After My Wife Was Slapped, I Broke With My Father

My father had just had surgery for a stomach bleed, and my wife told him to go easy on the drinking.

She'd barely finished speaking when he slapped her across the face.

My business. Since when does a daughter-in-law get a say?

Max, you paid a sixty-six-thousand bride price to bring home this piece of work?

"No wonder you turned out worthless next to your two brothers!"

"Look at the wives your brothers married. Prettier and smarter than yours, every one of them!"

Staring at the bright red handprint on my wife's face, I froze.

Three seconds later, my chopsticks hit the table with a crack, and I grabbed her hand.

"Fine. Since you think Sabrina and Vanessa are so wonderful, let them take care of you from now on. My wife and I are done waiting on you!"

My father shot to his feet and jabbed a finger at my face.

"No spine, plenty of mouth. Can't even be told anything now, is that it?"

Without another word, I took my wife's hand and slammed the door on the way out.

The day my father was discharged, the house filled up with relatives.

At the dinner table, he got in high spirits and wanted a drink again.

For the sake of his health, my wife, Julia Simmons, told him not to.

My father slammed his hand on the table, shot up, and backhanded her across the face.

"Who do you think you are? You've got the nerve to order me around now?"

In front of everyone, she pressed a hand to her cheek, tears standing in her eyes, her face full of shame.

I sat there stunned, then stood without thinking.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

Sabrina held the glass steady and poured my father his drink.

Vanessa spooned food into his bowl.

Neither one made the smallest move to stop him.

My father pointed at the two of them.

"Look at Nathan Whitney's wife and Derek's wife. Which of them acts like yours, forgetting her place?"

My wife's lips moved.

She said quietly, "The doctor said you had surgery for a stomach bleed. You can't touch alcohol."

My father's hand came up again.

I stepped in front of her at once.

His hand froze in the air, but he stabbed a vicious finger at her face.

"Don't act like you've got some authority. That doctor was just scaring people!"

"In front of all these people, a daughter-in-law lecturing her own father-in-law. If you ask me, you just don't know your place and you don't know how to behave!"

My wife lowered her head and went quiet.

I knew how much it stung her.

So I spoke, keeping my voice level.

"Your stomach-bleed surgery cost twenty-three thousand. You're just out of the hospital and you want to drink yourself right back in?"

"So it comes down to money after all!" My father let out a cold laugh. "Twenty-three thousand only looks like a lot to a broke nobody like you."

"I just got out, and Nathan brought me two bottles of top-shelf whiskey, and Derek signed me up for a seniors' tour. Neither of them opens his mouth and starts talking about money like you do!"

I looked at Nathan. He kept his head down and picked up a peanut.

I looked at Derek. He was studying the middle distance like none of this concerned him.

The twenty-three thousand in medical bills, I paid every cent of it myself.

Neither of them stood up to say one fair word for me.

I took my wife's hand.

"Fine!"

"Since Nathan and Derek care so little about money."

"Then from now on you can have them take care of you!"

The moment I finished, I turned and walked out.

Behind me, my father threw his glass down.

"You little bastard. Get married and forget what you're worth, is that it?"

"Let him go. Let him take his wife out to beg on the streets!"

"No car, no house. Let's see how far he gets!"

Bayport was hitting a hundred and four degrees, the sun blazing hard enough to make your head spin.

I flagged down a cab and got my wife in first.

Inside, with the AC blowing, the handprint on her face stood out even more.

"I'm sorry." I apologized to her.

She shook her head to say it was fine, but the tears wouldn't stop falling.

Even wronged like this, she still lifted her head and asked me,

"Where are we going now?"

"To buy a house!"

The cab stopped in front of a real estate agency.

The moment we walked in, the agent who'd shown us around a few days earlier came right over.

"Max, Julia, have you two decided to buy?"

I pulled out my card and slapped it on the desk.

"Yes."

"We'll take that place at Amethyst Gardens you showed us before!"

That one was a resale, already renovated, and the whole place still looked new.

Nine hundred square feet. It would've gone for over a million before. Now it was only seven hundred thousand.

My wife grabbed my arm in a hurry.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Didn't you say your dad's health is bad, that you were keeping this money for emergencies?"

I asked her,

"He hit you today in front of all those people, and you're still looking out for him?"

She lowered her head.

