After our messy divorce, my ex-husband started stalking and harassing me.
Then he crossed a line by spray-painting cruel insults across my fence to humiliate me.
But one small mistake flipped his whole life upside down… and I got the last laugh.
My name is Taylor, and at 30, I thought I had my life figured out. Kevin and I had been married for seven years, and for most of that time, I believed we were happy. I believed in us and in the future we were building together in our little house on Maple Street.
“You’re being paranoid, Taylor,” Kevin would say whenever I questioned the late nights, the mysterious phone calls, and the way he’d guard his phone like it contained state secrets.
“You don’t trust me, and that’s your problem.”
His words cut deep because I wanted to trust him. I wanted to believe that the man I married was the same person who promised to love me forever. But something in my gut kept whispering that something was wrong.
The truth came out on a Tuesday morning.
I’d forgotten my laptop at home and came back to grab it. Kevin’s car was in the driveway, but he was supposed to be at work. I walked into our bedroom and found him with a woman… tangled in our sheets.
“Taylor!” Kevin scrambled to cover himself, his face flushed with guilt and anger.
“This isn’t what it looks like!”
“Really?! Because it looks like you’re cheating on ME in OUR bed!”
The woman grabbed her clothes and fled past me, muttering apologies I didn’t want to hear. Kevin sat on the edge of our bed, his head in his hands.
“How long?”
He looked up at me, and for a moment, I saw something that might have been remorse.
Then his jaw hardened.
“Five years. But the last time was a year ago! I haven’t cheated in a year!”
I stared at him, waiting for him to realize how insane that sounded.
When he didn’t, I started laughing… not because anything was funny, but because the alternative was screaming.
“You’re proud of that? You cheated on me for five years out of the seven years we were married, and you want credit for being faithful for 12 months?”
“You never made it easy,” Kevin snapped, standing up and grabbing his pants. “You were never enough, Taylor.
Never pretty and interesting enough. What did you expect me to do?”
His words settled in my chest like bruises. I just stood there, watching this man I’d loved twist the knife deeper, blaming me for his betrayal.
That night, I packed a bag and left.
Kevin’s face twisted with contempt.
“You’ll regret this, Taylor. You’ll regret throwing this away. You’ll never find anyone who’ll put up with you like I did.”
***
The divorce papers were eventually signed and Kevin fought me on everything — the house, the furniture… even my grandmother’s china.
But I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted out.
“You sure about this place?” my realtor, Mrs. Chen, asked as we stood outside the small apartment across from my old house.
“It’s a bit close to your former residence.”
I looked across the street at the house that used to be mine, then back at the cozy apartment with the bright kitchen and the little garden.
“It’s perfect!”
The apartment felt like a fresh start, even if it meant seeing my old life every time I looked out the window.
Three weeks into living there, I met Oscar at the coffee shop downtown. He was reading a book I loved, and before I could stop myself, I was telling him about my favorite parts. He looked up with those warm brown eyes and smiled.
“I haven’t gotten there yet,” he said.
“But now I’m excited to.”
Our friendship blossomed, and Oscar was everything Kevin wasn’t. He listened when I talked. He made me laugh without making me feel like the joke was on me.
He even held the doors and remembered that I liked extra foam in my latte.
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