After My Husband Passed Away, I Sent His Mom $200 Every Month

Marcus drank a long gulp and belched.

“That’s good. How’s everything going? When do you plan to leave?”

“I guess in a month. I’m waiting for my parents to collect the last payment. My wife is about to finish. What a fool! She hasn’t missed a single month—punctual as a clock. I admire my folks’ acting; they start crying poverty and she swallows it all.”

“The truth is your wife is a saint and you are a bastard, aren’t you? Afraid of karma?”

said Darius laughing.

“What karma? I went to North Dakota to make money for them but I had the bad luck to get into gambling and I owe 50 grand to the mob up there. If I don’t escape they kill me. I had to fake my death so they wouldn’t find my family.”

“And the $12,000 of debt? Your parents didn’t lose anything.”

Marcus let out a laugh.

“I came back without a dime and with gambling debts here too. If I didn’t get the money out of my wife, what was I going to eat? My folks’ pension wasn’t enough. With the excuse of the debt, Kesha has broken her back working.”

“But now you make money. You could support the whole family.”

“Yeah, I make money and plenty of it, but I like taking it from her. Why not? Besides, that way my folks have an excuse to complain to the neighbors and nobody suspects the money I give them. If suddenly they get rich, people would talk.”

“You’re a cold calculator. And your wife and son? You just abandoned them.”

Marcus was silent a moment.

“Screw them. Kesha is young and pretty; she won’t lack for men. I did her a favor; now she can rebuild her life. I take the money so she’s too busy to suspect anything. I hate her preaching. Even though sometimes I think about it—I was at home like a king with food on the table and a warm bed, and now I’m here in this hell.”

“Be careful. The other day your wife showed up by surprise with a massage machine. I think she suspects something. If you stay there, one day you’ll find the police at the door. Hold on a little longer; you take off to Mexico and it’s over.”

“You’re the biggest bastard I’ve ever known, Marcus,”

said Darius, though his tone was joking.

“Come on, drink and shut up. If I don’t look out for me, who’s going to?”

I turned off the recorder. It was enough.

The man I had loved was truly dead. The one in there was a monster.

I signaled Dante for us to leave.

“Are you okay?”

he asked me.

“I’m better than ever.”

I dried my tears with a firm voice.

“Let’s go. Tomorrow will be his end.”

The next morning we went to the office of a lawyer Dante knew. I handed over all the evidence: the recording, the video of the empty urn, the images from the security camera.

The lawyer upon hearing the recording became furious.

“This is aggravated fraud, document forgery, and concealment. With the amount scammed and the aggravating factors of abuse of trust and faking death, Marcus and his parents face prison time.”

“I want to report them. I want them to pay and give me back every last cent,”

I said with determination.

“I’ll help you, but first we have to coordinate with the police to arrest them. If they find out, Marcus could flee.”

The lawyer called the police detectives. With such solid evidence an operation was organized for that very night.

One team would go to the warehouse for Marcus, another to the apartment for his parents, and a third for Darius. I would wait at the precinct.

At 2:00 in the morning the inspector’s phone rang.

“Target detained in the warehouse. Accomplice controlled. The two elderly individuals are on their way.”

I breathed in relief, feeling empty and exhausted. Justice, though slow, arrives.

The curtain had fallen on a 5-year farce. The next morning I saw Marcus through the glass of the interrogation room.

He was sunken, handcuffed, with a lost gaze. When they played him the recording he collapsed and confessed everything.

His parents in another room were crying and blaming their parental love, but the law doesn’t forgive those who use affection to scam. Darius was also arrested for concealment and for his loan sharking business.

The case shocked the public. Three months later the trial took place.

Marcus was sentenced to 12 years in prison for aggravated fraud and document forgery. His parents due to their age received probation but were forced to return all the money to me.

Leaving the courthouse I looked at the blue sky. The bright sun dissipated the shadows that had clouded my life for 5 years.

I had recovered my money, my honor, and most importantly, my freedom. I sold the small apartment and with the settlement money and my savings I bought a new condo, small but full of light.

One afternoon picking Malik up from school he told me,

“Mama, today I got an A in math!”

“What a champ my son is! Today to celebrate I’m treating you to fried chicken.”

“Yay!”

We walked hand in hand down a tree-lined street. The afternoon wind brought the smell of linden trees.

I looked at my son and smiled, happy. The painful past had remained locked behind prison walls.

Before us opened a new future, bright and peaceful. I gave thanks in silence for the past storms.

Thanks to them I had discovered how strong I was and had learned that true happiness doesn’t consist of blind sacrifice but in knowing how to fight to protect what you love.