Costly Misunderstanding - Short story based on a news report

David’s eyes opened to the sound of a rooster crowing. He thought it was a beautiful sound. Each morning that rooster reminded him that he had his own 24 acres, a stepson, and a beautiful wife expecting their child.    
     
He prepared the coffee before Paiden made her entrance.      
     
“You look great,” he said.      
     
She laughed. “No makeup, a swollen belly, and messed up hair? Oh, I’m sure I look splendid.”      
     
David walked over and gave her a peck on the lips.      
     
“So gross,” she said. I haven’t even brushed. David laughed thinking about the night before.      
     
“Those lips are beautiful anytime. I’m not so sure about those braces though,” he said kissing her again. She laughed.      
     
Paiden had always wished for straight teeth. Now that she and her husband had good incomes she could afford braces. Paiden had been the beauty queen in high school despite a couple of crooked bottom teeth. She was raised by loving grandparents since her mother couldn’t provide for her due to opioid addiction. Her father had been one of her mom’s repeated whirlwind affairs. She never knew which one.      
     
Paiden had made it through, even having a baby at 16. She finished high school and got trained as a nurse. She had a family, work that she loved, and a home with land on the edge of a town in the Missouri Ozarks.      
     
As David sipped his coffee, he watched his wife’s hands breaking eggs into a skillet. He thought they were beautiful. He couldn’t look at them without thinking of the pleasure they gave him. He remembered the night before when he’d stood by their bed as she sat letting her fingers glide over him barely touching. He looked down amazed at how beautiful her breasts were poised firmly above her swollen belly only weeks from her delivery date.      
     
They’d made love and Paiden laughed at how careful David was.      
     
“I’m not a china doll,” she said as he caressed her stomach afraid to enter her.      
     
When she moved from the edge of the bed to the center and spread herself before him, he remembered their first times. She was the athletic beauty and high school cheerleader hotly pursued by all the boys. He was the shy guy who barely had two girlfriends before his senior year.      
     
That was the year he decided to win her heart regardless of the competition. He asked her out three times before she finally agreed and then it took a few weeks for her to work him into her schedule. He wasn’t naïve. She’d had a child and he’d heard rumors about how much fun Paiden could be, but he didn’t care. He would have her and all of her past troubles would disappear.      
     
David’s mind drifted back to the night before. Even pregnant, Paiden always asked that he come inside of her. He suspected this was because to do otherwise might remind her of other experiences she’d had with boys. He happily complied.      
     
They were excited about her new baby and her 5-year-old son was looking forward to being the big brother. David loved his stepson as if he belonged to him. He knew the boy’s father and respected him, but they never talked.      
     
It’s interesting how all life’s frames of reference can change at a moment’s notice. After breakfast, David heard a ping he thought was from his phone. Paiden was taking a shower so he looked at the screen.      
     
“Can we meet before your shift today?” He was shaken. What did this mean? The name was a young doctor, Hunter.      
     
He’d wait and hope it was innocent but doubt crept in.      
     
“I need to go in early today.” Paiden was standing nude in the hallway toweling off.  David loved the way her long hair wet matted against her shoulders and back.      
     
“Why’s that?” he asked.      
     
“Training meeting,” she said.      
     
That was all. What is she hiding?  David was perplexed and felt a fit of burning jealousy rising inside.      
     
“Well, I’ll be off. Can you get Alex to the daycare?”      
     
Now, David felt the burn. She always took Alex to daycare. Something wasn’t right.      
     
All day as he worked wiring on new construction, he obsessed about Paiden. He imagined her “early meeting with Dr. Hunter.“      
     
“I think my wife is having an affair.”      
     
“Why’s that?” answered his buddy at work.      
     
“Suspicious text.”      
     
“Oh man, that sounds bad. My ex saw some of my texts and walked out.”      
     
“I remember that,” Dave said.      
     
“You’re sure?”      
     
“Yes. A text doesn’t lie,” said David. “I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”      
“How’s that?” said his buddy.      
     
“I don’t know but I’ll fix this tonight.”      
     
“Don’t do anything rash.”      
     
“What? Like have sex with one of the ladies in dispatch,” Dave said.      
     
“You got me there,” said his buddy.      
     
When David got home, his first words to Paiden were, “Let’s fuck.”      
     
She said, “Well? Yes. OK. You’re usually not so…direct.”      
     
David smiled with a broken grin. “Life’s short. He paused and thought for a second. AND you’re going to be incapacitated with that baby soon. Better harvest in season.”      
     
“Was everything OK with your meeting this morning?” David watched her face closely.      
     
Paiden looked toward an open window. “The meeting?”      
     
