Home / My Son Burned, Now I’m the Scapegoat / Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

All Chapters of My Son Burned, Now I’m the Scapegoat: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

After the kitchen explosion, I rushed to the hospital.However, my wife, Wendy, was nowhere to be found. Every time I called, the automated message said her phone was out of service.My in-laws and I spent the entire night sitting outside the ICU.My son, Cyrus, had burns covering forty percent of his body. He lay inside, hovering between life and death.The doctor said it would be a miracle if he survived. However, even if he did, his beautiful face was gone forever.My mother-in-law’s incessant sobbing drilled into my skull. I buried my face in my hands, gripping my hair as regret tore through me.My wife, Wendy, finally arrived early the next morning.Before I could say a word, she started beating me.She told me she had spent the entire night at the police station.The fire department had released its preliminary findings. The cause was a gas leak in the kitchen that ignited, causing a flash fire.She pointed at me. She looked at me like I was her sworn enemy, not her hus

Chapter 2

From that day on, our lives fell into a strange routine.During the day, I ran myself ragged, taking care of Cyrus, cooking, cleaning, doing whatever needed to be done.Wendy shut herself in her room. She only came out for meals, ate in silence, then disappeared back behind the door.At night, after Cyrus was asleep, I would sit alone in the living room, smoking one cigarette after another.I devoted myself entirely to the family.I thought that if I gave enough, sacrificed enough, maybe someday I could finally atone for what I had done.However, I was wrong.In Wendy’s eyes, my attempts at redemption were nothing but a joke.She began tormenting me in increasingly cruel ways.Sometimes, she would storm out of her room in the middle of the night, knock the ashtray off the table and scream at me for daring to smoke.Other times, when I was not looking, she would dump Cyrus’s medication down the drain. Then she would stand there coldly and watch me tear the house apart looking

Chapter 3

The air reeked of death.Panic ripped through me. I tried to bolt upright, but my body would not move.“Wendy, what the hell are you doing?!” My voice shook with terror.She said nothing, her face blank as she continued pouring gasoline over me. The cold gasoline soaked through my clothes and clung to my skin, making me shiver uncontrollably.When she was done, she tossed the empty gas can aside.Then she pulled a lighter from her pocket.Click.A tiny flame flickered in the darkness, casting an eerie glow across her expressionless face. She looked terrifying.“Now we’ll be even.” She finally spoke, but her voice was frighteningly calm.“This is how you pay your debt to Cyrus…”I stared at the flame, my mind completely blank.Was I really going to die? By my own wife’s hands?“No… please…” The words barely escaped my throat.She looked at the terror on my face. Then, somehow, she smiled.That smile was more terrifying than anything I had ever seen.She raised the light

Chapter 4

I let them talk me into it.I decided to endure a little longer.It was for Cyrus, and for myself.I bought a ton of groceries and headed back to the house that made me feel like I was suffocating.I thought maybe, if Wendy and I could sit down and really talk, there was still a chance to fix things.However, the moment I reached the building, I spotted a familiar black BMW parked by the curb.I recognized the license plate.It belonged to Jacob Fields, a former coworker of mine.He came from a wealthy family and had always been shamelessly attentive to Wendy back when we worked together.My heart sank.What was he doing here late at night?I instinctively ducked behind a tree.A few minutes later, a woman walked out of the apartment building and got into the BMW.She was wearing a hat and a mask, but I recognized her instantly.It was Wendy.The car pulled away.I stood there frozen, the grocery bag slipping from my hand. Vegetables and fruit spilled across the pavemen

Chapter 5

“When will the insurance money come through?” asked Wendy.“Soon.” Jacob’s voice was gentle.“I’ve already pulled some strings to speed things up. Two weeks at most.“Once the money comes through, we’ll leave this place and go abroad. No one will ever be able to bother us again.”“Okay.” Wendy’s voice was filled with anticipation.“What about Caleb? I think he’s starting to suspect something. He keeps asking questions.”“He’s a nobody. What’s there to worry about?” scoffed Jacob.“Once we get the money, just find an excuse to divorce him. With his reputation already in the gutter and his son’s face ruined, he’ll be desperate to get rid of you.”“I still have a bad feeling about this.”“Relax. Everything is going exactly according to plan. I covered my tracks perfectly when I started that fire. There’s no way the fire department will figure it out. Everyone already thinks it was Caleb’s fault. He’ll be carrying that blame for the rest of his life.”That was all I could take.

