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Blocking My Husband, I Missed My Father
NovelShort
new
Completed
"Mabel, I called you a hundred and twenty-five times this week. A hundred and twenty-five. You didn't pick up once!" Lee sat in the living room, thick with cigarette smoke, his eyes bloodshot, his jaw unshaven. Those eyes that had always been so gentle and patient with me were fixed on me now, staring like I was a stranger he had a blood feud with.
Chapters (5)
第1章
"Mabel Pruitt, I called you a hundred and twenty-five times this week. A hundred and twenty-five. And you didn't pick up once!"
Lee Gilbert sat in the living room, the air thick with cigarette smoke, his eyes bloodshot, his jaw dark with stubble.
Those eyes that had always looked at me with such patience and tenderness were fixed on me now, like I was a stranger he had a blood debt with.
I looked at the suitcase he'd thrown on the floor.
That nameless anger flared up in an instant, and I flung my bag onto the couch, out of patience.
"Lee, how long are you going to keep this up?
So I went to Miami with my best guy friend Rudolph Dickerson for a few days to clear my head. So what?
You had to make up a lie like this to trip me up? A hundred-plus calls? Are you paranoid or something?"
Lee didn't come over to soothe me like he always did. He didn't go to the kitchen to bring me warm soup.
He just looked at me coldly, his voice cracked and rough.
"I'm not lying. A week ago your father had a massive heart attack.
I stood watch outside the ICU for five days and five nights.
And while I did, you were posting on your feed from Miami, calling it the freest time of your life."
The air froze. The words I was about to fire back caught in my throat, and my heart skipped half a beat.
Two weeks ago, it was Rudolph's thirtieth birthday.
In that dim booth at the bar, Rudolph swirled the drink in his hand and complained to me, looking lost.
"Mae, don't you think I'm a complete failure?
Thirty years old, I want to go see an exhibit in Miami, I asked everyone in the group chat, and not one person answered me."
I couldn't stand seeing him like that, so deflated. Something tightened in my chest, and I grabbed the glass out of his hand and reassured him.
"What are you talking about? You're amazing. Those women just don't know what they're missing.
Besides, who says you're going alone? I'll go with you!"
Rudolph's eyes lit up in an instant, then dimmed again, and he looked at me, hesitant.
"Really? But... would that block of wood you married actually agree to it?
It's half a month, after all. Just the two of us."
The mention of Lee set my nerves on edge.
Three years married, and Lee was like a glass of plain water. Ordinary background, ordinary job, and a personality that was dull and joyless on top of it.
Every day it was work, then home to cook, and you couldn't beat a word out of him if you tried.
If it hadn't been for how honest he was, how he gave me whatever I wanted, and the fact that he was an orphan with no mother-in-law to fight with, I never would have married him.
"Why bring him up? In this house, I call the shots."
I set the glass down hard on the table and clapped Rudolph on the shoulder.
"What does it matter whether he agrees? I'm informing him, not asking his opinion.
What's between us is pure friendship. If he dares to think anything else, that's his own dirty heart, his own filthy mind."
Rudolph broke into a smile and reached out to pinch my cheek fondly.
"Mae's still the best to me.
Then it's settled. These fifteen days, I'm going to have the time of my life, and you should relax too."
It was already eleven at night when I got home.
Lee was still sitting on the living room couch, a glass of water gone cold in front of him.
He saw me come in and stood up, his brows drawing together.
"Why are you back so late?
Dad wasn't feeling well today. He just called me, said his chest felt tight.
I was thinking I'd take him to the hospital tomorrow for a full checkup."
I changed my shoes impatiently, not even sparing him a glance, brushing him off.
"If his chest feels tight, he can take some fast-acting heart pills. People get sick. What's the big deal?"
"Oh, right, I need to tell you something. Next week I'm going to Miami, about half a month, to celebrate Rudolph's birthday with him."
Lee froze for a second. His face darkened instantly, and his tone turned serious.
"Mabel, have you lost your mind?
You're a married woman. Going abroad alone with some grown man for half a month?
Do you have any sense of boundaries at all?"
"And I just told you, Dad isn't feeling well.
I have to travel out of town next week for a big project, I really can't get away.
Can you please just stay home and take Dad to the hospital for a checkup?"
Hearing that, the anger inside me shot straight up.
