Ninety-Nine Apologies

After Melody cheated and returned to the family, I started posting online every day. [Is cheating addictive?] [Just how thrilling is cheating, really?] [When a woman cheats, does she feel worse for her kids or her lover?] … I tagged her school in every post, making sure each one appeared right in front of her students, her colleagues, and even her lover. Everyone told me to stop making such an ugly scene and be the bigger person. Only Melody stood up for me. "I'm the one who did something wrong. It's only fair to let Tony vent a little." That lasted until my 99th post. Then Melody stormed in as if she'd lost her mind and smashed my computer. "Anthony, are you ever going to stop? I already came back. What more do you want from me? How much longer do you have to torture me before you're satisfied?" I didn't answer. I simply washed every pot and plate until they were spotless. Then I smiled at her and asked, "Are you hungry? Want me to make you something to eat?" Chapter 1 Melody Harper froze in place, but her chest still heaved with anger. Her question landed like a punch against a pillow. When she said nothing more, I ignored her and picked up the dress she had taken off. "It's all wrinkled. I'll iron it for you." "Anthony Sorloth!" she called after me, unable to hide the irritation in her voice. "What do you actually want? Would you stop acting crazy? Do you have any idea how much those posts of yours have hurt me? I'm a person too. I get tired too!" My hands went still, and my breathing quickened. "Are you worried about yourself, or about Terrence Layne?" The name hit like a thunderclap and tore open the rift between us. "Why are you bringing up Terrence again? I transferred him to another team ages ago and cut off all contact. You know that, don't you? Is turning all of us into lunatics like you the only thing that will make you happy?" Her voice rose sharply, but the moment she saw how haggard I looked, she faltered. Her anger seemed to drain away. She softened her tone and pulled me into a hug, guilt written across her face. "I'm sorry, honey. I shouldn't have snapped at you. You know how it is. "Being pregnant makes it hard for me to control my emotions. I got carried away. I'll buy you a new computer tomorrow." I recoiled from her touch as if I had brushed against a live wire. I gripped the doorframe and retched again and again. "Don't touch me. You're filthy..." Melody's expression darkened. Her eyes reddened, and her voice trembled. "You think I'm filthy?" She gave me no chance to respond. She grabbed my hand, pinned me against the door, and undid my pants. Then she rose onto her toes and bit my lip. "The doctor said the last three months are fine. Tony, let's—" "Don't touch me! It's disgusting!" I shoved her away with all my strength and crouched on the floor. I scrubbed frantically at every patch of skin she had touched and did not stop even when it turned red and began to sting. The sound of my retching filled the room. "It's too filthy. I need to shower..." Behind me, Melody screamed until her voice went hoarse, "Anthony! Do you hate me that much? What do I have to do for you to forgive me?" I rushed into the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting the cold water pour over me. The door slammed hard enough to rattle the room. I raised my head and stared into the mirror. Tear tracks streaked my pale face. Emotion overwhelmed me all at once. I pressed a hand to my chest and sobbed so hard I could barely breathe. I never imagined we would go from a young couple who took such pride in each other to two people who could barely stand the sight of one another. There had been a time when we could not bear to be apart for even a moment. Now, a single touch was enough to fill me with disgust. I could not forget what had happened. I had tried. I wanted to forget. I wanted to be a forgiving husband. However, I could never get past the fact that she had gotten involved with a student I sponsored while she was pregnant. Even on the day of my father's funeral, they had done those things in our marital bed. My stomach cramped from the stress, as though a knife were twisting through my insides. How could she act as though nothing had happened? How could she be so at ease when I could not do the same? A long time passed before I finally stumbled out of the bathroom. The house had fallen completely silent. Melody sat on the couch, her eyes red-rimmed. "I'm sorry. I lost my head tonight. It's all my fault. I won't do it again—" "It doesn't matter," I cut in. "That's your business." Without waiting for her response, I turned and went back to the bedroom. I lay on the bed and thought of her round belly. Tears soaked into the pillow. