After Husband Gave Our House to Brother's Widow, I Raged

The day the plant handed out housing, everyone assumed my husband and I would finally move out of the leaking old walk-up.

But when the list went up, the name on our new apartment belonged to his dead friend's widow.

Chester Weiss said Darlene Ramsey had it hard, raising a child alone, and that it wouldn't kill us to wait a few more years.

I reminded him I was seven months pregnant.

The walls of the old building were cracking, and even the doctor had told me I couldn't keep climbing six flights of stairs.

His face darkened. He decided I wasn't thinking about it the right way.

"Her man died saving me. Taking care of her is the least I can do."

I'd been hearing that line for eight years.

My job placement, given to her. My baby's milk rations, split with her.

Even the survivor's benefits my father left behind he took those to pay for her son's medical care.

That night the rain came down hard, the stairwell gave way, and I fell into the standing water.

I lost the baby.

By the time Chester rushed in, he was still making excuses for Darlene.

I lay in the hospital bed and signed the transfer papers to the Northwest.

I'd only just signed them when the door to the room burst open.

Chester walked in soaked to the bone.

"Clarissa."

He said my name, his face gone pale.

I didn't look at him. I only stared at the yellowed patch of ceiling above me.

Seeing how pale I was, something like panic and helplessness finally crossed his face.

"Clarissa, the baby the doctor said the baby's gone?"

He reached out to take my hand.

I pulled away coldly and slid the transfer papers under my pillow.

"Yes. Gone."

His whole body stiffened. He pressed his hands over his face in pain.

"I'm sorry, Clarissa, I really didn't know the stairs would collapse. The power went out over at Darlene's, she was alone with Barnaby Clayton and so scared she wouldn't stop crying, and then Barnaby spiked a fever, kept crying for his Uncle Chester, and I"

"So you thought you could just leave your seven-months-pregnant wife alone in a condemned building?"

I cut him off, a mocking twist at the corner of my mouth.

"Chester, so Darlene's son running a fever matters more than the life of your own flesh and blood. If you love her that much, why don't you just marry her? Why drag me in to be the stepping-stone under your little romance?"

"Clarissa Swanson! What kind of nonsense is that!"

He raised his voice, trying to cover for the guilt underneath.

But when it met my cold stare, his tone softened again.

"I swore an oath to look after Darlene and her boy for the rest of my life! You've always been so reasonable. How did you turn this cruel?"

"I'm heartbroken about the baby too, but we're still young, you can recover and we can have another. Do you really have to throw a fit right now?"

I looked at him, and suddenly I laughed.

Eight years ago, the first time he brought Darlene and her son home, he'd asked me to be gracious too.

Every time I didn't want to, he told me he'd make it up to me someday.

So it turned out his someday meant me carrying another child.

As if the one that died was only a stroke of bad luck.

Footsteps sounded outside.

Darlene stood in the doorway holding her son Barnaby by the hand, her eyes red and swollen, a food thermos in her other hand.

"I'm so sorry it's all my fault. If I hadn't been so frightened, if I hadn't insisted on calling Chester, your baby would never have"

Tears rolled down as she spoke, as if she were the one who'd been wronged.

"Don't call me his wife. It turns my stomach."

I pushed myself up on my weak body and pointed at the door. "Take your little bastard and get out."

"Clarissa Swanson!"

At that Chester's face darkened, and he instinctively stepped in front of Darlene.

"Darlene meant well, she cooked chicken soup and came all this way to see you, and this is how you talk to her? Barnaby's just a child. Who are you calling a bastard!"

"I told her to get out!"

Watching him stand there like that, I grabbed the glass off the nightstand and hurled it at the doorframe.

The shatter of glass made Darlene shriek and throw herself straight into Chester's arms.

He held her tight, and the look he turned on me was full of disgust.

"Clarissa Swanson, you're impossible, like some shrew! Cool down and pull yourself together. I'll come see you tomorrow!"

With that, he shielded Darlene and her son and turned to leave.

The day I was discharged, Chester Weiss didn't come to pick me up.

The head nurse looked at me with nothing but pity, pressed a couple of eggs poached in brown-sugar water into my hands, sighed, and said nothing.

I went back alone to that crumbling old walk-up tenement.

I had just reached the second-floor landing when I heard a few of the neighbor women huddled together, cracking sunflower seeds.

"Have you heard? The plant's new residential compound, the apartment they gave to Foreman Weiss, he's already handed the keys over to the Ramsey widow. She's hiring movers to move in today!"

"What a sin! Clarissa Swanson just lost the baby, she's still laid up in the hospital, and he's handing the new apartment to another woman? Has that Chester Weiss had his brains bewitched by some she-fox?"

"Don't I know it! I hear that apartment was specially approved for Clarissa Swanson by the plant director himself. Clarissa's been the plant's top engineering standout three years running!"

My steps froze, and my eyes went cold.