I decided Lee was just making excuses to control me, that he was jealous of what I had with Rudolph.
I slammed the water bottle down on the table and jabbed a finger at his face.
"Lee, what are you trying to say?
Rudolph is my best friend. There's nothing between us, we're clean!
How does it come out of your mouth sounding so filthy?"
Lee drew in a deep breath, fighting to hold his temper down, trying to reason with me.
"I'm filthy?
A man and a woman, alone, in a foreign country, eating and living together for fifteen days. What am I supposed to think?
Mabel, that's your own father!
He's not well. Can't you stay for his sake?"
"Quit using my dad as a shield! You know what, don't go on your trip either. You just don't want me to go!
My dad's perfectly healthy. He was out at the park playing chess two days ago!
How is it that the second I want to leave, he gets sick?"
The more I talked, the more worked up I got, and I screamed whatever came out.
"Lee, you're so selfish!
You'll even tell a lie like this just to keep your wife tied to your belt!"
Lee finally snapped. He grabbed the glass off the table and hurled it to the floor.
There was a deafening crash.
Shards flew everywhere, a piece slicing across my shin, and blood welled up at once.
I stared at Lee in disbelief.
In three years of marriage, this was the first time he'd lost his temper and thrown something.
I clamped a hand over the cut and gave a cold laugh.
"Oh, nice, Lee. You've got the nerve to smash a glass? You've got the nerve to hurt me?
Fine, you've got a spine. This trip to Miami, I'm going for sure. Nobody's stopping me!"
第2章
I spun around, stormed into the bedroom, and locked the door behind me.
Out of sight, out of mind. That was the whole point.
I took out my phone and blocked Lee's number and his messages, all of it.
Then I thought about it a moment. Afraid he'd send my parents to talk me around, I blocked their contacts too, for now.
In that moment, I felt like I was the coolest person alive.
Finally free of this suffocating house, free of this control-freak of a man.
Early the next morning I packed my bags and flew to Miami.
The Miami sun was strong, the sea breeze soft and easy.
Rudolph and I stayed at a five-star hotel in South Beach.
We booked two rooms, but during the day we were practically inseparable.
We screamed our heads off at Universal Studios, swam in the infinity pool, ate a pork rib stew.
Rudolph was good with a camera. Every shot he took of me looked gorgeous.
I posted the photos to my social media feed with the caption:
"Out of the cage, into freedom. This is what life is supposed to look like."
I'd hidden the posts from Lee, and from every relative in the family.
The only person I forgot to block was the friend Rudolph and I had in common: my cousin.
But I didn't care. I was lost in that make-believe happiness.
While I was clinking glasses in a foreign country, I had no idea everything back home had already been turned upside down.
The seventh night after I left.
My father was at home watching TV when he suddenly clutched his chest and pitched forward onto the couch.
My mother was terrified, her hands shaking so badly she could barely dial 911.
She finally got through and got my father to the hospital.
The doctors said it was a massive acute heart attack. His condition was critical.
He needed surgery immediately, and it required an immediate family member's signature.
My mother called me, crying. Once, twice, ten times.
Every time: "Sorry, the number you have dialed cannot be reached."
She messaged me, and got nothing but red exclamation marks.
My mother lost all hope. She sank to the floor in the hospital hallway, sobbing.
The nurse kept pushing for the signature, and she came apart completely.
With no other choice, she called Lee, her hands trembling.
At that moment, Lee was in the next city over, hundreds of miles away, closing a deal.
It was a major contract he'd chased for half a year. Sign it, and this year's bonus was guaranteed.
But the moment he took that call, Lee didn't say a word. He bolted out of the conference room without signing the contract, without so much as an explanation to the client.
He drove four hours flat out on the highway through a night of pouring rain, and made it back to the hospital in the city.
By then my father had already been moved into the intensive care ICU.
The daily costs ran like water. Lee maxed out three credit cards, then swallowed his pride and borrowed two hundred thousand from a friend to cover the surgery and the hospital bills.
He kept vigil outside the ICU for five days and five nights straight.
Comforting my collapsing mother with one hand, dealing with the relatives who came to visit with the other.
The relatives asked, "Where's Mabel? Her own father's dying, and where's his daughter?"
