

My chest ached, truly ached, as if a hand had closed hard around my heart and refused to let go.

I walked out into the night. It was very late.

Ten thousand windows glowed out there, and not one of those lights was lit for me.

I'd just finished checking into a hotel when Nathan's taunting call came in.

"Lucas, are you crouched in some corner crying right now?"

"Does it hurt? You had a wife, a kid, a home, and they threw you out to make room for me."

"Just thinking about it feels so satisfying. You were always better than me, always one step ahead of me in everything."

"But at home? At home you crawled like a dog, and I had my foot on you at every turn."

The hand around my phone went tight, the veins standing out, and my voice dropped a few degrees.

"That's exactly why you're a small man."

"And small men usually end up eating what they've cooked."

Nathan gave a dismissive snort. "Fine, I admit I'm a small man. So what?"

"Your mother degrades herself to protect me with her dying breath. Your wife is even lower, she climbed into my bed in the middle of the night to spite you. And your son? He believed every word I told him. He hates you now."

"You want to know something? The gold bar thing was my idea too. I steered them into doing it for me."

"And who was the one who actually planted it? Your precious, beloved son. Hahaha!"

"I told you. I'd never let you get that promotion, that raise."

"Oh, right. Bernice is carrying my child. You knew that, didn't you?"

"Looks like you get to play the sucker father all over again!"

My chest clenched, a knot of fire burning there that I couldn't shake off.

After a long, painful struggle in my own head, I decided I was going to live for myself.

"Nathan, mock me all you want. It won't change anything."

"They've all chosen you. So I'll step back and let you have them."

I ended the call and didn't sleep the whole night. At dawn the next day, the company told me to come in and pack up my things.

The moment I walked in, coworkers were whispering and pointing behind my back. They'd given me a name: Bribe-Man!

I ignored the filth they were muttering and just packed my own things.

Carrying the box out, I saw Nathan from a distance, surrounded by coworkers like a star at the center of the sky.

He was chatting with them wearing a look of lofty virtue.

When he saw me, his face twisted into scorn and contempt.

When I reached the lobby, I threw the whole box into the trash.

No one knew that box held our family photo, and my wedding ring.

I made a call to a lawyer. First, to deliver a divorce agreement to Bernice and handle the divorce proceedings for me.

Second, to take the surveillance footage and audio recordings I'd sent him and sue Nathan for slandering me.

Then I blocked Bernice and my mother everywhere their numbers, their messages, all of it.

I walked out of the company, got into a taxi, and rode straight to the airport.

From this day on, there would be no one in this world to care for my mother, no one to love Bernice with his whole heart, no one to rush my son to the hospital the moment his fever spiked.

Their world had lost Lucas Dickerson completely.