That apartment was mine. I'd earned it drawing blueprints in the workshop day and night, retooling machines, working overtime even while pregnant. On sheer merit, the plant director had signed it over to me himself.

What right did Chester Weiss have to quietly cross my name off the list and write in Darlene Ramsey's?

I turned around and went straight for the new compound behind the plant grounds.

The new compound was a fine place, red-brick low-rises, each unit with its own bathroom and kitchen.

The moment I reached the third floor, I saw the door of the new apartment standing wide open, Darlene Ramsey's laughter drifting out from inside.

"Careful with that rosewood couch, mister. Chester picked it out for me himself, went all the way to the downtown department store for it. You break it, you can't afford to pay it back."

I stood in the doorway, watching Darlene Ramsey order a couple of movers around.

She'd had her hair curled special for the occasion, and she was wearing a brand-new dress. Not a trace left of the timid, guilty face she'd worn at the hospital.

Just a small person drunk on getting her way.

"Darlene Ramsey, who gave you permission to set foot in my apartment?" My voice came out cold.

The laughter inside cut off at once.

Darlene Ramsey jumped, and when she turned and saw it was me, the color drained from her face.

But she steadied herself fast enough, and slipped right back into that pitiful act.

"Clarissa, you're out of the hospital? Chester said you'd just lost the baby, that the stairs at the tenement weren't safe for you, so he had me move in first and get the place cleaned up, and once you're feeling better"

"Shut up."

I had no patience for her act. I walked straight up to the lead mover.

"This apartment is mine, mister. Do me a favor and throw all this junk out."

"Clarissa, don't do this!"

Darlene Ramsey panicked and rushed in front of me. "Chester already gave this apartment to me. My name's on the list the plant posted too. You can't just be this unreasonable!"

I brought my hand around and slapped her across the face.

The movers stared, dumbstruck.

"You you dare hit me?!"

Darlene Ramsey clutched her cheek, staring at me in disbelief.

"You're exactly the kind of slut who's got it coming!"

I looked down at her. "You think just because Chester Weiss wrote your name on the application, this apartment is yours? The plant's housing papers say the award goes to 'senior technician Clarissa Swanson'!"

"Who does Chester Weiss think he is? What right does he have to hand off an apartment the plant assigned to me?"

I pulled the deed from my pocket and slapped it down on the coffee table.

"Open your eyes and look close. The property owner is me! Right now you're trespassing on private property! I'm giving you ten minutes. Get out this instant! Otherwise I'll go report you for stealing a senior technician's property!"

Darlene Ramsey knew she didn't have a leg to stand on. All she could do was yank the frightened, crying Barnaby up and run for the door, wailing:

"You're bullying me! I'm going to tell Chester, you just wait!"

"Sorry to trouble you, gentlemen. Haul everything that isn't mine out to the trash heap. I'll pay you double."

I took two big bills out of my pocket and handed them to the foreman of the crew.

The moment the workers saw there was money in it, they hustled every last one of Darlene Ramsey's things out the door.

Then I turned and went downstairs to find a locksmith and had the highest-grade security lock installed.

The new lock had been in for barely half an hour when Chester came storming into the residential compound, out of his mind with rage.

"Clarissa! Have you lost your mind?"

He pounded on the door hard enough to draw a crowd of neighbors in no time.

I pulled the door open and looked at him coldly. "What? Come to win justice back for your precious little darling?"

"Why did you hit Darlene? And why did you throw all her things out in the hallway?"

Chester jabbed a finger at my nose and roared. "I already gave that apartment to Darlene! She's a widow raising a child alone, and Barnaby's health is poor. Can't you show a shred of sympathy? Where did all your old kindness go?"

"Sympathy?"

I laughed, furious past the point of anger. "Chester, you use the apartment I earned killing myself over blueprints every night to show her sympathy. If you're so noble, why don't you hand her your own life instead?"

"You're being completely unreasonable!"

His face went ashen, but he was still fighting to save face.

"Duke Abbott saved my life. Taking care of Darlene is only right and proper! As my wife, you should be supporting me!"

I gave a cold laugh and pulled out a ledger, throwing it straight into his face.

"Since the whole neighborhood is here today, let's settle these eight years of accounts, one line at a time!"

"For eight years, you made sixty-five dollars a month, and behind my back you gave Darlene Ramsey thirty-five of it every single month. The rest went to your cigarettes and liquor. This household ran on my wages and mine alone!"

The neighbors crowding around started to murmur.

I kept going.

"Three years ago, my father died of a sudden heart attack on the workshop floor. The plant gave the family five hundred dollars in survivor's benefits out of compassion. You lied and told me that money was locked away in a fixed-term account at the bank. And what actually happened?"

"You took it in secret to buy imported specialty medicine for Darlene Ramsey's son! When I was seven months pregnant and wanted a twenty-cent apple, you told me we had to save up for her son's school fees and that I should just bear with it!"

