Rise Of The Broken Son In Law

What happened here?

Elizabeth shoved open the car door, her heels clattering against the driveway. Her voice rose sharp and shrill, tearing through the quiet of the Clark mansion.

“Do you people want me dead? This freak nearly killed me!”

Ethan stumbled out after her, shutting the car door with trembling fingers. Images spun in his headwater swallowing him, the old man’s voice echoing like thunder. His vision blurred. The steps before him stretched like shadows, shifting under his bare feet. He was losing it again. It always happened after he remembered the man. But never had the memory been so sharp, so close, so terrifyingly clear.

Was this it? The day the old man promised. The day he would become great.

If only he could get to his room. If only he could check the calendar.

Inside, Elizabeth’s words were already ripping the peace apart. She stormed into the living room, hands flying dramatically. “I told you not to let me go with him, but no! Mother, you insisted! He almost rammed us into a building! If I hadn’t screamed, I’d be dead meat now. Do you hear me? Dead!”

Lyndia wrapped her arms protectively around her youngest. Her glare cut across the room to where Ethan lingered at the doorway, pale and staggering.

“How dare you, Ethan? How dare you try to kill her?” Her voice cracked like a whip. “Look at her face! Look at that bump!”

Elizabeth tilted her chin, pressing the reddening spot on her forehead for effect. “I need a new driver. This idiot is useless.” Her tone dripped sarcasm, calculated to sting.

Ethan’s knees buckled. He leaned against the doorframe, the world tilting around him. The room panned out before his blurred vision: the Clark family gathered for lunch. Lila, his wife, stood near the table with her mother, directing the maids as they set dishes down. Her dark hair slid forward, and she absently tucked it back, her eyes flicking toward him.

Ethan wanted to tell her. He hadn’t meant it. It was just a moment—just one lost second between space and time. He wanted to say forgive me. But when the words rose, they choked him. His throat locked. His silence was a prison.

Lyndia spat fire. “You fool! You could have killed her. Don’t you dare stand there mute. Look at what you’ve done!”

Lila’s head snapped up. “Mother, enough. Don’t call him a fool.” Her voice was calm, but her eyes were fixed on Ethan, unreadable.

Lyndia rounded on her daughter. “What? You’re defending him now? He could have killed your sister!”

Lila’s voice sharpened. “And he could have died too. Can’t you see? He doesn’t look well.”

Elizabeth scoffed, tossing her hair. “Don’t make excuses for him, Lila. He was zoned out the entire ride. His face was red then, and look at him now—he’s even worse. He’s having one of his pathetic episodes again.”

“Elizabeth,” Lila warned.

But Elizabeth smirked and pressed on. “He almost killed me. He’s an idiot, and I swear—”

“Enough!” Lila’s voice cracked across the table like lightning. She shoved a chair aside and faced her sister. “No one calls my husband an idiot but me.”

The room froze. Lyndia’s mouth fell open. Elizabeth’s face twisted in shock.

Lila turned her gaze on Ethan. “Come here. Tell us why you did it.”

Ethan tried. He took one step, then another. But halfway to the table, something snapped inside him. Pain shot through his ribs. He raised a trembling hand to his side, his insides bubbling like a cauldron. He staggered, breath ragged, then veered off. His only thought—room. Now.

Elizabeth scoffed loudly, folding her arms. “Look at him! He doesn’t even respect us enough to answer. Lila, get rid of him already. He’s a burden.”

But Lila’s eyes narrowed, following Ethan’s retreating figure. “He doesn’t look well,” she said firmly. “Tell us exactly what happened out there, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, flopping into her seat. “What do you want me to say? He was gone the entire drive. Zoning out. Red face. Breathing weird. I thought he’d pass out behind the wheel. He’s probably dying in that room right now, and honestly? Let him. Who cares. Let’s eat.”

The family sat down to their meal. The scrape of cutlery, Elizabeth’s dramatic sighs, Lyndia’s muttering—none of it left Ethan when he shut his bedroom door.

He tried to block it out, but his senses betrayed him. Every sound, every voice was sharper, closer. His room seemed alive, every speck of dust outlined in painful detail.

He staggered to the wall, eyes locking on the calendar. His fingers shook as he flipped the page.

May 28.

His breath caught. The date burned into his eyes. The same day he had met the old man. The same day every year when the episodes returned to torment him. Only this time, it was different. This was the last year. The end of the bargain.

He crumbled to the floor, curling in on himself. “Ahhh!” The cry tore from his chest, raw and animal. Cold swept through him, crushing his lungs, freezing his bones.

His ear pressed to the floorboards, and he could hear them below. Elizabeth scoffing. Lyndia lecturing. Lila’s voice cutting through, softer but firm.

“I’m going to check on Ethan,” Lila said. “He looked…blue.”

“What? You’re caring for him now?” Lyndia snapped.

“Stay out of it, Mother. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Her footsteps ascended the stairs. Ethan’s body convulsed. Something dark swirled inside him, rising to his brain, forcing its way through every nerve. Ideas, images, knowledge he had never seen before crashed through his skull.

The door flew open.

Lila stood there, frozen, her eyes colliding with his.

Ethan stared back, unable to move, his body trembling with whatever storm was clawing out of him. He didn’t know what she saw, but he saw it in her face—the way her blood drained, her pupils widened, her breath caught in terror.

Her voice trembled.

“Oh my God.”