As Henry lay on his deathbed, the room was quiet except for the faint beeping of the monitor and the slow, uneven rhythm of his breathing. Martha, his wife of 50 years, sat beside him, clutching his frail hand. She could feel time slipping away, and so could he.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With trembling lips, Henry whispered, \u201cMartha\u2026 soon I\u2019ll be gone forever, and there\u2019s something I have to know. In all these years of marriage\u2026 have you ever been unfaithful to me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martha froze. Her eyes filled with tears. She knew this moment would come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, Henry\u2026 I have to be honest with you,\u201d she said softly. \u201cYes\u2026 I\u2019ve been unfaithful three times. But only for good reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry felt his heart drop, but he held himself together. \u201cI never suspected,\u201d he muttered. \u201cWhat do you mean by good reasons?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She took a deep breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first time was after we got married, when we were about to lose our home. We couldn\u2019t pay the mortgage. Do you remember that evening I went to talk to the banker\u2026 and the next day he suddenly agreed to extend our loan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry nodded slowly. \u201cI remember. You\u2026 saved our home. I can forgive that. But the second time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martha continued, \u201cYears later, when you were desperately ill\u2026 we didn\u2019t have the money to pay for the heart surgery you needed. I went to see your doctor late one night\u2026 and the next morning, he said he\u2019d do the operation for free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henry\u2019s eyes filled \u2014 with shock, with hurt, with gratitude all mixed together. \u201cYou saved my life,\u201d he whispered. \u201cI\u2026 I can understand that too. And the third time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martha hesitated\u2026 then looked him straight in the eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell, Henry\u2026 do you remember when you ran for president of the golf club\u2026 and you needed 73 more votes<\/strong>?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Henry lay on his deathbed, the room was quiet except for the faint beeping of the monitor and the slow, uneven rhythm of his breathing. Martha,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}