The whole crowd erupted.

"God almighty! Taking your father-in-law's death money to raise another woman's son? Is that even human!"

"No wonder Clarissa was so thin even while pregnant. Who could live like that!"

"This isn't repaying a debt, this is practically keeping a mistress!"

Chester's face flushed crimson in an instant. He scrambled down to snatch the ledger off the ground, growling low. "Clarissa! You really have to air the family's dirty laundry in public? Can't you leave me a little face!"

"You do something lower than an animal and you still want face?"

My voice went cold. "Chester, you keep saying Duke saved your life. Do you really think I don't know anything?"

I lowered my voice right at his ear. "That mine accident back then. Did Duke really push you out of the way on his own, or did you climb out over his shoulders to save your own skin?"

Chester froze where he stood.

"You... what are you talking about! You're insane!"

He was faking calm, but the guilt in his voice was impossible to hide.

Darlene, who had rushed over hoping to watch me get humiliated, caught that exact line.

She looked at Chester, the color draining from her face.

"Whether I'm talking nonsense or not, you know in your heart."

"Chester, neither you nor Darlene Ramsey is getting your hands on this apartment. And every dollar you took from me over these eight years, plus my father's survivor's benefits, twelve hundred dollars in total, you'll cough it back up to the last cent within three days! Otherwise, I'll report you for embezzling those benefits and for your indecent private life!"

Chester panicked.

He knew me too well. He knew I always did exactly what I said I would.

He was afraid the truth about that old accident would be dug up. Once an investigation started, losing his position at the plant would be the least of it. He could end up in prison.

So to keep his secure spot at the plant, he started borrowing money everywhere, even pressing Darlene to hand over what she'd saved all those years.

Two days later, Chester set twelve hundred dollars in front of me.

Darlene trailed behind him, and while the money changed hands, her eyes looked ready to tear me to shreds.

"Clarissa Swanson, you're driving a widow and her fatherless boy to their deaths. Aren't you afraid to take this money? You'll pay for it!"

I took the thick stack of bills and counted them off one by one, right in front of her.

"Pay for it?"

I gave a cold laugh and slid the money into my bag. "If anyone's getting struck down from above, you'll be the first."

With the money in hand, I turned and went to the plant office.

The special train to the Northwest left in less than four days.

I couldn't take the apartment with me. Leaving it would only hand a gift to those two.

So I went to find the plant's most notorious hard case, workshop director Allan Finch.

Allan had a fiery temper and couldn't be pushed or coaxed into anything.

He had five sons at home, seven people crammed into a two-hundred-square-foot place, and he'd been waiting forever for the company to assign him housing.

And because his skills were so solid, even the plant manager gave him a wide berth. In Allan's eyes, Chester was nothing.

"Director Finch, that two-bedroom in the new residential compound. I'll sign it over to you."

I dropped the property deed on the desk. "I'm not asking for anything extra. Eight hundred dollars, that's all. I'll handle the paperwork with the plant manager myself. Completely legal, completely by the book."

"But I have one condition. Once you move in, you never let Chester Weiss or Darlene Ramsey set foot in that apartment. Not once."

Allan looked at the deed, and his eyes lit up.

A two-bedroom with its own kitchen and bathroom for eight hundred dollars? That was money falling out of the sky.

"Technician Swanson, don't you worry!"

Allan slapped his thigh. "Once that apartment's mine, I don't care if it's Chester Weiss or the Lord Almighty himself, nobody's getting in. He tries to come make trouble, I'll have my five boys break his legs!"

Once all the paperwork was settled, I went back to the old walk-up.

Chester was sitting in the room smoking, cigarette butts all over the floor, the air thick and foul.

When he saw me come in, he stubbed out the butt, a trace of weariness in his eyes.

"Clarissa, I've paid you back. I was in the wrong before. I ignored how you felt."

He came over and reached for my hand, softening his tone. "As for Darlene, I've straightened things out with her. From now on, besides ten dollars a month for basic living costs, I'll try to see her as little as possible. Let's make a real go of it. Let's have another child, all right?"

I turned aside from his touch and pulled a sheet of paper out of my bag, slapping it down on the desk.

"There won't be any making a go of it. Just sign it."

Chester looked down. It was the divorce agreement.

"You want to divorce me?!"

His eyes went wide, then he snatched up the agreement and tore it to pieces, roaring, "Clarissa Swanson, haven't you made enough of a scene? I've paid you back, I've agreed to stay away from Darlene. What more do you want? You're a broken woman who can't even bear a child now. Leave me and who's ever going to want you!"

"Chester, you think far too much of yourself, and far too little of me."

I gave a cold laugh.

"You don't have to sign. I've already submitted the evidence of your misconduct. They'll rule on it whether you sign or not!"

Chester was about to say something more when a scream from Darlene tore up from downstairs.

"Chester! Help! Someone's stealing our apartment!"