Fatal Obsession

Chapter 1

My daughter was burning up, wouldn’t stop crying.

And where was my wife, Sarah?

At her “friend’s” house – Mark, the guy she dated in college, back in town after a messy divorce – playing doctor for him and his kid.

Sarah was all guilt-tripping, “It’s all my fault. I took little Mikey to the park yesterday, and now he has a sniffle. Mark’s going to be so upset.”

“I’m a doctor, I have to help.”

Me? I was stuck with a sick kid and a bum leg.

By the time I got Lily to the ER, it was too late.

The doctor looked at me, eyes full of pity. “If… if you’d gotten here five minutes earlier, no, maybe even three… I could have saved her…”

I lost it.

A year ago, I lost my son.

Sarah was on her way to Mark’s when she got into a car accident, lost the baby.

All she said was, “We can always have another one.”

Now, staring at my daughter in the morgue, I knew one thing.

This marriage was over.

1

It was the middle of the night. Lily, my two-year-old, woke up screaming, burning hot, coughing like crazy.

Every cough ripped through me, but hey, at least my wife was a pediatrician, right?

“Sarah! Honey, Lily’s really sick, she’s burning up and can’t stop coughing!”

We’d been sleeping in separate rooms since Lily was born.

Sarah claimed her ER shifts were brutal, and she needed the extra sleep, so she moved into the guest room.

“Sarah?”

I hopped into the guest room on my good leg and shook her awake.

She looked annoyed, but I didn’t care. “Lily’s really sick, you need to see her.”

Sarah rubbed her eyes and sat up. “Kids get warm sometimes, Jason, you worry too much.”

Just then, her phone buzzed.

My stomach dropped when I saw “Mark” flashing on the screen. Mark, her college sweetheart, back in town after a recent divorce.

“Hello?”

The panicked male voice on the other end was all too familiar. There was an intimacy there that made me sick.

“Sarah, Mikey’s been sneezing and has a runny nose. I think he’s caught a cold. Could you maybe come over and take a look?”

The same Sarah who just brushed me off was suddenly wide awake and scrambling out of bed.

I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “Sarah, Lily has a fever! She’s really sick.”

She didn’t even pause as she pulled on her clothes. “It’s all my fault. I took Mikey to the park yesterday, and now he has a sniffle. Mark’s going to be so upset.”

“I’m a doctor, I have to help.”

My blood was boiling, but Lily’s cries were getting worse. I grabbed her arm, pleading.

“Even if you have to go, please just look at Lily first. Just take us to the hospital, please!”

Sarah’s face hardened. “I know you don’t like Mark and Mikey, but I’ve told you a million times, I’m just helping them out! Can you please not use our daughter as an excuse right now?”

And with that, she stormed out, not even glancing at Lily, who was now screaming her head off.

I stood there, stunned, for a second, then limped back to Lily’s room.

She was burning up, little body flushed crimson.

I scooped her up and raced to the hospital.

No cabs at this hour. We had two cars, but the garage was empty. Both of them.

I hobbled down the street with Lily in my arms, every step sending jolts of pain through my leg.

1:00 AM. Not a single taxi in sight.

I started walking towards the hospital, the empty streets echoing my despair.

“It’s okay, Lily, Daddy’s got you. We’re going to the hospital.”

“Just hang in there, baby girl, almost there.”

The hospital was six miles away. No way I could walk it, not like this.

Desperate, I stepped into the middle of the street, hoping to flag down a car.

Two agonizing minutes later, a kind stranger pulled over.

Lily cried the whole way, her breathing ragged and wheezy.

“Shhh, Lily, it’s okay. We’re almost there. Just be brave, sweetheart.”

My voice trembled, even though I was trying to sound strong.

Lily was always such a happy kid. Almost two and a half, and she’d never been this sick.

The driver slowed down. “Man, what’s going on? Why are you alone with her? Where’s your wife? Call someone!”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Lily’s cries suddenly faded.

“Lily? Lily!!”

I shook her gently. “Lily, baby, don’t scare Daddy.”

