The last person Isabel expected to see was her ex-husband, standing on her porch, gripping an envelope like his life depended on it. “Izzy, please,” he pleaded. “Just open it.” “Why would I?” She snapped. He swallowed hard: “BECAUSE IT’S ABOUT YOUR MOM.” What she saw inside shook her to the core.
I never thought I’d be the kind of woman who filed for divorce just days after her wedding. But I did. And yesterday, something happened that made me realize I’d been wrong about everything: Betrayal doesn’t just come from the person you marry. It can come from the person who raised you…
A woman placing her wedding ring on the table | Source: Pexels
It started when my ex-husband — technically “ex” for only a few days — showed up at my door, holding a thick envelope in his hands.
“Please don’t slam the door in my face,” he pleaded. “Izzy, please… Just open it. You need to see this.”
My fingers trembled on the doorknob. “Why would I? Josh, I can’t do this. Not now. Not ever. Go away.”
“Because it’s about your mom. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be. You know that.”
My stomach twisted. “My mom?”
I should’ve slammed the door. I should’ve told him to get lost. Instead, I just stood there, gripping the edge of the doorframe so hard my fingers ached.
Then he handed me the envelope.
A sad man holding an envelope | Source: Midjourney
“Just look at these photos,” he said. His eyes — God, his eyes — looked wrecked.
Josh was “the cheater.” The liar. The reason I walked away from my marriage. Why was he standing here, bringing up my mother?
I snatched the envelope from his hands and ripped it open. And when I saw what was inside, MY BLOOD TURNED TO ICE.
A startled woman holding an envelope | Source: Midjourney
Let me back up so you understand why this hit me like a shockwave.
Josh and I weren’t some whirlwind romance. We’d known each other since high school.
He was the boy with paint-stained hands, worn-out sneakers, and a smile that could break your heart. The one who spent his days sketching in the back of the classroom and never cared that people whispered about his thrift-store clothes or the fact that his dad had walked out when he was 12.
I loved him anyway.
But my mother? She hated him.
A romantic couple lost in love by the sea | Source: Unsplash
She called him “a boy with no future,” the kind of person who would only “drag me down.” So when I left for college in another state, she was thrilled. I was free of Josh. And for years, she believed that was for the best.
Until six months ago.
I had just moved back to my hometown. One night, I walked into a bar, and there he was. Josh. Older and rougher around the edges, but still him.
“Isabel?” he’d said, his voice soft with disbelief. “Is that really YOU?”
I remember how my heart had stuttered seeing him there. The years had been kind to him — he’d grown into his lanky frame, and those artist’s hands now bore calluses from hard work. But his eyes… they were the same ones I’d fallen into at 17.
A man smiling in a bar | Source: Midjourney
“I never thought I’d see you here again,” he’d said, sliding onto the barstool next to mine. “Last I heard, you were conquering the corporate world in Chicago.”
I smiled, twirling my glass. “Things change. I missed home. And everything dear to me.”
One drink turned into two. And two turned into a long walk under streetlights.
“Remember that time we snuck into the art room after hours?” I asked, laughing. “You were so determined to finish that painting before the exhibition.”
He grinned, nudging my shoulder. “And you were my lookout. Worst lookout ever, by the way. You got distracted by a stray cat.”
“Hey! That cat needed attention!”
And before I knew it, we were falling in love again.
Cropped shot of young lovers holding hands | Source: Unsplash
Within a month, we were married. Fast? Sure. But when you love someone and when you’ve always loved them, what’s the point in waiting?
The wedding was small — just us and a few friends at the courthouse, followed by a reception at a luxurious hotel. Josh had surprised me by booking the honeymoon suite, even though I knew it must have stretched his budget.
“You deserve everything,” he whispered that night. “I’ll spend my whole life trying to give it to you.”
I believed him. God, I believed him with every fiber of my being.
Newlyweds holding hands in a sunlit field | Source: Unsplash
That night, I was out with my friends for an after-wedding party. Josh had been exhausted, so he went up to our hotel room early to sleep.
Two days later, I got the damning photos — Josh, passed out in a hotel bed with a WOMAN beside him… at the same hotel where we had our wedding reception.
He swore he didn’t remember anything. Swore he had gone to bed drunk and alone. But what was I supposed to do? The proof was right there. So I filed for divorce.
Close-up shot of a couple in bed | Source: Pexels
“Please,” he begged. “Please, Izzy, you have to believe me. I would never —”
But I’d already stopped listening and started packing.
And now, here he was, standing on my porch with an envelope, telling me I’d been WRONG.
My hands shook as I flipped through the photos.
The first one was from a hallway security camera. It showed a woman — the same woman from the pictures that destroyed my marriage — standing outside Josh’s hotel room.
But she wasn’t alone. She was with another man.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. “What am I looking at?”
