Not Your Average Son-in-law

Gavin was escorted into the hospital ward by the servants who had accompanied him to the hospital to see his father who was in the last moment of his life.

"Excuse us," he ordered the servants to leave so he could speak with Gavin alone. Turning to his fifteen years old son, He began, "Gavin, I'm not gonna make it but I want you to be strong."

Gavin was unable to hold back his tears as he listened to his dying father speak. He could see how fragile life was and how even wealth wasn't enough to buy life.

"I want you to promise two things," he continued.

"What are they, father?" Gavin asked, wondering why his father would want him to make such promises on his death bed.

"Promise me that first of all, you'll live a normal life free from all of the Roman's wealth. Promise me you'll live as though you were never rich." His father said.

The Roman family was one of the most influential families in the country and it was a privilege to be born into it. Hearing his father ask him to make such a promise when in fact he was the sole heir to the Roman fortune sounded awkward to him.

"But why, father?" Gavin managed to ask.

"There's more to life than wealth and power. If I had known this earlier, I'd have lived a much better life and would have been a father to you. Please, promise me." His father requested.

"I promise you, father. I'll live a normal life, free from all of Roman fortune." He said.

"And secondly, I want you to promise me that you'll do everything to protect the family's ancestral mansion which is the only thing I'll be leaving for you as an inheritance. There is more to it than you know, you'll find out later." His father added.

"I promise you, father. I'll live a normal life free from our family's wealth and I'll do everything within my power to ensure that nothing happens to our ancestral mansion," Gavin replied. 

It wasn't long after that his father started gasping for breath. He tried calling for help but it was too late. By the time the doctors and nurses arrived, his father was already dead.

After his death, the Roman fortune was locked up in a bank save for the Roman ancestral mansion which was the only thing that reminded Gavin of who he truly was.

------

"Hey Gavin," Meghan, his wife, called out, jolting Gavin from his thoughts. It's been fifteen years since his father made him make that promise on his death bed but each time he recalled, it felt like it was just yesterday.

"What are we eating tonight?" Meghan asked angrily. She had scurried through all the shelves in the kitchen and they were all empty. For the past three months she has been the one taking care of the expenses and it was already getting her angry.

She loved Gavin and understood well that he doesn't have a well paying job but she too had tried her best to be a supportive wife. She knew what she was going through from her parents and younger sister just because she went against them in agreeing to marry Gavin.

"Meghan, I'm sorry but I really don't have any money. I've not been paid my last month salary. I promise to stock the house with groceries when I receive my pay." Gavin assured her.

Meghan wasn't buying that, "What salary are you talking about, Gavin? Is it the same money that can't even sustain us for a week? Come on, Gavin!" 

Gavin couldn't deny the fact that Meghan was right but that what was the only thing he could think of that he'd say to at least calm her down. Despite working two jobs, one as a delivery guy by day and the other as a security guard at night at City Express LTD, the income wasn't still enough to cater for himself and Meghan. 

"I can't take this anymore. I can't remember the last time I got something for myself with my salary. It's always one bill or the other. This is too much!" Meghan said expressing her discontentment with Gavin's life of penury.

Her parents were already threatening to fire her from her job if she doesn't divorce Gavin. Trying to defend Gavin and to prove to her parents that she didn't make a mistake by choosing to marry him was becoming difficult for her. She knew quite well that it wasn't his fault but a part of her was so much irritated by the fact that he wasn't doing anything to have a much better life.

"Gavin, I'm fed up..." She said walking away.

"Meghan...Wait!" Gavin called but Meghan was too angry to look at him in the eye.