The driver ran two red lights, practically throwing us out of the car at the ER entrance.

I limped after him as fast as I could, pain shooting through my leg.

I finally reached the operating room doors just as…the light went off.

A doctor emerged, pushing a gurney.

It was covered with a white sheet. A small, still lump beneath.

I stumbled forward, two nurses catching me before I collapsed.

“Sir, please, calm down. You’re injured, you need to stay calm!”

I tried to call out to Lily, but my throat was choked with grief.

“Lily Jones, time of death: 2:35 AM.”

The doctor’s voice was full of regret. “She had a very high fever, which developed into severe meningitis. She also had a lot of phlegm in her throat, obstructing her airway…”

“If…if you had gotten here five minutes earlier, no, maybe even three…I could have saved her.”

My body began to shake uncontrollably, my ears ringing.

My mind went blank. I reached out to touch my daughter, but everything went black.

I vaguely remember the nurses and doctors scrambling, another gurney, another rush down a hallway…

2

I drifted in and out of consciousness, eyelids heavy.

Lily was everywhere in my dreams. One minute, she was a giggling toddler, showing off her baby teeth.

The next, she was screaming, clutching her throat, her little face turning purple.

The nightmare never ended. Just Lily, and the crushing weight of my grief.

Three days later, I finally woke up.

Sarah was there, by my bedside, dark circles under her eyes, hair a mess, holding my hand.

Even the light touch of her hand made me nauseous.

I looked around, my foggy brain slowly realizing I was in the hospital.

“Jason, you’re awake! How are you feeling?”

Sarah jumped up, a flicker of relief in her exhausted face.

“Don’t move too much. Just tell me what you need.”

“You had a near stroke brought on by emotional distress, that’s why you were unconscious…”

I stared at her, my blood boiling. The despair of losing Lily washed over me again, but then I remembered…I hadn’t said goodbye.

I pushed myself up, ignoring the searing pain in my leg.

“Where’s Lily?”

“Where’s my daughter?”

Sarah looked away, her eyes filled with pain. “Lily…she’s still in the morgue. I didn’t want to move her before you woke up, just in case…”

Relief warred with fresh agony. She was still there. I could still see her.

My baby girl, only two and a half, choked to death, alone in a cold, dark drawer.

No, I couldn’t leave her there. I had to…

I tried to get out of bed, but my legs gave way, and I crashed to the floor.

“Jason! You just had emergency surgery! You can’t get up yet! Please, just…”

I grabbed the water pitcher from my bedside table and threw it at her.

The hot water splashed across her face, turning her skin bright red.

A nurse rushed in, gasping. “Dr. Miller! What happened? Let’s get that looked at!”

I glared at Sarah, tears streaming down my face.

“You killed her, Sarah! You killed our daughter! And now you’re playing the grieving widow?”

“Get out! Go back to Mark and his precious son!”

The nurse stood there awkwardly, while Sarah just stood there, tears rolling down her cheeks, looking lost.

It was sickening. This performance, who was it for?

“Jason, I know you’re hurting, but Mark is a single dad, he lives miles away from the hospital, I went as a doctor, it was my duty. I’m so sorry about Lily.”

Slap!

I used all my remaining strength to hit her.

“Dr. Miller…”

I turned my face away. “Get out, Sarah. Lily didn’t need a mother like you, a mother who pretends to care.”

“Just go. Get as far away from me as possible.”

“Jason, you’re not well, I can’t leave you like this.”

I started throwing things, anything I could reach. Nurses and doctors crowded the doorway.

Still, she wouldn’t leave.

What was this act?

Ever since Mark had come back to town, Sarah was hardly ever home.

I was planning on filing for divorce as soon as my leg healed.

I should have done it sooner.

Sarah stood there for half an hour, head bowed, refusing to budge.

Just as I was about to lose it again, her phone rang.

She glanced at me and stepped into the hallway to answer it.

Mark, of course.

I didn’t want to hear their sickeningly sweet conversation, but the hospital walls were thin.

