Henry’s world busted when he saw four chilling words scrawled across his car: “Hope She Was Worth It.” His pregnant wife, Emily, is wrecked, and no matter how much he swears he never che:a:ted, doubt creeps in. But the truth? It’s far worse than telling… because someone close to him wants to tear his life apart.
Emily is in my arms again. She was crying.
“I’m sorry, Henry. I didn’t want to believe it, but I just… I didn’t know what to think.”
And I can’t criticize her.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault, Emily.”
But someone is to criticism.
She regrets this. Maybe not entirely, maybe not in the way she should, but she knows she has crossed a line.
“Tell her,” I say.
Claire sighs like this is an inconvenience to her, like she’s doing me a favor. Then, finally, she confesses.
She tells Emily everything.
About how she wrote the message on my car. How she wanted to drive Emily away. How she thought she was doing me a favor. Because I once said, months ago, that I was scared about becoming a father.
“I’m just scared… we didn’t have the best example growing up,” I said. “I wonder if I’m going to be like him, you know?”
Emily listens, silent.
Then, finally, she turns to me, tears pooling in her eyes.
“You really didn’t che:at, Henry?” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“Never,” I say immediately.
“Not once, not ever. I love you, Emily. I love our baby. I love our life together. Claire blindsided me with this just like she did you.”
The weight of it all crashes over her, and she hugs her belly tightly. Emily almost walked away from me. She almost believed it.
That Claire, my own sister, tried to break us apart.
Earlier
The last thing I expected when leaving the doctor’s office was to see my life falling apart in real time.
Emily and I had just heard our baby’s heartbeat for the first time.
We were floating as we walked hand in hand to the parking lot, my mind already racing ahead to baby names, nursery colors, and what life would be like when our little one finally arrived.
Then I saw my car, and my entire world cra.s.h.ed.
Four words were scrawled across the driver’s side door in bold letters.
Hope She Was Worth It.
“What the hell is that?”
Then, she spoke.
“Did you…?”
She didn’t even finish the question.
“No! Absolutely not! I have never che:ated, Emily! I have never, ever che:ated on you…”
She didn’t answer. And I understood why.
Because there it was.
Someone, somewhere, thought I had done something dreadful. And Emily, my wife, the woman who had always trusted me, always believed in me, was now caught between me and the evidence in front of her.
“It wasn’t me,” I pleaded
“I swear to you, my love, I have no idea who did this or why.”
“I… I didn’t write it,” she said.
And my God, that broke me.
“I need time to think, Henry,” she said.
“Emily, please…”
“I need to clear my head,” she cut in.
And just like that, she was gone.
Because my wife loved me so much, as much as she wanted to believe me, someone had planted doubt inside her. And doubt, once it takes root, doesn’t just go away.
Was it possible that my car had been mistaken for someone else’s?
Claire. My sister.
She stood there, eating an ice cream like nothing happens in the world.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked
“I wrote it. Duh.”
“You… what?”
“I wrote it. You’re too chicken to deal with this baby, so I figured I’d help you out. If Emily thinks that you che:ated, she’ll leave. Problem solved.”
“You really think you helped me?” I hissed.
“That was venting, Claire! It was normal stress! That didn’t mean I wanted out! And… am I not supposed to talk to my sister about these things? I should have known better.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” she shot back. “You should’ve been clearer.”
I pointed to the car.
“You just ruined my marriage. You just burned my marriage to the ground, Claire! And for what? What did you get out of this?”
“You’re being dramatic. Emily’s overreacting. It’s just a little lie.”
A little lie?
“You’re going to fix this.”
Claire scoffed.
“Oh, yeah? And how do you suppose I do that?”
Emily opened the door.
“What’s going on?” Emily asked, arms crossed.
“Tell her,” I turned to my sister. “Now.”.
“Tell her.”
“You owe me an apology, Claire,” she said.
“This was despicable behavior. I can’t believe that you’d do something as horrible as this. If it was such a big deal, and you were genuinely worried about Henry, why didn’t you just come to me? You could have told me what he said and that you thought he wanted out.”
Claire shifted, clearly uncomfortable.
“I’m… I’m sorry, Emily. And Henry, I was wrong. I didn’t think it would go this far. I just thought that you two would be forced to have a conversation and that he would tell you the truth.”
“But that isn’t the truth,” Emily said. “It was just your assumption.”
Over the next few weeks, Emily and I solved everything. It wasn’t easy breaking through the doubt that had crept in, but we did it.
