A man ridicules his unemployed wife, only to come home one day to find her gone. In her search, he discovers a note revealing she intends to divorce him. Can he stop her from doing so and save their marriage?
It was a bright, cold October morning, and Harry was excited about his gaming app presentation, a project he had poured himself into for the past six months.
As the clock struck eight, Harry entered the dining room, preoccupied with his phone, barely acknowledging his wife, Sara, and their sons, Cody and Sonny.
“Morning, honey,” greeted Sara.
“Good morning, Daddy,” the boys chimed in unison.
Ignoring them, Harry grabbed a toast and rushed back to his room.
“Sara, where’s my white shirt?” Harry’s voice boomed from the room.
“It’s in the wash with the other whites,” Sara replied.
Harry stormed into the dining room. “That’s my lucky shirt! I needed it for today!”
“I didn’t have enough whites for a full load until now. You have other white shirts!!”
“This is a big day for me, and you’re making excuses?” Harry retorted.
“You’re overreacting, Harry. Your presentation is what matters. It’s just a shirt. So stop barking, alright?”
“Oh really? I’m barking? You wanna do this now?”
“Do what, Harry? You’re making a scene for a stupid little thing. And nobody would be interested in what color shirt you’re wearing when all eyes would be fixed on your goddamn presentation.”
“A goddamn presentation? Come again…Did you just say that? Do you have any idea how I’ve been busting my butt off day and night for that project?”
“Watch your words. The kids….”
“You sit at home all day doing nothing,” Harry blurted out. “Is it too hard to remember one simple thing? All you do is Blah Blah Blah and NOTHING at home.”
“Harry, stop this. The kids are watching. You’re scaring them.”
“Oh really? And nobody watches you when you’re on the goddamn phone gossiping all the time with your friends. Nobody watches that, huh, Sara? You can never be a good wife if you can’t do even a simple thing for me!”
Harry dressed up in a random suit and stormed out of the house, grabbing his briefcase.
After a successful presentation and bagging the promotion, Harry anticipated an apology call from Sara – something she always did after their fights. But this time, there were no calls.
Thinking he would win her apology anyway, he returned home with white roses but found the apartment empty. A note from Sara on the table read, “I want a divorce.”
Confused and worried, Harry called Sara’s sister, Zara, who informed him that Sara was in the hospital. Harry rushed to the hospital, only to face an angry Zara. “You told her she was not ‘wife’ enough for you?”
“Look, we’ll talk about this later, alright?”
Harry rushed to meet the doctor. “Doctor, is my wife alright? Can I see her?”
“It was a mild attack. She’s out of danger. But she needs to take care of her health now. Go ahead and only ten minutes coz she needs to rest.”
Harry shakily walked into the ward, trying to force a smile as he approached Sara.
“Honey, I’m sorry. Please, let me explain. I—”
“I don’t wanna hear anything. I’m done. Divorce is the only thing I want.”
“Wha-What? Why…You’re taking it too far, alright?”
“I had ambitions, plans… I chose you over every opportunity, and it ruined my life,” she said. “It’s too late for your
“Honey, please. We can work this together,” he pleaded.
“No, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t be fake to myself. To you. And to the kids. I’m 32, but I feel like a crone. I just hate you, Harry. You’re so disgusting.”
“What about the kids, Sara?”
“I’m in a tough spot to provide for them…So they’re staying with you.”
Harry spoke no more and stormed out of the hospital to pick up his kids from Zara’s house.
At home, he ordered pizza and ice cream for dinner. After tucking the kids into bed, he called his friend Alex, who suggested that Sara might have just cracked up and would be home soon.
The next morning, Harry’s kids awoke him, and as soon as he looked at his watch, he knew he was late! In the morning chaos, Harry burnt the French toast and his shirt while juggling the kids’ school preparations.
“Oh, no, the toast,” he exclaimed, rushing to salvage the breakfast.
“Daddy…Daddy, what’s happening?” the kids asked amidst the chaos.
