Jack never took sick days—not even when his mother died. So when he called in sick one morning, pale and coughing, it was shocking. As I wrangled the kids for school, I opened the front door and froze: a life-sized white statue of Jack stood on the porch.
The kids were stunned. Jack saw it, turned pale, and silently dragged it inside. I demanded answers. He just said, “I’ll handle it,” and asked me to take the kids.
As we were leaving, my son handed me a note he found under the statue. It read:
Jack,
I’m returning the statue I made while believing you loved me.
Finding out you’ve been married for 10 years destroyed me.
You owe me $10,000 or your wife sees every message.
—Sally
I dropped the kids off and cried in a grocery store parking lot. Then I called a divorce attorney. That night, while Jack slept at the kitchen table, I found emails on his laptop: he had been in a year-long affair with Sally, a sculptor. He’d begged her to keep it secret.
I emailed Sally. She told me she didn’t know he was married until recently. She agreed to testify in court. A month later, we stood before a judge. Sally brought everything: emails, photos, evidence. I won the house, full custody of the kids, and the judge ordered Jack to pay Sally $10,000.
Jack tried to apologize. “You didn’t mean to hurt me,” I said. “You just didn’t want me to find out.” I left him standing there—alone with his statue and the consequences of his lies.