The Dog with My Father-in-Law's Heart
Once, we were the couple everyone envied.
In the first few years after we got married, Melinda was gentle and caring, handling everything at home with meticulous care.
But I don't know when exactly, everything began to change.
She was the head nurse at the hospital, her work getting busier and busier, and she started coming home later and later.
At first, I thought it was just the hospital's heavy workload, so I often took the initiative to care for her, cooking her favorite meals.
Then six months ago, an intern named Henry arrived at the hospital, and everything completely went off course.
Henry had just graduated from medical school—young, energetic, and with a particularly sweet way with words.
Melinda took special care of him, not only guiding him at work but also often reaching out to him privately.
I wasn't unaware of the odd signs; several times I caught Melinda smiling brightly at her phone. When I asked who it was, she just said it was a colleague from the hospital, talking about work.
I chose to believe her. After all, ten years of marriage—I didn't want baseless suspicion to destroy our bond.
But my trust became the very confidence Melinda used to wound me without mercy.
Last month, on Henry's birthday, he told Melinda, right in front of her, that his biggest wish was to become a Chief Surgeon as soon as possible and perform a surgery himself.
What should have been a young man's sincere career aspiration, Melinda instead treated as a chance to curry favor with Henry.
Not long after, my father-in-law—Melinda's dad—needed surgery for appendicitis.
It was supposed to be an entirely routine minor operation, and the hospital had plenty of experienced doctors for such cases.
But Melinda had other plans; she approached the hospital leadership, persistently pushing to give the young doctor a chance to gain experience, recommending Henry as the primary surgeon for the procedure.
At first, the leadership refused; after all, Henry was just an intern, not even qualified to operate independently.
But Melinda had worked at the hospital for years and had a wide network. She also enlisted several well-connected colleagues to plead on Henry's behalf, and in the end, the leadership actually relented, agreeing to let Henry be the primary surgeon under the "supervision" of an experienced doctor.
But the so-called "supervision" was nothing but a sham.
On the day of the surgery, Melinda sent the originally assigned supervising doctor away, leaving Henry standing alone at the operating table.
At that time, I didn't know about any of this until after the surgery ended, when a nurse hurriedly came to tell me that my father-in-law had an accident during the operation and was already beyond help.
I felt like I'd been struck by lightning; my mind went completely blank, and I stormed into the operating room like a madman.
The scene before me sent chills all over my body—my father-in-law lay on the operating table, a gaping wound across his chest, already lifeless.
Henry stood nearby, his face pale as death, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
Melinda calmly ordered someone to push my father-in-law's corpse aside, as if the dead man wasn't her own father, but just some irrelevant stranger.
I rushed forward, grabbed Melinda's arm, and screamed, demanding to know what on earth had happened.
Melinda impatiently shrugged my hand away, saying Henry was too nervous during his first time as the primary surgeon and accidentally cut the heart instead of the appendix.
I couldn't believe my ears—how could someone confuse the appendix with the heart? They're worlds apart.
But looking at Henry's panicked, helpless face, I knew Melinda wasn't lying.
What crushed me even more was Melinda's next move.
She actually had someone remove my father-in-law's heart, then carried our family dog into another room.
I followed her and saw that she was actually performing a heart transplant on a pet dog.
"Melinda, are you out of your mind? That's your father's heart!" I rushed over, trying to stop her.
Melinda glared at me fiercely. "Don't get in the way. This was a hard-won chance I fought for Henry."
"Now that his surgery failed, I have to do something to make up for him."
"The dog's been with me for so long; there's some bond between us. What's wrong with giving it a good heart?"
Her tone was as cold as an ice pick, stabbing straight into my heart.
I watched her skillfully stitch the dog's wound, then looked at my father-in-law's cold corpse beside us, feeling the world spin wildly around me.
How could the woman I loved for ten years become like this?
Not only did she condone Henry's unauthorized surgery that caused her own father's death, but she also did something absurd and cruel—transplanted her father's heart into a dog.
At that moment, all my feelings for her shattered completely in the face of this cold, harsh reality.
My father-in-law's funeral ended hastily; Melinda didn't shed a single tear throughout and even secretly messaged Henry during the funeral breaks.
I had completely lost faith in our marriage. The next day, I drafted the divorce agreement and placed it in front of Melinda.
Melinda didn't even glance at it and just pushed the agreement aside. "Reed, stop messing around. Isn't it just that my dad had a little accident during surgery?"
"Once someone dies, they can't come back to life. You can't just keep dragging this on forever, can you?"
"A little accident?" I was trembling with anger. "That's your dad! Your own biological father!"
"How can you talk about it so casually? And those things you did with Henry—do you think I didn't know?"
