Steve begins his day like any other — nothing out of the ordinary, just a man saying goodbye to his wife as he leaves for work. But as the day moves on, he receives urgent calls and texts from his son. When he gets home, nothing is as it seems. Now, there’s a strange man in his house, a pregnant wife with a baby that may not be his, and a crying son. What does it all mean?
The day started like any other. My wife, three months pregnant, kissed me goodbye as I left for work, her smile as reassuring as the morning sun.
A couple kissing | Source: Pexels
“I’ll cook when I get home,” I told her. “Don’t worry about it.”
Laura worked from home, so I knew that she was going to get our son, Jackson, ready for school and out the door before heading back to bed. There she would read a book and have her morning cup of tea before logging onto work.
A woman reading in bed | Source: Pexels
I worked through the day, approving marketing strategies and listening to presentations, all the while thinking of baby names for the little tot we were going to meet in a few months.
But as the office clock ticked past two, my phone vibrated insistently. Glancing at the screen, I saw my son’s name flashing. I was in a meeting, which was in full swing, so I had no choice but to silence his call.
A man sitting in an office and using his phone | Source: Pexels
Knowing Jackson, he probably wanted to ask if he could go out after school. He and his friends had discovered the thrills of bowling, and they often tried to finesse their way into after-school hangouts.
A bowling lane | Source: Pexels
When my phone lit up a second time, a knot tightened in my stomach — urgency pulsed through the text that Jackson sent, seconds after I silenced his second call:
Dad, please come home! It’s about Mom! I’m scared.
Panic, raw and unfiltered, coursed through me. Excusing myself from the meeting, I rushed to the parking lot, my hands trembling as I dialed my son’s number.
A person using a phone | Source: Pexels
But my call to Jackson went unanswered. I tried my wife next but was met with the same eerie silence.
With my heart pounding against my chest, I floored the accelerator, my mind racing with dreadful possibilities.
A man driving | Source: Pexels
Every red light was a torturous wait, every slow driver a test of my fraying patience. I was thinking the worst. That Laura had been in some kind of accident. That there was a pool of blood in the kitchen or bathroom.
Turning onto our street, my breath caught at the sight of my mother standing on the porch, her face pale. She stood there, her fists clenching and unclenching every few seconds.
An older woman standing outside | Source: Pexels
“What on earth is going on?” I asked. “Is Laura okay?”
“I’m so sorry, Steve,” she said, her voice faltering, and the ground giving in beneath my feet.
“What? No! What happened? Is it the baby? Tell me, Mom!”
My mother looked confused for a moment, and then her next words struck a different, unforeseen chord. Her eyes met mine, filled with a sorrow that immediately told me whatever news came next, it wouldn’t be good.
A shocked man | Source: Pexels
“No, darling,” she said. “She is fine!”
“Then why did you apologize?” I asked, wondering why I was still standing on the porch instead of rushing to see my wife.
But there was something about my mother’s overall energy that made me feel uneasy. I put my briefcase down at my feet, waiting for her to say something.
A man holding a briefcase | Source: Unsplash
“I apologized because I didn’t want to be the one to tell you,” she said. “But Laura has been cheating on you.”
The world stopped spinning. The betrayal sliced through the shock.
It turned out that my mother had come home because she wanted to use our bathroom.
A white ceramic bathtub | Source: Unsplash
“My building doesn’t have any water, and I just wanted to come over and shower,” she said. “I came in, and there she was with him.”
It turns out that when my mom walked in, Laura had been on the couch with the man she was having an affair with. My mother couldn’t let him leave; she wanted him to be there when I got home.
A couple sleeping on a couch | Source: Pexels
A mix of anger and agony surged through my veins as I pushed past her into the house. The scene before me — a man, disheveled and awkward, trying to avoid my gaze — was like a surreal nightmare.
“Who are you?” my voice was a low growl, directed at the stranger in my living room. He started to speak, but I couldn’t hear him over the blood roaring in my ears.
An angry man sitting down | Source: Pexels
Then, she appeared. Laura. My wife. Her face was ashen and her eyes brimming with tears. She reached out to me, a gesture which was once so familiar, yet felt so alien now.
“Steve,” she said through her tears. “I’m so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you like this.”
“Sorry?” my laughter came out bitter, hollow even. “You destroy our family, and you’re sorry?”
A close-up of a crying woman | Source: Pexels
The room suddenly filled with the sound of our son’s crying, his body shaking in the living room doorway. Seeing him — a witness to our crumbling lives, broke through my anger, replacing it with profound sorrow.
“Come here, buddy,” I said softly, reaching out to hold onto him.
“Why, Mom?” he asked. “Why did you do it?”
An upset teenage boy | Source: Pexels
Jackson’s voice was muffled against my shirt, his question simple yet loaded with confusion and hurt.
It turned out that he had walked in when my mother was confronting Laura; his initial response was that something had happened to Laura because of her crying. He wanted to protect her. But then, his grandmother had taken him into the kitchen and made him a sandwich, telling him the truth.
A person making a sandwich | Source: Pexels
Laura knelt beside us, her hand reaching out, but I pulled him closer to me.
“Sometimes, people make terrible mistakes,” she said, her voice breaking. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you both.”
