\n\n\n\nA pair of sneakers on a headstone | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n
He had died suddenly, in an accident on the way home to me. And before I knew it, I was alone. Jam seemed to be the only thing that would make anything better.\n\n\n\n
But I moved the shoes aside, left my lilies, and went home after talking to Paul\u2019s grave.\n\n\n\n
The next time I visited, there were more shoes. Different pairs this time.\n\n\n\n A grieving widow at a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n One visit, there were tiny red rain boots. Another time, a pair of dark green sneakers. It wasn\u2019t random anymore. It couldn\u2019t be. It was deliberate. Shoes for children who never existed in my life with Paul.\n\n\n\n It didn\u2019t make any sense. We had no kids. I had no kids.\n\n\n\n At first, I tried to ignore it. I told myself it had to be someone mourning nearby, placing shoes wherever they could find space. Or, honestly, that they just had the wrong grave.\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n Or\u2026 or what? What else could it be?\n\n\n\n I tried to come up with other reasons or excuses, but each visit made it harder to convince myself. The shoes were always there, new pairs every time I stayed away longer than a week.\n\n\n\n It felt like the universe was taunting me, like someone knew how to claw at my peace.\n\n\n\n So, I stopped visiting for a while, thinking maybe if I stayed away, the shoes would disappear. They didn\u2019t.\n\n\n\n In fact, they multiplied.\n\n\n\n Shoes placed on a headstone in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n When I finally went back, I saw six pairs in a neat little row by the headstone. It looked like some strange offering I didn\u2019t understand.\n\n\n\n The unease in my gut turned into anger.\n\n\n\n Was someone playing a cruel joke?\n\n\n\n Then, one cold morning, I found the person responsible.\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n I woke up that morning wanting to sit down at Paul\u2019s grave and have a cup of tea while I told him how much I wanted to make my trip to Thailand. But I just couldn\u2019t book that ticket. I wanted the breeze to hit my face or a flower petal to fall on my lap.\n\n\n\n Something, anything, that could be taken as a sign.\n\n\n\n Instead, I found someone who would change the course of my life.\n\n\n\n A woman sitting in her bed | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n She stood there, crouched beside the stone, cradling a tiny pair of brown sandals. Her long, dark hair swayed in the breeze as she carefully placed them next to a pair of slippers.\n\n\n\n \u201cHey! You!\u201d I shouted, stomping toward her. The lilies I\u2019d brought slipped from my hand, forgotten on the dew-covered grass.\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat the hell do you think you\u2019re doing?\u201d I asked.\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery holding a pair of sandals | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n The woman flinched, but she didn\u2019t run. She stood slowly, dusting off her coat, and turned to face me.\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s when my heart stopped.\n\n\n\n I knew her.\n\n\n\n \u201cMaya?\u201d My voice came out small, like a whisper wrapped in disbelief.\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n It was her. Paul\u2019s secretary. I hadn\u2019t seen her in years, not since she left her job out of nowhere. She used to smile all the time, always polite, always cheerful. But the woman standing in front of me now looked broken. She carried sadness in her eyes, the kind of sadness you only know if you are well acquainted with grief.\n\n\n\n Grief over losing something so special. Or someone.\n\n\n\n My stomach twisted as a thought struck me.\n\n\n\n A smiling personal assistant | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2026\u201d I began. \u201cYou and Paul? You were with my husband\u2026\u201d\n\n\n\n Maya\u2019s face crumpled immediately. I could almost smell the guilt coming off her. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out something small, rectangular, and well-worn at the edges.\n\n\n\n She handed it to me without a word.\n\n\n\n I looked down.\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n It was a photograph.\n\n\n\n Paul, smiling, cradling a baby boy in his arms. All the air rushed from my lungs.\n\n\n\n \u201cHis name is Oliver,\u201d Maya whispered, her voice barely strong enough to carry through the silence. \u201cHe\u2019s Paul\u2019s son.\u201d\n\n\n\n My head spun. I stumbled back, clutching the photo, feeling like the ground beneath me had collapsed.\n\n\n\n A photograph of a man and a baby | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n Paul, my husband, the man I thought I knew so well, had lived a secret life. With a child.\n\n\n\n \u201cYou were having an affair,\u201d I stated quietly.\n\n\n\n Maya nodded, tears streaming down her face.\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want this to happen,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t supposed to be like this. I left before things got too messy. But then\u2026\u201d\n\n\n\n A woman standing in a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n She took a deep breath and sighed.\n\n\n\n \u201cThen Paul got into the accident, and he didn\u2019t\u2026 make it. Oliver is five now. He keeps asking about his dad. He wants to know where he is. And I told him that Paul isn\u2019t here anymore, but that he\u2019ll be watching him from above. Now, every time he gets a new pair of shoes, he tells me to bring the old ones to his daddy.\u201d\n\n\n\n I stared at her, frozen.\n\n\n\n An upset woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what else to do,\u201d she continued, her voice cracking. \u201cI thought maybe if I let him leave the shoes, he could feel connected somehow. I didn\u2019t mean to hurt you. I swear, I didn\u2019t.\u201d\n\n\n\n I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to throw the photo back at her and demand answers that Paul would never give me.\n\n\n\n Could never give me.\n\n\n\n An upset woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n How long had this gone on? How could he lie to me, cheat on me, build a life with someone else behind my back?\n\n\n\n \u201cPaul was more present in Oliver\u2019s life when he was a baby. That\u2019s why there\u2019s the photo. Recently, it was just phone calls and the odd visit now and again. He said that he would send money, but he needed to\u2026 I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.