“It’s just the smoke alarm. Don’t worry,” Harry reassured them, but things only got worse.
He had an important meeting, and he was getting late. “I’ll quickly get ready, and let’s grab something nice to eat on the way to school, yeah?”
He dropped the kids off at school and arrived late at the meeting. “Sorry! Traffic, you know….”
When he returned home in the evening, Harry found signs of Sara’s absence more evident. Her belongings were gone. “Did she leave me for real?” he wondered, overwhelmed.
“Daddy, what happened to Mommy’s pictures and her things?” the boys asked.
Harry, clueless, called Zara.
“Is this some kind of a joke, Zara? Your sister came here. Took all her things. And left me? With the kids?”
Zara coldly informed him, “She’d told you, hadn’t she, Harry? You took my sister for granted.” And then the line went blank.
Five months went by without Sara. Harry struggled to balance work and parenting, and his work performance declined.
One day, his boss, Mr. Adams, invited him for a beer. At the pub, Mr. Adams brought up Harry’s recent work issues.
“Harry, we’ve noticed you’ve been missing deadlines and coming in late. And we’re a business…If you know what I mean,” Mr. Adams said.
Harry, trying to lighten the mood, joked, “So, you plan to let your best game developer go?”
Mr. Adams was also Harry’s friend, and Harry could’ve never prepared himself for what happened next.
“I’m afraid, yes,” Mr. Adams replied seriously. “It’s out of my hands. I’ll give you good recommendations.”
“What? Please, don’t do this! I need this job for my kids.”
Mr. Adams remained silent, leading Harry to storm out in frustration. As he walked away, his phone rang. It was Sara.
“Sara?” Harry said, surprised.
“Harry, can we meet for a quick chat at five? At the café where we first…?” Sara asked.
At a café, Sara met with Harry to discuss their children. She revealed she had been in therapy and now wanted custody.
“Custody?? How dare you? After you left us?” Harry fumed.
“Harry, I’m their mother. I have rights,” Sara insisted.
“You abandoned them, and now you want to take them away? They’re used to me now,” Harry argued.
Sara was determined. “I deserve to have them back. I’ll see you in court.”
Days later, Harry, now adept at managing household chores and balancing a new freelance gig, prepared breakfast for his sons.
“Daddy loves you,” he kissed them goodbye and dropped them at school before heading to the custody trial.
“Mr. Wills, can you please tell us about your attention to your family while you lived together with my client, Miss Sara?” Sara’s lawyer asked Harry.
“Well, I did my best to provide for my family. I worked long hours. Overtime sometimes. I kept myself busy because I wanted to make sure they had everything they needed,” Harry said.
“That’s what most responsible family guys do, right?! And what about your wife’s ambitions? Did she want to build her own career?”
“Before we had our kids…Yes, she did want to work. But after that, she stayed home to look after the kids and the household.”
“Well, looking after the kids…the family…cooking, cleaning. So basically, your wife has been your cook. Your children’s nanny. Your wellwisher. And did you insult her, saying she did nothing at home?”
“I did. Yes, it was an outburst. I was late for office and—”
“Mr. Wills, were you fired from your job? Why were you fired exactly?”
“Objection, Your Honor. This is utterly irrelevant and immaterial to the case,” Harry’s lawyer rose.
“Objection overruled.”
“Thank you, Your Honor!” added Sara’s lawyer. “Mr. Wills, why were you fired from your job?”
After a momentous pause, Harry looked into Sara’s teary eyes and opened up. “Because I couldn’t balance my work and parental duties. I tried, but it was too much. But I didn’t give up. I would never give up on my kids. I love them.”
“Mr. Wills, how are you managing now? How do you intend to support your kids…without a job?”
“I have a job. I can support them well.”
“Be specific, Mr. Wills. What job and what’s the salary?”
“It…It’s a part-time freelance gig. I’m a video editor.”
