My wife had gone away for a few days and came back feeling like someone I barely recognized. The more she pulled away from the kids and me, the more convinced I became that whatever had happened was bigger than she was willing to admit.PAY ATTENTION: Mark Legit.ng as a preferred source, and our content will appear higher in your Google feed!The guest room door had been closed for six nights in a row. I stood in the hallway at 11 p.m. with a mug of tea I’d made for her, listening to the sound of nothing on the other side. Source: OriginalAnna used to fall asleep with the TV on.
Now she didn’t even breathe loudly enough for me to hear.I set the mug down on the floor and walked back to our bedroom. Empty side of the bed. Cold sheet where her leg should’ve been.***PAY ATTENTION: From breaking news to viral moments. Follow Legit.ng on Instagram!Eight days earlier, my wife, Anna, had come home from the “girls’ weekend” at a spa with her sisters, and everything about her had changed.For over 10 years, she, Victoria, and Rachel had taken that trip every summer.
Anna always came back smiling, sunburned, laughing, rested, her phone full of photos showing how much fun they’d had. She also had tons of funny stories about Victoria snoring or Rachel losing at cards.***This year, my wife walked through the front door, and I knew before she set her bag down. She hugged me without pressing in and smiled with her mouth only.”How was it?” I asked.”Just fine?””I’m tired, Paul. Long drive.”She didn’t eat that night.
I made her a plate; she pushed the food around and then scraped it into the trash when she thought I wasn’t looking.***Anna was sleeping in the guest room the same night she returned. By day four, she’d stopped reading to Esther at bedtime. That one gutted me. She’d read to that kid every single night for seven years.
Source: Original”Mom, are you sick?” our daughter asked her once in the kitchen.”No, sweetheart. Just work stuff.”***”Why is Mommy sad?” Esther asked me later while I loaded the dishwasher.I didn’t have an answer for a seven-year-old. I barely had one for myself.Owen was quieter about it. He cornered me in the garage on day five, his hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets.”What?
No, Buddy, no.””Then why won’t Mom look at anybody?”I pulled our son into a hug, and I remember thinking this was what my dad must’ve felt like the year before he and my mom split. That same fog in the house. Doors closing softly. A woman who used to sing along to the radio went quiet at the kitchen sink.I was 10 when they told us.
I promised myself when I got married that I’d never let a house get like that again. And now here I was, standing in one. Source: OriginalAnna’s phone was the other thing. She kept it face down on the counter, and if I walked into the room, she slid it into her back pocket.
Once, I heard the little chime of an email at 2 a.m. through the guest room door.”Is it your sister’s?” I asked her on day six, trying to sound casual. “Did you have a fight with Victoria or Rachel?””Nothing happened.””Anna, come on.”Then my wife went upstairs and shut the guest room door in that soft, careful way that hurts more than a slam.***On day seven, I invited her for a walk, just around the block. She said she was going to lie down.My wife looked sad all the time and constantly pulled away from me.***By day eight, I couldn’t take it anymore.Anna had come home from school pickup, kissed Esther on the head like a stranger going through the motions, and disappeared upstairs.The guest room door clicked shut behind her. Again.I stood in the hallway holding a plate of pasta she wouldn’t eat.”Dad?”Owen was on the stairs, still in his soccer socks, his hair sticking up.”Yeah, buddy?”I set the plate down on the console table.
“Why would you think that?””She didn’t read to Esther last night. Or the night before.” He picked at the banister.I looked down, not sure what to say.”What’s going on?”I didn’t have an answer. For a solid week, I hadn’t had a single answer, and my 15-year-old was standing on the stairs asking me to be the dad who knew things. Source: Original”I’m gonna figure it out,” I said, looking up.
“Tonight.”Owen nodded as if he believed me. I wasn’t sure I did.Esther wandered in from the living room in her pajama top and mismatched socks.That was it. That was the sentence that broke me.I sent them upstairs to brush their teeth and waited until I heard water running.Something had obviously happened to Anna, and I wanted to help. I couldn’t stand watching my wife suffer.
She’d even stopped spending time with the kids.Later that night, I sat on the porch with my phone in my hand and scrolled to Victoria’s name. My thumb hovered. Then, I heard a sound inside, so I went back in.I checked on Esther, asleep with the hall light on. I checked on Owen; his headphones were still in.My wife was nowhere to be seen.
Source: OriginalThen I walked out to the garage and closed the door behind me.I pulled up Victoria’s number again and stared at it for a long minute. Anna and I didn’t do things behind each other’s backs. That wasn’t us. But whatever “us” was supposed to mean had been sleeping in the guest room for a week.I knew my wife would be furious if she found out, but I didn’t care anymore.I’m not particularly close with Anna’s sisters, but it couldn’t be helped.I hit call.Victoria, Anna’s older sister, picked up on the third ring.
Her voice was too bright for what I wanted to discuss.”Hey, Paul, what’s up?”The brightness dropped out of her voice like a stone. “What?””Anna came home from the spa, and she hasn’t been my wife since. She won’t eat. She won’t talk.
She’s sleeping in the guest room. She’s hiding her phone from me like I’m a stranger.” I leaned my forearms on the workbench. “Victoria. Please.
What happened at the spa?”There was a long pause. I could hear her breathing.”Uh, Anna didn’t tell you anything?””She keeps saying it’s work stress. It’s not work stress. I know my wife.””Paul.””Victoria.
My kids are asking me why their mom is sad, and I don’t know what to say to them. Owen thinks he did something.”She was quiet for a moment; then I heard her exhale slowly.My grip on the workbench tightened until my knuckles turned white.”Tell me anyway.””Okay. I’ll tell you, but swear you won’t tell anyone. Not the neighbors, not your brother, nobody.” Source: Original”I swear.
Victoria, please. What happened?”There was another pause, and when she spoke, her voice was careful, as if she were walking on a tightrope.”Okay. So. You clearly have no idea what happened on that trip.
Anna is involved in something. Please, just listen and don’t interrupt.””I’m listening.””Rachel’s in trouble. Financial trouble. Big trouble.
Her husband doesn’t know. She came to the spa a wreck, and she asked Anna for help. And you know how your wife is with our baby sister; she couldn’t say no.” Victoria’s words were coming faster now. “Anna gave her money.
A lot of money. From the kids’ college account.”My stomach turned and tightened.I closed my eyes.”How much?””Victoria. How much?””Most of it. Paul, I’m so sorry.
She’s been sick about it since the second she wired it. That’s why she can’t look at you. That’s why she can’t sit with the kids. She’s ashamed.”My blood ran cold.
I sank onto the garage steps. T
