"Claude Delgado, do you dare say you were really doing this for our family?!"
"If you were doing it for our family, would you have abandoned me over and over again?"
Claude stared at me in disbelief, his mouth hanging open, unable to form a single word.
Claude and I had been classmates in college. He was handsome, top of his class, charming, talented — the center of everyone's attention.
That he chose me out of all the girls vying for him was something I never expected.
Everyone said I'd hit the jackpot, that I was the luckiest girl alive to have caught Claude Delgado's eye.
Even I believed that.
I'd asked him more than once why he picked me. He always smiled and said, "Because you're good."
"I can tell — you genuinely care about me."
For four years, I gave Claude everything he asked for and never dared ask for too much in return.
When we got married, his family's demands were steep, but my parents and I did our best to meet every one of them.
Marrying him was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to me.
But everything changed three years ago, when Claude got laid off.
"Marlene, what if I came to work at your company?"
"We could commute together, and then we could really focus on trying for a baby."
To get Claude a position, I spent weeks drinking with my supervisor after hours, pushing myself until I nearly ended up hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer.
I finally secured him a spot — team lead in the sales department.
"Most of the client work is handled by Ms. Vance herself, so you won't be too busy. It's a pretty easy gig."
At first, Claude really wasn't busy.
We exercised together to prepare for conception, drank herbal supplements together to get our bodies in shape.
But it wasn't long before I discovered the drinking.
One night, he stumbled through the door reeking of alcohol. Again.
"Claude, no smoking and no drinking while we're trying to conceive — weren't those your rules?"
I swallowed my frustration and tried to talk to him calmly.
"When Ms. Vance pours you a drink, you don't say no."
"Marlene, stop making something out of nothing. I never said I didn't want a kid."
His cold indifference cut through me.
Sure enough, a few days later his test results came back: critically low sperm motility.
Starting from the year before last, Claude was out with Rita every single day.
They never bothered to keep up appearances in front of anyone. Everything that happened at those dinner tables made its way through the office word for word.
"Marlene, your husband..."
Even my supervisor had hinted at it more than once. But I chose to believe Claude.
Ten years together. I refused to believe he would do something like that to me.
So I kept making excuses for him, covering for him.
But the more it happened, the colder my heart grew.
"Marley, this one's on me."
"I had no idea Claude was trying for a baby. If I'd known, I never would have let him sit at the table."
To show her remorse, Rita handed Claude a check for ten thousand dollars on the spot.
I pressed my lips together and said nothing.
"Marley, I'm sorry."
"I really didn't know it would turn out like this."
I looked up at him, perfectly calm. "Claude, can you please stop drinking?"
Claude pulled me into his arms. "Marlene, I'll be more careful from now on."
He said I'll be more careful. Not I'll stop.
Looking back, that was when I should have known. Claude had already started crossing lines in his mind.
After that, the subject of children became something neither of us dared to touch.
"Marlene, you think I don't want kids?"
"If I didn't want them, why would I have gone through IVF with you?!"
That actually made me laugh.
"Claude, name one time you showed up."