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Daddy scared you again when he lost his temper," I muttered. My heavy eyelids slowly closed, and my mind replayed the same thought over and over: what would happen 100 days from now. Once the child was born, I would finally be free. Chapter 2 The stomach pain woke me. My gut twisted and churned so violently that I forced myself out of bed to get some medicine, only to find the bedroom door locked tight from the outside. Fear tightened my chest. I pressed a hand to my stomach and quickly called Melody. "Melody, my stomach's acting up. The bedroom door's locked, and I can't get out. Come home now!" "Tony, today's awards ceremony is important to the school. Don't start something now." Melody's voice was worn thin with exhaustion. "Melody!" A sharp wave of pain tore through me, and I couldn't hold back a cry. "It's real! I think my gastritis is flaring up badly!" "Here we go again!" Melody's voice shot up. "Anthony, are you trying to ruin the ceremony? No wonder you were so calm last night. So this is when you decided to threaten me!" "Melody, I'm not—" I tried to explain, but the relentless pain drained every bit of strength from me. A moment later, I vomited a pool of blood. She was about to say something else when Terrence's voice echoed. "What's wrong, Ms. Harper? Is that man giving you trouble again?" "Maybe you should just go home. You don't need to stay with me..." "Forget him. Work comes first." Melody's voice mingled with the laughter of students in the background. Then the call ended. I steadied my breathing and dialed 911. When I tried to stand, I collapsed into a pool of blood. Tears streamed uncontrollably down my face. … The paramedics arrived quickly. They broke down the door and found me unconscious on the floor. I remained unconscious for an entire day. The doctor said my gastritis had triggered myocarditis. If the paramedics had arrived any later, my life would have been in danger. Melody sat at my bedside and clutched my hand. She cried so hard she could barely speak. "Tony, it's my fault… I'm trash… I was afraid that seeing me onstage with Terrence would set you off... Forgive me, honey… If not for me, then for the baby." The last time she had cried like that was at our wedding. Back then, she had wrapped her arms around my waist, her eyes brimming with tears, and sworn she would love me for the rest of her life. Nothing else had changed. Only we had, and now there was nothing left to save. I could no longer reconcile the woman in front of me with the young, innocent girl in my memories. I stared blankly at the ceiling. For one strange moment, I felt something almost like relief. After everything that had happened, I no longer wanted to force myself to stay with Melody. The sudden ring of a phone cut off her confession. Terrence was calling. As if to prove her loyalty to me, Melody immediately put him on speaker and shouted, "Terrence, stop clinging to me!" Terrence stammered from the other end, "M-Ms. Harper, the results are in. T-The baby you're carrying is mine... I won't cling to you. It's just that, as the mother, you have a right to know." My hand clenched into a fist. I pressed my lips together, but I couldn't stop them from trembling. The baby Melody was carrying was Terrence's?! Melody hurriedly hung up and looked at me, anxiety and shame written across her face. "Tony, this child will only ever know you as its father." A short, bitter laugh escaped me as tears slid down my face. "Melody, let's get a divorce." "I don't want a divorce!" Melody shot to her feet and wrapped her arms tightly around me. "Tony, I love you. Don't say things like that." I wrenched her hands off me and roared, "Then we're going to the OB-GYN right now. I want to watch you get an abortion!" Melody closed her eyes and refused to look at me. "Terry has depression. If I get an abortion now, I'm afraid of what he'll do to himself." "And what about me?" I hurled the water cup at her. "So I'm just supposed to accept that you cheated on me? Raise another man's kid for you? Is that it?" Terrence's voice broke into sobs from the phone. "Ms. Harper, I won't make this hard for you. I'll go kill myself right now..." Melody's face instantly went white. She grabbed her phone and bolted from the hospital room. I watched her disappear through the door without a moment's hesitation. My mother took my hand, her face tight with heartache. "My boy, we're not putting up with this anymore. We're getting this divorce right now. I'll go home and start packing your things." … The next time my mother called, all I heard was her sobbing. Chapter 3 "Tony! Someone Melody sent tore down the house back home! Your father built that house brick by brick! It was the only thing I had left of him!" The words cut through me like a knife, plunging straight into my chest without warning. I broke down. Despite the twisting pain in my chest, I dialed Melody's number with trembling