I was driving to the hospital with a huge smile on my face. Today was the day I would bring my two beautiful daughters home. I couldn’t stop grinning as I made my way through the streets, waving at the nurses at the station when I passed by. It felt like the happiest moment of my life.
When I reached Suzie’s room, I hurried inside, eager to see my girls. But as soon as I pushed open the door, my heart skipped a beat. My daughters were lying peacefully in their bassinets, but Suzie was gone. I thought she might have stepped out for a breath of fresh air, but then I saw something that made my blood run cold.
There was a note on the bed. I rushed to it, my hands trembling as I tore it open. The words on the paper made everything inside me freeze.
“Goodbye. Take care of them. Ask your mother WHY she did this to me.”
I stood there for a moment, staring at the note in disbelief. What did this mean? What had happened? Just then, a nurse entered the room, clipboard in hand, ready to assist me.
“Good morning, sir. Here’s the discharge—”
I didn’t let her finish. I interrupted her, almost frantic. “Where’s my wife? Where did she go? What happened?”
The nurse paused, looking at me with confusion. She bit her lip before answering, “She checked out this morning. She said you knew.”
I felt my chest tighten. “She—what? Where did she go? Did she say anything else? Was she upset?”
The nurse frowned and shifted her weight. “She seemed fine. Just… quiet. Are you saying you didn’t know?”
I couldn’t believe it. My wife, the woman I loved, had left without saying a word to me. No warning, no explanation. Just gone. I held my daughters close to me, clutching the crumpled note in my hand, and left the hospital in a daze.
When I reached home, everything felt surreal. My mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. But there was one person I knew I could talk to — my mom. She was waiting on the porch, holding a casserole dish. When she saw me approach, her face faltered, and confusion spread across her features.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice full of concern.
I didn’t know what to say at first. I handed her the note. “This is what’s wrong! What did you do to Suzie?”
My mom’s face turned pale as she looked at the paper in her hands. “Ben, I don’t know what this is about,” she replied, her voice shaky. “She’s always been emotional. Maybe she—”
“Don’t lie to me!” I snapped. “What did you do to her?”
She stepped back slightly, hurt flashing in her eyes. “You’ve never liked her. You’ve always found ways to undermine her, criticize her—”
“I’ve only ever tried to help!” I shouted, the anger welling up inside of me. “You pushed her too far!”
Tears started to spill from my mom’s eyes. “I only wanted what was best for you, Ben.”
That night, as I lay in bed trying to piece together what had happened, I thought back to all the family gatherings we’d had over the years. I remembered the small, hurtful comments my mother would make about Suzie, often under her breath but loud enough for Suzie to hear. I could see now, with a painful clarity, how those comments must have been eating away at her. Suzie had always laughed them off, but now I understood the toll it had taken on her.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had been wrong for a long time, but I never fully realized it until now. Then, my eyes landed on something — a letter in my mom’s handwriting that I hadn’t seen before. I opened it, and as I read, my heart sank.
“Suzie, you’ll never be good enough for my son. You’ve trapped him with this pregnancy, but don’t think for a second you can fool me. If you care about them, you’ll leave before you ruin their lives.”
The words stung like a slap across the face. My mother had been writing this to Suzie all along? She’d been tearing her down from the start? I couldn’t believe it. My own mother had been undermining my wife and pushing her away with cruel words for years.
It was late, but I didn’t care. I marched straight to the guest room and banged on the door until Mom opened it. She looked at me, her face pale and tired.
“How could you?” I demanded, my voice shaking with anger. “All this time, I thought you were just being overbearing. But no, you’ve been bullying Suzie for years, haven’t you?”
Her face went white as she glanced down at the letter in my hand. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off before she could say a word.
“No!” I shouted. “You’ve done enough. You don’t get to make excuses anymore.”
She stood there silently, tears in her eyes, unable to defend herself. I wasn’t sure what to feel anymore. The mother I had known, the one who had always been there for me, was not the woman who had written those cruel words.
That night, I realized how much damage had been done. My wife had been broken by the very person who should’ve supported her. I just hoped it wasn’t too late to fix things.
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