For almost twenty years, his life was woven into mine. He wasn’t just a partner, he was an important part of who I was. There are no children in our lives, and we have never thought about getting married to make our relationship official. We were committed to each other in a way that was different from what most people do.
He decided to have a vasectomy because of problems with birth control. This shows that he is committed to our choice to remain childless and to our way of life.
But our relationship ended the moment I found out he had cheated on me. This news broke my heart so badly that I had to leave him. I didn’t find out about their marriage until six months after we broke up. He moved on quickly with the woman he cheated on. The life we had dreamed of, one based on faith and understanding, was very different from how things turned out.
I went in a different direction because of the way life beats. After going out with my current partner for a year, I found out I was pregnant without planning to. We took on the task, even though we were a little nervous at first because we hadn’t spent much time together. The growth of our family and our love for each other took a bad situation and turned it into one of great satisfaction and happiness.
However, it looked like my ex couldn’t move on from the past. Because I wanted to protect the peace and happiness I had found, I set a limit and didn’t answer his texts on holidays and birthdays. When he heard about my kid, he got angry and blamed me, which was a painful reminder of how much mental damage he could do. That was the last thing I heard from him before his last message, which was full of false claims of betrayal. After that, there was silence, and the part of my life that involved him felt like it was over for good.
A few months later, the terrible news came through that he had died too soon in a terrible accident. The shocking news served as a depressing reminder of how short life is and how our feelings used to tie us together intricately. While I was still shocked, I found out that his current wife was expecting, which made the already complicated story of how we met even more complex.
The biggest surprise was when a lawyer called me. In his will, my ex-husband named me as the main person who would get his money. It was a surprise and a puzzle to realise this. He left some of his money to his parents and nephew, but most of it went to me, his ex-partner of twenty years.
Even though we broke up and stopped talking to each other, the fact that I would be getting his fortune was a big deal to me. It brought up a lot of feelings, questions, and memories that I had thought were long forgotten.
As I thought about this, I didn’t know what to do. I wondered why he had made the choice he did and how it would change my life now. Before, I knew this man very well. He made a choice that touched not only me but also the family I raised without him. When the lawyer called, he opened a door to a past I thought I had closed. It brought with it a rush of feelings and decisions I wasn’t ready to deal with.
In the quiet of the evening, I was sitting at the kitchen table with a letter in my hand. The letter left a shadow on the otherwise clean surface. It was written by Jack, my ex-partner, whose handwriting I knew very well from when we were together. I was shocked to find words inside the paper, which seemed heavy for its size.
I thought I could hear Jack’s words echoing around the room as he apologised profusely for everything that had happened between us in the past and said more than just sorry.
In his writing, Jack told me he loved me. It made me feel something, even though it had been years and was painful. The only thing he left behind was the land he left to me. He used it to wish me happiness and the happiness of the family I now loved. His words made me realise something I hadn’t thought about before: his marriage to his wife wasn’t based on love, it was based on manipulation.
He told her how she had tempted him, which cast their marriage into the shadows of lies and slavery. Their child was the chain that held him to a life he didn’t want.
He told me that his wife only saw him as a source of money and not as a partner, which gave me a new viewpoint on his decision to leave the estate to me. Jack told me that instead of thinking about his wife and kids, I should enjoy the life and chance that his gift gave me.
The next few days were rough. The parents and wife of Jack called me nonstop after reading the will. They were demanding and begging for the inheritance that Jack had refused to give them. Their urging only made me more determined, so I blocked their numbers. This gave me some peace in the middle of all the chaos.
Because of what Jack said and how I felt, I decided to take his last offer. I couldn’t honestly say no to his fortune as a big gift that would secure the future of my family. A few days after the burial, I went to his grave even though I couldn’t go to his funeral because I needed to get over it. As I stood in front of his final resting place, I silently thanked him for the love we had shared and the future he had given me.
But a part of me stayed there, thinking about what could have been and what might have been, even as I moved on. Even though I made the choice to keep Jack’s inheritance with all my heart at the time, it keeps coming back to haunt me when I’m alone. Was it the right thing to do for me to accept this gift, knowing that it would make the people he left behind angry? Was there anything else I could have done to bring people together, to make peace where Jack had caused conflict?
When I think about these problems, I realise that I want understanding as much as I want approval. Was it the right thing to do to keep the inheritance, or should I have thought of something else that would have made the people Jack left behind less sad and angry? With all of my feelings and duties jumbled, I wonder if the path I chose was really the best one—not just for me and my family, but also for the memory of a man whose last act was to give me everything.
What would you have done if you were me?
Would you like to hear another story? When this woman opened her fridge and saw a note from her boyfriend, she was shocked.
A note that actually knocked the ground out from under my feet was in my boyfriend’s fridge.
Chloe was finally happy and in love with Jack. This was very different from her time with Mike, her ex-boyfriend, who was always there. But what she found in Jack’s kitchen—a note written by Mike and a magnet from their trip—threw her off and made her not know what to do. The message, a personal comment she had made to Mike in the past, and the magnet, a reminder of her old life, didn’t seem to fit with her new relationship with Jack.
When Chloe faced Jack, she was thrown into a world of bad news and family fights. Before, Jack hadn’t told Mike that he was his stepbrother because he was afraid it would make their relationship worse. Jack talked about their tense family ties and made Mike look like he was spoiled and a pain. Even though there were problems, Jack let Mike live with him, which Chloe found strange and unsettling.
Chloe felt even worse when Jack tried to explain his actions and his plans for the future. He did think he could give Chloe the love and respect Mike had not given her, so he used his past and his apologies to get closer to her. But his confession didn’t calm Chloe’s fears; instead, it made her wonder even more about his goals and how they were connected.
Chloe had to rethink everything she thought she knew about Jack after she found out the truth about his friendship with Mike. Now she saw that the man she had thought was honest and caring had used their relationship against them by taking advantage of his brother’s mistakes. After her trust in Jack was totally broken, Chloe wondered if she would ever be able to get past the lies and manipulation she had seen.
Chloe has to make a tough choice as she thinks about her future with Jack. Will she ever be able to forgive Jack for keeping such a big secret from her? Or are some lies just too big to ignore? Her gut tells her that the happiness and love she thought she had found with Jack could be a mirage caused by family problems and lies that haven’t been told.
As Chloe gets ready to talk to Jack about their relationship over dinner, she is filled with doubts and worries. What does she think? Is their love still possible? Or is it time to end a relationship based on secrets and lies? When we find out the truth about someone we care about, Chloe’s story makes us think about how complicated love is, how important honesty is, and the hard choices we have to make.
