On My Discharge Day, He Was With His First Love

Synopsis

"Home from the hospital?" I stood at our front door, staring at the empty living room. No one was there. My husband's mother had gone dancing. Our son was asleep in her room. Where was my husband? I pulled out my phone and checked the call log. Over my seven‑day hospital stay, he had not come even once. What was his excuse again? "Work keeps me tied up. You're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself," he said. I laughed. I pulled up his leave records. He himself had told me I could access the company system from our home computer. Four words glowed on the screen: [Care‑giving Leave.] Seven days. He had taken seven full days of care‑giving leave. Zero days for me. Then for whom were those seven days?