When He Falsely Accused Me, I Exposed His Betrayal

Mom was in the middle of cooking dinner when she spotted the tiny box in my hand. Her spatula fell to the floor with a loud clatter, and her face drained of every last bit of color, turning as pale as a sheet. Her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she were terribly sad. But I could not understand why, since Elara had told me this was such a nice thing, after all. "Mom? Don't you like it?" I asked, already disappointed. "No," Mom said, forcing a wobbly, strained smile just for me. Then she turned back to cooking, her eyes still red-rimmed. But then I saw it. She dumped the whole jar of salt right into the pot! Dinner was almost ready when Dad walked through the door. He was grinning from ear to ear and held out a bouquet of roses to Mom. "Happy Valentine's Day, honey!" Dad exclaimed. Mom didn't light up like she usually did, her smile never reaching her eyes the way it always did. She just set the roses down on the entryway table in dead silence. Seeing how cold she was, the smile slowly faded from Dad's face. "What's gotten into you now? I bring you a gift and you can't even act happy?" Dad snapped, his voice icy. "Julian Reed... were you with that close female friend of yours again yesterday?" Mom asked softly, her voice already cracking with held-back sobs. Dad's face turned completely frosty. He jabbed a finger right in Mom's face and snarled, "Maeve, can't you stop being so paranoid? I told you a hundred times. Elara and I are completely innocent! She's one of our company's most important clients; I was just talking business with her! Since we got married, am I not even allowed to meet another woman anymore? Plenty of my clients are women! Am I supposed to turn all of them away? How am I supposed to make any money that way? If I don't make money, how am I supposed to support this family? Not to mention your sickly mother, who racks up nearly fourteen thousand dollars in medical bills every single month!" The second the words left his mouth, Dad slammed the front door so hard the walls shook and stormed out. Mom was left all alone, sitting frozen at the dining table, her eyes blank and empty, that little box still clutched tight in her hand. She sat there like that, motionless, until dawn.