Broken Family After Betrayal Chapter 01

Broken Family After Betrayal Chapter 01

After Dad cheated, Mom scrubbed him down with steel wool every night.

As she sprayed alcohol onto his raw, wounded back, she muttered under her breath like a woman possessed.

“Filthy. You’re disgusting, Jonathan. You’re absolutely disgusting.”

Dad’s face turned pale from the pain, but guilt filled his eyes. He never fought back. Never even moved.

When he saw the confusion on my face, he spoke softly to comfort me.

“This is my fault. Your mom has every right to be angry.”

But on my birthday, Dad suddenly said he wanted to bathe by himself.

Mom’s hand shook in the middle of cutting my cake. Then she snapped.

Like a madwoman, she grabbed Dad by the shirt and started tearing at his clothes.

“You went to see your student Cassie again, didn’t you?”

“Is she really that lonely? She can’t stay away from you for even a second?”

“And you—you’re unbelievable. We had a good life, a perfectly good life.”

“But you just had to throw away your dignity over a woman with a rotten reputation!”

Dad finally snapped. He yanked up his sleeve and exposed the wound on his arm.

“I got hurt repairing a machine at the Silver Creek Manufacturing Plant. I almost lost my arm, and you don’t care at all. All you do is obsess over who I’m with!”

“Cassie’s better than you in every way.”

“At least she didn’t fool around with her own stepbrother when she was young.”

“I like being with her. So what?”

Without warning, the candle went out.

Darkness swallowed the company housing apartment.

Mom’s hand slowly dropped to her side. The light in her eyes went out with the candles.

I knew then that she was truly exhausted.

She was finally letting go.

—

The dry air fell into dead silence.

Dad recovered first. He reached over and pulled the light switch cord. The dim yellow light flickered across the room.

He reached for Mom but grabbed nothing but air.

“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“The machine malfunctioned today. I got hurt fixing it.”

“I didn’t want you to worry, so I figured I’d wash up on my own.”

“If you don’t believe me, check for yourself. I’m completely clean.”

“I don’t smell like some other woman’s hand cream, do I?”

Mom’s stepbrother had been taken in as a boy by her family years ago. He was two years older than her.

When Mom was little, she had been thrilled to finally have an older brother.

But after he grew up, he forced her into a corner and claimed she was his now.

Dad had been the one who passed by and saved her. He promised he would never tell anyone.

Yet in the end, he was still the one who exposed it.

Mom said nothing. She turned around and placed the cold dishes back into the steamer to reheat them.

That was when Dad seemed to realize he was two hours late.

Two hours. That amount of time meant something in our family.

That day, Dad had also been two hours late coming home.

Mom had been so worried that she went out searching for him in the pouring rain.

Through the control room window, she saw him in an intimate embrace with Cassie..

I had been riding on Mom’s back then, giggling foolishly.

“Daddy and Cassie are hugging closely. Are they playing together?”

“Daddy looks like a puppy. He’s really having fun with Cassie.”

Mom covered my eyes and told me to keep my head down.

All I remember from that day is the endless thunder and the pouring rain.

Mom carried me home on her back, crying harder than the storm around us.

Dad clearly remembered it too. His face went pale.

“I’m sorry. Something really did happen at the plant today.”

“I promise it’ll never happen again. We’ll live a good life. You and me.”

Mom kept her back to him and stayed silent.

Dad took her silence as forgiveness and exhaled in relief.

After changing into fresh clothes, he sat back down. The wound on his hand had already been bandaged.

“Happy birthday, Olivia. And may we always have days like today.”

May we always share this day, year after year.

That was part of Mom and Dad’s wedding vows. They repeated it every year.

But Mom didn’t say the second half this time.

She only kept placing food into my plate.

Dad sighed and pulled out two beautifully wrapped gifts.

One was a pair of pearl earrings. The other was a doll.

“Picked them up on a business trip. Thought you girls would like them.”

I was so excited, but I still sneaked a glance at Mom.

She nodded at me, signaling for me to accept them.

Something shifted in Dad’s eyes.

Gently, almost cautiously, he reached over to put an earring on Mom.

But before he could put on the other, someone started pounding on the door.

“Mr. Harrington, come quick! The readings are off and Cassie’s stuck in the machine again!”

Dad’s hand jerked. The sharp pin pricked her skin, and a faint damp mark appeared at once.

Mom gasped in pain, tears springing to her eyes.

Dad quickly pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to her wound, already heading for the door.

“Problem at the plant. I have to go.”

But we all knew the truth. It wasn’t the plant.

It was Cassie. Dad’s injury today—he got it protecting her.

Mom stared blankly at the handkerchief left in her hands.

A rose was embroidered in the corner—Cassie’s favorite flower.

After a long silence, Mom let out a quiet laugh.

She stroked my hair gently and apologized in a soft voice.

“I ruined your sixth birthday, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

“But Mommy can’t do this anymore. I’m going to divorce your father.”