My Husband Called Me A “Money-printing Machine” While Dining With His Mistress. I Canceled His Credit Cards And His Mother’s Life-saving Surgery In One Hour. Was I Too Cruel?

A Fatal End

June. Boston was burning under a scorching sun. The temperature outside reached 100°. In the rented room, a ground floor unit with a tin roof, the air was dense and suffocating like an oven. The old fan creaked spreading hot air that only increased the feeling of oppression.

Eleanor lay on the mattress sweating and moaning. Her kidney disease had worsened. Her body was swollen and sore, but without money for expensive medications she only dared to take cheap painkillers from the corner pharmacy.

“It’s so hot… I’m so thirsty… where is that Laura? Get me a glass of water!” Eleanor shouted.

Laura, sitting in a corner doing her nails, replied with annoyance. “Get it yourself. I’m exhausted too. Pregnant women are usually pampered and here I am stuck in this pigsty and having to serve an old woman.”

Hearing this Jessica jumped up and grabbed her by the hair. “What did you say? Who are you calling an old woman? She’s your husband’s mother you ungrateful witch! If you don’t serve her who will? You’re nothing but a maid, a burden to this family!”

The two women got into a fight. Ethan who had just arrived exhausted from work saw the scene and shouted, “I’ve had it! Shut up both of you! Don’t we have enough problems already without you two fighting?”

Since he was suspended from work Ethan had tried to give private lessons, but with his reputation in tatters no parent would trust their children to him. He had to hide his doctoral degree and start working as a DoorDash driver to earn some money. He threw his helmet on the floor and sat down breathless.

“How much did you make today?” Jessica asked, her eyes shining.

“$20.”

“$20?”

“I spent five on gas and three on food so there are 12 left.”

“Just that?” Jessica pouted. “That’s not even enough to buy vegetables.”

“Ethan, you have to do something. I don’t even have money for feminine products anymore.”

“And where do you want me to get the money from?” Ethan snapped back. “You have hands and legs, get a job! Or are you going to lie around all day waiting for a handout?”

Jessica offended left. She was used to a life of luxury; the idea of washing dishes or working as a sales clerk wounded her pride. She tried to borrow money from her friends but they all avoided her knowing her family was broke.

Eleanor from the bed saw her emaciated and dirty son, her lazy and ill-mannered fake daughter-in-law, and tears welled up in her eyes. She remembered the hot oatmeal I used to prepare for her every morning. She remembered my hands massaging her legs when they ached. She regretted it, but her late regret was useless.

Life in the cramped deprived room had turned the people who once believed themselves noble and distinguished into miserable, ill-tempered, and cruel beings to each other. Hell on earth. The more desperate they became, the more conflicts arose. Laura, Ethan’s true love, began to show her true colors. She was no longer the sweet and innocent student. Poverty had torn off her mask of false morality.

She criticized Ethan for being useless, compared him to other rich men she had known.

“I must have been blind to have fallen for you,” Laura snapped during a dinner of white rice and green beans. “I thought you were a great doctor but it turns out you’re just a miserable delivery driver. I might as well have hooked up with the corner baker, at least he has his own house.”

Ethan threw his plate on the floor shattering it. “Shut your mouth! When I had money and a luxury car you stuck to me like a leech. Now that I’m broke you turn your back on me. A gold digger like you isn’t worth two cents.”

Eleanor and Jessica took the opportunity to join the attack. “Get out! We don’t want tramps like you in this house. You’re a jinx, you’ve brought ruin to my family!” Eleanor shouted, throwing a pillow at her face.

Laura didn’t back down. She stood up and pushed Eleanor. “Shut up you old hag! I’ve put up with you long enough. You think you’re still the lady of the house? Now you’re just a burden to this family.”

Seeing her mother being pushed Jessica lunged at Laura grabbing her by the hair and slapping her. “You dare touch my mother I’ll kill you!”

