It began with the feeling that I couldn’t quite shudder – the feeling of watching me, that someone was always lurking in the background of my life.
My ex -husband, Wyatt, has long been moving, but there were still shadows of the past that refused to fade. One day I received a package without backward address. It was not the first time I felt the presence I couldn’t identify,
but this time the secret was tangible. I wasn’t sure if it was a sick joke or an offer that I couldn’t refuse. What could this package mean? And why did it look like someone knew exactly how to push me to my limits?
When I got married with Wyatt, I felt like I was entering a whirlwind with a man who was unlike someone I have ever met …
But a year later, this storm turned into a storm and I was broken after his affair and betrayed.
Our divorce was fast and impersonal. There were no children or shared assets to argue, but it emotionally broke me. It was even worse financially. Wyatt left me buried in legal accounts, I could not rebuild my life out of the destruction it caused.
I moved to a small apartment on the outskirts of the city and took my second job in the office of my lawyer to meet.
Then, one cold afternoon, the package arrived at my door. There was no name, no return address, just a set of keys and a note with the address, date and time.
I kept the keys and a note near my chest, my heart raced. Could it be from wyatt?
It was a kind of gesture I wanted. Maybe it was his way to fix.
The location led me to a modern apartment in the city center.
There I found Jill, my father -in -law, sitting on a plush white sofa.
“This apartment is a gift for you,” she said smoothly. “Of all the women with whom my son was, you were the best. You deserve it.”
“But there is one condition,” she added.
“The grandson,” she said factually, as if it were the most natural request in the world.
“Wyatt is my only child and I don’t think they’ll ever settle down. We need grandchild to continue my surname.”
“Call him, tell him I miss me, invite him for a romantic dinner. He comes. I know it will be. It’s not complicated. Once you have my grandson, I’ll give you everything you need.”
He seemed to think I’m desperate.
But she didn’t see me as a man – just a tool to fulfill her wishes.
The idea of ​​being again with wyatt, being intimate with him, I felt repelled. I felt physically ill.
“No,” I said firmly.
“Think carefully, girl,” she warned. “This is an opportunity once in a lifetime.”
I left the keys on the table and went out and ignored her protests.
The next two years were among the most demanding and rewarding. I fits in my work in the law firm – late I took over other tasks, building a connection.
In the end I was promoted to the leading relationship with clients. It came with a better salary, corner office, and most importantly, with a sense of pride.
It was in the company that I met Daniel.
He was an associated representative – disruption, empathetic and quietly funny, which made difficult days easier.
A year later we married at a simple ceremony with our closest friends and family.
A year later we welcomed our son Ethan.
One morning, when I walked through the park and pushed Ethan’s stroller and Daniel ran forward, I stopped with a bench to adjust Ethan’s blanket.
Then I saw her.
Jill.
She sat a few meters away, cried, and her face was buried in her hands. She looked older and tired, her hair disheveled, her dress simple, and her pearls of the signature were not seen anywhere. A pile of papers fell from the lap and her legs dispersed.
I came to her.
When she looked up, her expression was a surprise.
Her view moved to Ethan’s smiling face in the stroller.
Its appearance was a strange mixture of desire and bitterness.
“Wyatt got married again,” she said, and her voice was reimbursed with indignation. “But of course it didn’t last. He got married for just three months and thought she was a perfect trophy wife. But she was as ruthless as he was. She took him for everything.”
“He lost his assets in the divorce. And now there was nothing left. He came back to me.
We exchanged several other words about Ethan and life in general before Jill gathered her belongings and stood up.
“After all, you could give me a grandson. She’s beautiful,” she said, softening her voice a little bit. “Goodbye, Emilia.”
I watched as she left, her back stunned against the cold.
A few moments later, Daniel ran and his faces reddish from jogging. He kissed me, then raised Ethana from the stroller, so he giggled him. We walked together and left the past behind the place where it belonged.
ConclusionÂ
When I watched Jill would disappear in the distance, her words still persisted. I realized that the past, with all pain and manipulation, had no longer me. The life I built with Daniel, the family we started, was everything I needed. At that moment, I understood that real happiness did not come to meet others, but for the search for peace and progressing forward according to your own conditions.
With Daniel and Ethan at my side, I felt a sense of belonging I had never known before. The past, no matter how painful, formed me to who I was, but it didn’t define me anymore. I built a new life, one based on love, respect and mutual support – all Wyatt and Jill never offered.
When we left the park that day, I knew the future was open. There were no more chains of the past to weigh me. I was free. And for the first time in years I really believed that everything was exactly as it should have been.