A puzzled woman looking at a picture | Source: Midjourney
Josh’s hands were clenched at his sides. “Keep going. Please.”
I swallowed hard and flipped to the next photo. The timestamp was two minutes later. The woman and the man were leaving the room.
That made no sense. Two minutes?
“The timing,” I said, my voice shaking. “This can’t be right.”
A woman walking away | Source: Pexels
“It is,” Josh added. “I’ve checked the timestamps a hundred times.”
I looked up at him, my throat dry. “What… what is this?”
Josh exhaled. “It’s proof. I told you I didn’t cheat, Izzy. I was drunk, passed out, and someone staged the whole thing.”
My mind raced, trying to piece it together. “But who would…? Why would anyone…?”
I flipped to the last photo. And that’s when I felt my stomach turn inside out.
It was taken outside the hotel. My MOTHER was in it.
She was standing with the woman and the man, handing them money.
A rich older woman holding a wad of cash | Source: Midjourney
I stumbled back like I’d been slapped. “No. No, that’s not —”
“I knew something wasn’t right,” Josh said. “I got a job at the hotel, in security, just to access these. And this? This is the truth.”
I stared at the picture, bile rising in my throat. My mother. Paying them off. Paying them to RUIN MY MARRIAGE?
The car ride to my mother’s house was a blur.
Josh sat beside me, silent, his hands gripping his jeans. But neither of us spoke.
A car on the road | Source: Unsplash
The same streets I’d driven a thousand times before now felt foreign and hostile. Each familiar landmark was a reminder of a childhood filled with my mother’s “guidance” and her constant need to shape my life into her vision of perfection.
“Pull over,” Josh said suddenly.
I jerked the wheel, bringing the car to a stop beneath a sprawling oak tree. The same tree I used to climb as a kid, while my mother called out warnings about ruining my clothes.
“You’re shaking,” Josh said softly.
I looked down at my hands on the steering wheel. He was right.
Close-up shot of a woman driving a car | Source: Unsplash
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I whispered.
“We can turn around.”
I shook my head. Not until we pulled into my mother’s driveway. “No. No, I need to know why. I need to hear her say it.”
“You don’t have to do this, Isabel.”
I swallowed, my grip tightening on the steering wheel. “Yes, I do.”
Twenty minutes later, I marched up to the front door and banged on it.
A distressed woman standing outside a building | Source: Midjourney
A few seconds later, my mother opened it, wearing her usual carefully polished smile. The same smile she’d worn when she helped me pack my bags after the wedding. When she told me I was “better off without Josh.”
“Isabel, sweetheart! I wasn’t expecting —”
I threw the photos at her chest. “What the hell is this?”
She caught them, startled. Her eyes darted down. And in that moment, I saw it. The flicker of recognition. And guilt.
Then, just as quickly, she masked it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t,” I snapped. “Don’t you dare lie to me. You did this. You destroyed my marriage. WHY?”
A rich older woman standing at the doorway | Source: Midjourney
Her lips pursed. “I did what was best for you.”
I laughed. “Best for me? You ruined my life!”
“You don’t understand,” she said, her voice taking on that familiar condescending tone. “I’ve watched you make mistakes your whole life, Isabel. Running around with this boy in high school, wasting your talent on childish dreams —”
“My mistakes were mine to make!” I shouted. “You had no right!”
Josh stepped forward. “You wanted her to think I cheated. You wanted her to leave me.”
She lifted her chin, unfazed. “She deserves better than you.”
An annoyed older lady pointing her finger at someone | Source: Midjourney
“Better?” My voice cracked. “Better than someone who spent weeks working security shifts just to prove his innocence? Better than someone who never stopped fighting for us?”
I felt my hands tremble. “Better than someone who actually loves me? Better than someone who would go to any lengths to prove the truth?”
My mother sighed, rubbing her temples like she was exhausted. Like I was still that difficult child who needed to be corrected. “Sweetheart, be honest with yourself. You were going to end up like him. Struggling. Broke. A failed artist’s wife. I gave you a chance to escape that life.”
A disheartened young woman | Source: Midjourney
I took a step back, my vision blurring with pure, unfiltered rage.
“You didn’t protect me. You didn’t care about my happiness. You cared about controlling me.”
Her jaw tightened. “You’ll understand someday. When you have children of your own —”
“No,” I cut her off, my voice ice-cold. “I will never understand this. And if I have children, they’ll never know you. Never know what it’s like to have their lives manipulated by someone who claims to love them.”
“You don’t mean that,” she whispered.
“I do. You’re not my mother anymore.”
And I walked away.
Josh and I sat in my car for a long time. Neither of us spoke.
A heartbroken woman sitting in the car | Source: Midjourney
The setting sun painted the sky in shades of orange and pink — the same colors Josh used in his paintings. I wondered if he still painted. Although we’d been separated for a short time, it felt like we had lost years… memories, moments, and pieces of each other we could never get back.