“But it does mean that things can’t stay the same,” I added quietly, the reality settling in.
I couldn’t believe that my wife had cheated on me. It made me question everything, including the paternity of the baby that Laura was carrying.
A man holding his head | Source: Pexels
As we sat there on the couch, Laura reached out to me. She went on about promises and wanting to make things right.
But I didn’t see how we could move past it and be okay. I wanted Jackson to live in a home with two parents who loved and trusted each other, but after this — I didn’t see a way through it.
A couple sitting on a couch | Source: Pexels
Later that evening, I took Jackson out for dinner. We needed to escape our home and the uneasy atmosphere that had taken over. We needed a break.
“Will you move out?” he asked me as he dug into his burger.
“No,” I reassured him. “Mom and I need to figure some things out, sure, but I’m not going anywhere.”
He nodded at me.
A burger and fries on a plate | Source: Pexels
“I thought that Mom wasn’t okay,” he admitted. “When I got home from school, Gran was trying to get Mom to come out of the bathroom — she kept calling and Mom just kept on crying. I didn’t know that there was another man in the house.”
“Where was he?” I asked, cracking open a beer.
“He was sitting on your bed, or so Gran told me,” Jackson said.
A person holding a beer bottle | Source: Pexels
After dinner, we just didn’t want to go home. There was a disconnect between our home and the reality of the situation. But I was grateful that I had Jackson with me.
Much later that night, when I went home, Laura was sitting on the couch biting her nails — something she did whenever she was stressed.
“What now?” she asked. “Tell me what to do. Tell me how to make it right.”
She moved the book that was next to her and patted the couch.
A woman laying on a couch with a book | Source: Pexels
“I think only time will decide that,” I said. “But I need you to tell me the truth — is the baby mine?”
Laura closed her eyes and took a deep breath, barely able to contain her anxiety. I could feel it, bubbling off her skin and surrounding the room.
“I’m not sure,” she whispered.
In the next few weeks, Laura decided to go for therapy — she said that she needed to understand why she acted out.
“I didn’t think that I would be the person to do this,” she said while making us cups of tea.
“But you did,” I said.
A woman during a therapy session | Source: Pexels
Laura nodded.
“I’m going to stick around until the baby is born,” I said. “And once we do a DNA test, we can decide on our marriage.”
I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but I do know that I’m not prepared for the reality of that test.
A DNA test swab | Source: Unsplash
What would you do?
Enjoyed this story? Here’s another one for you! |
Husband Texts He’s in a Business Meeting & Cancels Our Date—I Saw Him Leaving Work at the Same Time
Leighton, after witnessing how her parents celebrated their anniversary, is sure about one thing — when she gets married, she will do just that. But when her anniversary rolls around, her husband skips their romantic dinner and lies about a meeting. Curiosity prevails, and Leighton follows Josh, only to find him at a motel with the first person he ever loved. Is there a hidden truth, or is the story exactly what it looks like?
I grew up in a home where anniversaries were important and had to be celebrated. It was just something that my parents always paid extra attention to.
My mother would bake a cake every year on their anniversary, even if my father had dinner plans for them.
A woman and little girl decorating a cake | Source: Pexels
“It’s important to celebrate a marriage, Leighton,” my mother would say.
And she would usually be decorating the cake at this point.
“I mean, you’ll understand it one day,” she said. “But married life is difficult, and that’s why you have to celebrate making it another year.”
A little girl decorating a cake | Source: Pexels
Since then, I knew that if I ever got married, wedding anniversaries would be a big deal.
And then I met Josh, who seemed to understand the importance of it — or at least, the sentimentality of it all.
So, the other day was our sixth anniversary, and because it was the middle of the week, there just wasn’t going to be enough time to plan something intimate at home.
A newlywed couple at the beach | Source: Pexels
A dinner out was going to be our best option.
But then, my husband tried to pull a fast one on me.
Then, on the day, I arranged to pick Josh up from work, excited for our romantic dinner at our favorite restaurant.
I left work a little earlier than usual and parked across the road from Josh’s building, waiting for him to leave work. I sat in the car, reapplying my lipstick and sorting my hair out. I sang along to the radio and waited.
Twenty minutes later, Josh still hadn’t come out. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer either.
A woman driving a car | Source: Pexels
Eventually, I sent him a text:
Hey, honey! I’m waiting outside — I’m parked across the flower shop.
Not even a minute later, my phone pinged with a text message notification.
Caught up in a meeting, don’t wait for me. I’ll see you at home.
A flower shop exterior | Source: Pexels
My heart sank. I understood the importance of work — especially because Josh loved his job, and he always brought work home, often going through spreadsheets in bed at night.
I was disappointed, I mean, it was our special day. But I knew that these things were sometimes beyond our control. I picked up my phone to reply before driving off.
A woman turning around in the driver’s seat | Source: Pexels
Sure, see you later.
Starting the car, I could only think about sinking my teeth into a sugary donut.
“You can’t keep eating your feelings,” I told myself. “But today calls for it.”
Just then, I saw Josh push open the building door, his briefcase at his side, and his phone in his hand.
A person holding a donut | Source: Pexels
Want to know what happens next? Read the full story here.
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.
