Flood Disaster Uncovers His Cold Bias

A catastrophic flood hit my hometown, trapping my parents on the second floor of their old house. I begged my husband to let me take the inflatable raft from his company’s equipment room. He sneered. "You're a professional swim coach. Can't you just swim through six feet of water? If you ruin an expensive raft, are you going to pay for it?" As I put on my waterproof gear, I overheard him on the phone in his study. "I’m bringing the jet ski over right now. Tell your parents to come down to the second floor and wait. Lives are on the line, so don't stand on ceremony with me. If it gets damaged, it’s on my tab." That call was for the widow of his late best friend. Her parents lived on the twelfth floor of a high-rise, far above any rising water. I froze at the doorway, my fingernails digging deep into my palms. Seeing me fully geared up without crying or throwing a tantrum, my husband nodded in approval. "That's more like it. They're your parents. Who else should be responsible for them if not you?" I nodded calmly. Watching him grab the jet ski keys and walk out the door, a sudden clarity washed over me. When a heart dies completely, even emotion feels like an unnecessary luxury. I pulled out the divorce papers I had printed long ago and signed my name, stroke by stroke. A hollow marriage where having a husband felt no different from being alone was a life I no longer wanted. 1 Justin came home at midnight. I was curled up on the sofa, my phone lying beside me with two read messages on the screen. My mother had written: Don't worry, Evelyn. We have enough food and water. As long as the flood doesn't rise any higher, we can hold out. My old classmate, Liam, who worked at the Emergency Management Bureau, had sent: I'm so sorry, Evelyn. All rescue teams have been deployed to the schools and high-risk zones. We can't reach your parents right now. You'll have to wait until outside reinforcements arrive. Justin barely cast a glance at me. "Why are you still up?" "My parents are still stuck in the flood zone." "Didn't you swim over to get them?" "My mother can't swim, and my father is paralyzed. I could only help them climb to the neighbor's third floor." "Oh." His tone was as casual as if we were discussing the weather. Taking off his shoes, he walked into the living room and slumped heavily onto the sofa. I looked at him as he stared down at his phone. Suddenly, my mind flashed back to earlier today. Typhoon Maysak had slammed into our county, triggering torrential rain. At noon, my mother called me in panic. "The flood reached the edge of the village at noon. Within an hour, it rose over twelve feet. The entire first floor is under water." My mind went wild with fear. I begged Justin for a piece of water rescue gear from his firm. I told him, "Justin, if a motorboat is too much to ask, what about an inflatable raft? It costs barely a hundred bucks. Saving lives is what matters." He scoffed. "Evelyn, can you be rational for once? A hundred bucks is a chunk of our monthly grocery budget." We dated for five months and had been married for two years. Justin had always been like this. Every household expense was calculated down to the last penny. When I asked him why he had to be so stingy, he claimed every cent had to be spent where it counted most. Yet he turned around and drove his company's most expensive jet ski straight to Serena. It turned out he didn't hate spending money. He just hated spending it on me. I thought my heart was already numb. But after swimming for six exhausting hours to get back home, seeing his complete indifference made my chest ache as if my heart were being crushed to pieces. Justin finished scrolling through his phone, and his eyes finally landed on the papers on the table. "What's this?" "Divorce papers." "Evelyn, so your quiet act was just setting up for this drama?" I calmly pushed the signed document toward him. "I've already signed it." He didn't touch it. He just stared at the signature for a long time. "Earlier this year, you asked me to take time off to take your parents to the hospital. I refused, and you went back to stay with them for a month." "Last month, you said you were ovulating, but I was busy and didn't cooperate, so you banished me to the guest room for a week." "And now, just because I didn't give you a hundred-dollar raft, you want a divorce?" He wasn't wrong about those events. Because my stay at my parents' house forced him to come apologize, he developed a deep resentment toward them. Because I made him sleep in the guest room, he caught a mild cold and told everyone I was a nightmare to live with. Later, I saw on Serena's social media feed that while my parents were sick, Justin was taking Serena's parents for a comprehensive medical checkup. While I was ovulating, Serena caught a cold, and Justin stayed at her apartment for an entire week to nurse her back to health. Justin sneered. "Evelyn, I pinch pennies to build a future for us. Can't you be a little more understanding?" I unlocked my phone, opened a text message, and slid it toward him. The notification read: System Alert: Routine maintenance identified damage to Jet Ski #005. Per contract terms, a repair fee of $1,500 has been deducted from your registered card. I looked into his eyes. "Fifteen hundred dollars for a single jet ski ride. Is this what you call pinching pennies?" "You changed the notification number on my bank account?" His immediate reaction wasn't to explain the fifteen hundred dollars. It was to interrogate me on why I dared look at his financial statements. 