All Lee could do, eyes rimmed red, was cover for me: "She's overseas on business, cut off from contact. Can't be reached."
第3章
But a lie was still a lie.
Rudolph had posted on his social media feed—a close, intimate shot of the two of us in the infinity pool.
I was in a bikini, leaning against his shoulder, laughing until I shook, with the caption: "Being there is the most enduring kind of love."
My cousin saw it and screenshotted it straight into the family group chat, demanding:
"So this is the so-called cut-off business trip? Uncle's in the ICU fighting for his life, and she's off in Miami swimming with some other man?"
In that moment, every word Lee had said in my defense turned into a colossal joke.
He was standing in the hospital corridor, staring at that photo, the knuckles gripping his phone gone white.
The accusations and the sneers from the relatives around him landed on his face like slaps.
He called me for the hundred and twenty-fifth time, and got the same cold recorded message.
Fifteen days later, I came home fully content.
I pushed open the door expecting Lee to be the way he always was.
Either cooking in the kitchen, or sulking on the couch, waiting for me to coax him a little until it was fine again.
But the apartment was cold and empty, no smell of cooking, only a faint musty odor.
Lee sat on the couch, an ashtray at his feet, piled full of cigarette butts.
He had never smoked before.
He saw me come in and didn't get up, didn't speak, just looked at me with a gaze that was dead as stone.
The way he stared made my skin crawl, and to cover the guilt, I struck first:
"What are you looking at? Why is the place such a mess? Haven't you cleaned this whole half a month? Reeking of smoke, it's disgusting!"
Lee stubbed out the cigarette in his hand, his voice frighteningly hoarse:
"Take out your phone. And unblock your husband, and your parents."
He looked half-dead, and though it irritated me, I still pulled out my phone:
"Fine, I'll unblock them, what's the big deal, acting like you're interrogating a criminal."
I moved their numbers off the blocked list.
The signal had barely come back when the phone started vibrating like mad, the buzz-buzz-buzz cutting through the quiet living room.
It buzzed for two full minutes—hundreds of missed calls, hundreds of messages.
I swiped the screen open carelessly, and my fingers froze.
The missed calls were all from Lee and my mom.
And the last text Lee had sent came a week ago, just one short line:
"Dad had a sudden heart attack, he's in intensive care, the doctor's issued a critical-condition warning, come back now."
My mind went blank, and the phone hit the floor with a crack.
"This… this has to be a lie, right?
Lee, are you cursing my dad just to get me to come back? Have you got any conscience at all?"
第4章
Lee got to his feet and came to stand over me, looking down.
"Mabel, do you think I'd joke about something like this?
For a whole week I slept on the bench outside the ICU. Your mother fainted three times. The doctors issued two critical-condition notices."
"I called you a hundred and twenty-five times.
To tell you your father wanted to see you one last time. To tell you the money had run out and someone needed to sign."
"And you? What were you doing?"
Lee's voice was calm. Frighteningly calm.
"The relatives kept asking me where you'd gone, and like an idiot I covered for you. I told them you were working.
Then those lovely photos of yours showed up in the family group chat, and everyone saw them."
"Saw you off somewhere fooling around with another man while your father hung between life and death."
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but my throat was stuffed with cotton and I couldn't get a single word out.
"I... I didn't know... I'd blocked everyone... I thought you were all just trying to trick me into coming back..."
"Didn't know?"
Lee gave a cold laugh.
"You think a 'didn't know' wipes all of it clean?"
He turned, pulled a stack of invoices from the coffee table drawer, and threw them hard in my face.
"Hospital fees, surgery fees, the ICU. Three hundred and eighty thousand.
Plus the project I lost because I had to come back and deal with this. Twenty thousand in penalties.
Four hundred thousand total. Mabel. Pay it back."
Looking at that cold face of his, the guilt in me suddenly curdled into humiliated fury.
"Money? Lee, are you even human? You're talking to me about money now?
My father is sick. You're his son-in-law. What's wrong with putting up some money? We're husband and wife!
And you're keeping accounts this careful with me?"
Lee looked at me, and the last flicker of light in his eyes went out.
"Husband and wife?
The moment you blocked your family and threw everything away for that man, we stopped being husband and wife."
"Mabel, I borrowed this money. I put it on my credit cards. Now it's your turn.