Finally, I turned to him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Josh swallowed, his voice rough. “You don’t have to be.”
I shook my head. “I do. I let her manipulate me. Again. Just like she always has.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Do you still love me?” he then asked, shattering the stillness around us and in my heart.
Tears burned my eyes. “Yes.”
His breath hitched. “Then let’s fix this. Together.”
I nodded, gripping his hand like a lifeline. Because the truth was, I had lost my mother that day. But maybe, just maybe, I hadn’t lost my husband.
A couple holding hands in the car | Source: Pexels
This morning, I stood in our shared apartment, surrounded by half-unpacked boxes and the smell of fresh paint. Josh’s easel sat by the window — he’d started painting again, filling our space with colors and light.
“Look what I found,” he called from across the room.
I turned to see him holding an old photograph. Us at 18, covered in paint after an impromptu art room session. My mother had hated that photo… said it was “undignified.”
“We were happy,” I said softly.
Josh set the photo down and hugged me. “We still are.”
I leaned into him, breathing in the familiar scent of paint and coffee. “I got another message from her today.”
“And?”
“I didn’t read it.” I closed my eyes. “Some bridges stay burned.”
A man smiling | Source: Midjourney
He kissed my temple. “Are you okay?”
I thought about the girl in that old photograph. About the woman who let her mother’s fears become her own. About the person I was becoming now… stronger, freer, and truly loved.
“Yeah,” I said. “I really am.”
Because sometimes the hardest choices lead us home. Sometimes letting go of the past means finding your future. And sometimes, the family you choose becomes the family you were always meant to have.
Josh and I might not have had the perfect wedding, or the perfect start. But we had something better… the truth. And in the end, that was all we needed. That, and each other.
A couple embracing each other | Source: Unsplash
New Father Kicks Wife With Newborn Twins onto the Streets, Years Later He Begs Her for Help – Story of the Day
A minted father who is unwilling to spend money to raise his newborn twins asks his wife to give up one baby for adoption. He kicks her out with the babies when she refuses and knocks on her door for help five years later.
It was a cold, rainy night, and Angie cradled her newborn babies at the bus stop. “Where will we go? Jesus, please help us. Shelter us as we wait out this rough night,” she cried, wiping warm tear droplets off her babies’ faces. Angie had nowhere to go, and her parents had died long back.
Suddenly, she sensed something creeping behind her and was terrified. Angie mustered the courage to protect her babies from whatever it was. “It’s a dog!” she sighed.
Angie never imagined her life would turn topsy-turvy overnight. She never thought her husband Jake, who she trusted and loved throughout their marriage, would kick her out with their babies just a week after their birth…
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pixabay
“How I wish my mom were with me today…Sorry, mama, I should’ve listened to you and not rushed with my marriage with Jake,” sobbed Angie, thinking about her late mom.
“You can stay in this house as long as you agree to keep just one baby or leave if you want to keep both. Decide wisely, dear.”
Angie met Jake after graduation five years ago. He was a young, handsome man, and she thought he was the one. They fell for each other in what would turn into a fairytale love story, but with one exception—there was no ‘happily ever after’ in Angie’s case.
Problems sparked in the fourth year of their marriage when she told Jake she was pregnant.
“But darling, you know I’ve just started my business. We have postponed baby planning all these years, and I am not ready to be a father yet,” Jake was upset when Angie showed him the two pink lines on her pregnancy test kit.
Jake’s reluctance to be a father showed he was unprepared for responsibilities. Poor Angie was torn between his disapproval of having children and her desire to have as many as possible. But was Jake prepared to know Angie was pregnant with twins?
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“I am okay with having a baby…you get it? I mean, one baby is enough,” said Jake as Angie walked into the ward for scanning. “I pray that you don’t come out and tell me we are having twins,” he joked, his mouth curved into an ironic smile. Moments later, fate joked back at him.
Angie came out, distressed and worried. She was pale while she was supposed to be blushing and smiling.
“What is it?” he asked her, impatient for her reply. “What did the doctor say?”
Angie swallowed her fear and spoke out, partly guessing Jake’s reaction. “Our babies are fine,” she said.
“Alright…wait, what…babies?” he exclaimed.
The scan Angie took minutes ago gave her a glimpse at two tiny lives growing inside her. She was pregnant with twins, and Jake was not happy about that.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Jake stormed to his car as Angie read his mind and pictured his frustrations. She was nervous and thought he had joked about having only one baby. But his reactions proved otherwise.
Jake grew distant from Angie day by day and focused only on making more money. She knew he was upset about having twins and assumed he would cool down with time. But it only worsened during her third trimester.
Angie was in the hospital, waiting for Jake to see their newborn twin baby girls. But he never showed up. He sent his maid and driver three days later to bring Angie and their babies home.
