“MA’AM MADISON,” one of her bakers called her with a tap on the shoulder. “Ma’am you over-cooked your cookies in the oven.”

Madison blinked twice and looked at her staff. “H-huh?” she asked in a knotted forehead. “What did you say?”

The baker looked at her worriedly. “You forgot to take your cookies out of the oven,” she said and pointed at the opened oven. “They’ve burned again.”

Madison gasped and touched the flat sheet. “Ah!” she blurted as soon as her fingers touched the hot plates. The burnt cookies fell on the floor together with the flat sheet. “It’s hot…” Tears fell on her cheeks, but not because of the hot sheet but because of the burden she’s carrying inside her chest. “It hurts…”

“Ma’am Madison!” Tess, her store supervisor, went to her and held her hand. She brought her to the sink and put her hand under the running water. “Why did you touch the hot plates with your bare hands?”

Madison didn’t answer. It was as if she couldn’t hear them. The chaos in her head is too deafening for her to handle. She continued to cry, even while her bakeshop’s workers put ointment on her hand.

“Ma’am Madison, why don’t you take a rest first?” Tess suggested. “We can handle it down here. You may take a rest upstairs.”

“That’s right, Ma’am Madison. We noticed that you’re not in a good mood since you came back after you met with a friend a while ago,” one of her bakers said. They were all looking worried at her. “I know that you’re in hard times, Ma’am. And we understand your situation… Even you’re not telling it to us, we can feel you.”

She heaved a sigh as she looked at her whole team. It’s been a year and a half since this Bread & Love bakeshop launched its grand opening. She and William were so excited back then because this is the business that they dreamed of having after the wedding. They dreamed together that they’ll teach their children to make their own version of cookies and that they’ll put their creations in the menu. But that promise slowly faded as their problem took over the years that they’re together.

Madison smiled at her bakers, bartender, front liners and her store supervisor. “Thank you,” she said, tears pooling on the corner of her eyes. “I promised I will make it up to all of you soon.”

After she made sure that everything is in order in her production, Madison went to her office on the second floor. She slopped down on her office chair and stared at the ceiling. She can’t ditch on her mind what Jacob offered her when they met a while ago. He wanted to give her healthy sperms that will make her pregnant.

“What’s gotten in his mind?” Madison asked in furrowed brows, but then she remembered what he also told him about William’s case. “It’s to prevent William from committing suicide…” Tears fell again on her cheeks. “I won’t let William do that to himself.”

She took the envelope that Jacob gave her and took out his records. All of the doctor’s record was cleared, and his sperm counts are sufficient and healthy. Their chromosomal genes matched too, and it means that she’ll conceive easily even on one try.

Madison crumpled the papers and threw them on the floor. “I can’t do this to William—” Her phone rang, and an unlisted landline number flashed on the screen. She answered it with a knotted forehead. “Hello?”

“Good afternoon, is this Mrs. Rutherford?” a man’s commanding voice aired from the other line. Shouting and cries can be heard in the background.

Madison’s brows furrowed. “Y-yes, who is this?”

“This a police officer from Ermita Police Station, I’m calling you, Ma’am, to inform you that your husband, Mr. William Rutherford, is in our custody.”

“W-what?” Madison raised from her seat. “W-why? What happened to him?”

___________________

“WILLIAM? WILLIAM?!” Madison came running inside the police station, but she didn’t find her husband. She went to the reception desk officer and asked him about her husband. “I’m Madison Rutherford, I’m William’s wife.”

The police officer drew his brows together. “We talked on the phone, Ma’am,” he said and flipped open the logbook. “We pressed charges on your husband for alarming scandal, over-speeding and drunk driving. If you wanted to take him out from the bars now, you better pay the bail before six p.m, because after that we have no choice but to release him in the morning.”

“A-alarming scandal?” Madison asked in disbelief. “Where is he? What did he do?”

The police officer stood and crossed his massive arms in his chest. “He refused the arrest and started acting wildly on the road. There were also complaints about him from the restaurant where he got wasted,” he said and pointed at the bars. “We put him inside because he kept on shouting at us for no reason.” His brows furrowed. “Mrs. Rutherford, is your husband a mental case?”

Madison clenched her fist. She took deep breaths before she spoke again. “I’ll bail him out now,” she said and took out her chequebook. “Can you release him now?”

After she settled the bail money, Madison waited for the officer to release William. She cried when she saw her husband with bandages on his head and blood all over his shirt.

“Who did this you?” Madison asked William as she checked his wounds. “Who did this to my husband?”

“He did that to himself,” the police officer answered. “When we tried to bring him inside the police Mobil and towed his car, he acted hysterically and hit his head on the police car.”

Madison couldn’t believe that William did that horrible act. “T-that’s impossible. William won’t hurt himself.”

“Stop it, Madison…” William murmured. He’s still drunk as hell. “I’m a useless man.”

“He kept shouting that he’s useless when we brought him here,” the police officer added. “Mrs. Rutherford, I think you should have your husband check before he cracks out.”

As soon as they got in the car, Madison broke down in tears. She hugged the steering wheel and started to question herself if she’s a good wife to William. She doesn’t know if she could still take this, but she doesn’t want to give up on William. She will never do that.

“I’m useless, Madison…” William murmured. He’s now sleeping on the backseat. “I wanted to die…”

She looked at him, tears streaming on her face. “No, William… Don’t give up on me. I promise we’ll get through this. We’ll have a baby.”

***