Despite her age, Julia was just full of life. She constantly walked in and out of our home, ready to throw herself into our kitchen.
“I just want to feed you guys,” she told me when I asked her to sit down, ready to cook for her instead.
“I don’t have anything else to do besides meet the ladies for drinks,” she chuckled.
It usually ended with us cooking together — Toby coming home to music and laughter echoing in the kitchen.
My parents were across the country because I had moved for college, and ended up settling down here with Toby. And as much as phone and video calls kept me close to my family, at the end of the day, Julia filled the role of a mother — a mother in close proximity anyway.
After three years of being married, Toby and I were trying to have a baby.
“I’m ready if you are,” Toby told me. “I think it’s time now.”
I agreed with Toby. I was ready — I wanted to be a mom.
So, we began trying. And for months, we just couldn’t get pregnant. And the longer we tried, the more reality set in. Maybe we just weren’t meant to have biological children.
“What do you want to do?” I asked Toby. “Keep trying?”
Toby nodded. I knew that he wouldn’t ask me to do anything I didn’t want to do, but I also knew that he desperately wanted to be a father.
So, torn, I turned to my mother-in-law for advice. Julia took me to meet with a wellness coach, she took me for fertility massages, and then, she even bought Toby and I a brand new mattress.
“Maybe your body is just not rested enough,” my mother-in-law said. “Maybe you just need to give your body the best chance possible at this.”
“Do you think that it was a bit unnecessary?” I asked Toby as we got into bed that night, testing out our new mattress.
“Normally, I would have said yes,” Toby admitted. “But maybe there’s something to what Mom said. Our mattress was horrible before. Maybe it will make a difference.”
And it did. Because not even a month later, I discovered that we were pregnant. At first, I didn’t know whether to tell my husband and our family because I was so nervous about everything.
I felt that if I acknowledged the truth, then maybe I was inviting something to happen. But it made no sense — my irrational fear was selfish. Toby needed to know that we were well on our way to being parents.
“Thank goodness,” Toby said, picking me up. “Finally!”
Once we were safe within the second trimester, we told our family — satisfied that our baby’s growth was on track.
And then, before we knew it, our daughter, Maddie, was born.
My mother-in-law took over, caring for the three of us while we navigated the new waters of parenthood. She cooked and cleaned, and took over Maddie’s early morning feeding times.
Julia’s presence made me feel loved, especially because my parents were unable to come over and meet our baby yet.
Until Toby discovered something in our home that changed the way I viewed Julia forever.
Toby and I didn’t mind that Maddie spent the night in our bed – it was just easier for me to feed her through the night. But one night, Maddie had a blow-out, causing our bed to suffer the consequences.
“You sort the baby out,” Toby yawned when I woke him up to Maddie’s drama. “I’ll sort the bed out.”
I picked up my daughter and took her into the bathroom – her blow-out called for a bath, not just a diaper change. Maddie cooed and pressed her gummy hands to my face.
“Sweet girl,” I told her. “You just have to make life difficult for Dad and me, huh?”
Meanwhile, what I didn’t know was that while Toby was stripping our bed, he had uncovered something strange attached to our mattress.
By the time I was done with Maddie, she was almost asleep again. So, I took her to our bedroom, ready to put her into the crib while I helped Toby change the bedding.
“Oh, honey,” he said when he saw me standing in the doorway. “We cannot use this anymore.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, setting Maddie down. “Did she get it into the mattress?”
Toby looked nervous. He had picked up the mattress so that it stood on its side.
“No, it’s not that,” he said.
I was perplexed, watching him struggle with words. “What are you talking about? It’s just a mattress, we’ll clean it–”
“No, Larissa,” he interrupted, his voice rising in panic. “It’s not just a mattress.”
By this point, I was sleep-deprived and slightly annoyed with my husband. Toby was not a man to fumble for his words, and yet, here he was, in the early hours of the morning, too uncertain to change the sheets.
“What?”
“Look what I found,” he said.