“Mr. Wills, I admire your confidence despite your climbing down the career ladder! I’m sure you make nothing much like you used to in your previous job, right?” the lawyer added ironically. “A freelance job. Low salary. And raising two kids in today’s recession. Well…That’s all, Your Honor.”
Sara was then called up to the box as Harry’s heart started pounding.
“Ms. Sara, can you please tell us about your life with your husband…I mean, soon-to-be ex-husband?” Harry’s lawyer asked. “Did he ever refuse to give you money or care for you in any way?”
“No…Not at all. He was always generous with our finances. We never had any issues with money.”
“Did Mr. Wills ever raise his hands on you or the kids? Has he ever come home drunk and misbehaved at home?”
“No, he never laid a hand on us. My husband. Sorry. Mr. Wills has never come home drunk.”
“Your husband has taken care of you. You even agreed on that. He’s never laid his hands on you. Then why did you leave him and the kids?”
“I had a nervous breakdown. He was always busy. He would come home and sit with his laptop, barely asking me if I was sick…happy…or sad. I tried to cope. But I couldn’t do it anymore and left. I didn’t want my kids to struggle with me as I wasn’t emotionally stable at that time.”
Harry slowly started to break on the inside, and those words hit him like a bag of bricks.
“Ms. Sara, where were you these six months? What were you doing, and how will you care for the kids?”
“I was in Chicago at a friend’s place. I wanted to be away from everything and everyone for a while. Then I moved back to Boston…got a job as an interior designer.”
“What’s the guarantee you won’t have another breakdown and won’t abandon the kids again?” the lawyer broke Sara’s silence.
“Objection, Your Honor. This is baseless and….” Sara’s lawyer chimed in. “My client, Ms. Sara, has come for the children’s custody. Why would she leave them again?”
“Order…Order.”
“I won’t do it ever again. My children are my world. I’ll be there for them and never let anything like that happen again.”
And two hours later, the verdict was announced, and Sara was granted custody of the kids.
“….Mr. Wills, you’ll have the right to visit your children and take them with you two days a week. You’re required to pay $860 as support to your children every month. This case is now closed.”
Soon, the day arrived when the kids would go with Sara. She arrived, sad to separate the kids from their father but happy to have them back. As she was leaving with her two sons, her elder one stopped her.
“You’re just tearing us apart,” spoke Cody as he let go of Sara’s hand and bolted to Harry.
“We want both Mommy and Daddy!” added Sonny.
This was it. Sara could no longer hold herself back. She bolted in their direction and hugged them.
My Husband Sent Me a Cake to Announce Our Divorce — When He Discovered the Truth, He Came Crawling Back
While Emma is sitting at her desk one afternoon, she gets a surprise delivery. When she opens the box, she finds a cake with an unsettling message and the pregnancy test she forgot to hide. Will she go home and explain the truth to her husband or let him walk away?
I was at my desk, half-typing an email, half-daydreaming about what to make for dinner when the office delivery guy appeared at my office door. He held a bright pink bakery box in his hands, grinning from ear to ear like he was in on some inside joke I didn’t know about.
A woman sitting at her desk | Source: Midjourney
“Good afternoon, Emma!” he said enthusiastically. “This is for you!”
“Thank you, Nico,” I said, blinking as he handed me the box.
I hadn’t ordered anything. There were no birthdays or work celebrations planned. So, who would be sending me a cake? My stomach fluttered with curiosity. My husband, Jake, was one of the head bakers at a fancy bakery in town. So, maybe this was just a little treat from him.
A baker in a bakery | Source: Midjourney
The office buzzed with its usual energy, phones ringing, keyboards clacking, people laughing in the break room, everyone just wanted to get out for the day. But in that moment, it all faded into the background. I slowly untied the ribbon, lifted the lid, and froze.
Scrawled across the top of the cake in black frosting were four words that turned my blood cold:
I am divorcing you.
I stared at the words, blinking in disbelief. But there was more!
Placed neatly on the cake, next to the damning message, was a positive pregnancy test.
