Matthew filed for divorce from Anne when she couldn’t give him a son, but he still lived in their house. One day, she met Harry, an old friend from school, and eventually realized how much better she was without Matthew. Years later, Anne accidentally ran into her ex-husband and couldn’t recognize him.
“Oh my God! Harry! It’s so nice to see you!” Anne exclaimed when she accidentally stumbled into her old school friend on the street. She had left her five girls with her mother, a rare break for her, and wanted to get a cup of coffee on the streets of Seattle.
“Anne, it’s lovely to see you too! Hey, would you want to get some coffee and catch up?” Harry answered, and she nodded immediately. They went into the café and chit-chatted until Harry asked about her family.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Oh… that’s actually a difficult subject,” she began.
“Well, raising five children is not easy for anyone,” Harry commented, knowing a bit of her from social media and such.
“Matthew? What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at his uniform and the pretzel tray.
“Yeah, sure. That’s hard. But it’s more than that,” Anne continued. “Matthew changed after the birth of our twins. They’re 9 and they barely speak to their father. I think they’re scared of him.”
“I don’t understand,” Harry said.
“Matthew wanted a boy, and we hoped, but we had two beautiful girls instead. That’s why we got pregnant again and again, but we kept having girls. After our fifth daughter was born, Matthew became another man. He filed for divorce, and I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Anne explained about her husband, her hand wiping the sweat forming on her forehead.
“Wow. That’s rough. But think about this, you’ll be better off without him, right? I mean if he hasn’t been speaking to your eldest girls, then he couldn’t have been the best father to the rest. You already raised them on your own,” Harry encouraged. “And now that I’m in Seattle permanently, I could help. You could move in with me.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
Anne’s jaw dropped. She didn’t expect such an offer from Harry, especially since they had just met again after many years. But she knew back in school that he always had a huge crush on her. Still, that offer was too generous and kind. She couldn’t accept it. She changed the subject, and they talked about his successful life.
Meanwhile, things at her house got even worse over the next few weeks. They were divorcing, but Matthew still lived with her, acting like he was single, partying, making noise at odd hours, waking the girls, and being a menace to them.
Anne would talk to Harry all the time, and his offer still stood. But when Matthew decided to bring a girl over to their marital home, Anne was done. She called Harry, packed, and left the house with all the girls.
Their divorce got more complicated when she took Matthew to court to get their big house back. Despite her living in Harry’s house, her soon-to-be ex-husband didn’t deserve to keep their big home. The judge granted her every request based on Matthew’s horrible lifestyle and gave her full custody without question.
Eventually, she and Harry fell in love, and he bought an even bigger home for their family. When she and the girls moved in with him, she put her house up for rent and stopped thinking about Matthew for many years.
***
A year after marrying Harry, Anne had their son, Alan, who was the most beautiful boy in the world, and he had five big sisters adoring him at every moment. Anne couldn’t have been happier.
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
More time passed, and one day, she picked Alan up from preschool and decided to drop by the mall to buy him new shoes. The girls were busy with their extracurriculars, so it was only mother and son.
Anne never imagined she would run into Matthew there. He was working at the pretzel shop, in charge of distributing free samples at the mall, and Alan ran up to him asking for some.
“Alan, don’t run away from me like that,” she said to him before catching a glimpse of Matthew’s surprised eyes.
“Anne?”
“Matthew? What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at his uniform and the pretzel tray. It didn’t make sense. Matthew worked in an office as an executive. He earned a decent amount of money. He was required to pay tons in child support, but he never did, and Anne didn’t care. She had more than enough for her girls. But he wouldn’t be able to pay what was required with a minimum wage job at the mall.
“I’m working here,” he said and looked at the boy holding her with one hand and munching on a pretzel with the other. “Is this your son?”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
“Yes, this is Alan,” Anne answered, feeling an intense pride that she had a son that wasn’t his. “He’s Harry’s kid.”
“Oh, nice to meet you, Alan,” Matthew said, looking down and giving the kid a weird look. Of course, it was not Anne’s fault that she gave birth to girls. The sperm determines the gender, and everyone knows that. But Matthew had decided to blame her for years and checked out of their marriage because he wanted a boy, as if gender was important at all.
Luckily, the girls now had an actual father figure, thanks to Harry, who loved them dearly from the first moment they met. They didn’t need him, and Anne never had to see him.
“Listen, Anne. I didn’t want to ask this now. I wanted to take you to coffee or something. But I’m desperate. I lost everything due to my lifestyle, and I was wondering if we could sell our old house,” Matthew asked, his head down in shame.
“Oh… well, it’s currently being rented. But I’ll think about it,” Anne said. “We have to go now. I’ll call you about the house.”
For illustration purposes only | Source: Pexels
She grabbed Alan’s hand tightly and walked away from the man who didn’t know what he had thrown away. But she was going to be the bigger person. She sold the house and gave him half its worth, although legally, she could keep the entire thing. But something in her gut told her to do the right thing.