Toby handed me a little silk bag. Inside there were various herbs. I hadn’t seen the bag before.
“What is this? Where did you find it?” I asked.
“It was pinned to the mattress. It was under the mattress protector, so I think we just didn’t notice it before.”
“Fine, but what is it for?” I asked, confused and irritable.
“It’s fertility herbs, it has to be!” Toby exclaimed.
I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Listen, I don’t know if this is true or not, but I do know that my mother believes in old wives’ tales. What if this is one of those tales?”
“She would never do that,” I said. “No way!”
“Then where else did it come from?” Toby asked flatly.
He made us sleep in the guest bedroom – where Julia slept when she stayed over. But of course, I couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t silence my mind.
I looked at Maddie, sleeping in between Toby and me. She was perfect. Sure, we had a difficult time conceiving, but Maddie was our child through and through. She had my hair and Toby’s eyes. She was ours in every sense of the word.
But there was no mistaking the fact that she was born shortly after Julia had gifted us the bed.
Could those herbs have helped with Maddie’s birth? But was that even possible?
I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, the familiar smell of gas hit my nose. Outside, Toby was dousing our mattress. He threw the match on it as I stepped outside the back door.
The mattress went up in flames in an instant – the flames seemed to dance with a fervor that matched the turmoil inside me. I was trying to understand Julia’s motives. She had always been so close to us – to me – so I couldn’t understand why she would keep this away from me.
I didn’t understand the significance of the herbs, but if she had explained it to me, I wouldn’t have felt the paranoia and fear that had settled in my body since Toby’s discovery.
“What are you doing?” I exclaimed, hearing the fire grow louder.
“We couldn’t keep it, honey. We just couldn’t,” he said.
Toby had a deep fear for anything esoteric – anything that bordered the supernatural was too much for him. He would have rather slept in our car than spent another night in the house with the mattress.
As the mattress burned, I kept an eye on the baby monitor, watching Maddie sleep. The silence between Toby and I was heavy with the uncertainty of what had been going on in our home.
Later, Julia came over to make was breakfast as usual. My husband took the lead, his voice steady but laced with an undercurrent of betrayal.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell us about the mattress? About the herbs?” he asked.
I poured Julia a cup of tea – despite everything that we had learned, she was still one of my favorite people. I loved her like I loved my mother.
My mother-in-law’s face crumpled, her usual vibrancy replaced by a somber guilt.
“I just wanted to help. I knew that you were having trouble conceiving, and I thought that if it worked, you wouldn’t care how. I never meant to hurt either of you. Especially not my granddaughter.”
“What else did you do? What’s in the bag? Other than the herbs?” Toby’s questions flew hard and fast around our living room.
“Nothing!” Julia exclaimed, finally registering Toby’s fear. “It’s just dried herbs. I can give you a list of them,” she said. “I’ll take you both to the store where I got them from. It’s a sweet little apothecary next to my dentist. It’s a store all about natural wellness.”
“You could have just told us,” I found myself saying. “How we can trust anything you do now? How do we know if our baby is a miracle baby or just an outcome of your herbs?”
“Does that matter?” she asked, her eyes brimming with tears. “Maddie is here and she’s ours.”
I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Of course, Maddie was ours. I was just feeling wounded that Julia had done this and not told me. I also felt obligated to be angry with her – because my husband was livid.
“I’m sorry,” my mother-in-law whispered. “I really am.”
At her words, I felt Toby soften next to me.
“We need to start over, Mom,” he said. “If you plan on doing anything like this again, you have to tell us first. We need to know what’s going on in our own homes.”
Julia nodded and smiled at us. She seemed shaken that we had discovered the truth.
I was confused – there was a part of me that was eternally grateful to her because I know how difficult it was for us to get pregnant. But at the same time, how could sleeping on a bunch of herbs actually help us get pregnant?
Toby spent the rest of the day looking for mattresses online, while Julia baked us a tart for lunch. I just reveled in spending time with my daughter.