2 Looking at Justin's defensive face, a wave of regret washed over me. I should have handed him these divorce papers much sooner. He slammed his finger onto the document. "Greg was my brother! He died, and Serena is all alone in this city with no family or friends! What is wrong with me spending a little money to help her?" "Don't you feel selfish?" I met his glare. "Justin, you're helping another man's woman." "The people you are abandoning are the ones who called you son for two whole years." He choked on his words, his tone finally softening a bit. "I didn't say I wouldn't help." "It's just that you're a swim coach. You can handle six feet of water easily. Why waste money on an expensive tool?" He leaned in, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Alright, stop being angry." "Serena is different from you." "She just lost her husband. She can't handle losing another family member right now." Perhaps realizing how terrible that sounded, he quickly added, "Tell you what. The warehouse has a batch of clearance inflatable rafts. I'll get you one." "But your parents need to transfer me that hundred bucks right now." A bitter laugh escaped my lips. So his agreement to help was still contingent on my parents paying him upfront. He wanted to exchange a defective piece of junk that should have been written off for a hundred dollars in cash from my parents. And he expected me to view it as an act of grand generosity. I pushed myself up from the sofa, leaning on the armrest. "Just sign it. We'll go to the courthouse tomorrow morning." Justin frowned, examining me as if I were throwing an unreasonable tantrum. "Do you really have to be this stubborn?" "I keep my professional and personal life separate. Asking your parents to transfer a hundred bucks for a life-saving raft is making things difficult for you?" Losing his patience entirely, he stood up. "If you insist on turning a minor detail into a divorce, there's nothing I can do." "But Evelyn, I'm the only person in this whole county who can get you a raft right now." "If you don't agree to my terms, what happens if your parents drown?" Those words were spoken casually, yet they cut deeper than any insult he had hurled before. My fists clenched tight, fingernails cutting into my skin. "I will take full responsibility for my own parents." My response thoroughly enraged him. "Fine. You think you're so capable." "You'd better not come back crawling and begging me for help." I turned and walked toward the bedroom. The moment the door shut behind me, Justin's phone rang in the living room. I couldn't hear who was on the other end, but his voice softened into a gentle murmur. "Don't worry, I'm taking them to the emergency clinic right away." "Don't stand on ceremony with me. If the jet ski breaks, I'll just grab another one." "I'll cover all the damages myself." A sharp, agonizing pain suddenly tore through my lower abdomen, forcing me to double over. I slid down against the doorboard, sitting cold on the floor. My phone lit up with a text notification from the local clinic. Ms. Vance, due to the flood disaster, our staff was short-handed, and your blood work results were delayed. As you suspected, you are currently ten weeks pregnant. I stared at the glowing words. A single tear fell, hitting the glass screen. 3 Justin didn't come home all night. I sat on the sofa from four in the morning until nine, calling him twenty times. He didn't answer a single one. It wasn't until half-past nine that he sent a quick voice message. "I'm swamped at work and can't step away. If you really want a divorce, go file a lawsuit." I locked my phone. Half the day was already wasted. I immediately changed into my waterproof suit. Before leaving, I called my mother. She told me the floodwaters were still rising, but they had enough food and clean water to hold out for two more days. I called Liam next. He told me the local rescue teams were prioritizing schools, leaving residential areas for later shifts. "Rain fell all night, and the inland flooding near your parents' village is getting severe. The longer it drags on, the more dangerous it gets." "Where can I buy a rescue raft?" I asked urgently. "The county government requisitioned all commercial gear, but some vendors might have kept a couple for personal use. Let me check around for you." I thanked him profusely. After hanging up, I stood on the balcony, looking out at the county town submerged in murky, raging water. The anxiety in my chest reached a boiling point. My phone