Jake did not want to get involved with his babies. He didn’t even welcome them home or hold them. He was unhappy and unprepared to be their father.
Angie returned home with her newborns that evening, knowing little about Jake’s condition. “We keep only one child and give the other up for adoption. If you are okay with it, we are a family. If not, you can leave the house with them,” he told Angie.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
At first, Angie thought Jake was kidding. He dragged her suitcase to the living room and placed it in front of her, indicating he was serious.
“I’m not ready to raise two children and burn a hole in my pocket. My business is fetching a lot of profits, and I need to focus on making more money…I don’t want to waste my time and wealth on raising two babies when I can easily raise just one,” he explained.
Angie was devastated. “They are our babies, Jake. How could you ask a mother to give up her baby? Are you out of your mind? Both my babies are our symbol of love,” she cried. But Jake was stubborn.
“My business has just started to flourish, and I don’t have the time to focus on family. I don’t want to waste my hard-earned money on two babies. You can stay in this house as long as you agree to keep just one baby or leave if you want to keep both. Decide wisely, dear,” he said, despite knowing Angie had nowhere to go.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Unsplash
The poor mother’s choice was obvious. She took her suitcase and left the house with the babies. Jake’s greed for his newfound riches blinded his devotion to family. He failed as a husband and a father. But it didn’t matter to him.
Angie snapped to her present and found herself still deserted at the bus stop, cradling her babies. “Where will I go? Please help me, Jesus,” she cried and was disrupted by an intense beam of light rays.
“Hello there, are you alright? It’s raining heavily. Would you like a ride, my dear?” an older woman called out to her from a taxi. Angie looked up and saw a nun. She wrapped her babies in her jacket and approached the car.
“Oh my, how adorable your babies are!” exclaimed the nun. “Get in. I’ll drop you. Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know, Sister,” said Angie. “My path is dark, and I am lost. I don’t know which way to go. My babies and I were abandoned by someone dear to us.”
The nun understood Angie’s misery and immediately took her to the convent.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Unsplash
Angie and her daughters, Sophie and Marley, found a safe shelter to wait out the rough days of their lives. Angie taught in the school administered by the church. She also worked part-time in a restaurant, and two years later, she saved a good chunk of money to start her café.
Gradually, Angie was able to give her daughters a better life, though it could’ve been much better had their father been involved. Moreover, Angie did not regret her decision not wanting to divorce Jake. Deep in her heart, she hoped he would realize his mistake and come for them someday.
Five years passed, and Angie now had her own house. It was quite small yet comfortable. She spent the best years watching Sophia and Marley grow up.
There were times when Angie used to struggle without enough profits in business, but her faith and determination motivated her. She launched two more coffee shops in town, and gradually, her fortune grew. But in the other part of town, Jake’s business tanked.
He was drowned in debt, and everybody he sought financial help from refused to support him at the last minute. Jake knew how rich Angie was now and thought only she could help him.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pixabay
“Hey, how are you?” Angie answered the door one day when she least expected to see Jake at the doorstep. “Come in!”
Jake vaguely smiled and immediately apologized to Angie. “Darling, I’m so sorry for abandoning you. My greed to earn more money cost me big. I am bankrupt, and it’s the best punishment I deserve for kicking you out with our babies. Please forgive me, and please help me.”
Angie now understood why Jake had come. She had learned about his loss in business but never thought he would visit her and apologize, let alone ask for help.
Jake saw a photo of Angie with their daughters and cried. “I’m sorry, sweethearts. Please forgive your daddy,” he said. Angie’s heart melted, and though she knew Jake had come crawling for help, she was willing to do it because she still loved him.
“But darling, I will not be able to repay such a huge amount of money. I will need time. I was such a cruel husband and a heartless father. Are you sure you want to help me?” he sobbed when Angie gave him a check worth the money he wanted.
“The night you kicked me out, I learned what greed is and how it can ruin relationships. And today, I learned what forgiveness is. What are we going to achieve by holding onto our past grudges? Nothing! Everyone makes mistakes, but as humans, we must learn to forgive one another,” said Angie.
Jake realized his mistake and promised to take Angie and their kids back once he sorted his business issues. He wanted to be a good father to his children and compensate for the heartbreak Angie endured all these years.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Unsplash
What can we learn from this story?
- Do not walk past the needy. When the nun saw Angie and her newborn babies stranded at the bus stop on a rainy night, she offered them a ride. She took them to the convent and offered shelter after learning of the mother’s misery.
- One of the best attributes of humans is our ability to forgive. Despite being wronged by Jake, Angie forgave him and helped him financially when he came to her and apologized.
A woman in labor with her second child gets a call and learns her older son she neglected throughout his life has died an hour before. Click here to read the full story.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.
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