As for what we are, you know perfectly well."
Lee drove me out. Or rather, I no longer had the face to stay in that home.
I rushed to the hospital, and outside the room I saw my father lying in the bed, tubes running into him, gone gaunt and shrunken,
and my mother, looking ten years older.
The instant she saw me, she said nothing and came at me with a slap.
The crack of it left my ear ringing.
"You still have the nerve to come back? Your father nearly died!
If it weren't for Lee, the two of us would've died in this hospital! Get out! I don't have an ungrateful daughter like you!"
The relatives were all there. My cousin, my aunt, my uncle,
every one of them looking at me with that scorn, that disgust, pointing and muttering.
"What an ungrateful wretch." "Ran off to fool around with some man, doesn't even care about her own father"...
The words drove into my ears like needles.
第5章
I couldn't stand the accusations. I covered my face and ran out of the hospital.
The world was so wide, and there was nowhere for me to go.
Then I thought of Rudolph. Yes, there was still Rudolph. He was my best friend, the one who understood me best, and he would surely take my side.
I took a cab to Rudolph's place. The moment I walked in, I threw myself into his arms and sobbed out everything that had happened.
Rudolph listened, and was quiet for a moment.
Then he poured me a glass of water, his eyes flickering, and started to “break it down” for me.
“Mae, stop crying first. Don't you think there's something strange about all this?”
Rudolph sat down beside me, his face grave.
“Think about it. All you did was block his calls. If Lee really wanted to reach you, doesn't he have my number?
Couldn't he have messaged you through your socials?”
“The hotel we were staying at, our check-ins were all posted online. If he was really desperate, he had a thousand ways to find you.
But he chose to only call. What does that tell you?”
Rudolph gave a cold laugh.
“It tells you he did it on purpose. He deliberately made sure he couldn't reach you, deliberately dragged it out.
He wanted to put on a show of being the devoted son, the one who sacrificed everything,
and then leave you roasting over the fire, saddle you with the name of an ungrateful daughter, turn everyone against you.”
“Mae, this Lee is a scheming man. He's getting his revenge on you.”
Rudolph's words hit like a bolt of lightning, splitting open the chaos in my head.
That was it! Lee had Rudolph's number!
Why hadn't he gone through Rudolph?
Why hadn't he called the police to find me?
He'd done it on purpose!
The guilt turned in an instant into a towering rage, and I shot to my feet.
“Lee! You bastard! You actually schemed against me! I'm going to have it out with him!”
I rushed back home and kicked the front door open.
Lee was in the living room, packing. That was his suitcase. The house was my premarital property, and he was moving out.
Seeing that made me burn hotter. I charged over and kicked his suitcase flying, clothes spilling all over the floor.
“Lee! Quit playing the good guy! You did this on purpose!
You had so many ways to reach me, so why didn't you?”
“You just wanted my dad to die! You wanted me to take the fall! You're just jealous of Rudolph! You wanted to ruin me!”
I screamed it, hysterical, and lunged forward to slap him hard across the face.
Lee didn't dodge. He took it full on, his face knocked to the side.
But he wasn't angry, and he didn't argue back. He just turned his head, and his mouth curved into a smile of pure irony, pure desolation.
That smile sent an inexplicable panic through me.
He asked softly, “Rudolph taught you to say all this, didn't he?”
I froze for a second, then stiffened my neck and shouted,
“So what if he did? The bystander sees clearest! He saw through your scheme in one look!”
Lee nodded, and his eyes went utterly cold.
“Fine. That's just great. Mabel, you really are beyond saving.”
He didn't waste another word. He turned, pulled a manila envelope from under the coffee table, and threw it down hard on the tabletop.
“I was going to leave you a little dignity. We were husband and wife, after all.
But since you don't know what's good for you, since you trust that Rudolph so much, go ahead and open it.”
I looked at that envelope, and a violent unease surged up in me. My hands started shaking and wouldn't stop.
I walked over, picked it up, and worked the string loose.
There were two documents inside.
The first was the 《Divorce Agreement》, already signed with Lee's name, walking away with nothing.
That was what I'd expected. I gave a cold snort. “Fine, let's divorce. Who's afraid of who.”
But when I pulled out the second document, my pupils snapped tight, and the blood in my whole body seemed to freeze solid in an instant.