Melinda's expression changed, but she still stood her ground: "Henry and I are just ordinary colleagues. Don't make baseless accusations."
"I'm not going to divorce you. You can give up on that idea."
After saying that, she grabbed her bag and headed to the hospital, leaving me alone in our empty home, overwhelmed with despair.
Over the next few days, Melinda kept avoiding me and refused to sign the divorce agreement.
I had no choice but to go to the hospital to find her.
As I approached the nurse's station, I overheard Melinda talking with several colleagues.
"You guys didn't see it. Henry's surgery that day was going pretty smoothly. Who would've thought Reed Quinn's dad was so fragile—and just like that, he was gone." Melinda's voice carried a hint of mockery.
"Melinda, you're way too calm about this. That was your father-in-law, after all." A young nurse's voice spoke up.
"What's there to be calm about? I never liked him anyway. Now that he's gone, it's actually peaceful." Melinda snorted with a laugh.
"Besides, Henry's still here. He's way better than Reed. He's definitely going to make something of himself."
"Does Reed know about this? Has he given you any trouble?" Another colleague asked.
"What if he gives me trouble? Does he think he can just eat me up?"
"He was holding the divorce agreement, asking me to sign it. But I refused. He wants me to clear out for him? No way!"
Hearing this, I couldn't hold back anymore. I suddenly pushed the door open and rushed in.
When Melinda saw me, her face instantly went pale, and she started stammering, "Reed, you... why are you here?"
"If I didn't come, I wouldn't even know how you were scheming against me and my father behind my back!" I slammed the father-in-law's death certificate down in front of Melinda.
"Look carefully—whose name is written here? This is your father's name, not mine!"
"You flattered Henry, broke the rules by letting him take the lead as primary surgeon, which led to your own father's death. And now here you are, making snide remarks? Do you even have a conscience?"
Melinda glanced at the death certificate, her eyes full of disbelief.
She stood frozen for a moment, then suddenly snapped out of it, grabbed the death certificate, tore it to shreds, and shouted at me angrily, "Reed! You b*stard!"
"You actually cursed my dad! My dad is perfectly fine—how could he possibly be dead?"
"Are you deliberately making up this lie just to get a divorce from me? Let me tell you, I will never let you succeed!"
Watching her in that hysterical state, the last shred of hope inside me completely vanished.
Even now, she refuses to accept the truth and even believes that I am cursing her father.
A woman like her is beyond redemption.
After returning from the hospital, I shut myself in my room all day, my mind consumed by the absurd things Melinda and Henry had done.
Not long after, Melinda and Henry surprisingly came home together.
Seeing them so close, my whole body trembled with rage.
"Reed, you shouldn't be so angry." Melinda sat on the sofa, crossing her legs with a carefree look.
"I know you're upset, but the dead can't come back to life. You can't stay trapped in grief forever."
Henry nodded beside me, "Yeah, Reed, Melinda only wants what's best for you."
"Besides, even though uncle's surgery failed, it gave me valuable experience."
"From now on, I'll work even harder to become an excellent doctor. I'll definitely be able to help you one day."
"Helping us?" I sneered, "You caused my father-in-law's death, and now you're saying things like this? Don't you have any conscience?"
"Reed, don't speak so harshly," Melinda said with a darkened expression. "My dad's death was just an accident, we didn't do it on purpose."
"Besides, it's already happened. No matter how much you blame us, it won't change anything. Why don't we think of a way to make everyone a little happier?"
"Make everyone a little happier?" I looked at her, puzzled.
Melinda smiled and said, "Henry and I have agreed to throw you a ceremony to acknowledge the dog as the father."
"Think about it—my dad's heart is now inside that dog's body, so that dog's kind of like your father-in-law too."
"If you accept him as your father, won't our whole family be able to live in harmony?"
Hearing that, I couldn't contain my rage anymore and lunged at Henry to hit him.
Melinda quickly stopped me: "Reed, what are you doing? Let's talk this through calmly—don't use violence!"
"Talk calmly?" I pointed at Melinda's nose. "Melinda, you're completely unreasonable! I think you've lost your mind! I'm ending this marriage—right here, right now!"
But Melinda thought I was just jealous and petty. She linked arms with Henry and looked at me with a provocative glare:
"Reed, are you jealous because you saw me with Henry?"
"Let me tell you, I like Henry. He's younger and more capable than you. If you know what's good for you, you'd better divorce me quickly and stop being such an eyesore."
"You..." I was so angry I couldn't speak.
I used to think Melinda was just momentarily confused, but now it's clear she's completely blinded by Henry and can't even tell right from wrong anymore.