chimed with a social media update. It was a new post from Serena. A candid photo showed Serena in a white dress, leaning weakly against Justin's shoulder. Justin was holding her, his eyes filled with intense worry and comfort, an expression I had never seen on his face in all our years together. The next two photos showed a jet ski. One was taken inside her residential complex, and the other showed them arriving at the hospital emergency entrance. Her caption read: When I felt completely isolated and helpless, I was lucky to have his unconditional support. A mutual friend commented underneath: Justin is so good to you! Rescue gear is so scarce right now, yet he used two different jet skis in a single day to move your family. That must have cost a fortune! Serena replied: Don't talk nonsense. He's just being a loyal friend. The friend instantly shot back: Justin might be loyal, but everyone knows how tight he is with money. Anyone can see you matter way more to him than his own wife does. I stared at that comment, a chilling numbness spreading through my chest. My phone rang again. It was Liam. "I tracked down a vendor who has an inflatable raft, but a model that usually costs fifty bucks is marked up to five hundred right now." I didn't hesitate. "I'll take it. I need it right now." Hearing my absolute tone, Liam paused for a few seconds. "At that price, it might be a low-quality knockoff. Are you sure?" "As long as it can pull my parents out of that water." I added softly, "Liam, I have no other choice." After he sent me the address, I headed downstairs. The water inside the residential complex had already risen to waist height. Near the main gate, I ran right into Justin. He was riding a high-powered jet ski, cutting through the waves with an energized expression, holding a sheet of paper in his hand. "I managed to get approval from the company for an inflatable raft. I can sell it to your parents at wholesale price." "However, it's a clearance item, so the company takes no responsibility once it leaves the warehouse." He reached out, trying to hand me a receipt. "Sign this receipt on their behalf first. You can transfer the money to me later." I stared at the paper, refusing to touch it. He tossed it straight into my lap. "I'm a man of strict principle." "Compromising this much for you is already incredibly generous. Don't be ungrateful." Without another word, he revved the engine and sped off into the floodwaters. I looked down at the receipt, picked it up, and let the murky water sweep it away. 4 My phone rang again. Liam's voice was shaking with panic. "Evelyn! A section of the upstream dam just breached! A massive surge of floodwater is heading straight for the downstream villages!" My legs went completely weak. I had to grab a streetlight pole to keep from collapsing into the water. It took me three grueling hours to pull my parents out of the flooded village. The raft I bought was small, its buoyancy barely holding us afloat. Underwater currents whirled with debris. Suddenly, a massive surge hit us, causing the boat to tilt violently. My mother gripped the rubber edge tightly, her face pale. "Evelyn! The boat can't take all three of us! Put me down and let me wait for a secondary team!" "You can't swim! Stepping into this water means death!" I yelled back. My mother wanted to argue, but sheer terror locked her throat. I tightened my life vest and plunged straight into the freezing water. Using one arm to grip the raft and the other to kick and push, I dragged them forward through the torrent. Four hours later, we finally reached dry ground. The moment my feet touched solid earth, I collapsed onto the concrete, gasping for air. Liam pushed through the crowd, running toward me. "Why were you pulling them yourself?!" I managed a faint murmur. "My... husband..." I fell silent. The embarrassment at that moment cut deeper than needles. A hollow marriage where having a husband was no different from being a widow. "Your mother has a high fever, and your father's bedsores are severely infected," Liam said urgently. "Paramedics just loaded them onto a transport." My heart dropped. "They were fine an hour ago!" "Your mom confessed they were already feeling terrible last night, but they hid it because they didn't want you to panic." I forced myself up to follow the gurney, but a sharp, tearing pain in my lower abdomen made cold sweat drench my back instantly. That night, I went back to our apartment to grab essential supplies for my parents' hospital stay. Pushing the door open, the sound of a woman's laughter drifted from the dining room. Serena was sitting at the table, a steaming bowl of chicken soup in front of her. She was wearing my house slippers. Seeing me, she immediately stood up. "Evelyn, you're back! Come join us!" She reached out affectionately to take my arm, acting for all the world like the mistress of this house. My eyes drifted to the open refrigerator. The free-range chicken my parents had brought from their farm last week was gone. I had wanted to make soup with it