What do you think? Do you believe in natural remedies and old wives tales?
A Stranger’s Note on My Husband’s Car Made Me Call My Lawyer
A Stranger’s Note on My Husband’s Car Made Me Call My Lawyer
When Sierra is in mom-mode, trying to get her kids off to school, she finds a sticky note on her husband’s car that makes her question where he had been the entire weekend. Wanting answers, she phones the number on the note and slowly, secrets unravel with her marriage.
It was a typical Monday morning. I was in my mom zone, trying to get the kids off to school on time. That’s when a piece of pink paper changed everything.
A close-up of smiling children | Pexels
I had just put the kids into the car and was about to put their lunch bags and backpacks in with them when I saw the bright pink sticky note plastered on the trunk of my husband’s car.
I paused, my heart pounding, and walked over to read it.
A pink sticky note on a car | Source: Midjourney
“Sit tight,” I told the kids. “I’m coming now! I just want to see what’s on Dad’s car.”
“Okay, Mom,” Natasha shouted from the backseat.
Children sitting in a car | Source: Midjourney
Sorry, I scratched your car last night. You shouldn’t park on the street though! -Neighbor from 283. This is my number in case you need anything!
Confusion and nausea washed over me. We don’t live near a house with that number, and my husband, Thomas, always parked in our garage.
A woman reading a sticky note | Source: Midjourney
“What was it?” my daughter asked when I slid into the driver’s seat.
“Nothing, honey,” I said. “Just a piece of paper that got stuck on Dad’s car.”
A woman in the driver’s seat | Source: Unsplash
Tom had just returned from a business trip this morning, so his car should have been parked at the airport the entire weekend.
My mind raced, and a sinking feeling settled in my stomach.
I knew that something was about to change.
A man wearing a suit | Source: Unsplash
“Enjoy your day, babies!” I said as the kids got out of the car at drop-off.
“Don’t forget, we have to make cookies for school tomorrow,” Natasha reminded me. “We need like sixty cookies, Mom.”
I left the kids and drove to the grocery store, needing to get everything for the cookies that we needed to bake.
An aisle in a grocery store | Source: Midjourney
“Can I help you, ma’am?” a young woman asked me as I walked up and down the baking aisle. She tied the grocery store’s apron tightly onto her.
“No, thank you,” I said absentmindedly. “I’m just browsing.”
A person tying an apron | Source: Pexels
But my mind just couldn’t stay focused at all. What was Thomas playing at?
I filled up the cart as I went up and down the aisle, getting enough ingredients for everything we needed and then paid.
Then, I decided to call Thomas and just check in.
A woman holding a phone and a card | Source: Pexels
“Hi, honey,” I said the moment he picked up.
“Hey, Sierra,” he said. “Are you okay? I’m just getting into a meeting now. I’ll speak to you later.”
And he cut the call.
A woman using her phone | Source: Pexels
“What on earth is going on?” I said aloud as I picked up gummy worms for Jake, my son.
Later, I picked up the kids and made toasted sandwiches while Natasha and I baked for her class.
A child holding a plate of toast | Source: Pexels
“Is everything okay, Mom?” Natasha asked, mixing in the chocolate chips. “You’re not helping Jake with homework.”
“Everything is fine,” I said, turning my focus back to my children.
Chocolate chips in a container | Source: Pexels
But still, my mind raced and I couldn’t shut it off. I was distracted and unable to stop the conspiracies that plagued my mind.
That evening, after tucking the kids into bed, I dialed the number on the note. The phone rang twice before a cheerful voice answered.
A little girl tucked in bed | Source: Pexels
“Hello, is this house 283?” I asked, nervously.
“Yes!” the woman said. “Who am I speaking to?”
“Sierra,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I found your note on my husband’s car this morning. Can you tell me more about the incident?”
A woman holding a phone | Source: Pexels
There was a brief pause.
