After four years working abroad and sending nearly 100,000 dollars every year, I came home without warning and found my wife b:ald, skin and b0nes, and washing dishes in the backyard. My mother said, “She brought this on herself.” I didn’t yell. I took out my phone and announced a multimillion-dollar compensation package that hid an unexpected trap.

PART 1
“That bald woman shouldn’t even show her face when we have guests!” my sister shouted from the living room while my wife knelt in the backyard, picking up a broken plate.

I had just returned to Springfield after four years working at a metalworking shop in Yellowknife.
No one knew I was coming back. The plant had temporarily shut down after a minor fire, and I decided to use those few weeks to surprise my family.
For four years, I had endured twelve-hour shifts, twenty-degree-below-zero winters, and reheated meals.
Every month, I sent between two thousand and twenty-five hundred dollars to my mother, Margaret’s, bank account.
The money was supposed to be used to build a house, secure our future, and take care of Gwen, my wife.
In total, I had sent more than one hundred thousand dollars.
When I arrived, I found a two-story house with a gold-colored gate, a brand-new pickup truck, and furniture that looked like it belonged in a magazine.
I felt proud until I saw Gwen standing beside the washbasin. She was so thin that her clothes hung from her body as if they were draped over a skeleton.