“Don’t come now, Jason’s really upset, I don’t want you or Mikey to get hurt.”

I laughed. It was so absurd.

Our daughter was dead, I’d nearly died, and she was still protecting her boyfriend and his kid.

3

After Sarah finally left, I pressed the call button.

“Yes?”

I took a deep breath and straightened my hospital gown.

“Could you get me a wheelchair, please? I want to see my daughter.”

“I don’t want her to be alone in the morgue. I want to…I want to bring her home.”

My Lily, lying in that cold drawer. I had to get her out, bring her home.

Seeing Lily’s small face, tinged blue from lack of oxygen, felt like a giant hand squeezing my heart.

“Lily, Daddy’s so sorry. I should have gotten you to the hospital sooner.”

“Lily…”

I cried until I was numb, just staring at her tiny face. I didn’t even notice when the stitches in my leg ripped open.

A passing doctor saw the blood and rushed me back to surgery.

I felt every stitch, the needle pulling through my skin, a cruel reminder of how helpless I was.

After they patched me up, I finally called my parents.

An hour later, they were both there, holding me, sobbing.

“Jason, I told you we should have been here, helping you. That heartless woman! I was so blind, we all were!”

“Jason, honey, you have to be strong for Lily. She needs you to…to take care of things. She needs you to be okay so she can rest, you hear me?”

“Lily’s gone, but you still have us, okay?”

My dad just stood there, face grim, tears welling in his eyes.

“Where is that…that woman? Our granddaughter is dead, and she has the nerve to call herself a doctor?”

“I’m going to go give her a piece of my mind!”

I tugged on his sleeve. “Dad, no. Just…call the lawyer. I want a divorce.”

My parents exchanged a look, then nodded.

They hired two nurses to take care of me around the clock, worried I would do something to hurt myself.

My mom made me soup every day, spoon-feeding it to me like I was a child. I saw new streaks of gray in her hair. It was killing me.

As soon as I could move around without help, I checked myself out of the hospital.

Sarah was waiting for me at home.

She stood there, holding a bag of groceries, awkwardly calling out to my parents.

“You have the nerve to show your face here!”

My dad lunged for her, but I held him back.

This was my fight. I’d settle the score when I was stronger.

“What are you doing here? You got the divorce papers, right? Just sign them.”

“The house, the cars, they’re all mine. I’m keeping everything.”

“You want to support Mark and his bastard? Fine. Once we’re divorced, I don’t care what you do.”

Sarah didn’t say a word, her hands clenching into fists.

I laughed.

What, was it the “bastard” comment? Or the fact that I called Mark her boyfriend?

“You don’t deserve to be a mother! Not after this.”

Had I hit a nerve? Her eyes were red again.

I was tired of her act. I turned to the nurses who had wheeled me out. “We’re ready to go. Please take me to my car.”

4

“Jason…”

Sarah’s voice was barely a whisper. “Can’t we just…go inside and talk? Please?”

“We can have other children, Jason. You just need to…you need to get better.”

I don’t know how I made it back to my parents’ house.

I closed the curtains and curled up in bed, the sounds of my mother yelling at Sarah echoing from the living room.

Apparently, Sarah wasn’t going to work. She was staying. At my parents’ house.

How thoughtful. A big-shot pediatrician, taking time off to…what? Torment me?

I laughed again, the sound hollow and bitter.

I was the golden boy, the perfect son, good grades, good family.

My parents had started setting me up on blind dates the minute I turned thirty.

That’s how I met Sarah. I admit, she was beautiful, successful, a perfect match on paper.

We got married because it was the right thing to do, a convenient way to shut our families up.

And it wasn’t all bad, at least not at first.

She was the perfect doctor wife, attentive to our parents, even scheduling appointments with her hospital’s herbalist for seasonal wellness checks.

We kept our finances separate. She made decent money as a pediatrician, but every six months, like clockwork, she’d buy me an expensive watch.

My friends were all jealous. “Jason, you got lucky, man. Married late, but you scored a great wife.”

Even so, I waited three years before we started trying for kids.

