28/07/2025
When I got sick, I finally saw a side of my husband that I wish I had never seen.
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I’m 30 years old, married to a man named Drew who’s 33, and we have a six-month-old baby girl named Sadie. She’s the light of my life — her smile lights up the whole room, her chubby cheeks make you want to squish them all day, and her sweet little giggle could melt anyone’s heart. But apparently, all of that was nothing more than an inconvenience to my husband when I got sick.
Let me tell you what happened. Buckle up, because it still feels like a fever dream to me — and not just because I literally had a fever when it all started.
About a month ago, I came down with a brutal virus. It wasn’t COVID, it wasn’t RSV, but it was something fierce. I had body aches, chills, a splitting headache, and a cough so violent it felt like my ribs were being punched from the inside. The worst part? Sadie had just gotten over a cold, so I was already drained and running on empty.
At that point, I was completely exhausted, sick, and trying to take care of a baby who was still extra clingy after her own illness. Meanwhile, Drew had been acting weird for weeks, even before I got sick. He was distant, constantly on his phone, chuckling at things he wouldn’t share with me. Whenever I asked what was so funny, he’d just shrug and say, “It’s work stuff.” His patience was running thin, too. He would snap at the smallest things — like dishes left in the sink or me forgetting to defrost the chicken for dinner.
One night, while I was rocking Sadie and desperately trying not to cough all over her, he looked at me and said, “You always look so exhausted.”
I couldn’t help but reply, “Well, yeah. I’m raising a whole human being!”
I thought that maybe, just maybe, this illness would finally make him realize he needed to step up. I hoped he would see how hard I was struggling and jump in to help. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
The night my fever spiked to 102.4, I could barely sit up. My hair was plastered to my forehead, my skin felt like it was on fire, and my entire body ached as if I had been run over by a truck. I looked at him, using what little strength I had left, and whispered, “Can you please take Sadie? I just need to lie down for 20 minutes.”
Without even blinking, he said, “I can’t. Your coughing is keeping me up. I NEED sleep. I think I’m going to stay at my mom’s for a few nights.”
At first, I laughed — not because it was funny, but because it was so absurd I genuinely thought he was joking.
But he wasn’t.
He actually got up, packed a duffel bag, kissed Sadie on the head — not me — and walked right out the door. The whole time, I kept asking, “Are you serious right now? You’re really leaving me?” And he just nodded and didn’t say another word.
He didn’t even bother to ask how I was supposed to care for Sadie when I could barely stand. After he left, I sat on the couch holding her while she cried from being overtired and hungry. I just stared at the door, completely numb.
A few minutes later, I texted him: “You’re seriously leaving me here sick and alone with the baby?”
His reply made my blood boil: “You’re the mom. You know how to handle this stuff better than me. I’d just get in the way. Plus, I’m exhausted and your coughing is unbearable.”
I read that message over and over again, my hands shaking — whether from the fever or from sheer rage, I’ll never know. I couldn’t believe that the man I married, the father of my child, thought my coughing was a bigger inconvenience than abandoning his sick wife and baby alone.
Fine.
Somehow, I made it through the weekend. I barely ate, I cried in the shower whenever Sadie napped, and I kept her alive on nothing but Tylenol, water, and pure instinct. The entire time, Drew didn’t check in once.
I didn’t have family nearby — they live hours away — and my friends were either out of town, busy, or dealing with their own lives. As I lay there, shivering and delirious, one single thought played in my mind over and over: I needed to show him exactly what it felt like to be completely abandoned.
So I started planning.
When I finally felt human again — my fever was gone, though I was still coughing and weak — I knew exactly what I was going to do.... (continue reading in the 1st comment)