"I'm not looking out for him, I'm looking out for you. He's still your own father!"

A wife like this, what more could a husband want.

I pulled her into my arms and said softly,

"He's got two other sons!"

"I waited on him for eight years. It's about time Nathan and Derek did their share!"

And just like that, the house was ours.

Seven hundred thousand, paid in full, move-in ready. We only needed to add a few personal things.

That evening, out shopping with my wife at the grocery store,

my mother called.

"Maxwell, hurry up and bring Julia home. Your dad's calmed down, just come back and say a few nice words to him!"

I glanced at my wife, who was picking out plates, and kept my voice even.

"Mom, Julia and I aren't coming back!"

My mother was stunned.

"Then where will you two live?"

"I bought a house. A resale, just bought it, seven hundred thousand, move-in ready!"

"You bought a house?" My mother's voice shot up an octave.

The next second, my father snatched the phone from her.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"That's all the money you've got, and you dumped every cent into a house. What about your mother and me in our old age?"

I laughed.

"Go ask Nathan and Derek!"

"You're the one who thinks they're more devoted than me, aren't you?"

"What, afraid they won't take care of you?"

My father choked. "You"

After hanging up, I pushed the cart with my wife over to the register to check out.

The first day in the new place, we didn't go out to celebrate.

Instead my wife cooked herself, fried two eggs and made a bowl of buttered noodles for each of us.

Simple.

But we were content.

"Even though we bought our own place, we should still find time to go back once, don't you think?" my wife suggested.

"Why?"

"Just to pack up our things."

Saturday was my day off, so I took my wife back to my father's place.

My mother opened the door, her face lighting up when she saw us.

My father sat in the living room drinking tea, snide as ever.

"Well, well. So you two remembered how to come home?"

"I knew all that talk about buying a house was just to fool us."

"I know exactly what you're capable of. Forget a house, you'd be hard-pressed to buy a bathroom!"

My mother shot him a glare.

"Can't you old fool keep your mouth shut for once?"

Then she turned and started ordering people around the way she always did.

"Good that you're back. I bought pork ribs. Julia can cook in a bit, and we'll all celebrate properly as a family!"

I gripped my wife's hand and refused.

"Mom, no!"

"We came back to pack up our things!"

"From now on, only you and Dad live in this house!"

The words landed, and my mother froze.

And the teacup in my father's hand hit the floor with a crash.

Word finally reached my two brothers that I'd bought a place and moved out.

Nathan texted me:

"You really bought a place? On a loan, right? Some cheap little dump?"

I ignored him.

Then Derek Whitney called.

"You and your wife just move outwhat about Dad and Mom?"

"Dad's sick, Mom's legs are bad. Who's going to cook for them? Who's going to take them for their regular checkups?"

I laughed.

"Are you and Nathan dead? Can't the two of you do it?"

Derek didn't even flinch.

"Your wife's always handled all that. How would we know how?"

"Not that I want to lecture you as your older brother, but what kind of woman did you go and marry?"

"Talking you into buying a house, talking you into turning your back on your own parentsshe's nothing but a home-wrecker!"

My voice went cold. "Dad hit her first!"

"So what? Your wife's the one who can't tell up from down. A junior daring to lecture her eldersthe world's turned upside down!"

I snorted. "Fine. My wife won't do it anymore, let yours do it. From now on my wife lifts a finger for no one!"

"You"

I didn't give him the chance to say anything else. I hung up.

Maybe it was the good energy of the new place, but my career started taking off.

I closed several big deals in a row, pulled in a good chunk of commission, and got promoted to department supervisor.

Julia found out she was pregnant tooa little over two months along, right at the most delicate stage.

That evening I cooked myself, made a few of her favorite dishes, and waited for her to get home so we could celebrate together.

That was when my mother called.

"Max, your dad and I talked it over. We're going to sell this old house and move in with you and Julia!"

"Julia only makes three or four thousand a monthtell her to quit her job and stay home to take care of me and your dad!"

I kept picking at my food.

"Fine. Then hand over the money from selling the housecall it your retirement fund with me."

"Absolutely not. That money stays put until your dad and I are gone, then it gets split three ways among you brothers!"

"Fine. Then how much are you planning to pay Julia a month?"

"We're familysince when do we pay wages?"

"Then what? All three of us brothers take you in for a year each, taking turns caring for you in old age!"