hands. "How dare you have someone tear down my parents' house? My mother has always been so good to you!" Melody's voice was icy. "If I'd been even a second later just now, Terrence would have overdosed on sleeping pills. "Your mother called the school and reported Terrence as the other man in all this. She nearly drove him to kill himself! "Now that the house back home is gone, she might as well move into the city." After nearly ten years of marriage, I understood Melody's meaning at once. She wanted to cut off every option my mother had. She wanted to force my entire family to live right under her watch. "Melody, why don't you go die with him!" I screamed hysterically. She snapped that I was being unreasonable and hung up. I had just fallen critically ill. I hadn't even left my hospital room yet. My mother, shaken by everything that had happened, suffered a heart attack and ended up in the hospital too. Blow after blow left me numb. I opened my phone and published my 100th post. [My wife is pregnant with her lover's child. How do I make them pay?] The post exploded. Within a few hours, it shot to the top of Twitter's trending topics. Comments flooded Melody's Twitter account and tore into her: [Knew she was a piece of trash. The two of them ought to just drop dead!] [What gives a piece of work like her the right to stand in front of a classroom? The school should fire her!] … As I watched the internet rally to my side, I felt a satisfaction I had never known before. At last, something in my chest eased. Then, out of nowhere, a statement appeared on my account. [I'm sorry, everyone. All 100 of these posts were fabricated by me. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused my wife and Terrence.] I tried to log in and delete it, only to discover that someone had changed the password. That was when I remembered that Melody had taken the smashed computer. Right afterward, Melody posted on Twitter. [After I got pregnant, my husband developed delusions. He's constantly imagining something inappropriate going on between me and my student. For his sake, I already transferred Terrence to another team. But he still can't stop himself from posting lies every day. I'll have him come forward and apologize to Terrence. I'm very sorry for wasting everyone's time on this.] I never imagined Melody could stoop this low and twist the truth so completely. Almost instantly, my inbox flooded with abuse. [Sick old man, just go die already! One look at him and you can tell he's the type to spend every day imagining his wife seducing someone else.] [You getting sick is divine retribution, you understand? Trash...] … I was about to fire back when Melody called. "Anthony, come to the school tomorrow and apologize to Terrence." I shook with fury. "Why should I?" Her voice seethed with barely restrained anger. "Terrence is innocent. It's my choice to have this baby. What does any of this have to do with him? If you don't want your mother's heart surgery canceled, get to the school right now and apologize to Terrence." My mother had loved Melody like her own daughter. Yet for Terrence's sake, Melody was actually using my mother's life to threaten me. I clenched my fists until my nails dug into my palms. I bit my lip until it bled before I finally heard my own trembling voice. "Fine. I'll go..." … Once my mother was settled, I took a cab to the school. Terrence stood behind Melody, his eyes red with anger. The moment he saw me, he lost control. He rushed forward and slapped me across the face. "Mr. Sorloth, you've gone too far! You almost destroyed me!" The students and teachers around us watched me with open contempt. Right in front of me, someone had propped up a phone and started livestreaming the confrontation. Melody fixed me with a warning glare. "Tony. Apologize." I swallowed the blood pooling in my mouth and was about to speak. Then someone, though I never learned who, kicked the back of my knee. My knee slammed into the ground, and I collapsed in front of Terrence. Someone ripped open my shirt and exposed the jagged knife scar across my back. I had gotten that scar when someone slashed me as I protected Melody. "Figures. Ugly people always cause the most trouble. Even looking like that, he's still running his mouth and trying to frame someone." "So gross. Even if he paid me to date him, I wouldn't want him." Melody shot me a glance, her embarrassment plain on her face. She thought I was an embarrassment to her. "Anthony, don't act like this is unfair. You posted 100 times, and all Terrence did was slap you once. You got off easy. I already transferred the money to your card. From now on, neither of us owes the other anything." I climbed to my feet and stared at Melody, my eyes red. What they owed me could never be repaid. I forced down the hatred that threatened to consume me