Serena turned, her face going white when she saw him. “Marcus? What are you-”
“You used me!” He grabbed his hunting rifle from his backpack with shaking hands. “You made me give up everything for you and your bastard kid, and then you left us all to rot!”
“Marcus, please, I can explain-”
“Explain what? How you played me for a fool? How you made me lose the only woman who ever really loved me?”
The rifle shots echoed through the quiet street. Serena died instantly, her blood staining the expensive dress she’d bought with
another man’s money.
Marcus was arrested immediately and sentenced to death for intentional murder. He showed no remorse at his trial, only muttering about how everyone had betrayed him.
The Marcus family was left with only his mother, taking care of that boy, living in a daze of poverty and shame.
The child’s behavior only got worse after his mother’s death was announced on the news. He became violent, destructive, completely uncontrollable.
One day, he demanded she buy him the latest gaming console–something that cost more than her monthly pension.
“I don’t have that kind of money,” she said weakly.
“Then get it!” he screamed. “You’re useless! No wonder everyone hates this family! You should just die!”
The argument escalated until the boy actually went to the kitchen, grabbed a fruit knife, and stabbed Marcus’s mother in the
stomach.
She nearly died at home, blood pooling on the dirty linoleum floor. With her remaining consciousness, she managed to call for emergency help.
The boy was arrested for attempted murder. When the enforcement squad collected his DNA for their files according to protocol, they made a shocking discovery.
The boy had no blood relation to Marcus at all.
This was Serena’s bastard child with some unknown man–possibly one of many. She’d used Marcus as a meal ticket, making him believe he was the father to secure financial support.
When the news reached Marcus on death row, he laughed until he cried. Then he cried until he had no tears left.
Learning all this, Marcus’s mother completely lost her mind.
She sat in their rental apartment all day, rocking back and forth and mumbling incoherently: “It would have been so good to bond with Aria back then… so good with Aria… she was so kind to us… why didn’t we appreciate her… why…”
The boy escaped from the juvenile correctional facility and returned home to steal money for a new phone. He found his grandmother in her catatonic state and flew into a rage.
“You crazy old hag! Where’s the money? I know you’re hiding it!”
They fought, the deranged old woman and the violent child, destroying what little remained of their broken home.
During the struggle, a candle was knocked over. The rental apartment, filled with old newspapers and cheap furniture, went up in flames within minutes.
The fire killed both of them, burning away all the sins of the Marcus family until nothing remained but ash and bitter memories.
I saw this fire on the news, then turned off the television.