\n\n\n\n But looking at Maya, I just couldn\u2019t find the words.\n\n\n\n A man holding a baby | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n All I could do was stand there, staring at the little shoes lined up beside his grave. They were silent tributes from a child who had lost his father.\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll stop,\u201d Maya said softly. \u201cI\u2019ll stop with the shoes. I didn\u2019t mean to upset you. I\u2019m so sorry, Ellen.\u201d\n\n\n\n She turned to leave, but something in me shifted.\n\n\n\n \u201cWait.\u201d\n\n\n\n A close up of a woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n The word slipped out of my mouth before I could think. Maya stopped and looked at me, her eyes red and swollen from crying.\n\n\n\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to stop,\u201d I said, my voice steadier than I expected. \u201cIf it helps Oliver, you don\u2019t have to.\u201d\n\n\n\n \u201cAre you sure?\u201d Maya asked, blinking slowly.\n\n\n\n I nodded, though the shock of the betrayal still weighed heavily on me.\n\n\n\n An upset woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s just a child, Maya. None of this is his fault.\u201d\n\n\n\n Maya\u2019s lower lip quivered as fresh tears welled up, but this time they were tears of relief.\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you, Ellen,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is something that helps me, too. All these milestones\u2026 Paul is going to miss them all.\u201d\n\n\n\n We stood in silence for a long moment, the cold breeze swirling around us. I looked down at the photograph still clutched in my hand, tracing Paul\u2019s smile with my thumb.\n\n\n\n An upset woman with her eyes closed | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n And then, as if on instinct, I placed the picture against his headstone.\n\n\n\n \u201cOliver deserves to know his father,\u201d I said. \u201cEven if it\u2019s only through stories.\u201d\n\n\n\n Maya gave a small, grateful nod.\n\n\n\n I stared at the tiny shoes for a moment longer, the anger inside me softening into something else.\n\n\n\n Something I couldn\u2019t quite name.\n\n\n\n Shoes on a headstone | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n Loss, maybe. Or even forgiveness. I wasn\u2019t sure.\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know,\u201d I said quietly, a smile forming on my face. \u201cPaul and I never had kids. It just\u2026 never happened for us. Maybe it\u2019s not too late for me to be a part of Oliver\u2019s life. If that\u2019s okay?\u201d\n\n\n\n Maya\u2019s eyes widened in shock.\n\n\n\n A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019d want that? Really? You want to be in my son\u2019s life? In our lives\u2026 after everything?\u201d\n\n\n\n I nodded, feeling something shift inside me. A strange bittersweet kind of hope.\n\n\n\n \u201cOliver is a part of Paul, and in a way, I guess that means that he\u2019s a part of me, too. Or I\u2019d like it to mean that, at least.\u201d\n\n\n\n Maya smiled.\n\n\n\n A smiling woman | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s a lovely kid, Ellen,\u201d she said softly. \u201cThere\u2019s some sadness in him, but I think it\u2019s from Paul. Paul was devastated when he found out about Oliver. It wasn\u2019t because he wasn\u2019t happy about his son, but because he knew that the moment the truth came out, you would be heartbroken. I think some of that sadness latched onto Oli.\u201d\n\n\n\n Hearing her words, the weight I\u2019d carried, the grief, the betrayal, the loss, didn\u2019t disappear. Instead, it felt almost bearable.\n\n\n\n We stood together for a long time, two women bound by loss and an innocent child.\n\n\n\n A smiling little boy | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n And just like that, the tiny shoes that had once haunted me became something else entirely. A bridge to a life I never imagined.\n\n\n\n From that day forward, I didn\u2019t dread visiting my husband\u2019s grave. Each pair of shoes became a reminder that even in the wake of heartbreak, there was still room for love, for a new connection, for new beginnings.\n\n\n\n And slowly, as I opened my heart and home to Oliver, I found a family I never knew I needed.\n\n\n\n What would you have done?\n\n\n\n An older woman and a boy at a cemetery | Source: Midjourney\n\n\n\n If you enjoyed this story, here\u2019s another one for you for |\n\n\n\n Emma had always been the frugal one, making sure that after her rent was taken care of, she still had enough money to make ends meet. But one day, when her husband is away for work, Emma takes care of the rent payment, only to discover that the rent she\u2019s been paying is actually for her mother-in-law\u2019s monthly allowances. Emma and Karma team up, ready to serve justice.\n\n\n\n I had always been frugal, meticulously budgeting every penny of my salary. New clothes, makeup, and vacations were all luxuries that I saw my friends indulge in, but they were dreams I had to put on hold.\n\n\n\n A woman counting money | Source: Pexels\n\n\n\n \u201cI just want to go on a vacation in a sunny place,\u201d I told my best friend, Jessica. \u201cTo just lounge around on the beach and sip cocktails.\u201d\n\n\n\n \u201cSoon,\u201d Jessica would say. \u201cI know that you\u2019re close to sorting the house out and finally being free of rent and whatnot.\u201d\n\n\n\n People holding drinks at the beach | Source: Pexels\n\n\n\n The house. That was where our problems had begun.\n\n\n\n Read the full story here.\n\n\n\n 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.\n\n\n\n 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 \u201cas is,\u201d and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Ellen visits Paul\u2019s grave hoping to find solace from her grief, she discovers children\u2019s shoes on his headstone. At first, she ignores it, thinking […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5284,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5283\/revisions\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeecho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\n\n\nMy Husband Pretended to Rent Our House While He Actually Owned It, Karma Didn\u2019t Let It Slide\n\n\n\n
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