It was a crisp fall afternoon when I decided it was finally time to tackle the attic. For years, it had been a catch-all for everything from holiday decorations to old clothes that hadn’t seen the light of day in decades. I’d been meaning to clean it out for ages, but what I found in it led to me becoming a single woman after years of marriage…

Like everything else in life, cleaning the attic kept getting pushed down the list. My husband, Jeff, had mentioned before that most of the stuff up there was junk anyway. In fact, just last year, he told me his old high school jacket, now sitting forgotten in a pile of boxes, should go straight to the dump.

With that in mind, I started pulling things out, one by one. A broken lamp, boxes of our now-grown kids’ school projects, and, of course, Jeff’s old jacket. I barely glanced at it before tossing it into the pile meant for the dump.

It was faded and torn in a few places, and it smelled like it had been trapped in a musty attic for years. Not exactly a sentimental keepsake, right?

That evening, we sat down for dinner, the kind of normal weeknight meal where we barely had time to talk before cleaning up and moving on with the night. The air smelled like roasted chicken, but my husband of twenty years was oddly quiet.

He picked at his food for a while before I broke the silence.

“I cleaned out the attic today,” I said casually, trying to start a lighthearted conversation between us. “Threw out a bunch of our old junk.”

Jeff froze. His fork stopped halfway to his mouth before he dropped it onto the plate with a clatter.

“What JUNK?” he asked, his voice rising sharply, eyes wide like I’d just told him the house was on fire.

“Just some old stuff from the attic. Why?” I tried to keep my tone light, but the way his expression shifted had me worried.

Without another word, my husband immediately pushed back his chair, nearly knocking it over in his haste to get upstairs. I stayed behind, confused by his sudden panic. I heard him rummaging through boxes, muttering to himself.

Moments later, he came storming downstairs, fists clenched at his sides.

“Where’s my old school jacket?” His voice was dangerously low, with an edge to it I hadn’t heard before. He looked like he was ready to punch the walls!

I blinked at him, trying to figure out why he cared so much.

“I probably tossed it,” I said. “It was in a pile of stuff for the dump.”

The color literally drained from his face, and I could almost see the pulse pounding in his temple!

“You THREW it away?” he growled, his voice shaking with barely-contained fury. “I told you to throw away the junk, not that jacket!”

I stood there, dumbfounded. “Jeff, last year you said that jacket was trash… literally said it belonged in the dump!”

He let out a bitter laugh that sent chills down my spine.

“Well, guess what? The day I married YOU was a curse!”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut! And before I could respond, he stormed out of the house, grabbed his car keys, and peeled out of the driveway.

For a second, I was too shocked to move! But then something told me to follow him. Grabbing my purse, I jumped into my car and raced after him, my heart pounding. Where could he possibly be going in such a rage?

When I saw him pull into the entrance of the local dump, it all started to click into place!

The jacket. He was here to find that old jacket. But why? There had to be something more to it than just nostalgia. And what the hell did he mean that marrying me was a “curse?”

But soon enough, I’d find out what was in that jacket and why it would wreck our marriage…

I parked and hurried after him, catching sight of my husband frantically searching through piles of trash. I’d never seen him like this before… so on edge, so wild! My heart raced as I approached him.

“Jeff, what is going on? Why are you doing this?” I demanded, my voice trembling now.

He stopped digging, turning to face me, his face pale.

“Because, Stacy,” he spat, “I was saving money. Fifty thousand dollars. For us… to buy a new house.”

I took a step back, trying to process what he was saying. Fifty thousand? In an old, ratty jacket?

But then his words echoed in my head. “For US.” I didn’t believe it. Something felt wrong… really wrong.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I didn’t think I had to!” he snapped, returning to his desperate search. “I was going to surprise you. Now it’s all gone BECAUSE of you!”

Back then, I had no idea what he was actually doing behind my back and that there was more to the money he’d saved!

I went with his lie.

I watched him sift through heaps of trash, his hands filthy, and something inside me twisted. Despite desperately wanting to believe him, his story wasn’t adding up. But I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. We never found the jacket that night. Eventually, after hours of searching, Jeff slumped down in defeat.

He wouldn’t even look at me.

We drove home in our separate cars, and I was silent as I continued contemplating my husband’s actions and statements. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was deeply wrong. After we got home, Jeff went straight to the bedroom without a word.

I sat on the couch, staring at the wall, my mind racing. What was it about that jacket? Why was he acting like this? Was there really money in the jacket?

An hour passed, and I heard my husband’s voice, low and hushed, from the bedroom. I crept up to the door, leaning close enough to hear his words through the thin walls.

“I don’t have the money anymore,” Jeff was saying. “That useless woman threw it out with the jacket!”

My breath caught in my throat…

“No, I wasn’t saving it for me and her,” he continued. “It was for the house… for US, like we said.”

My blood turned to ice. “US?” He wasn’t talking about me. He was talking about someone else!

I pushed open the door, unable to hold back my anger any longer!

“WHO are you talking to, Jeff?”

His face went pale as he turned to face me, phone still in hand. “Stacy… I…”

“No,” I said, cutting him off. “Who were you going to buy a house with?”

He didn’t answer, just stared at me, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for air.

But I didn’t NEED him to answer. I already knew. There was someone else. Someone who had been waiting for that fifty thousand dollars.

“I’m filing for divorce,” I said, my voice calm and steady. “The kids and everyone is going to find out the truth about who you really are. You called me useless to your mistress, Jeff…”

It was the only thing that made sense now.

Jeff’s face twisted in anger, but I didn’t stay to hear his excuses. I walked out and didn’t look back.

A month after the divorce, I found myself back in the attic since I’d won the house in our filing. The chaos of the last few weeks had kept me from returning, but I needed to get my old sewing machine for a project I’d started.

As I sifted through boxes, my hand brushed against something soft… something familiar.

There, at the bottom of a box I had somehow missed, was Jeff’s old jacket.

I froze, pulling it out and staring at it in disbelief. I hadn’t thrown it away after all!

With trembling hands, I checked the inside pocket, and there it was… the fifty thousand dollars, neatly folded, exactly where he had hidden it!

But this time, there was no rush to tell anyone. No need to share. Jeff had made his choices, and now I was making mine. I kept the money, my heart racing at the thought of what it meant for my future.

This time, it was my secret to keep…

My story had a bit of a happy ending but what is worse than your partner cheating is when they make a baby outside. That’s what happened to Lily, whose husband hid his mistress and baby from her until one day she discovered them, and then the truth about his infidelity…

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.