Chapter 4

The words landed, and the whole room went silent.

Everyone stared at me like I'd said something no decent person should ever say.

Several seconds passed before my mother looked at me, her voice shaking.

"Mick, what is wrong with you?"

"Ida just clawed her way back from death. You haven't said one kind word to her, haven't held the baby once, and all you can think about is dividing up the hospital bill?"

"Would you really rather get divorced and lose your wife and child than pay another cent?"

I looked at my mother and said, perfectly serious,

"Mom, it's not that I won't pay. We agreed to split the bill down the middle."

"Whoever spends the money covers it themselves."

"I can't just eat the whole cost and play the fool because she gave me a child, can I?"

My father-in-law's eyes went red with rage. He rushed forward and grabbed me by the collar.

"Mick, you animal!"

"I'll beat you to death right here today!"

He pulled back his fist to swing at me.

Quinton saw it and stepped in fast, dragging my father-in-law off me.

Then he turned to me, pleading, frantic.

"Mick, look at the state she's in. How can you still be spouting this cruel garbage?"

"This is no time to talk about rules or accounts. Apologize to Ida, now."

Darren was staring at me too, baffled.

"We've known you over twenty years. We know you're not the kind of man who worships money."

"What's the matter with you? Why have you turned so cold-blooded all of a sudden?"

I straightened my collar and answered, unhurried,

"Her family's the one asking for a divorce. If we're splitting up, then every expense should be settled cleanly, so there's no squabbling later."

Hearing me talk about nothing but money, my mother-in-law looked at Ida with unbearable heartache and broke into sobs.

"My foolish girl, you nearly died giving him this child, and in the end he won't even let a single hospital bill slide."

"What is there left in a man like this that's worth holding on to?"

Ida's body, already so weak, seemed to sway on the edge of collapse.

She looked at me, her face white, so broken with grief she seemed about to shatter.

For a long while she said nothing. Then, choking on the words, she spoke.

"Mick, I told myself that when you suddenly brought up splitting everything, it was just a moment of madness."

"So no matter how you treated me, I bore it."

"I kept thinking, once the baby was born, once you saw our child, you'd come back to your senses."

"I thought this baby being born could take us back to how we were."

"Now I only want to ask you one thing. In your heart, are I and this child really worth nothing at all?"

Looking at that face, so full of disappointment and grief, I stayed silent for two seconds.

In the end I only said,

"The rules can't be broken."

Five words, and they crushed the last light in Ida's eyes.

She let out a bitter laugh.

"I understand now."

I couldn't be bothered to argue with them anymore.

"I've got things to do. I'll go first."

"If you need me for the divorce paperwork, you can reach me anytime."

With that, I turned and walked out of the room.

I had barely stepped out when I heard a huge crash behind me.

An instant later, Quinton came running up to me, frantic.

"It's bad—Ida jumped off the building!"