The Neighbor Who Broke Me

Axel

By Henry

I was waiting for the garage gate at my father’s house to open when, at the front door of our neighbors’ house, I saw Solange chatting, as usual, with Roxanne, her friend.

I say as usual, but what I mean is that they had been friends for as long as I had known them. However, it had been many years since I had seen that rude little miss.

Although, back then, I did make her swallow every bit of her stupidity.

I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She was still beautiful, absolutely gorgeous, sexy, sensual, and every other adjective I could possibly think of. But she was also spoiled, despotic, unpleasant, and terribly stupid.

I had told her once before: she was the idiot who lived next door to my parents’ house.

Even though I hadn’t seen her in many years, I was sure she was still the same as before.

Roxanne said goodbye to her just as I was entering the family mansion.

“Hi, Mom. Happy birthday!”

“Thank you! I was expecting you tonight, with Daphne.”

“Relax, she’s coming. I just stopped by for a moment, in case you needed anything.”

I said it while handing her a beautiful bouquet of pink roses, my mother’s favorites.

“Son, you’re always wonderful.”

My mother truly believes I’m the best man in the world. She has always adored us, both my brother and me, although things are a little strained with Rick.

He made his own way with another company, far from our field, and although he collaborates with the family business, he isn’t consistent, and he argues quite a bit with my father over it.

Rick is a partner in an important chain of gyms spread across the top areas of the capital and the most important cities in the country, always in gated communities or upscale neighborhoods.

His gyms are recognized in many ways, and the membership fees they charged were not something just any employee could afford.

It bothered my father that instead of dedicating himself one hundred percent to our businesses, Rick had, in part, chosen to do without us.

For a long time, I’ve thought Rick is hiding something, or that this issue will be what breaks our family group apart.

As for me, I can’t say much either.

They hold me up as an example in the companies, but my private life is a total failure, covered in hopelessness.

I married the woman my parents imposed on me, and we merged several companies with my wife’s parents.

However, I can say I did feel a certain affection for her. I can’t say I was madly in love with her, though at one point I believed we had managed to achieve a certain harmony.

We got married because she was pregnant. More precisely, we moved the wedding up for that reason, because either way, we would have gotten married all the same.

Everything was going relatively well.

When I got married, I had just turned twenty-three and had a brand-new law degree. My wife was beautiful, and her family seemed ideal for us to unite with, although later we discovered they weren’t so ideal after all, since they were almost bankrupt and had tried to deceive us.

Of course, I personally cleaned up all their messes, as people usually say. In other words, I paid off several multimillion-dollar debts, although that wasn’t free for them, because today, eighty percent of their shares are in my name.

Of course, since I was married to Daphne, everything stayed in the family…

My son was born, and everything seemed to be going well. During the first year of marriage, I believed that was my ideal life, until I got involved with a secretary at one of my companies.

My brother barely showed up there, and my father allowed me to do and undo whatever I wanted.

It was a passing affair, but it helped me realize how boring my marriage was and how cold Daphne had become in bed lately.

When I thought about it for two minutes, I believe she changed from the moment she got pregnant.

I remember that at first, I thought it was because of her condition, but after Axel was born, nothing changed.

We weren’t getting along that well, although her family seemed to adore me. Of course, I had saved them from ruin, and their daughter was married to a man who took charge of the situation. She lived like a queen, and we appeared together at every family and social event.

Everything was going relatively well, although I, very discreetly, would occasionally have a little fling.

In my house, Daphne was the great lady, a woman who was always impeccable. She took care of our son, who unfortunately was a rather weak child. He often got sick, and we spent many late nights with our little boy in a clinic until he improved, though he never improved one hundred percent. He would relapse, and the doctors couldn’t find the reason.

At that time, I assumed that, in part, it had also worn down our marriage.

Until during one of his hospitalizations, we received the worst news of all. He had a rare type of leukemia, one that could not be detected at first glance or with just a few tests. They kept going deeper and deeper with the studies because we were all worried, even the doctors.

“Only ten percent of children have this type of leukemia,” said the doctor who was speaking with us.

We were both devastated.

