She Chose Power Over Our Love

e chapel windows. It was a small funeral, smaller than it should

s lower the small casket into the earth. Each tu

wasn't

other of my ch

's assistant. "Sarah... she's just overwhelmed with grief. She c

ome offered their condolences, their words blurring into a meaningless hum. They all had the same pitying look, the same careful phrases. I knew they saw a grieving father,

ce that was louder than any sound. Leo' s toys were still scattered in the living room,

go straight to our bedroom and collapse. Her door

. And a man's.

ouldn't listen. It felt wrong. But something held m

"The board is settled. The launch is scheduled. Zenith Innovat

and business-like, completely devoid of the grief Em

revolutionary. But this... this c

way? Leo's death? The thought was mo

in, and the floor fe

sual confidence in it. "Leo. I never wanted a child. He came along right when we br

my beautiful, brave Leo, was an accident to her. Th

treatment... it would have been months. It would have delayed the launch, jeopardized the funding yo

it happen?" Mark's v

The experimental treatment. It arrived two weeks before he... before the end. I just neve

ural death. It wasn't a rare illness that finally won. It was murder. My wife, my Sarah, had let our son

so thin, his skin pale, but his eyes were still brigh

w. "Mommy is taking me to get the special medicine soon.

promised him. A promise she never intended to keep. The pain in my chest was immense, a physical weight t

ark asked. "Wh

scoff. It

as no ambition. Happy to just tinker in his lab. He thinks his little salary was supporting us? P

enith, believing I was building a future for our family. She saw it as me being a burden. The project

eak. He'll grieve, and he'll move on. He'll prob

s too wrapped up in his own f

eaned against it. The voices inside stop

s were red-rimmed, as if she'd been crying for hours. She loo

d to hug me. "Oh, honey. I'm so sorry.

holding me, pretending to share my grief, was the one who had caused

into my eyes. "Are you

How could I ever look at her again? How could I sleep in

man who held the hammer was pretending to help me sweep