The Gift That Wasn't

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Kevin's voice turned slightly unnatural. “Of course, I got it directly from the original factory. All right, I’ve got to go. My boss is calling. I’m hanging up.”

I stared at the bottle of water that cost only a couple of dollars and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of irony. To earn my year-end bonus and prepare proper New Year's gifts for both sides of the family, I had not slept before 2:00 am for two straight months.

Just last week, I was even rushed to the hospital for acute gastric bleeding. Yet Kevin bought fake goods for my parents and lied to me about working overtime.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. I opened Kevin’s Instagram account. There was nothing but a blank feed. If it were before, I would have thought he was just too busy to post. Now, I suspected he was hiding things from me on purpose.

On impulse, I remembered the alternate account I had used back in college to see Kevin's posts. I logged into it and opened his profile. His latest post was from half an hour ago. It was a nine-photo grid.

The background was his house back in his hometown, where the table was filled with lavish dishes. The most eye-catching were two unopened cases of premium whisky and two cartons of high-end cigarettes. Even from the photos, I could tell they were genuine.

What made it even more suffocating was the center photo.

Kevin was wearing a red fur coat, smiling as he held a woman close. That woman, dressed in a luxury coat, was clinking glasses with my mother-in-law. My in-laws were grinning from ear to ear.

The caption read: [Wonderful daughter-in-law came to visit. We’re so happy. Thanks for the hard work, my dear wife. Love you!]

I recognized that face immediately.

She was Alina—Kevin’s middle school classmate.

I could no longer suppress my rage. I grabbed the cases of fake liquor and stormed out of the house.

“Zeena, where are you going this late?” Mom had woken up for the bathroom. She called after me, still in her padded coat.

“Work emergency! I have to go back!” I dared not turn around, afraid that she would see my bloodshot eyes.

It was a six-hour drive from my hometown to my in-laws’ county. I did not know how many red lights I ran through along the way.

The stabbing pain in my stomach made it hard to even hold the steering wheel. However, I could not stop.

By the early morning of New Year’s, I finally arrived.

Just as I parked the car, two figures walked out. Kevin was holding Alina’s hand. They were wearing matching red outfits, laughing as they talked.

Alina was holding the two bottles of whisky they had bought with my money, as though she was preparing to give them as gifts.

Kevin gently adjusted her scarf. His eyes were full of admiration and affection.

I sat in the car, gripping the steering wheel so tightly that my nails almost dug into the leather. I wanted to rush over and tear those two apart, to ask Kevin if his heart had turned to stone!

Still, I held back. If I rushed out now, all I would get would be a fight and a trip to the police station. What I needed was to make them pay a price a hundred times worse than mine!