and rushed back to the hospital to see my mother, only to learn that she had been moved to the ICU. A nurse gave me an update. "The patient fell down the stairs. She has intracranial bleeding and multiple fractures. She's in emergency surgery right now." Chapter 4 The security footage showed that Terrence was the one who had pushed my mother down the stairs. My blood seemed to surge backward all at once. I called Terrence. "You dared to push my mother? I'll make sure you go to prison for this!" Melody answered instead, her voice sharp with reproach. "This isn't Terry's fault. He came to the hospital to be with me for my prenatal checkup. Your mother saw him and went over to curse him out. Terry got scared and accidentally pushed her away." I was on the verge of breaking down, and I nearly screamed, "My mother has bleeding in her skull! She's in emergency surgery right now! Melody, how can you still defend the man who tried to kill her? Do you even have a heart?" She immediately hung up. When I tried calling again, I discovered that she had already blocked me. I sat outside the ICU, completely drained, until the attending physician finally came out. Regret was written all over his face. "Mr. Sorloth, please accept our condolences." The world spun around me. Everything went dark, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood. My mother was dead. I no longer had a single family member left in this world. Hatred nearly tore through my chest. I took a cab straight to Avalon University. If they wanted to call me crazy, I would show them exactly what crazy looked like. … By the time I reached the school, Terrence was in the middle of giving a speech. I stormed up to the stage, grabbed him by the hair, and slapped him hard across the face. "Murderer! You're going to pay with your life!" The crowd erupted into an uproar. "Ah! Ms. Harper, help me!" As soon as Melody came to her senses, she rushed onto the stage and kicked me hard enough to knock me down. Melody shielded Terrence behind her and glared at me with open hatred. "Anthony, what are you doing here? Have you lost your mind?" "Mr. Sorloth, why would you ruin my speech?" Terrence broke down sobbing. Then he suddenly dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together. "I'll go die right now. Please, I'm begging you to let me go. I really can't take this anymore!" I didn't miss the flash of satisfaction in Terrence's eyes. With his eyes red from crying, he stumbled toward the rooftop. By the time Melody caught up with him, Terrence was already standing outside the railing. His body swayed precariously, as though he might fall at any moment. "Terry, don't do anything reckless. As long as I'm here, we can work anything out." Two lines of tears slid down Terrence's face and made him look utterly broken and pitiful. "Ms. Harper, I have no other way out. He's driving me insane. I already come from a poor family, and now I have to deal with people bullying me like this, too. I really don't want to live anymore." From the crowd, I let out a cold laugh. "Then jump!" A vicious slap struck me across the face. Melody's expression darkened. "Anthony, shut up! Are you trying to drive him to his death?" She grabbed me by the hair and dragged me in front of Terrence. "Kneel in front of Terry and apologize right now. Promise him you won't lose your mind like this again." I wrenched her hand away. "Keep dreaming!" Melody pulled out her phone and tapped the screen. Security footage from the funeral home appeared before me, and I saw my mother's body on the screen. She stared at me, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I'll give you 10 seconds. If you don't kneel, I'll have someone bring your mother's body here and make her kneel in your place." I stared at her in disbelief and searched her eyes for even the slightest trace of hesitation. There was none. She simply began counting down, calm as a machine. "Five. Four..." Then I watched as they actually dragged my mother's body out and dropped her onto the ground. I couldn't hold out any longer. I dropped to my knees in front of Terrence. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I won't ever do it again..." A flash of triumph crossed Terrence's eyes. He glanced timidly at Melody. "Ms. Harper, I don't think he means it." The moment he said that, Melody grabbed my head and slammed it against the ground. Warm blood streamed down my face. She leaned close to my ear and murmured an explanation. "Just bear with it, honey. We'll worry about everything else once we've talked Terrence down." Only after I had bowed all the way to the ground 99 times did Terrence finally come down from the rooftop and pull Melody into his arms. He shot me a defiant look. Unexpectedly, the very next instant, a swarm of police officers rushed in and slapped handcuffs on both of them!