– You Timothy were never worthy of me! What did I ever see in you, – Jodie walked around the room and gathered her things.
– What kind of mother are you that you abandon your children, – her husband asked her.
– I do not refuse, but leave them to you for upbringing. I will visit them as soon as possible.
***
Timothy and Jodie were married for almost seven years. They had a son and a daughter. Their daughter was only three years old when Jodie told her husband that she was leaving him. Recently, their life did not work out at all, quarrels and scandals began to happen almost every day.
– Why did you buy this old ruin? – Jodie said about the car, which Timothy bought for almost nothing.
– It needs to be repaired, painted and will be almost like new. We need a car.
– Ride it yourself, I will not be ashamed. It’s not a car, it’s a trough on wheels, – the wife would not stop.
– I can’t buy an expensive car now. We have a lot of loans, I already work two jobs – the husband tried to justify himself.
– Two jobs! And it feels like you’re working part-time as a janitor, from how much money you bring into the family, – Jodie said.
The doorbell rang. It was Jodie’s sister Gabriel. She loved her nephews very much and often visited them.
– Oh, hello, come in, – Gabriel greeted Jodie’s sister.
– Why are you shouting so loud, I can hear you in the entrance. We didn’t share something again, – Gabriel took out the presents for her nephews from the bag.
– We did not share! There would be something to share! If only the trough, which Timothy calls a car.
Gabriel went to the nursery to see her nephews, and Jodie went to the store, then wanted to visit a friend.
After playing with her nephews, Gabriel went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Timothy was sitting in the kitchen, looking out the window and thinking.
– Timothy, – Gabriel called him, – don’t worry. Jodie is always like this – she will scream and cool down.
– She always does. Only I’m always tired of it. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, she never appreciates it, never praises it. She just nags and nags, compares with others. I try, I earn as much as I can. And now with this car. She herself constantly told me that I needed a car to take children to school and kindergarten. So I bought it. And now she says that she will not sit in it …, – it was clear that Timothy was very depressed.
– The children and I are going to the playground in the yard, will you come with us?” Gabriel suggested.
They went down to the yard with the children, Timothy was working with his son on the horizontal bars, and Gabriel and his niece were playing in the sandbox.
– What a perfect family!” someone said from the outside.
Jodie returned home and found the following picture.
– Mom, look what we made with Auntie, – Jodie’s daughter said cheerfully.
Every day the relationship between the couple was getting worse. Jodie left home more and more often, stayed late for part-time jobs (she was a manicurist). Gabriel was often left with the children. Timothy came home tired and did not find his wife at home. He no longer understood whether he had a family or not, and for whom he was trying.
– Jodie, this can’t go on!” – Timothy said to his wife one evening.
– Of course, it can’t! How can you live in such poverty? I am 28 years old, and I feel old. I can’t buy normal clothes, do my hair. I can’t go out. I can’t even dream about a vacation at the sea!” – Jodie also wanted to start this conversation.
– I wanted to say that I am tired of living like this. I live as if I don’t have a wife. When I am at home, you are not at home. I forgot the last time I had a hot dinner.
– Dinner? Is that what you need me for? – Jodie jumped up from the couch and stood in front of her husband.
– I inform you, dear man, that I am leaving you! Yes, yes, do not look at me like that. I’m going to someone else! To the one who sees me as a woman, not a cook! To the one who drives me around in an expensive car, not in a trough you call a car!” the woman was already shouting.
– Coming? Timothy could not believe what he was hearing.
– Yes, I’m coming. The children will stay with you for now, I have no place to take them now. Be glad that at least the children will stay with you, with such a loser.
– But they are your children too! My daughter is still very young, how can she be without her mother now?” – now Timothy wondered how he could live with a woman who was ready to leave her children for another man and a beautiful life.
– These are your children too! I carried them and gave birth to them. Now you have to work hard, take care of their upbringing.
The next day, Jodie packed her things and left while the children were in kindergarten and school. Timothy took time off from work. To understand what he should do now. He was left alone with two small children, he had two jobs, and now he had to do the housework. When the door closed behind Jodie, Timothy sat on the couch for another hour and looked at one point.
– Gabriel, can you come over tonight to feed my nephews?” he decided to ask his ex-wife’s sister to help with the kids.
– I will. Timothy, what happened? Where is Jodie?” Gabriel was surprised.
– I’ll explain later, – Timothy answered and hung up.
In the evening, when the children had already fallen asleep, Timothy and Gabriel sat in the kitchen. He told her what had happened, that Jodie had packed her things and left for another man, leaving him with the children.
– Timothy, I am ashamed that she is my sister. Yes, anything could have happened between you. But not to be interested in your children like that… I don’t know what to say to that, – Gabriel was shocked by her sister’s irresponsibility.
– I’m not comfortable asking, – Timothy hesitated, – But could you help with the children if possible. If you don’t mind. Maybe Jodie will come back for more. Although… I doubt I could forgive her.
In the nursery, Timothy and Jodie’s daughter cried, and Gabriel hurried to her.
***
Six months later, Timothy and Gabriel were walking with their children in the park. The children were having fun running in the fresh snow, making snowballs. Gabriel and Timothy were holding hands and smiling. Since Jodie left the family, Gabriel constantly helped him with the children. She loved her nephews very much and could not leave them without care. And then, when the children fell asleep, she and Timothy sat in the kitchen for a long time and talked about everything. It brought them very close, it seemed that they had known each other all their lives. Jodie saw the children only once during these six months and called a couple of times. That’s how her aunt became a mother for her nephews.