I took a deep breath, fighting to calm myself down:
"Since you want a divorce too, let's just get the paperwork done quickly. From now on, we owe each other nothing."
But Melinda suddenly backtracked: "When did I ever say I wanted a divorce? I was just teasing you."
"I'm not divorcing you. I want you to watch me be happy with Henry and regret it for the rest of your life!"
With that, she grabbed Henry and stormed into the bedroom, deliberately slamming the door so hard it rang through the house.
I sat on the sofa, feeling like I was about to lose my mind.
Just then, my phone rang—it was the hospital calling.
The nurse on the other end said my father-in-law's corpse was still in the morgue and urged me to come quickly to handle the funeral arrangements.
I sighed helplessly. I had originally thought Melinda would handle my father's funeral, but to my surprise, she didn't care at all.
With no other choice, I had to pull myself together and go to the hospital morgue alone.
When I arrived at the morgue, a chilling cold air hit me right in the face.
I followed the nurse to my father-in-law's corpse, and the moment I saw it, I was so furious I nearly blacked out.
My father-in-law's corpse was carelessly thrown onto the cold mortuary slab. His clothes were torn in disarray, his face marked by several clear scratches, and his eyes hadn't even been closed—his gaze filled with pain and unwillingness.
"What on earth is going on here?" I grabbed the nurse's arm and asked angrily.
The nurse kept her head down, avoiding my gaze: "Mr. Quinn, I'm sorry, this... this was what Melinda instructed us to do."
"She said keeping uncle's body was pointless and told us to just handle it however we wanted."
"Did Melinda make you do this?" I could hardly believe what I was hearing. "How could she treat her own father like this? Does she have any humanity left?"
The nurse didn't dare say much, only kept apologizing over and over.
I struggled to hold back my anger and contacted the funeral home, asking them to come as soon as possible to collect my father-in-law's corpse for a proper burial.
After handling those matters, I set up a simple altar for my father-in-law at the funeral home.
I thought Melinda would at least come to the altar to pay her respects to her father, but she never showed up, not even when the altar was about to be taken down.
Just as I was about to leave, Melinda and Henry showed up holding the dog that had received my father-in-law's heart transplant.
"Reed, I came to visit Dad," Melinda said with a smile, deliberately holding the dog in front of the memorial altar. "Look, Dad's heart is beating in it—it's so full of life now."
Henry nodded beside her, "Yeah, Reed, you could say Uncle lives on in another form. We should be happy about that."
Seeing the vile smugness on their faces, I couldn't hold back any longer. I rushed forward, snatched the dog from their hands, and slammed it fiercely onto the ground:
"Get out of here! You're not welcome! You killed my father-in-law, and you still dare to cause trouble here? Aren't you afraid of divine punishment?"
The dog whimpered miserably on the ground. Melinda, heartbroken, ran over and scooped up the dog, shouting angrily at me:
"Reed Quinn! Are you insane? How dare you hit it!"
"That dog carries my dad's heart inside it. When you hit it, you're hitting my dad! You b*stard, are you wishing my dad no peace?"
"I'm wishing your dad no peace?" I was shaking with anger. "Melinda, wake up!"
"It was you and Henry who caused your father's death, not me!"
"You were the one trying to please Henry and recklessly let him be the primary surgeon—that's what caused your father's death! And now you're twisting the truth here—do you even have a conscience?"
Melinda didn't even listen to my explanation. She hugged the dog, grabbed Henry, and started to leave.
"Reed, you're utterly unreasonable! I don't want to waste my breath—I never want to see you again!"
Watching their backs as they walked away, I collapsed to the ground, powerless, tears finally streaming down my face.
My father-in-law loved Melinda dearly when he was alive, but he never would have imagined that he would die at the hands of his own daughter and be so disgraced even after death.
In my heart, I silently vowed to make Melinda and Henry pay for what they had done.
After all that had happened, I completely gave up on Melinda and didn't want any further entanglement with her.
I packed my things and moved back to my parents' home.
Seeing me so worn out, my parents were devastated and kept comforting me.
With my parents by my side, my mood gradually began to improve.
I started looking for work again, doing my best to get my life back on track.
I thought what happened between Melinda and me was behind us, but I didn't expect the peace to last long.
One afternoon, I was doing chores at home with my mother when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
I opened it to find a woman I didn't know standing there. She wore a neat professional outfit and held a folder in her hand.
"Are you Reed Quinn?" The woman asked with a smile.
I nodded. "Yes, that's me. May I ask who you are?"
"I'm the host of the well-known medical industry forum 'Medical Frontiers.' My name's Rachel." The woman handed me a business card.
"Our forum is about to hold a large-scale medical conference, and we'd like to invite you as a special guest."
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