When we found out Sarah was pregnant with our first, we were both thrilled. It was a happy time.

Then, a month into the pregnancy, Mark, her old flame, showed up, fresh off a nasty divorce.

Suddenly, Sarah, who was always home for dinner, was “too busy.”

One rainy night, she was on her way to Mark’s when she had the car accident.

We lost the baby. Our first child.

At first, I didn’t suspect anything. I thought it was a tragic accident. Sarah even brought Mark’s son over to our house a couple of times.

Then, one afternoon, I caught Mark’s kid pinching Lily’s leg, leaving a nasty bruise.

I was furious. I called Sarah at work, told her to come home immediately.

“Whose kid is this, Sarah? Get him out of my house!”

“Look what he did to Lily! She’s not even two years old, and he’s pinching her like that!”

Mark’s son clung to Sarah’s leg, hiding behind her skirt.

“No, Auntie Sarah, it wasn’t me! I love Lily!”

His one sentence trumped all of Lily’s tears.

Sarah hugged him close, soothing him, then looked at me with annoyance.

“Kids are impulsive, Jason. He wouldn’t just hurt Lily for no reason.”

“Maybe you’re just being oversensitive being home with her all day. She probably bruised herself.”

“Little Mikey wouldn’t lie.”

If I hadn’t insisted on calling his father to apologize, I would never have known that my wife had been bringing her ex-boyfriend’s son to my house, expecting me to babysit.

Mark showed up, all fake apologies, implying that I was making it all up.

That night, Sarah and I had a huge fight.

She accused me of being petty, of not being able to handle a child who “didn’t have a mother.”

After that, Sarah didn’t even bother hiding her affection for Mark and his son.

She’d take them to the park on her days off, spend hours with them, claiming that boys without mothers needed extra attention, that their development would suffer otherwise.

Whenever I protested, she’d sigh and say, “I don’t have feelings for Mark anymore, Jason. You’re overreacting. It’s hard being a single dad, you’re a father yourself, you should understand.”

Right.

She treated Mark’s son like her own, while neglecting our daughter.

She was a pediatrician who somehow managed to give Lily a double dose of one of her vaccines.

That’s when I gave up on her. My heart was already dead.

5

Once I was mobile again, I arranged Lily’s funeral.

I’d lost two children in the span of a year.

I was a failure as a son, burdening my aging parents with my grief. A failure as a father, unable to protect my children.

Both of them.

And it was all because of this woman, standing there with her red eyes and fake remorse.

If she had just checked on Lily that night, she would have recognized the symptoms of acute laryngitis, one of the deadliest illnesses for infants.

She’d been so callous then, and now she was putting on this grieving mother act.

I barely registered the funeral proceedings, my mind numb with grief.

Then, a loud wail pierced the somber silence, and I looked up.

My blood ran cold. Fury pulsed through me, a tidal wave of rage.

“Lily…poor Lily. Such a terrible thing to happen to such a sweet little girl.”

“Uncle Mark’s here to say goodbye, Lily. Remember to come back to Mommy’s tummy, okay?”

Sarah rushed over to Mark and his son, her face a mask of disapproval.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed.

Then she turned to me, panic flashing in her eyes.

“Jason, please don’t do anything rash. They just came to pay their respects.”

I knew I should stay calm, for Lily’s sake.

But the rage was a living thing inside me, clawing to get out.

I stalked towards Mark, my voice shaking with anger. “What are you doing here?”

“Came to make sure she’s really dead?”

“My daughter died because you called my wife away in the middle of the night! She missed her chance to be saved because of you!”

“And you brought your son? To rub it in my face? To try and steal her away again?”

“You proud of yourself, stealing another man’s wife?”

“You wanted her so bad, why didn’t you just marry her in the first place? You divorced your wife and came crawling back to her!”

“You’re pathetic, Mark! Absolutely pathetic!”

I unleashed every ounce of my rage, yelling at him in front of everyone, family, friends, strangers.

Mark’s face turned red, then white. He stammered, then shoved his son forward.

