The guilty silence was deafening. Several cousins couldn’t meet my eyes. “Just girl talk,” Aiki slurred, even though we’d agreed she wouldn’t drink. “About babies?” I asked innocently. “I love baby talk. Even if I can’t understand the language, I can feel the joy.” That evening, I scheduled a “work trip” for the following week,…
The family gathering was my masterpiece. I suggested hosting Aiki’s extended family for a pregnancy celebration, knowing the wine would loosen their lips. “Tell them about Matt,” her mother urged in Japanese after her third glass. “They’ll think it’s funny.” I busied myself with food, my phone recording from my pocket as Aiki giggled with…
Aiki’s eyes lit up. “Really?” “I could do Uber after work,” I mused. “Maybe sell my gaming collection. Whatever it takes.” She quit her job the next afternoon. She didn’t just quit; she sent a bridge-burning email calling her boss a sexist, her coworkers incompetent, and the company a toxic hellhole. She showed it to…
Aiki’s fork clattered onto her plate. “No!” She cleared her throat, forcing a smile. “I mean… it’s so hard. You’ll never learn it. Why waste your time?” The real game began when I got my promotion. “Honey!” I burst through the door one evening, knowing her mom was visiting. “My boss pulled me aside today….
Aiki’s head snapped toward me. “Why did you laugh?” Her voice was sharp, suspicious. I kept my eyes on the screen, feigning innocence. “Oh, the physical comedy is funny. The way he fell.” “Sore wa…” her mother muttered from the armchair. “That was strange.” “Un…” Aiki agreed quietly. “Yeah.” A few nights later at dinner,…
I smirked to myself. I’d seen dozens of these stories online, and I knew the only way out was to let her dig her own grave. The more emotional I appeared, the more ammunition they’d give me to destroy them. Over the next few days, I played my part perfectly. I “accidentally” left my laptop…
when I heard it. From the kitchen, Aiki and her mom were speaking in rapid Japanese. “Matt no?” her mother asked. “What will you do when he finds out it’s Matt’s baby?” My hand froze on the screwdriver. Aiki laughed. “Kare wa baka dakara. He doesn’t know. He’s an idiot.” “You okay there?” Robert noticed…
My wife once whispered something in japanese, thinking I couldn’t understand a word. She was wrong. for months, I stayed silent, gathering proof. But when our baby arrived and the nurse handed me the birth certificate, I finally spoke — in perfect japanese. The look on her face said it all.
My wife confessed her darkest secret in Japanese, not knowing I was fluent. I’d been married to Aiki for three years when she finally got pregnant. We were so excited that she broke ten years of no contact with her mother. “Konnichiwa,” her mom exclaimed when they arrived. “Hey,” I responded, smiling benignly. The thing is, I…
anchor in a world that had suddenly dissolved. I screamed until my throat was raw and burning. Patrick and Diana were gone, taken on the same day. The funeral was a blur of black coats, cloying flowers, and the damp, earthy smell of rain. They left me their house, but I couldn’t bear to enter…
enough to fit a nursery, with a little yard for a swing set. We talked about children, but never in terms of numbers or dates, just as a distant, beautiful hope we’d someday hold in our arms. Then, life changed faster than I could breathe. Barely a month after our wedding, my parents were in…