The Househusband Strikes Back

I stood pressed against the hallway wall. The sounds coming from the room where Nancy Cooper and her assistant were kept getting louder.

The low, mournful music of the memorial still lingered at the far end of the corridor, but behind this door, the atmosphere felt completely different. It was heavy, intimate, and undeniably wrong.

"Oh, right. Those board members still won't sign the contract?"

"Don't even get me started," Nancy said, lowering her voice, irritation seeping through her every word. "Joshua may have stepped back, but those old fossils only listen to him, not me. Once I get that contract, I'm getting rid of every last one of them."

Her assistant, Gilbert Shaw, let out a quiet laugh, his tone light and suggestive.

"Hey, don't be mad, babe. How about letting your 'husband' help you relax a little?"

Soft laughter followed, the kind that did not belong anywhere near a funeral.

A gust of wind slipped through the hallway, nudging the half-closed door open just a crack more.

Inside, the two of them were completely lost in each other, unaware of anything else. Nancy's black mourning dress had long since been tossed aside. Her bare body pressed against the dark fabric, the contrast so sharp it felt almost mocking.

My fists clenched as I stared at the scene, my eyes burning. For a moment, I thought I might explode.

However, in the end, I gritted my teeth and turned away.

When I returned to the memorial hall, everything I had been holding in spilled out all at once.

At the front, my mother lay quietly in her coffin, as if she were only asleep.

My throat tightened, and my vision blurred. It felt like my heart was being torn apart, piece by piece.

Not far away, my son, Calvin Lawson, sat with his phone, yelling into his headset, "Go! Hurry up, you idiot!"

I strode over and snatched the phone right out of his hands.

"Who said you could play games right now? Your grandmother just passed away. Do you understand that? She's never coming back!"

Calvin froze for a second. Then, his expression twisted, and he snapped back at me, full of annoyance, "So what if she's dead? That old lady was always nagging me. It's better this way!"

I went completely still.

I could not believe those words had come out of my own son’s mouth. My hands shook as I grabbed him and brought my hand down hard on him.

His cries exploded through the entire hall.

The next second, someone rushed in and slammed into me, knocking me aside as they pulled Calvin into their arms.

"Calvin, are you okay? Let me see if you're hurt!" Gilbert's face was full of concern as he checked him over.

Nancy came running out right after, pointing at me as she shouted, "Joshua! He's just a child. Do you really have to be this harsh?"

"Ms. Cooper is right," Gilbert said calmly, looking straight at me. "Mr. Lawson, what you just did is considered child abuse. I could call the police right now."