back then, but Justin had stopped me. "Our anniversary is at the end of the month. Instead of spending extra money on meat then, let me save this chicken for that special day." Now, that very chicken was sitting in Serena's bowl. Justin emerged from the kitchen, tying off his apron and frowning at me. "Why didn't you call before coming back?" "Do I need to report to you before entering my own home?" The smile froze on Serena's face. Justin removed his apron, his voice cold. "Your parents were frightened by the flood, and Serena has been too anxious to eat anything for two days. I brought her here to make her something easy on her stomach." My parents had nearly drowned in the flood zone, sick and feverish, yet he hadn't asked a single question about them. Instead, he was at home simmering chicken soup for another woman's stomach. Serena put on an expression of deep guilt. "Evelyn, please don't misunderstand." "Ever since Greg passed, I haven't had an appetite. Justin was just worried about me, so he brought me here for a homemade meal." As she spoke, she naturally tucked her hand into Justin's arm, gently nudging him toward me. "Go on, comfort Evelyn." I simply offered a faint, lifeless smile. Turning on my heel, I walked into the bedroom. Justin followed me inside, snatching my packed duffel bag and kicking it across the floor. "Who are you giving that attitude to?" "Greg is dead! Serena is gentle and hates asking people for favors! As Greg's sworn brother, what is wrong with me showing her some concern?" I looked him dead in the eye. "Do you have any idea that my parents are in the hospital right now?" He stalled for a second, but his face quickly hardened again. "Can your parents' situation even be compared to hers?" "She is from out of state, completely alone with no family left! Greg is dead, and she has nothing!" "You have me! I cover everything for you!" Cover everything for me? I had a husband, yet I lived like a widow. I picked up the duffel bag and walked past Justin without another word. Two minutes later, a social media notification popped up on my phone. Serena had posted a photo of two beer bottles. The caption read: Someone got upset today, so I'm keeping him company for a drink. For the past two years, I had acted like a pathetic investigator, constantly checking Serena's updates to see what she posted about Justin. Looking at those posts now, my heart didn't feel a single flicker of pain. I pulled out my secondary phone, opened Serena's profile history, and screenshotted every single post she had ever made involving my husband. Then, I forwarded the entire folder to my divorce attorney. 5 My phone vibrated violently as Liam called again. "Evelyn, where are you?!" "The medical supplies at the local clinic were washed away by the flood! The facility isn't equipped to handle this. Your parents need an immediate transfer to the City General Hospital!" My vision went black, and my knees gave out, causing me to crash onto the concrete steps outside. The abdominal cramps came in violent waves, each sharper than the last. By the time I rushed back to the local clinic, it was eleven at night. Liam ran up to meet me, his face pale. "They only have basic cold medicine left here!" "Your mother's fever hit a hundred and four, and your father's back infection is escalating fast. It might not look like an emergency on the surface, but dragging this out will be fatal!" I stared at the inflatable raft parked in the courtyard. The bottom rubber had been torn open by submerged branches during my push through the flood. I had used it to haul my parents three miles from the village to this clinic, wading through the surge for six straight hours. Liam's phone rang. He glanced at the screen, his expression shifting dramatically. "The emergency team needs me at the main dike right now! Evelyn, you have to find a way to transfer them immediately!" "I understand." I knelt down, examining the torn raft over and over. The damaged section was worn thin. I didn't know if it could hold air for another ten minutes. Biting my lip until I tasted blood, I pulled out my phone and dialed Justin's number. The first call went unanswered. The second call rang out. On the twentieth attempt, Justin finally picked up. "What now?!" "I need to transfer my parents to the City General Hospital right now. Let me use the company jet ski. I will pay you two thousand dollars for it!" Justin let out a harsh laugh. "Evelyn, taking money out of our joint account to pay me back? Do you think I'm stupid?" He took a deep breath, his tone turning preachy. "I told you earlier, I could give you a hundred-dollar raft if your parents signed an IOU, but you refused." "Now that raft has been reassigned to someone else, you come crawling back demanding a jet ski?" "Can you act like an adult for once and consider the consequences of your actions?" "Don't expect me to make another compromise for you." I squeezed the phone, trying to keep my voice steady. "Justin, I am your wife. I am the person you are supposed to care about!" "That