Short Stories By Yours Truly

| #4 Money & Power |

Loose navy tie, crinkled white dress shirt, glass of whiskey on the edge of the table.

His phone rang, making him hit the glass with his hand. The glass fell to the floor and shattered into tiny shards; just like his heart did that day.

The man twisted the worn ring on his now boney finger. People always said that he was married to his work and maybe he was.

But he was married to someone once. He once had a family, a purpose.

Yet, he threw it all away.

~~

"I can't believe this! George it's out tenth anniversary for Christ's sake! Please, put that god forsaken phone away and ignore work for just one day," the woman screamed, her eyes had unshed tears welled up in them.

"Carol I'm sorry but-" the man tried to explain to his wife but she couldn't listen.

"No buts! You're never home, you don't spend time with your own kids or even speak to them and now this? You forget it's our tenth wedding anniversary and try to reason your way out of this?" The woman was still screaming, tears now freely rolling down her cheeks.

A small child peeked into the room and watched with fear in her eyes as her parents fought again. An older child quickly pulled the little girl away in fear of their parents noticing them.

"George, as much as I love you, I can't do this. You don't care about us, your family. All you care about is your job and if you can't even spend time with us, then I want a divorce."

"Carol honey please. Please don't say that. You know I love you and our kids. I would do-" the man pled.

"You would do what? Throw money in their faces to show you care? That's not how it works, George. That's not how any of this works." The woman angrily took off her wedding band and set it on the office table, "I'm going to my mother's house with the kids. Don't bother trying to fix anything anymore; you can't."

And with the next words that came out of her mouth, the man's whole world collapsed and his heart shattered. "I'll send you the divorce papers."

~~

That day was still fresh in his memory even though it was nearly twenty years ago. It was the day he lost his purpose, after all.

Ever since the day he lost custody of his children and his marriage with Carol, he'd felt empty.

Sure, he had tried to see the kids many times but they seemed to hate him and for good reason. He was a horrible father.

Since he couldn't replace Carol or his kids, or fix his broken heart, the man turned to his job. He worked himself into exhaustion and nearly an early grave. He just couldn't let himself sit alone in his home.

It would only hive him time to think about the family that he lost.

And now, with no meaningful human relationships in his life, he felt tired. He lost his will to live. Sometimes, he would cry himself to sleep over stacks of paperwork.

Sighing sadly, the man swallowed the lump in his throat and picked up the phone.

"Yes?"

"Sir, you have a visitor," said the voice of his secretary.

"Send them in." The man said and hung up. Normally, people needed to set a time to meet him but today he just wanted to speak to someone face to face and not be swarmed with all of the paperwork that laid messily on his desk.

A knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and in walked a man that the old businessman wouldn't have recognised had it not been for the young man's eyes that perfectly matched his.

"Hi. It's, uh, been a while," said the young man.

A small, barely noticeable tear rolled down the old man's cheek, "it really has. You've grown so much."

The young man chuckled sadly, "yeah I have. So I-I thought I would come by and see how you were doing. I haven't heard of you doing much more than work and pay for my medical school tuition."

"It's the least I can do for you, son. I ain't the best father but I do love you and your sister."

"Then why haven't you talked to us in years?" The young man asked.

"Carol didn't really want me around and you and your sister never seemed too keen on seeing me either."

"..right."

"I want to apologize," the old man said after a moment of awkward silence.

"For what?"

"For not being a good enough father. I guess I took you guys for granted when I still had you. I didn't spend time with you or show you that I love you nearly as much as I should have."

"It's okay."

"No it's not, son. I should have been better and if only I'd have done that years ago, I might still have my family. There's no way I can fix my mistakes anymore."

"Dad, why do you think I came here?"

The old man was silent.

"I came here because I want to build an actual relationship with you. For years, I've listened to all of the crap mom used to tell us about you and been salty about it all but I now know that you do love us. All of the birthday cards you sent us every year? You reminded us that you love us and wrote down your phone number so that if we ever need anything, we can call you. I know you haven't been there for a a long time but I want to have you in my life now. I've forgiven you for everything and I hope you can forgive yourself too."

The old man was frozen in place. He wasn't sure if this was real or not.

"So what do you say, old man? Wanna be a part of your kid's life again?" 

The businessman sprung up from his seat and rushed over to the young man, enveloping him in a warm hug.

"Of course I do, son. I've wanted that for the past 20 years. Thank you." The son hugged his father back and cried into the fabric of his suit jacket

Now the man had regained his purpose and this time, he would make sure to not take it for granted ever again.

Money and power aren't as important as family, and the businessman had to learn it the hard way.

End.

---
Over 1000 words again!!

I had to give this a happy ending. I just couldn't deal with a sad one right now.

What did you think?

Fun fact: the idea for this story came from a conversation I had with bluegreenhourtohour earlier today.  ❤️❤️

Also it's half past ten at night so this story is definitely not the best since my brain happens to not work properly when im tired.