But he just sat there, avoiding my eyes. “So, that’s it? Five years, and you’re just… done?” My hands curled into fists under the table.
He exhaled, sounding almost bored. “I don’t want to fight, Helena.”
I let out a shaky laugh, the kind that comes when you’re on the verge of breaking. “Oh, you don’t want to fight?
That’s funny because I don’t remember getting a say in any of this.”
He stood up, grabbing his keys. “I’ll be staying somewhere else for a while.”
Before I could say anything, he banged the door and left. Anna, my best friend, followed soon after.
She had been my rock, my lifeline through it all. But one day, she stopped answering my calls. My messages went unread.
Then, suddenly—blocked. On everything. Instagram, Facebook, and even my number.
It was like she had vanished off the face of the earth. I didn’t understand. Until I did.
It was my mother who found out first. She called me one evening, her voice hesitant. “Helena, sweetheart… I need you to check something.”
She sent me a link to Anna’s Instagram.
And there they were. Michael and Anna. Laughing on a sunlit beach, arms wrapped around each other like they had been in love for years.
His lips pressed against her temple, her head tilted back in laughter. I scrolled down, my hands trembling. Picture after picture, spanning weeks.
Dinners at expensive restaurants, trips to ski resorts, candlelit evenings by the fire. She had been posting them freely, openly—while I was still legally married to him. The betrayal burned through me like acid.
But if they thought I was going to collapse and fade away, they were sorely mistaken. I took my pain and turned it into power. Michael was sloppy, too caught up in his fantasy to cover his tracks.
The evidence of his affair was undeniable, legal ammunition in our divorce. In the end, I walked away with the house, half of his money, and the satisfaction of knowing he’d have to start over from scratch. He took my trust.
I took what I was owed. Starting over wasn’t easy. There were nights I lay awake, wondering if I would ever feel whole again.
If I would ever love again. But life has a way of rewarding resilience. A year later, I met Daniel.
He wasn’t just different from Michael—he was everything Michael wasn’t. Kind. Attentive.
He never made me feel like I was too much when I opened up about my past. When I told him about my miscarriage, about Michael and Anna’s betrayal, he just pulled me into his arms and whispered, “You deserved so much better.”
And for the first time in a long time, I believed it. We built a life together.
A real one, not some staged fantasy for Instagram. And soon after, we welcomed a baby into our world—a beautiful little girl with my eyes and his smile. I finally had the happiness that had been stolen from me.
Then, one night, fate handed me the sweetest kind of closure. I was rushing home from work, eager to see my husband and daughter, when I stopped at a gas station. The place was nearly empty, the flickering neon lights buzzing softly in the quiet night.
And that’s when I saw them. Michael and Anna. But gone were the designer clothes, the picture-perfect vacations, the air of effortless bliss.
Their car was an absolute wreck—rusted, dented, barely clinging to life. The sound of a baby’s cries pierced the air as Anna shifted the tiny bundle in her arms, her face twisted in frustration. Michael stood at the counter, swiping his card.
Once. Twice. Declined.
He groaned, running a hand through his unkempt hair. “Just try it again,” he snapped at the cashier. “Sir, I’ve tried it three times.”
Anna stormed up to him, hissing under her breath.
“Are you serious? We don’t even have gas money?”
“I told you things are tight,” Michael muttered. “Maybe if you stopped spending so damn much—”
“Oh, I’m the problem?” she shot back, bouncing the screaming baby in her arms.
“Maybe if you kept a damn job instead of flirting with cashiers—”
“That’s not what I was doing,” he gritted out. Anna let out a bitter laugh. “Sure.
Just like you ‘weren’t’ cheating on Helena, right?”
I bit back a grin. Karma is a beautiful thing. Michael let out a frustrated groan as the gas station clerk handed his useless card back.
“Unbelievable.”
“Yeah,” Anna snapped, shifting the baby in her arms. “It is unbelievable. You swore things were going to get better!”
“Oh, and you’re just so perfect?” He scoffed.
“Maybe if you hadn’t maxed out every damn credit card—”
“Are you kidding me?” she hissed. “I gave up everything for you!”
I watched from the shadows of my car, barely containing my laughter. Horns honked as their stalled-out junker blocked the pump.
A couple of impatient drivers finally stepped out, rolling their eyes. “Need a push, man?” one guy asked. Michael clenched his jaw.
“Yeah. Whatever.”
The men shoved the rusted heap to the side, leaving Anna standing there, red-faced and exhausted, jiggling a screaming baby on her hip. Michael kicked the tire.
“This is your fault, you know.”
Anna let out a bitter laugh. “My fault?” She turned to him, eyes blazing. “You want to know the truth, Michael?”
He crossed his arms.
“Oh, this should be good.”
She let out a humorless chuckle. “I think Helena got the better end of the deal.”
And with that, I put my car in drive and went home to my real happiness. If you think this story was wild, wait until you hear about the BBQ disaster that ended a marriage!
My husband invited his girl best friend to a family BBQ unaware it would be the last straw for me.Trust me, you don’t want to miss it. Click here to read the full story! This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes.
Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author. The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation.
This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
