I am Nora, and I thought I had found my forever until Andrew’s phone lit up one night. Reading the dozens of messages from a woman named Claire—the date plans, the photos, the love notes—confirmed his months-long betrayal. When I confronted Andrew with the proof, he casually confessed that Claire “gets me” and makes him “feel alive again,” as if my three years of marriage to him was just a disappointing hobby. He looked at me with cold pity as I told him he was not the man I had married. Within a week, he had packed his bags, moved in with Claire, and was publicly celebrating his “New beginnings with my person” on social media, before our divorce was even filed.
I spent the next few days feeling like a fool and moving through life like a ghost, consuming minimal food and sleep. The endless posts of Andrew and Claire’s apparent happiness were a daily reminder of my failure to see his betrayal. Then, a week after he left, the persistent nausea I had blamed on stress did not subside. When I finally realized I had missed my period, a small, trembling part of me dared to take a test. The sight of the little pink lines was confirmation: I was unexpectedly pregnant with Andrew’s child. My heart was still aching, but I knew I had to tell him, so I called Andrew to deliver the shocking news of our impending baby.
Andrew’s reaction was terrifyingly composed. He did not apologize or express regret; instead, he declared that the pregnancy “might actually be a good thing” because Claire was infertile. He then launched into a horrific, calculated proposal, suggesting I carry the baby to term and immediately give it to them to raise as their own. Andrew insisted this was fate and that the baby was “meant for us”—him and Claire. He argued they could offer the baby more stability, with his great job and Claire ready to be a full-time, stay-at-home parent, claiming that I could barely manage alone on my salary.
I felt my heart pound with a fierce, shaking rage. Andrew was trying to treat my child like a solution to his girlfriend’s problem, a piece of used furniture to move into their perfect new home. When I expressed my disgust, he told me to “be realistic” and focus on what was best for the baby, not just myself. That patronizing comment was the breaking point. Instead of exploding with fury, I went ice cold. I pretended to reluctantly agree to a calm discussion later that week. As I hung up, I knew I would not be giving up my baby; instead, I would set a trap to expose his monstrous plan to everyone he cared about.
The next day, I meticulously prepared Andrew’s favorite pot roast, but I also prepared the setting for my revenge. I invited not only Andrew and Claire, who expected a private meeting, but also his entire close family: his kind parents, Margaret and David, and his sister Sarah. When Andrew and Claire walked in, he froze instantly, shocked to see his family already seated at the dining room table. I calmly explained to everyone that since this was about their future grandchild, they deserved to hear Andrew’s plan: that he had called me to demand I surrender my baby to him and Claire because she was infertile.
The silence was deafening before the fury erupted. Margaret stood up, her voice trembling, demanding to know how Andrew could try to steal my child. Disgusted, the entire family walked out, with Margaret whispering apologies to me. Weeks later, Margaret called with life-changing news: she and David had cut Andrew out of their will, leaving his entire inheritance to my unborn daughter, Lily. When Lily was born, they were the first ones at the hospital, and I never saw Andrew again. I learned later Claire left him when she found out he was penniless, proving Andrew lost everything while I gained everything that mattered.