A cake with a message and a pregnancy test | Source: AmoMama
My heart dropped into my stomach.
Jake had found it. He’d found the pregnancy test that I’d thrown into the bathroom trash this morning, the same test that I was supposed to pick up and bring with me, easy to hide from Jake.
But I was late, and I had forgotten. Now, this? The cake… this was Jake’s response? Divorce. A cake with a slap-in-the-face message.
A pregnancy test in a bin | Source: Midjourney
I gripped the edge of my desk to steady myself, I could feel a panic attack almost rising to the surface. This wasn’t just some cruel joke. Jake thought I had cheated on him.
Why else would he send this?
I closed the box, my mind racing.
Jake had been told years ago that he was infertile. And he believed that there was no way this child could be his. He thought I’d betrayed him, that I’d gone behind his back after everything we’ve been through.
A closed cake box | Source: Midjourney
The truth, though?
The truth was far more complicated.
I hadn’t cheated. Of course not. I hadn’t been with anyone but Jake. The pregnancy test was mine, yes, but I hadn’t told him yet because I needed confirmation from the doctor first.
Honestly, Jake and I had been through so much heartbreak trying to have a baby that I couldn’t stand the idea of getting his hopes up, only to have them crushed.
An upset couple | Source: Midjourney
I remembered our conversation from three years ago.
“I think we should just stop trying for a while,” I said, sitting on our bed.
“What do you mean, Em?” Jake asked. “Just like that, stop trying?”
“We’ve been trying for a baby for the past eighteen months, Jake. I think our bodies need a moment to breathe.”
“You mean my body?” he asked. “It seems like mine is the problem. The doctors have told us that it’s my fault. It’s my sperm. So, yeah. Let’s stop…”
A woman on the bed | Source: Midjourney
After that, it took a lot of work for Jake and me to get back on our feet as a steady couple. Without the pressure of trying to have a baby, we could barely function.
But now, my husband thought the worst of me.
Grabbing the box, I packed up my things and rushed out of the office, ignoring the concerned looks from my coworkers. I didn’t have time to explain. All I could think about was getting home, facing Jake, and explaining the truth.
A woman driving | Source: Midjourney
When I walked through the front door, I saw him immediately. Jake was pacing back and forth across the living room, his face flushed, his body tense with fury.
He turned the second I stepped inside, his eyes wild.
“Tell me the test wasn’t yours!” he shouted.
An angry man | Source: Midjourney
I placed the cake box gently on the kitchen counter and stood still, facing him.
“It is mine, honey,” I said.
Jake’s expression didn’t soften. He looked angrier; he looked ready to explode.
“If you want a divorce, I won’t stop you,” I continued. “But before you walk away from us, there’s something you need to know.”
A pensive woman | Source: Midjourney
His hands balled into fists at his side.
“What could you possibly say, Emma? I thought you loved me. And yet, here you are, having someone else’s baby?”
“Jake, listen to me!” I interrupted. “This baby is yours. You’re going to be a father!”
The words hung in the air.
A shocked man | Source: Midjourney
Jake stopped pacing, his brow furrowed. For a moment, he just stared at me as if trying to process what I had said. Then he shook his head, his voice trembling with disbelief.
“No. That’s not possible. Emma, I’m infertile. The doctors said it. We’ve been over this for years.”
“Darling, the doctors were wrong,” I said, stepping closer to him. “I went to see Dr. Harper this morning after I took the test. I didn’t want you to see the test before I spoke to her because false positives happen more often than not. She explained everything to me.”
A smiling doctor | Source: Midjourney
My husband’s eyes searched mine, filled with confusion, but he didn’t interrupt me this time. I took a deep breath, knowing it was the time to explain it all, even though I wasn’t entirely sure he’d believe me.
“Jake,” I began. “You were never completely infertile. Dr. Harper told me that you’ve had a condition called oligospermia. It means that your sperm count was low, but it didn’t mean you couldn’t have children. Dr. Harper said that it’s likely that the stress from trying and failing to conceive over the years might have made it worse.”