doesn't mean I have to pay for your childish tantrums," he snapped back, raising his voice. "At first, I told you to swim over and carry them out. You swam over, but you came back alone." "Then I told you to buy a raft for a hundred bucks, and you refused." "I even compromised by letting you write an IOU on their behalf, and you still threw a fit!" Floodwaters were beginning to seep into the clinic's ground floor. My parents desperately needed a transfer to save their lives, yet my husband was busy delivering a lecture on maturity over the phone. I asked softly, "Justin... what if the people in critical condition right now were Serena's parents?" The line fell silent for a second. Then, over the speaker, I heard Serena's tearful voice in the background. "Justin... water is pouring into the clinic! The doctor says we have to transfer my parents to the City General Hospital right away!" Justin's tone transformed instantly, melting into pure urgency. "Don't panic! I'm bringing the jet ski to get them right now!" My hand dropped to my side, fingers clenching into a tight ball. "Justin... you are using the jet ski right now to transport Serena's parents, who are completely uninjured?" He gritted his teeth, speaking as if he were exercising extreme patience with me. "Serena lost her husband! She has no support in this city! As Greg's brother, helping her is the right thing to do!" "I have a husband, yet I live like a widow. Who am I supposed to rely on?" "You're actually cursing me now? You are completely unhinged!" A doctor hurried down the corridor and stopped in front of me. "Ms. Vance! Your father's bedsore infection has turned severe! Any further delay risks septic shock!" "Your mother's fever has been holding at a hundred and four for twenty-four hours! She needs immediate ICU intervention!" On the other end of the line, Justin was still lecturing me: "Fine, if your parents' situation is so urgent, go handle it yourself!" The call disconnected with a sharp click. I stood frozen in the dim corridor, my arm hanging limp. My wedding band slipped from my slender finger, hitting the floor tiles. The crisp metallic clatter sounded like the final curtain call on our two-year marriage. It had finally hit rock bottom. 6 That day, twenty-four-hour rainfall reached a catastrophic twenty-eight inches. The surge swept through the valley, carrying mud and debris in an eight-foot wall of water. I gripped the edge of the damaged raft with one hand, kicking furiously through the current to push it forward. The raft was impossible to control. A sudden, violent wave slammed into us, flipping the rubber craft upside down. I heard my mother scream my name. I reached out frantically through the white water, but a powerful undercurrent swept past, ripping my parents' clothes right out of my grip. "Ms. Vance! Ms. Vance!" Someone was shaking my shoulder vigorously. I forced my heavy eyelids open. A warm sensation spread across my lower body. Looking down, I saw my pants were soaked in dark crimson blood. I tried to sit up, my voice frantic. "My parents... I need to find my parents..." A nurse held me down firmly. "Don't move! You're bleeding heavily!" The doors to the emergency suite swung open, and an exhausted doctor stepped out, removing his surgical mask. "I am so sorry... we did everything we could." "If they had arrived earlier, their conditions were manageable. But being trapped in the flood for three additional hours accelerated systemic failure. Please accept our condolences." The doctor's words hit me like a blunt blade, carving into my bones inch by inch. My vision flared dark, then bright, oscillating violently. "Ms. Vance! Stay with us!" "Don't fall asleep! You need to stay conscious!" "You've lost a significant amount of blood, and the fetal tissue wasn't fully expelled. We need to perform an emergency procedure right now!" The nurse scrambled through my belongings. "What is your husband's name?! I need to call him immediately!" "I don't have a husband." The nurse cast a look of profound pity at me on the gurney. I stared up at the blinding, sterile white lights of the ceiling. As the double doors of the operating room closed, a frantic voice echoed from the main reception hall. "Doctor! Is there a patient named Evelyn Vance here with her parents?!" "Who are you?" "I'm her husband!" "Are you joking?! She was pulled from the flood after wading through it three times alone! She spent over eight hours in that water without a single soul helping her, and you claim to be her husband?!" "Poor woman... she dragged that leaking raft through the torrent, but her parents still drowned." "When they brought her in, she left a trail of blood across the floor. Tragic... that poor baby never even got a chance to see the world." A heavy thud echoed outside. It sounded like something heavy crashing against the floor. I couldn't hear anything after that. As the anesthetic was pushed into my IV line, my entire world dissolved into total darkness. In that flood... I lost my unborn child. And I lost both of my parents.