The three women rolled around on the floor of the cramped room. Ethan watched them helpless and disgusted. He didn’t intervene, he even felt a strange twisted satisfaction. He wanted Laura to suffer to pay for having deceived him, although in reality he was a liar too.

That night Laura left. She packed her clothes which were no longer many or in good condition and disappeared into the rainy night. Ethan sighed with relief believing he had gotten rid of a burden. But he was mistaken. Laura hadn’t left alone; she carried a ticking time bomb in her womb.

Two weeks later Laura returned. She was thinner, haggard, with deep dark circles under her eyes. She stood at the door of the room with a crumpled ultrasound in her hand.

“Ethan, I’m pregnant. It’s yours.”

Ethan, who was fixing a flat tire on his scooter, received the news like a lightning bolt. Pregnant? Now, when he could barely support himself and his mother?

“You’re lying! How do you know it’s mine? With how promiscuous you are who knows how many you’ve slept with?” He rejected her cruelly.

Laura crying knelt at his feet. “I swear I’ve only been with you. If you don’t believe me wait until it’s born and we’ll do a DNA test. Honey, our child is not to blame. Marry me, let’s start over. I’ll work, I won’t complain anymore.”

Eleanor who had heard everything from inside dragged herself to the door and pointed at her. “Marry you? You’re trying to use that pregnancy to tie down my son? In your dreams! My family will never accept a daughter-in-law like you.”

Ethan looked at Laura coldly. “Get an abortion.”

“What?” Laura couldn’t believe it.

“I said get an abortion. I don’t have money to support it. Do you want it to be born to starve to death? Go and get an abortion, I’ll give you $20.”

Ethan’s cruelty was the final stab that ended all of Laura’s hopes. She looked at the man she had once idolized, with whom she had dreamed of starting a family, and who now revealed himself as a heartless monster.

“You’re not human!” Laura screamed lunging at him to scratch him.

Jessica seeing her brother being attacked grabbed the mop handle and hit Laura hard in the stomach. “Let go of my brother you psycho!”

The blow made Laura fall hitting her abdomen against the hard concrete floor. She let out a cry of pain and writhed clutching her belly. A trickle of blood began to flow from between her legs staining the dirty floor.

“Blood… my baby!” Laura whispered, her face pale.

Ethan and Jessica stood paralyzed staring at the pool of blood. Eleanor fainted from the shock. No one dared to take Laura to the hospital because they had no money. They stood there watching as life left the little creature that had not yet been born. When the neighbors heard the screams and took her to the emergency room it was already too late. The baby could not be saved. Laura lost a lot of blood and went into a state of psychotic shock.

After leaving the hospital Laura went mad. She constantly muttered about the child she had lost, about the house, about eternal love. She loitered around the room harassing Ethan’s family.

One afternoon of torrential rain she snuck into the room while Ethan was sleeping soundly exhausted after a long day of work. Eleanor was delirious in bed and Jessica was not there. Laura with a fruit peeling knife in her hand approached Ethan.

In her delirium she whispered, “Ethan honey, let’s go. Let’s go to paradise. There’s no poverty there, no old wife. We’ll live happily ever after with our child.”

Ethan woke up with a start and seeing Laura with the knife at his neck he jumped up and ran. He ran out of the room and up to the roof of the small apartment building. Laura chased him closely her eyes bloodshot and with a demented smile.

“Where are you going? You promised we’d be together forever!”

Reaching the fifth floor rooftop Ethan found himself cornered. Behind him was only a low railing and below the cold asphalt.

“Laura, calm down! Let’s talk!” Ethan pleaded.

Laura didn’t listen. She lunged at him and hugged him tightly. The impact combined with the slippery floor due to the rain caused them both to lose their balance. Ethan slipped and fell backward over the railing. Laura clung to him like a death hug from which he could not escape.

“Ah!”

A heart-wrenching scream broke the silence of the rain. They both fell from the fifth floor. Splat. Everything went silent. Their blood mixed with the rainwater spreading across the street. The end of a guilty love, the end of blind ambitions and a despicable betrayal.