Eventually, Matthew asked to see the girls, but none of them wanted that. The twins were teenagers who grew to hate him, and the rest followed their big sisters’ footsteps. Matthew stopped asking about them and stopped calling after a while. They never saw him again. He wasn’t family.
What can we learn from this story?
- Family is more than just DNA. Matthew didn’t want to be a father to his children, and Harry stepped up for the girls.
- You might regret your actions. Matthew lost everything, including his high-paying job, and it was clear he regretted what he did, but he couldn’t take it back.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
Parents Started Charging Me Rent Because I Had Decorated My Room – Karma Hit Back
When my parents demanded rent for the basement I’d turned into a haven, they never expected it would lead to my escape and their ultimate regret.
I’d always felt like the black sheep in my family. It was not just a feeling, though. It was pretty obvious when you looked at how differently my parents treated me and my younger brother, Daniel.
When I was 17, we moved to a two-bedroom house, and my parents decided Daniel needed his own room. Instead of sharing like normal siblings, they shoved me into our unfinished basement.
A basement | Source: Unsplash
Meanwhile, he got this huge, bright room upstairs, complete with brand-new everything, like furniture, decorations, and even a gaming setup. Me? I got whatever junk they could scrounge up from the garage.
I remember the day they showed me my new “room.”
Mom gestured around the cold, concrete space like it was some kind of prize. “Elena, honey, isn’t this exciting? You’ll have so much space down here!”
Middle-aged woman smiling | Source: Pexels
I stared at the bare bulb dangling from the ceiling, the cobwebs in the corners, and the musty smell that clung to everything. “Yeah, Mom. Super exciting.”
Dad clapped me on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit, kiddo! And hey, maybe we can fix it up a bit later, huh?”
Later never came, of course. But I wasn’t about to live in a dungeon forever.
A teenager girl in a dark basement | Source: Midjourney
I picked up an after-school job at the local grocery store, bagging groceries and pushing carts. It wasn’t glamorous, but every paycheck brought me closer to transforming my basement prison.
My Aunt Teresa was my saving grace through it all. She’s the only one who knew what my life was like at home.
So, when she heard what I was doing with the basement, she started coming over on weekends, armed with paintbrushes and a contagious enthusiasm.
A woman painting a wall | Source: Pexels
“Alright, Ellie-girl,” she’d say, tying back her wild curls. “Let’s make this place shine!”
We started with paint, turning the dingy walls into a soft lavender. Then came curtains to hide the tiny windows, area rugs to cover the cold floor, and string lights to chase away the shadows.
It took months because my job didn’t exactly pay much, but slowly, the basement became mine. I hung up posters of my favorite bands, arranged my books on salvaged shelves, and even managed to snag a secondhand desk for homework.
Posters on the wall | Source: Pexels
The day I hung up the final touch, a set of LED lights around my bed, I stepped back and felt something I hadn’t in a long time or perhaps my entire life: pride.
I was admiring my handiwork when I heard footsteps on the stairs. Mom and Dad appeared and looked around with raised eyebrows.
“Well, well,” Dad said, his eyes narrowing. “Looks like someone’s been busy.”
A man with arms crossed and a tight expression | Source: Pexels
I waited for praise, or at least acknowledgment of my hard work. Instead, Mom pursed her lips.
“Elena, if you have money for all this,” she waved her hand at my carefully curated space, “then you can start contributing to the household.”
My jaw dropped. “What?”
“That’s right,” Dad nodded. “We think it’s time you started paying rent.”
A man’s hand | Source: Pexels
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Rent? I’m 17! I’m still in high school!”
“And clearly making enough to redecorate,” Mom countered, crossing her arms. “It’s time you learned some financial responsibility.”
I wanted to scream. Daniel had a room three times the size of mine, fully furnished and decorated on their dime, and he’d never worked a day in his life. Yes, he was younger, but still, it was more of their unfairness.
A big modern bedroom | Source: Pexels
Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t argue with them, so I bit my tongue. “Fine,” I managed. “How much?”
They named a figure that made my stomach sink. It was doable, but it meant saying goodbye to any hopes of saving for college, which was my plan now that the basement was done.
As if to add insult to injury, Daniel chose that moment to thunder down the stairs. He took one look around and let out a low whistle.
Teenage boy going downstairs to basement | Source: Midjourney
“Whoa, sis. Nice cave.” His eyes landed on my LED lights. “Hey, are these strong?”
Before I could stop him, he reached up and yanked on the strip. The lights came down with a sad flicker, leaving a trail of peeled paint behind them.
“Daniel!” I cried. But my parents rushed to him, asked if something was wrong, and just shrugged at me.
“Boys will be boys,” Dad chuckled as if his golden boy hadn’t just destroyed something I’d worked months for.
Middle man laughing | Source: Pexels
So, there I was, standing in my once-again darkened room, fighting back tears of frustration. In the grand scheme of things, Daniel had only ruined my lights, and I could fix that up. But in truth, it was more than that.
