Husband Lost the Game and Killed My Mother

I met Tom in high school.

I was the obedient class monitor, while he was the troublemaker. He always sat in the back row.

We were destined to never interact with each other, I found him in an alley, beaten and covered in blood.

I was terrified but my sense of responsibility as a class monitor and inexplicable sense of justice pushed me to call an ambulance.

When I visited him in the hospital, Tom was lying on the bed with a scowl on his face. He was cold and ungrateful, even when he thanked me for my help.

I did not dare to get involved with him, so I just nodded and rushed home.

After that, me and Tom kept our relationship strictly as classmates, but something changed in him. Whenever I enforced class discipline, he would fall silent and his group of friends followed suit. Yet, we kept a quiet, unspoken distance.

Then, one day, I was cornered by a group of thugs on my way home from school. They knew I had helped Tom and wanted to punish me for it.

I had never encountered something like that before, I was panicked, unsure of what to do and ran.

In the end, it was like a clichéd story that Tom showed up out of nowhere to save me.

Well, actually it was not like that. Tom shielded me while I called the police.

That night, after giving our statements, my mom insisted on bringing Tom to our home to thank him.

Tom’s parents had died in a plane crash when he was in high school, which was partly the reason he had become so rebellious. When my mom found out, she doted on him like he was her own son.

At the dinner table, she piled his bowl with so much food and that was the first time I saw him so nervous. Two piled of foods later, Tom finally finished eating. He had never eaten so much food that by the time he left, he was sweating.

The next day, he showed up outside my apartment, riding an old bicycle. I was surprised to see him, but he just said, “Those guys from yesterday won’t let this matter go.”

I didn’t fully understand the gang dynamics, but I didn’t want to relive the nightmare either.

From that moment, I took the bus to school while he rode his bike behind the bus to make sure I was safe. After school, he would follow me home and only leave once I was inside.

My mother noticed his concern, so she purposedly waited for us to arrive and invited him over for dinner regularly. At first, he was reluctant, but eventually, he gave in and even helped with housework.

He washed dishes, moped the floor and repaired the furniture. Sometimes, if my mother was late from work, he would make one or two dishes for us.

One day, Tom was sent to the hospital again, so I rushed out to visit him. When I arrived, he was getting stitches. He only winced in pain but it was obvious that he was trying to look tough.

Seeing him like this made me cry in distress.

Tom gently patted my head and said, "Natalie, I'm done with this kind of life. I want to go to a good university with you."

I nodded and something shifted inside me. At this very moment, a tiny seed of affection for him began to grow.

Senior year was tough. Tom and I were on completely different academic levels, but I tutored him and he studied hard.

Everyone noticed how much he had changed and I felt proud like his transformation was a secret shared only between us.

His academic was not as high as mine, so he could not attend the same university as me, but he found a way to study in the same city.

There were moments when I tried to show him how I felt, but Tom always kept his distance. He kept disappearing for a long time. I even started to think he had a girlfriend.

Then, on my birthday, he took me to a small studio, knelt down on one knee and confessed his love to me.

Years later, he told me that he had to establish his career first, so I would not suffer with him. Only then did he feel worthy of loving me.

His business thrived and although he was busy, he always made time for me and called my mom often.

My mom loved him like a son and he treated her as his own mother.

When his company hit a financial crisis, everything was in chaos. I started working part-time, saving every penny, even avoiding small luxuries like buying myself a cup of milk tea.

In the end, it was my mom who gave Tom her entire life savings with no strings attached. After that, she was constantly on edge, afraid that another crisis would strike our family. She did not want something like that to ever happen again. That was why she could not bear to spend money, even on a plane ticket.

Tom had always been good. Me and him worked hand in hand to overcome many difficulties. Finally, we got married.

After married, he did not change. He took good care of me and my mother and I became the envy of our friends.

However, everything changed when Ava appeared in our life.

Ava and Tom were childhood friends. Before Tom's parents died in the accident, Ava moved abroad with her parents.

When she came back from abroad and found out that Tom opened a company, although she had an excellent resume, she refused to work somewhere else and chose to become Tom's little secretary.

Gradually, Tom did not return home and preferred to stay in big hotels. Whenever I questioned his whereabout, he used work as an excuse.

I had been through so much with him and loved him. I was determined to stay in love with him.

Although I had a vague sense of crisis, I did not dare to think about it. I had spent all my youth with Tom.

If he really lost his love for me, this family would fall apart and I would be torn apart. So, I chose to deceive myself and others.

Until my mother died because of Tom's careless joke. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The cloth of shame finally lifted and my love for Tom was exposed in the scorching sun, not allowing me to escape.

With my mom's remains turned into ashes, my love for Tom also turned into one.