My heart sank. This was the last thing I needed after a grueling week of meetings across the state.

I just wanted to come back home to my husband and children, and my own bed. To come back to a clean home.

When I left for my trip, I had left explicit instructions for my husband, Brandon.

I had even prepped meals to last the week, sorting out lunches and dinners. I wanted to make everything as easy as possible for my husband.

All Brandon had to do was sort out the kids’ cereal in the morning and get them dressed, which was going to be easy enough because I had sorted the kids’ outfits by day. The laundry had been done before I left, too.

Everything was set for my husband to take over seamlessly.

And yet, as I walked into my home, craving the comfort of the house that I had left for a week, I was only met by disappointment.

Walking into the kitchen was even worse. The sink was piled with used mugs, and the fridge was nearly empty, save for bottles of sauce and a pack of beer.

How had everything unraveled so quickly?

I heard the back door open and close; Brandon had been outside with the kids when I walked into the mess.

“Honey!” he said, rushing toward me to hug me. “I’m so glad you’re back! I’m starving!”

I met his greeting with silence; his words felt like a slap in the face.

“You didn’t make enough food for the week, Jo,” he added nonchalantly. “I’ve had to give the kids pizza for the past two nights. We’re also out of milk. And I’ve had to focus on work, not worry about the house.”

That was the final straw.

The frustration and fatigue of months, no, years, of feeling undervalued and overburdened, boiled over.

“Not enough food?” I asked, my voice eerily calm, despite how I felt on the inside. I wanted to scream.

I didn’t wait for a response. I didn’t even go outside to see my kids, Ava and Max. Grabbing my still-packed suitcase, I turned around to leave.

“I’m leaving, Brandon, and I won’t be back until this house is the way I left it. Clean, organized, with a stocked fridge and sorted laundry. Okay?”

Brandon looked at me, puzzled and then concerned, as I headed out the front door, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t try to stop me at all. He didn’t call me back and promise that he would sort the house out while I took a bubble bath.

He let me leave.

I drove straight to my parents’ house, the one place that still felt like a sanctuary despite me having outgrown it.

When I arrived, my mother opened the door before I could even knock, her expression shifting from surprise to concern at the sight of my tear-streaked face and the suitcase trailing behind me.

“Jo, what in the world happened?” she asked, pulling me into a tight embrace.

I stepped inside my childhood home, the smell of pot roast filling the air. This was a home. This is what I wanted to walk into.

Not the chaos that my husband had let the house escape into. My dad came into the hallway, and I walked into the living room I knew well.

“You look like you’ve been through a storm,” he said, taking my suitcase and hugging me.

I sighed, sinking into the couch. The comfort of being home, in a space where everything was as it should be, made the disparity even more painful.

“I might as well have been,” I replied, trying to muster a smile.

“Tell us,” my mother urged.

“I left everything organized for Brandon,” I began, my voice shaking as I recounted the preparations I had made before my trip. “Meals, kids’ schedules, clean clothes—everything he needed to just step in and take over for the week.”

My mom sat beside me, her hand reaching out to cover mine. Dad’s chair creaked as he leaned forward, his typical joviality replaced by a growing frown.

“And when I got back today,” I continued, my tears of frustration streaming down my face. “It was like I’d never spent all those hours planning. The house was a mess, nothing was where it should be, and Brandon? He actually complained there wasn’t enough food prepared.”

“That’s ridiculous!” my father’s voice was unusually sharp. “After everything you do?”

That night, at my old desk, I laid out the financial equivalent of all the tasks I’d been juggling silently. I knew that maybe I was being too much, but I felt forced into it.

My entire soul felt heavy. And more than that, I felt guilty that my feelings had forced me out of the house before even looking for my children.

The next day, I knew that I had to return home.

“You do need to go home, honey,” my mother said, as she made breakfast. “The kids need to see you.”

When I returned home, the atmosphere was hopeful. Brandon stood in the doorway, his posture hesitant. Beyond him, I could see the glimmers of an attempt to restore order to our home, with the vacuum left out in the open.

But it was the sound of laughter from the backyard that drew me, tugging at the corners of my heart.

I walked around to the back of the house, and there they were. My children, playing around with a soccer ball.

The sight of them, so carefree and happy, momentarily washed away the turmoil of the past 24 hours. Max spotted me first, his little legs carrying him as fast as they could across the grass.

“Mommy!” he shouted, launching himself into my arms, Ava hot on his heels.

“Mom! You’re back!” she screamed.

I hugged them both, soaking in the comfort of their closeness.

“I missed you guys so much,” I said, my voice thick with emotion, the guilt heavy on my heart.

We spent the next 30 minutes playing in the backyard, with Brandon watching from the sidelines. I could see him in the kitchen, doing dishes at the sink.

I knew that I should have gone to him and helped out. Or even begun having our conversation. But I wanted to soak up the time with my children.

“Mom, can we get ice cream?” Ava asked after a little while.

My children deserved an outing, so I promised them that we would get ice cream before we went out to do a grocery run.

“Go wash up,” I told the kids, while I went to Brandon.

I took the envelope that held all the financial statements I worked on while I was at my parents the night before. And I slid it across the counter for him.

“What’s this?” he asked, eyebrows knitting together as he pulled out the papers.

“Read it,” I said, my voice firm. “It’s a bill. For everything I do here that goes unnoticed by you.”

He scanned the document, his eyes widening with each line.

“Jo, this is a lot,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” I said. “And it’s time that we rethink how we manage our home and respect each other, Brandon.”

He nodded.

“I’m taking the kids to the grocery store because we need food,” I said, looking into the fridge to make sure that my husband hadn’t done any shopping.

“Do you want me to come?” he asked.

“No,” I replied. “You can finish up here. I’m sure that there’s laundry to be done, too.”

When the kids were ready, I got them strapped into the car and we set off. I felt better, knowing that everything was out in the open. I knew that Brandon felt dejected, but I couldn’t be responsible for his feelings.

It was about more than my husband’s feelings.

The kids enjoyed their ice cream cones as I dragged them around the grocery store, almost happy to be back to my routine.

When we walked through the door later, my arms laden with the shopping bags, the smell of dinner wafted through to us.

“You cooked,” I said to Brandon, who was mixing through a pot of pasta.

“I want to do more, Jo,” he said. “I want to be part of the kids’ lives like you are, not just someone to fill in their basic needs when you’re gone. When you took them out now, they didn’t even ask me to come with.”

I knew my husband had finally learned his lesson.

“I just want to make life easier for you, too,” he said, plating up the pasta. “I’ll do better.”

We all sat down for dinner together. In a clean house, which is exactly what I had wanted the day before.

What would you do?

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When Ellie’s stepdad randomly gives her a newborn baby to babysit, she has no idea who the baby is or where she came from. But when she has to change the baby’s diaper, Ellie finds a name and an address. With the baby in tow, she heads over to the address to uncover the truth about the child and her stepdad.

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This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.