Burden of Love [ DewNani ]

1.

The dining room of the lavish mansion was silent, save for the clinking of silverware against porcelain plates.

Dew sat across from his wife, Phueng, the tension between them thicker than the cold steak on his plate. They’d been married for six years, years filled with love, challenges, and now, an unbearable void.

“I had another appointment today,” Phueng finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Dew looked up, his tired eyes meeting hers. He knew what was coming.

“They said it’s definitive this time.” Her lips trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. “I can’t… I can’t give you a child, Dew.”

He set his fork down, his appetite gone. “Phu, we’ve talked about this-”

“You deserve to have a family,” she interrupted, her voice cracking. “You deserve a child of your own flesh and blood, and I can’t give you that. I’m broken.”

“You’re not broken,” he said firmly, reaching across the table to take her hand. “We can adopt. It doesn’t matter to me.”

“It matters to me!” she snapped, pulling her hand away. “I see the way you look at families with kids. I see how much you long for it, and it kills me that I can’t give it to you.”

Dew’s jaw clenched. “Phueng, you’re my wife. I married you because I love you, not because I need you to give me children. We can have a happy life without them.”

Phueng shook her head, her tears falling freely now. “You’re lying to yourself, Dew. I can’t live like this, knowing I’m the one holding you back. You need to remarry. Find someone who can give you what I can’t.”

“Don’t say that.” His voice was sharp, his frustration bubbling to the surface.

“I mean it,” she insisted. “You’ll hate me one day if you don’t.”

The conversation ended with both of them retreating to separate rooms, the weight of their emotions too heavy to bear together.
The next few days were a blur for Dew.

He buried himself in work, avoiding Phueng’s desperate pleas for him to consider her suggestion. The thought of being with someone else was unbearable, Phueng was his heart, his home. But her insistence, her self-loathing, began to chip away at his resolve.

One night, unable to handle the suffocating pressure, he found himself at a bar. The dim lighting and the hum of meaningless chatter provided a temporary escape. Drink after drink, he tried to drown the guilt, the frustration, the pain.

As the night wore on, Dew’s vision blurred, and his thoughts became a jumbled mess. He didn’t notice the boy standing outside the bar, shivering in the cold, until he stumbled out into the night.

Nani was there, as he always was, selling cigarettes and cheap trinkets to make enough money for the next meal. His worn jacket barely shielded him from the biting wind, but he couldn’t afford to stop. He had a younger sister waiting at home, relying on him to keep them alive.

“Hey,” Dew slurred, his steps unsteady as he approached Nani. “What are you doing out here?”

Nani stiffened, his instincts warning him to stay away from the clearly drunk man. “Just working, sir. Do you need something?”

Dew’s gaze flicked over the boy, his youthful face pale and gaunt from hardship. Something in his intoxicated mind snapped, a dangerous mix of frustration, anger, and an urge to feel control over something in his spiraling life.

Without a word, he grabbed Nani’s arm, dragging him toward his car.

“Wait, what are you doing? Let go!” Nani struggled, his heart pounding in fear.

“Just shut up and get in,” Dew muttered, shoving him into the passenger seat.

Nani’s protests were futile as Dew drove off into the night, his grip on reality slipping further with each passing moment. For Nani, it was the beginning of a nightmare he couldn’t escape.

As dawn broke, Nani stumbled out of the car, his body aching and his spirit shattered. He didn’t look back at Dew, who sat in the driver’s seat, his head resting against the steering wheel.

It was a mistake. That was all Dew could think as he watched the boy limp away. An unforgivable, irreversible mistake.

And yet, neither of them knew how deeply this night would intertwine their lives forever.