“With Doctor Hunter!“      
     
“Yes, sorry, yes. I’d forgotten about it.”      
     
The corners of David’s mouth turned down. “Oh, you forgot about the meeting that you left early for? And that I had to take Levi to daycare for?”      
     
Paiden’s eyes wrinkled. “What’s wrong, David? I’ve not been myself lately. Carrying this baby has been hard with my work schedule, but we need both incomes as long as we can get them.”      
     
“I know my job doesn’t pay. Maybe you’d have been better off with one of your old boyfriends…..or that young doctor!” David turned toward the bedroom.      
     
“That’s not fair. I love you and nothing's happening with any doctor.” Paiden cried.      
     
Levi cried from his bedroom. “Now Levi’s awake.”      
     
“All my fault,” David said, but with a sarcastic tone. “I’m going to bed. Would you like me to use the couch?”      
     
“Don’t be stupid,” replied Paiden through her tears. Once this baby comes, things will be better for us.”      
     
David crawled into bed. Within a few minutes, Levi was quiet. Paiden crept into the room and to the shower.      
     
David lay there stewing. He whispered to himself, “I can’t believe my wife is having an affair a few weeks before having our baby. Well, I suppose she’s having our baby.”      
     
When Paiden came from the shower, David saw her in the dim light. She'd pulled her hair up to keep dry. She toweled her body off quietly and then crawled into bed without putting on her pajamas.      
     
David immediately felt her heat and he stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes, he felt Paiden’s fingers sliding under his side.      
     
He felt his pulse quicken and rolled over to meet her, wrapping his arms around her waist and letting his hardening cock press into her stomach  
 
He leaned down and separated her inner lips with his tongue. He couldn't see her pussy in the dark but held a mental picture of her pink protruding labia and how they would spread to the touch of his tongue. Paiden moaned softly and spread her legs.      
     
“Life’s too short to fight,” she said. “Make love to me.”        
     
And that’s what David did. He fucked her as he’d never done before. The whole time, he felt rage boiling up inside. When he felt release approaching he pulled out and knelt over Paiden's face.  In the dim light, he could see her surprise. Her new braces sparked and she spoke.      
     
“What are you doing?” she asked.      
     
“I’m pretending to be one of your lovers,” David said with a dark tone.      
     
“No. Stop. Don’t do this,” cried Paiden her eyes filling with tears.      
     
“Oh, I’ll stop eventually,” said David as stroked his cock over Paiden, the streams of his anger flowing over her face.      
     
She was quiet and accepted his ejaculation though he heard her crying softly.      
     
When he finished, he put his hands over her breasts and felt Paiden's body convulsing like a child about to throw up.  
     
"I'm sorry," he said, but he remained over her with his hands cupping her breasts for several silent seconds. Then he rose from the bed and went to the closet.      
     
“What are you doing?” called Paiden behind him.      
     
“I’m checking on Levi,” he said.      
     
“He’s fine. I'm sure he’s asleep,” she said.     
     
“I know. I just want to....check on him,” said David barely audible. He left the room slowly the door swinging into the hallway with a creaking sound.  
     
As Paiden lay exhausted from sex and swirling emotions, all was quiet except for her soft sniffling. She heard David's bare feet against the floor and then they paused.      
     
The whole house shook with a boom. “Levi!” cried Paiden, and she rose from the bed.      
     
“What have you done?” she screamed as she hobbled to the hallway where she met David’s dark outline.      
     
They stood silently facing each other for a moment, then there was a flash. Paiden fell back with fire in her chest. “Why?” she screamed.      
     
As she lay on the floor still conscious, she heard David say, “I’ll not share you with any man. I’ll not raise your love child as my own either.”      
     
“What have you done?” whispered Paiden. “Dr. Hunter, Dr. Burke, and the office manager were all in the meeting this morning.” Paiden’s voice lowered to a whisper. He couldn’t make out what she said      
     
“I doubt that,” said David raising the barrel of his 12-gauge. He didn’t fire again toward her but knelt to look at her wound. Even in the dim light, he saw her chest was ground meat, and injuries extended into her stomach. He touched her cheek and felt his cum still wet and warm against her skin. He knew she was gone and the baby too. Her son lay dying in the next room.      
     
The graveness of what he'd done fell over him like a weighted blanket. He felt hot beneath it. He raised the barrel to his chin and reached down to the trigger.      
     
The world kept turning after that night, but a small Missouri town was stunned under the weight of such violence. The police said it was the worst they’d seen. Those who responded had to have counseling afterward.      
     
For weeks, the community struggled to make sense of something that could never be understood. One of Paiden’s coworkers was heard telling reporters, “It was so tragic that Paiden never got to take the promotion she was offered the same day she was killed.”