“The child can be saved, but he requires an allogeneic transplant from a donor, meaning from one of his hematopoietic parents.”

The doctor, who was the specialist in that type of disease, continued speaking.

“Your son has acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”

“You said he could be saved if one of us is the donor,” I told the doctor.

“Yes. It’s a matter of running the tests to find out which one of you is compatible.”

Daphne was very pale and trembling. It was no wonder. Our little son was in very serious condition.

We both underwent the necessary tests.

I understand they rushed the results.

We were in the room with our child when the doctor approached and asked us, less kindly than usual, to come to his office.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t like wasting time.”

I didn’t understand his comment.

“Are you the biological parents?”

Daphne was twisting her hands together, and I, like an idiot, didn’t understand why she had suddenly become so nervous.

“Yes,” I answered with certainty.

The doctor was only looking at Daphne.

“Do you know that your son’s life is at risk, that it’s hanging by a thread?” he asked her, almost furious.

Daphne was crying uncontrollably.

“Ma’am, are you aware that the child’s life is hanging by a thread?” he repeated.

“I don’t understand,” I told the doctor, and I wasn’t being kind either.

The professional pulled some papers from a folder on his desk.

“Ma’am, you are extremely selfish.”

“What’s going on? Why are you treating my wife like that?”

The doctor dared to smile, almost with contempt.

“These tests don’t lie,” he said with a grave expression.

“Are you going to speak, or should I?” the doctor asked Daphne, nearly out of patience.

“I’m sorry…”

Daphne said to me.

“What are you talking about?”

“I thought I would be the one who could give him everything for the transplant.”

“Don’t worry, that doesn’t make you any less of a mother. I…”

I said it to comfort her.

“Ma’am, that’s enough wasting time. This is your son’s life!”

“Henry… you’re not Axel’s father.”

She said it while lowering her head.

“What?”

It didn’t fit in my head.

I married her because of hundreds of economic agreements, yes, many of which, in the end, turned out to be pure deception.

But I also did it because she was pregnant.

Had everything been a lie?

Had they made fools of my family and me?

I remember looking at Daphne with a lot of rage, and despite not being Axel’s father, the only thing I could think about was that child, whom I felt was my real son.

“Call the father now! He needs to take responsibility for Axel!”

“It’s just that I don’t know if he’ll want to…”

She told me, crying.

“Are you an idiot? It’s not a matter of whether he wants to or not. This is his son’s life.”

I said it with hatred before leaving the office.

At that moment, I wanted to go straight to hell, but I thought about it for two seconds and returned to the boy’s room. He was not to blame for anything.

My mother-in-law didn’t understand the look on my face. I didn’t even look at her.

Daphne appeared a while later and asked her mother to leave us alone because she needed to talk to me.

“Let your mother stay. Let her know.”

Daphne ended up confessing the truth.

Hours later, Axel’s father appeared. I left. I had no reason to share anything with them.

The little boy was saved, thank God.

He was a little angel, and he was not to blame for anything.

I was truly shaken by the news, but what enraged me most was that Daphne had tried to hide the truth despite her son’s health.

She preferred to take everything to the very last consequence.

I knew the father by sight. He was a “friend” of hers.

By then, I barely cared. My pride was wounded, not out of love—I despised her too much for her lies to hurt me in that way. What bothered me was that because of the time she wasted, she had put Axel at risk.

Thank God the boy was saved. My marriage is still up in the air because, although some years have passed since that moment, I never divorced. There was too much at stake, and I decided to arrange all the paperwork first.

I know that every day that goes by, Daphne wonders if it will be her last day in our house, and that is the worst punishment I can give her. She adores my mansion because, in reality, even that house, which was once in both our names, no longer is.

We are in the final stretch of all negotiations. Daphne is about to end up on the street.

She lost even the little she contributed to the marriage. Her family hates her, and my family hates her even more.

My parents despise her, but they continue living off appearances. What they have no idea about is that I have protected every last cent we put in to save the Vanucci companies, and that the Vanucci family is sinking more every day. Not because of me. They reached that point because they spend more than they earn, and I must say, in my favor, that it takes a lot of wastefulness to spend that much money.

It is no longer my problem.