Taken to the Hospital

The maids who usually respected me pretended they didn't hear me. All of a sudden, they were deaf.

Zack blew on his nails with disdain, as if some gunk had gotten stuck there. "Guards, tie these bumpkins up and toss them into the snow! Roll them around! Wash the stink off them!"

The maids assaulted us. Diane stood in front of me and her husband. "You better not! Wendy is my—"

Zack shoved her out, and she staggered backward before falling into the snow with a thud. My eyes went wide with rage. I wanted to rush ahead, but a couple of maids pinned me down.

They unceremoniously tied us up, and they made sure the knots were secure. Then, they dragged us into the snow like we were roadkill.

Halton's winter bore witness to heavy snowfall. The layer of snow was thicker than ever before, and with every footstep landing on the ground, a crisp crunch followed.

I was hurled to the ground, and the melted snow seeped into my clothes. The chill drenched into my bones, and I shivered.

Zack stood at the entrance, his smile sardonic. He clapped his hands, and the maids got the message.

They grabbed the snow off the ground and made snowballs. Then they hurled the snowballs at us. The snowballs exploded the moment they came in contact with our skin. The chill seeped in worse than ever.

This was humiliating. It almost felt like I was a toy. I struggled and thrashed around. "Stop! They're Wendy's parents!"

Yet the roaring winds covered my shouts. No one cared about my protests. The snowballs came in hard. They hit my face and whole body. Pain seared from the skin of my cheeks, and I was slowly losing feeling in my body.

George was no longer young, and his health was on the decline. This torture drained what little color he had left, and his lips were turning purple.

Diane could not endure the cold and insult. She kept cursing Zack, and the woman was clearly agitated. Then, her curses came to an abrupt halt.

Her whole face was turning an ugly shade of purplish-green. She was spasming like someone possessed by a demon. Then, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she fainted.

"Diane!" I shouted in horror, and I thrashed wilder than before. I wriggled across the ground, trying to see if Diane was okay.

The maids were scared by the sudden fainting of Diane. They stopped their torture and exchanged worried looks.

I broke free of the binds and crawled over to Diane. I called out to her over and over, but her breathing was only getting weaker and weaker. She did not look good at all.

Panic seized my chest. I kept asking for the maids' help. I wanted them to call the ambulance, at least. Perhaps Diane's condition spooked some of them, and finally, someone did call us an ambulance.

Zack was still at the entrance. Though he'd witnessed everything, he still smiled with scorn and contempt. He told us imperiously, "You're lucky your mother fell sick. Now get out of my sight. You're dirtying my place!"

…

George was crying silently in his bed. He held my hand so tightly, his knuckles were turning white. His lips were trembling, yet he couldn't say a word.

Something was weighing down my heart, pulling it down. It was clasping its hand around my throat, suffocating me.

I resented and hated Wendy for how heartless she had been. For a moment, I wanted to leave her parents for dead, but only for a moment. I saw the look in George's eyes. It was despair. I couldn't just leave them now.

I must see Wendy and make her do her job as their daughter. And so I made a beeline for her company and smashed into her office, but what I saw froze me in my place.

Wendy sat astride Zack, and she wore nothing but a men's jacket. The collar was wide open.

Their clothes were messy, and so were their hair. The air was thick with the stench of pheromones. The sight of me did not scare Wendy in the slightest. Instead, she smirked at me with disdain.

I had to chomp down on my lip as hard as I could to keep my pain from flowing out. Yet my eyes went red, and tears blurred my sight.

"Oh, what now? Trying to act like you're a loving man again?"

Cheating Whore

"You're working so hard just to get your cards unfrozen?" She got down from Zack slowly before standing right in front of me.

Then she lit up a slender cigarette, took a deep hit, and blew a cloud of smoke into my face. The stench of tobacco choked me, and I coughed violently. She knew I hated the smell of cigarettes. The old her never would've done this.

My fury was rising again, but I tried my best to stay calm. "How many times do I have to tell you, they're your parents? Why won't you even see if it's true?"

"Because you're a compulsive liar. Why should I trust you? For all I know, this is another scheme of yours, so you can scam my money out of me!"

I tossed the notice of critical illness in her face. "Then, look at this closely. Tell me, what's the name that's written on it?"

She didn't even look. The woman stepped on it and slapped me. "What an actor. You came in with props. If you have that much time, learn from Zack. If you please me, I'll give you any money you want. You made the wrong move."

Disgusting. I refused to waste another moment on this useless place, and I turned away.

"Tie him up, Zack!"

Zack sneered and approached me. He grabbed my arm and pinned me against the ground. I thrashed around wildly, but it did not work. "Are you mad, Wendy? What are you doing?"

She slammed her heel into my face, and it nearly pierced my skin. "Where do you think you're going? You want money, don't you? I mean, you'd do anything for cash. Why are you acting like you're a saint now?"

My cheeks were burning, and my blood was screaming. It did not want to suffer this humiliation. "Let me go! Why are you even bringing up the past? It's already bad enough you don't want to save your parents!"

Every single word was a hiss. Every single word was filled with my fury and helplessness.

"You're hopeless! How dare you curse my parents!" She drove her heel in harder, and it left a mark on my face.

My face was getting crushed, and breathing itself took effort. Zack was excited, though. He swung a foot right into my belly. I gasped in pain and curled up like a pillbug. My stomach was churning and groaning.

Wendy, however, only watched coldly. There was no sympathy in her eyes.

"So, why are you keeping him tied up, Wendy?" Zack approached Wendy and started sliding his hands around her body.

Wendy smiled nicely at him and wrapped her arms around Zack's neck. She blew in his ear. "Because I want him to see how you can serve me. If we let him go, he might come back with something that'll annoy me more."

I lay on the ground like a man who had lost all hope. All I could do was listen to their filthy conversation. The only thing that filled my heart was despair and rage.

Their flirting was slowly getting more explicit, and my heart died even more with every passing second. My in-laws were still in the hospital, their fates uncertain, yet I was trapped here in hell.

I regretted taking them to Halton on a whim. If they'd stayed at home, at least they'd have a peaceful Christmas. Yet now they were in the hospital. George was pushed out of his ward and left in the corridor because his bill wasn't paid.

The winds were biting and freezing. A man his age could never handle that. The pain in my belly was throbbing and spreading all across my body. I was going to faint.

And then, Wendy's phone rang. She did not like getting disturbed. Impatient, she picked up her phone and turned on the speaker.

"Wendy…" A weak, panicked voice spoke.

That froze Wendy up. She gasped, "Dad? But why are you calling from an unknown number?"