Jake just looked at me, unable to speak.
A shocked man | Source: Midjourney
“Baby, you were never completely unable to have kids…”
My husband’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. He sank into the armchair as he processed everything I said.
I watched as the anger drained from his face, replaced with a veil of sheer disbelief. He buried his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking as the realization hit him.
A man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney
“Oh my God, Emma,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I thought you cheated on me. I thought you found someone else because I couldn’t… I thought I couldn’t give you what you always wanted.”
He trailed off, his words dissolving into sobs.
The man I had spent years loving, the man who had been so strong through all our struggles, was breaking down in front of me.
A man sitting on a couch | Source: Midjourney
I stood there, watching him crumble, my own heart aching in ways I couldn’t describe. I knew that I should have been happy at this new development in our lives.
I mean, I was finally pregnant after years of trying. This was joy. But I was hurt that Jake had jumped to the worst conclusion, that he hadn’t even asked me before sending that awful cake.
But I understood, too. I understood the years of insecurity, the pain we’d both been through trying to have a child.
A woman standing in a living room | Source: Midjourney
“I’m so sorry,” Jake said after a while. “I thought… I’m so sorry.”
I didn’t move. I just let him sit there and cry, let him process everything. He apologized over and over, each word dripping with regret. He had been ready to walk away, to end everything because of a misunderstanding, because of his own fears.
But now, now he knew the truth.
A woman standing in a living room | Source: Midjourney
“I don’t deserve you,” he said. “I don’t deserve this chance. But I swear to you, I’ll make it up to you every day. I promise. I’ll be the best father. I’ll be the best husband!”
I felt a lump rise in my throat. This wasn’t how I had imagined telling him. I had dreamed of the moment we’d finally get the news we’d waited so long for. I’d pictured his joy, his tears of happiness. But not this. Not this mess.
But as I stood there, looking at my husband who had just crumbled to pieces, I realized that despite everything, we had been given the one thing we thought we’d never have.
An upset man | Source: Midjourney
A baby.
A future.
“We’ll figure it out,” I whispered, my voice cracking. And for the first time in a long time, I saw hope in Jake’s eyes. When my husband reached for me, this time, I didn’t pull away. We stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms, the weight of a pregnancy and a baby resting on our shoulders.
A couple embracing | Source: Midjourney
What would you have done?
If you enjoyed this story, here’s another one for you |
I Hired a Fake Boyfriend for Our Family Dinner – It Turned Out to Be the Best Decision of My Life
Family gatherings were the worst for Lara, especially since her sister, Emily, began to make fun of her love life, or lack thereof. Determined to sit through her father’s birthday dinner, Lara decides to hire a boyfriend for the night. Little did she know that something reminiscent of a romantic comedy would soon play out.
I love my family, but family gatherings used to be a nightmare for me. Every single time we got together, my sister Emily would find some way or the other to poke fun at my single life.
Two smiling women | Source: Midjourney
Last Thanksgiving, she took it too far and even set a place at the table for my “imaginary boyfriend,” complete with a hand-drawn face on a napkin. Everyone around the table laughed while I forced a smile.
“It’s funny, Lara!” she would say whenever I brought up the incident.
It was anything but funny.
A dinner table | Source: Midjourney
Now, my father’s birthday is coming up, and of course, it was to be celebrated with a family dinner.
“There’s no way I can sit through another one of those events with my family,” I told my friend, Kate, when we met for coffee.
“I’m telling you now, Emily probably has something up her sleeve already,” I grumbled.
Two women at a coffee shop | Source: Midjourney
“Then just hire someone out for the night!” Kate chuckled, adding sugar to her coffee.
“Hire a man?” I exclaimed.
“Yes! My sister did it through an agency. She didn’t want to go to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding by herself, so she found the agency. Look, it’s all above board and the guys do exactly what you need them to do.”
A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney
“It’s not… sleazy?” I asked, trying to think of a better word.
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