It was a symbol of my life; always second best, always the afterthought. But karma, as they say, has a way of evening the score.
A few weeks later, my parents invited Aunt Teresa over for dinner along with some friends. She brought along a woman named Ava, an interior designer from her book club.
Two women at a dinner | Source: Pexels
We all sat around the dining table and picked at Mom’s overcooked pot roast while she gushed about Daniel and his football team.
But suddenly, Aunt Teresa spoke up. “Ava, you’ve got to see what my niece has done with the basement. It’s incredible!”
I felt my cheeks heat up as all eyes turned to me. “It’s not that big a deal,” I mumbled.
But Ava was intrigued. “I’d love to see it. Do you mind?”
A woman smiling | Source: Pexels
Ignoring my parents’ tight smiles, I led Ava downstairs. As she looked around, her eyes widened.
“Elena, this is amazing. You did all this yourself?”
I nodded, suddenly shy. “Most of it. My aunt helped with some of the bigger stuff.”
Ava ran her hand along the repurposed bookshelf I’d salvaged from a neighbor’s curb. “You have a real eye for design. There wasn’t much potential here, but the way you’ve maximized the space, the color choices… it’s really impressive.”
A bookshelf | Source: Pexels
For the first time in forever, I felt a spark of hope. “Really?”
She nodded and smiled. “In fact, we have an internship opening up at my firm. It’s usually for college students, but… I think we could make an exception for a high school student about to go to college. Are you interested in design as a career?”
I had to stop my jaw from falling off when I tried to speak. “Absolutely! I mean, I’ve never really considered it professionally, but I love it.”
A teenage girl smiling | Source: Midjourney
Ava smiled. “Well, consider it now. The internship is paid, and if you do a good job, you might be able to earn a scholarship from the company for college if you pursue design. What do you say?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Yes! A thousand times, yes! Thank you!”
“Excellent! You can begin straight away. I’ll call you with details later,” Ava nodded and bypassed my parents as she headed upstairs.
A nice woman smiling | Source: Pexels
I hadn’t even realized they had followed us downstairs. Their faces were stunned, and my brother looked confused that, for once, the spotlight was on someone else.
That internship changed everything. Suddenly, I had a direction, a purpose, and most importantly, people who valued and wanted me to succeed.
So, I threw myself into learning everything I could about design, stayed late at the firm, and soaked up knowledge like a sponge.
A teenage girl working in an office | Source: Midjourney
Over the next few months, I juggled school, my internship, and my part-time job at the grocery store. It was exhausting but exhilarating.
At home, things were… different. My parents seemed unsure how to treat me now. The rent demands stopped. Instead, they asked me about my “little job.”
“So, uh, how’s that design thing going?” Dad would wonder over dinner, but he always avoided my eyes.
Middle-aged man looking down | Source: Pexels
“It’s great,” I’d reply, trying to keep things nonchalant. My joy didn’t belong to them. “I’m learning so much.”
Daniel, for his part, seemed bewildered. “I don’t get it,” he complained one day. “Why does Elena get an internship and not me?”
Mom patted his hand. “Well, sweetie, that’s because you’re still young. You’ll get an even better one later.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, they had to placate the favorite.
A teenage girl at the dinner table | Source: Midjourney
As the school year progressed, I started putting together my portfolio for college applications. Ava was an incredible mentor, who guided me through the process and helped me choose my best work.
“You’ve got a real talent, Elena,” she told me one afternoon in her office after hours. She had kindly stayed back, so I could finish up my plans. “These schools would be lucky to have you.”
Her words gave me the confidence to aim high. I applied to some of the top design programs in the country, including Ava’s alma mater.
A young woman writing on a notebook | Source: Pexels
Afterward, the waiting was agony, but finally, it happened. I was in the basement, touching up some paint on my bookshelf, when I heard Mom call down.
“Elena? There’s a big envelope here for you.”
I took the stairs two at a time and ripped the envelope from her hands. “Dear Elena, We are pleased to offer you admission to our School of Design…” My knees went weak, but it only got better!
A big envelope | Source: Pexels
I couldn’t believe it. Not only had I gotten in, but I’d been offered a full scholarship by the school, the same one Ava attended.
“Well?” Mom asked and gave me a tight smile. “What does it say?”
“I got in. Full ride,” I said, looking up as my eyes watered.
For a moment, there was silence. Then, she went back upstairs. She couldn’t even muster a small congratulation.
A serious older woman | Source: Pexels
My dad said nothing at dinner, and Daniel was somehow angry.
I felt their bitterness. But I didn’t care. Finally, I had what I wanted. Ava held a small celebration for me at the office, and Aunt Teresa held a big bash. It was all I needed.
The next room I decorated was my dorm… then, I redecorated my entire life with colors that shone like my soul, the patterns that made the world unique, and the family I made along the way, who were as supportive as a nice, cozy bed frame that lasts for decades.
A teenage girl happy | Source: Midjourney
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.
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