Chapter 6

Wendy started pushing for a divorce.She had a perfectly reasonable excuse ready. “Caleb, we both know there's no going back for us. Let’s end things peacefully for Cyrus’s sake. I don't want a penny of the money. You and Cyrus can have it all. Think of it as the last thing I can do to make up for everything.”She delivered every word with perfect emotion, even squeezing out a few crocodile tears.If I had not known the truth, I might actually have been moved.I put on a convincing display of heartbreak and dragged out the argument for as long as I could.In the end, I pretended to give in.We agreed to go to the civil affairs office the next morning and make the divorce official.That night, Wendy offered to cook me one last dinner.“Think of it as our farewell meal,” she said with a smile.I watched her disappear into the kitchen. I already knew this was not going to be a farewell dinner. It was a trap.Sure enough, the soup she brought out had been laced with sleeping pill

Chapter 7

Jacob was handcuffed, but he was still struggling, spitting curses as the officers dragged him away.“Wendy! You b*tch! This is all your fault! If it weren’t for you, I would have never ended up like this!”Wendy, meanwhile, sat motionless on the floor. Her eyes were empty, her expression vacant, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.Perhaps even now, she could not understand where her supposedly flawless plan had gone wrong.I walked over and crouched in front of her, meeting her hollow gaze.“Are you wondering how I found out?”She slowly raised her head. Her eyes were bloodshot.“The moment you poured gasoline over me, I stopped believing a word you said. A mother who truly loves her child wouldn’t use her child’s suffering as an excuse to punish her husband.“That was never about Cyrus. It was about your own resentment. You never truly loved Cyrus. You only loved yourself, and money.”Wendy’s entire body began to tremble.She tried to argue, but not a single word came

Chapter 8

Six months later, I received the court’s verdict.Jacob was convicted of attempted murder, arson and insurance fraud. With the charges combined, he was sentenced to life in prison.Wendy, as his accomplice, was sentenced to twenty years.When I read the verdict, I felt no satisfaction, only an overwhelming sense of sorrow.Two lives had been destroyed, and mine had been destroyed along with them.My parents urged me to move on and find someone else.“You’re still young. You have your whole life ahead of you.”I shook my head.My heart had already gone cold. There was no room left in it for anyone else.My world had been reduced to Cyrus.The days passed, one after another.Slowly, Cyrus began to recover. The scars on his face were still impossible to ignore, but he could walk on his own now and speak a few simple words.He was remarkably well-behaved. He never cried, never threw tantrums, but he never smiled, either.He became painfully self-conscious and withdrawn. He avo

Chapter 9

I took Cyrus to the best hospital I could find and had him undergo his first skin graft.The surgery was a success.Even though there was still a long road ahead, I could finally see a way forward for the first time.The day we were discharged, the sun was shining bright.Cyrus sat in the back seat, watching the scenery blur past the window.Then he suddenly turned to me and said, “Dad, I want an ice cream.”I was startled for a moment.It was the first time since the fire that he had asked me for something.I pulled over, jumped out of the car, and ran several blocks to find him the biggest, prettiest strawberry ice cream I could.He took small, careful licks, and a smile slowly spread across his face — a smile I had not seen in so long.It was like a ray of light breaking through the darkness that had swallowed my world.I looked at him, my eyes stinging with tears. At that moment, I almost broke down.I knew then that, little by little, we were both going to be okay.Y

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