“Oh, yes, I’m Jane. I’m really sorry about that. I accidentally scratched his car when I was parking last night. I live at 283 Elm Street. Are you new to the neighborhood?”
My heart pounded.
“No, no,” I said. “I’m sure Thomas was just visiting a friend. Don’t worry about the scratch, I saw the car. It’s all good!”
A parked car | Source: Pexels
“Oh, are you sure?” she asked. “I’m sure that the insurance will cover it.”
“I’m sure,” I said, turning to look out the window. “But can you tell me where exactly he was parked?”
There was silence for a moment.
When Jane spoke, her voice was softer.
A woman talking on the phone | Source: Pixabay
“He was parked right outside my house. There’s a small park across the street, and next to it, is a woman’s house. I’m sorry,” she said.
“Thank you, Jane,” I said.
I hung up, my mind reeling. Thomas had lied to me. He wasn’t on a business trip. He hadn’t even left the car at the airport.
A house with a garden | Source: Midjourney
Instead, he was at some woman’s house.
I didn’t want to confront my husband yet. I needed proof first. So, I got into bed beside him and forced myself to fall asleep.
A woman sleeping in bed | Source: Unsplash
The next morning, I gave the kids cereal for breakfast while trying to decide my next move.
After dropping them off at school, I drove to Elm Street. According to the GPS, it was about twenty minutes away from me. I looked for the park and the house next door.
Bowls of cereal | Source: Midjourney
Before doing anything else, I knocked on the door. A few moments later, a woman in her thirties opened the door.
“Hi, can I help you?” she asked.
“My name is Sierra,” I said. “I believe my husband, Thomas, was with you this weekend?”
Her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
A white front door | Source: Midjourney
“Oh, my God. I had no idea he was married. Please, come in. I’m Mary.”
My heart ached, and my wedding ring seemed to get tighter around my finger.
“He didn’t mention us? His family?” I asked.
Mary shook her head.
A woman hiding her face | Source: Unsplash
“No, he told me he was single. We met at a local market, and we’ve been seeing each other for a few months now. But he did say that work has been hectic recently. So we haven’t seen each other very often.”
“Mary, I need your help. I need evidence of his infidelity for my divorce lawyer. I can’t stay married to a man like this, especially with my kids. Can you help me?”
People at a farmer’s market | Source: Unsplash
Mary looked at me with determination.
“Of course,” she said. “We need to catch him in the act.”
Later that evening, Mary was going to text Thomas and invite him over. She told him that she really wanted them to have dinner together at home.
“I’ll tell him that I cooked,” she told me as I left her home. “That usually gets him here.”
A homecooked meal | Source: Midjourney
I left the kids with my mother and drove to Mary’s house, ready to catch Thomas in the act. When he arrived, Mary kissed him at the door.
My stomach turned, but I snapped the picture anyway. Then, I stepped out of my hiding place.
“Thomas,” I demanded. “What the hell is this?”
His face turned pale.
A couple embracing | Source: Unsplash
“Sierra, what are you doing here?”
Mary crossed her arms, glaring at him.
“You lied to both of us, Thomas,” she said. “How could you? And you have children?”
He stammered, trying to find the right words, but there were none.
“It’s not what it looks like,” he finally managed to say.
“Save it,” I said, holding my camera. “I have all the proof I need. I’m ready to file for divorce.”
A close-up of a camera | Source: Unsplash
“Sierra, please,” he said, trying to follow me to the car.
I brushed him off and got in, ready to head home to my children.
In the following weeks, Mary and I became unlikely friends, bonded by our shared betrayal. The most surprising thing was how quickly my children got attached to her.
On the day that the papers were finally signed, I felt the biggest sense of relief and empowerment.
Two woman sitting together | Source: Unsplash
Sure, my heart was broken, and so was my home. But as I was trying to fix myself, my children stepped in, ready to fill my life with the joy that only children can.
As for Thomas? He moved back in with his parents. He didn’t even put up a fight to make things better.
Two smiling children | Source: Pexels
What would you have done?
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