Just because the twins upset my wife's childhood sweetheart, Travis Ebbington, she ordered them to be locked in the basement.
I knelt on the ground, crying and pleading to my wife for our children’s sake, "Our children are still young and the basement is dark. They will be scared. I’m their father. If you want to punish someone, punish me instead … "
But Tatiana leaned against her childhood sweetheart’s arms and looked down at me.
She coldly told me, "Shut up, Nate! You spoil the children too much. That’s why they don’t know how to behave! I am their mother. Don’t I have the right to discipline my own children?"
The children were so hungry in the basement that they found a bag of dried shrimp somewhere. That night, they suffocated in the hospital due to seafood allergies. But while I waited in agony, my wife’s childhood sweetheart posted a celebration of her pregnancy on WhatsApp Moments.
When my Dimitri, Dimitri Humphrey, rushed to the hospital, I collapsed at the ICU room’s door.
"Dimitri, please, I beg you. I don’t want anything else … I just want my children to be okay."
——
The ICU room’s lights stayed on for God knew how many hours. My heart felt like it was being eaten alive by a thousand ants. The pain made it hard to breathe.
Dimitri couldn’t help but look at me with sympathy.
He tried to comfort me by saying, "Don’t say that now. The children’s safety is the most important thing. When they’re out of danger, I’ll make sure Tatiana learns her lesson..."
Before Dimitri could finish, I handed him my phone with trembling hands. A social media post from Travis had gone up just thirty minutes earlier.
[@TravisEbbington: You are the child your parents wished for. Your parents will love you forever.]
Attached was an ultrasound scan. The words on the report were clear. Tatiana was six weeks pregnant with her lover’s child.
When Dimitri saw it, he fell silent for a moment before speaking softly, "I’ll call Tatiana right now. Don’t worry, you’re the only son-in-law our Humphrey Family recognizes … You don’t need to worry about it."
But I didn’t wait. I called Tatiana myself and put it on speaker. As soon as she answered, her impatient voice came through.
"Are you going to tell me the kids are 'fighting for their lives' again? I only locked them up for a day! How could it be that serious? Can’t you come up with a better excuse? Nate, you really disgust me!"
Before I could say a word, she hung up.
Dimitri’s face turned pale. He didn’t know what to say anymore. On the other hand, tears streamed down my face.
"Dimitri, I have nothing left. I only have my two children. Please, let me go... Let them go..."
Just as he was about to respond, the ICU room’s lights went out. I jumped to my feet and rushed to the doctor. To my surprise, he only shook his head.
The doctor then grimly explained, "The twins suffered severe laryngeal edema from the seafood allergy. They were suffocated for too long, so they were already in a coma when they arrived at the hospital."
"We did everything we could. I’m truly sorry for your loss, Sir … "
As he spoke, two hospital beds were pushed out of the emergency room. Two small bodies lay still, covered by white sheets. There was no sound.
My legs gave out. Before I realized what just happened, I collapsed to the floor. I still couldn’t believe what was happening.
When Dimitri arranged for the funeral home to handle the burial, I followed him like a lost soul. But when the bodies were being loaded into the funeral home’s car, something inside me snapped. I ran forward, grabbing the door tightly to stop them from leaving.
"My children aren’t dead! Where are you taking them? Give them back to me!"
I shouted, my voice hoarse with grief, "Please, let me take them home! I want to take them home!"
Dimitri could only hold me back. My Dimitri-in-law was also crying. His own voice broke as he shouted my name.
But I didn’t care.