"Your dad doesn't want to stay with Nathan or Derek. He's afraid of being a burden to them!"

"Oh? So he knows perfectly well he's a burdenthat's why he latches onto my wife and wrings her dry all by herself?"

My mother froze.

For a long moment she couldn't get a word out.

After I hung up, I set down my chopsticks.

I didn't eat any more. I went out to the balcony to smoke.

When my two brothers got married and bought their homes, my parents gave each of them five hundred thousand.

When it was my turn, my parents said they were out of money and told me to live with them.

I lived at their side for eight years, and my wife waited on them for those same eight years.

For those eight years, every expensethe ones you could see and the ones you couldn'tI covered.

Groceries, water, electricity, gasthe household ran about five thousand a month.

Their retirement insurance, paid off in one lump sum, was eighty thousand each, a hundred and sixty thousand total.

Their everyday illnesses, medicine, supplementsanother twenty or thirty thousand a year.

All these years, everything I'd spent on them, big and small, added up to somewhere around five hundred thousand.

And in the end, I was still the most worthless one in their eyes.

They'd even hit my wife whenever they felt like it, curse her whenever they felt like it.

The one they looked down on was never my wife. It was me!

So I would never play the fool again!

Still, I knew my father. Given the kind of man he was, he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted.

I had to guard against it in advance.

Sure enough, within three days, my mother called again.

"Max, honey, which building is your place in?"

I was instantly on guard. "Why, Mom?"

Her tone was breezy.

"Your dad and I already sold the house. We're right downstairs at your complex now, everything packed up. Hurry and send your wife down to help us up!"

I glanced out the window at the blazing sun and sighed.

"Didn't I already tell you? Julia has to work. I took care of the two of you for eight years. Isn't it Nathan's and Derek's turn now?"

She brushed it off.

"Sabrina's a germophobe, and Vanessa's place is too small. Your dad and I would rather live with you and Julia!"

"It's boiling out here. Just give us the building number and we'll come up ourselves!"

Cicadas droned through the phone.

Afraid they'd get heatstroke, I had no choice but to tell them the building number, and I put in for time off and rushed home.

I got home and pushed open the door.

The place was a disaster.

My dad sat on the couch smoking.

My mom was hollering at Nathan's and Derek's two kids, telling them not to jump on the couch with their shoes on.

But it was too late. My couch, the one I always babied, had grimy footprints stamped all over it.

The walls were scribbled up with colored markers.

Trash and snack bags were scattered everywhere on the floor.

When she saw me, my mom explained sheepishly.

"It's summer break, isn't it? Sabrina and Vanessa dropped the kids off with me to look after."

"Since we were moving, of course we had to bring them along!"

Just as she finished, my wife came home too.

My mom immediately started ordering her around.

"Julia, I bought chicken wings. Go fry up a couple plates for your two little nephews!"

"And your dad's stomach has been bothering him lately, so make him some pork and vegetable soup to settle it."

I looked at my wife, who'd only just stepped in, and reminded my mother.

"Mom, Julia's pregnant."

My mom paused for a second.

My dad, cigarette clamped in his mouth, slammed the table and shot to his feet.

"So what if she's pregnant?"

"Your mom was still out working the fields when she was pregnant. She can't do a little cooking? Thinks she's some pampered rich lady? Take a look at what her husband is!"

My mom pursed her lips too.

"Exactly!"

Then she sat down and pointed at the bathroom.

"You've been slacking off all this time. Your two nephews' clothes are still soaking in the basin. Once you're done cooking, remember to scrub them by hand."

"Your two sisters-in-law made a point of asking! They said the kids' clothes can't be washed with the adults'!"

"Okay..." my wife said, head down, her voice thick.

She was about to head into the kitchen when I grabbed her and stopped her.

She stared at me, dazed.

I didn't say a word. I turned and stormed into the bedroom.

I hauled out my parents' luggage and shoved them, along with the two nephews, out the door.

"My wife may not be some pampered rich lady, but she's not a maid anyone can boss around either!"

"You want pork and vegetable soup, simmer it yourself. Dirty clothes, wash them yourself!"

"Nobody here is missing an arm or a leg. Making my pregnant wife work herself to the bone waiting on your whole crew, have you got no shame?"

With that, I slammed the door shut.