“Apologize to Lily! Now!”

The kid resisted, twisting away.

“No! I don’t want to!”

“Get down on your knees!” Mark roared.

I laughed, a harsh, broken sound. I stepped behind Mark and kicked him in the back of the knees.

“You’re the one who should be kneeling, Mark!”

He stumbled, landing on his knees in front of Lily’s casket.

Sarah shrieked. “Jason! Stop it! This isn’t Mark’s fault! He came here to be nice, and you’re attacking him?”

I’m sorry, Lily.

Daddy made a mistake. I chose the wrong mother for you.

Sarah tried to pull me away, but my cousins stepped in, blocking her path.

Mark looked up at me, his eyes wide with fear.

6

I crouched down, grabbed his hair, and slammed his head against the floor.

He howled, the sound grating on my nerves. It was disturbing Lily’s peace.

I grabbed a piece of white cloth and stuffed it in his mouth.

“Does it hurt to bow to my daughter? It’s what you owe her.”

“The first one’s for seducing a married woman. You two keep saying you’re just friends, but I don’t see you running around with any other random strangers, do I?”

“The second one’s for my daughter. You’re responsible for her death.”

“And the third one’s for my son, the one who never even got to see the world because of you!”

I slammed his head against the floor three times. When I let go, his forehead was a bloody mess.

He spat out the cloth, his voice trembling with rage.

“You…you can’t do this! I was just here to pay my respects! I’m calling the cops!”

“With a father like you…”

Slap!

I backhanded him across the face, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Sarah screamed. “Jason! I know you’re angry! Hit me, yell at me, I won’t fight back! But don’t take it out on them! They didn’t do anything!”

Take it out on them? They didn’t do anything?

Mark glared at me, clutching his cheek, giving me the perfect opportunity to slap him again.

“You…”

I shook my stinging hand and turned to light a stick of incense for Lily.

“Call the cops,” I said, my voice cold. “I have a few things to report myself.”

7

At the police station, Mark sobbed dramatically, clutching his bruised face and exaggerating his injuries.

Sarah, ever the doctor, fussed over him, applying an ice pack.

Mark laid out his version of the story, and the officer behind the desk slammed his hand down.

“That’s assault, sir! You can’t just go around attacking people!”

I didn’t argue. I just pointed at Sarah and Mark.

“This woman is my wife. That man is her boyfriend. And that kid over there? Her boyfriend’s son.”

“My two-year-old daughter died of meningitis and acute laryngitis. She choked to death.”

“My wife’s a pediatrician. So why did my daughter die? Because this guy called my wife in the middle of the night because his kid had a sniffle.”

“Tell me, officer, does this homewrecker deserve a beating, or not?”

The officer’s mouth snapped shut. He looked at Sarah and Mark, his expression hardening. He cleared his throat, his voice less forceful. “That still doesn’t give you the right to assault someone, sir.”

“How dare you say that! Mark and I are not having an affair! Jason, how many times do I have to tell you?”

Sarah turned to the officer, appealing to his sense of reason. “Officer, they just moved back here, I’m just helping them out. That doesn’t make me an adulterer, does it?”

I said nothing.

The way Sarah hovered over Mark, carefully tending to his bruised ego, spoke volumes.

The law couldn’t touch her moral failings. The damage to Mark, however, was visible. I had to pay a fine, a few thousand dollars.

I’d come prepared. I pulled out a wad of cash, all small bills, and threw it in Mark’s face.

“Jason!” Sarah gasped.

I looked her dead in the eye. “There, you’re happy now? Now let’s talk about my issues.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jason. Can’t we discuss this at home?”

I stared at her tired face, my voice cold and hard. “We have two cars, Sarah. You drive your Jetta to work every day. Where was my BMW?”

“The night Lily died, where were both our cars?”

Sarah’s eyes darted around the room, her face suddenly pale.

“If our car had been there, maybe a neighbor could have driven us to the hospital.”

I turned to Mark, a sneer twisting my lips. “You had my car, didn’t you?”