All Chapters of The Scuba Tank Was Turned Off: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

I sent over a hundred messages to my wife, Ruth Quarmby. I refused to rest while waiting outside the operating room that held my mother-in-law, Adeline Quarmby.Every call I made to Ruth went unanswered for the entire night.I kept calling her relentlessly.[Something happened to Adeline. Where are you?][The doctor says the situation might be critical. You need to get here now!]When my calls would not go through, I sent texts. All were left unread.My hands trembled. My mother shared the same first name as Ruth’s mother, Adeline. She said, “Zac, this is all my fault! If I hadn’t given my diving spot to Adeline, this wouldn’t have happened.“I was the one who was supposed to pay for this. If anyone should’ve gotten hurt, it should’ve been me.”My mind was a complete mess.To begin with, my mother had just recovered from a serious illness. She had not traveled in over a year.I thought I knew what was best for her. So, I signed her up for Ruth’s diving program. I wanted her t

“Ruth told me everything. Your mom’s always getting sick with one thing or another. You’ve never been able to save any money all these years because of her. Honestly, she should be dead.”I looked at Ruth with a conflicted face when I heard that.“Zac, if you spend money on your mom’s surgery today, we’re getting a divorce.”In that instant, my heart sank.Ruth and I grew up together as childhood sweethearts. All these years, whenever her family had problems, my mother was the one who helped them out.Even my mother’s chronic health problems were because she had risked her life saving Ruth from under a car in the past.“Fine. Let’s get a divorce.”When Craig heard me say that, his eyes lit up.He continued putting up an act.“Zac, Ruth only said that to test you. How can you take it seriously? I really have to question your love for Ruth at this point.”Ruth gave me a cold, sideways glare. “You think you can pressure me by threatening me with a divorce?“Stop wasting my time

Ruth remembered everything. She had liked every single post.For the first post where Craig said he was innocent, she had commented, [Yes, you’re the best! You stood up for me!]For the second post about the toast, she had commented, [Born in the wrong time. If only I could have met you sooner!]Then, there was the third post, which included a chat log between Craig and Ruth.Craig: Ruth, what do I do? I just wanted to play a harmless prank. Nothing ever happened before. Why am I so unlucky today?Ruth: This isn’t on you. If someone has a poor physical condition, why even go diving? If something happens, they only have themselves to blame. But since you turned off Adeline’s scuba tank, I will go all out to protect you.Craig: Ruth, without you, who else would treat me like their own child!Just then, the police officer showed a video snippet.“This is what we retrieved from the suspect’s activity log.“As a family member, I think you have the right to know what happened at the

The person on the other end was pleased and put on a fake, cutesy voice.“Oh, stop it! Why don’t you just reject her then? Why keep stringing her along?”“I’m just playing games with her. You know, one time she got a hotel room and walked up to me in her pajamas. It scared me so much!“Seeing her all shy and giggly like that made me want to throw up. Once I learn the real skills and make a name for myself in the diving world, I’m dumping her!”When Ruth heard this, her face turned pale and then flushed red from embarrassment.“I’m just disappointed in you.”During the year when Craig was involved with Ruth, I watched her attitude change gradually.I chose to endure it to keep our relationship going.But what I got in return was betrayal after betrayal.“It’s not that you didn’t cheat on me because you didn’t want to. It was just that you couldn’t pull it off.“The moment you told me that you’d let my mother die if she was on that operating table, I knew our relationship was o

“Do you really love me? It seems I’m just a dumb, brainless old hag. I was just a convenient tool for you and a wallet you could toss aside whenever you felt like it.“I really want to slap that version of me who fell for your lies. How could I have believed the nonsense that came out of your mouth?”Craig never expected Ruth to have the evidence. After he was exposed, he did not have even the slightest hope left to manipulate her.Ruth looked at Craig and said, “You know what? I leaked all your posts online. The internet is blowing up right now.”He jerked his head up in panic.“Doesn’t that make you just as guilty? If you had stopped me sooner, would I have ended up like this?“Listen, if I go down, you’re not getting off easy either. We’re in this together.“Give me that form declining to press charges right now, or I’ll tell everyone that you told me to do all of this!”Discarding the last bit of tenderness, Ruth looked at him as if she could finally see the hideous nature