11/07/2025
My water broke on the way to my mother-in-law's party. My husband got furious. He pulled me, 9 months pregnant, out of the car and abandoned me on a snowy highway. "My mother is more important," he said. He never expected...
I was nine months pregnant and felt as large and unwieldy as an airship. A dull, persistent ache had taken up permanent residence in my lower back. Today, however, my anxiety was a sharp, bitter note that drowned out everything else. We were on our way to my mother-in-law’s birthday party.
“Leah, Mom will be offended if we don’t show up,” my husband, Greg, had said that morning, his voice already laced with the familiar tension he always had when his mother was involved.
The car sped along the highway, the landscape a bleak, monotonous canvas of white. I shivered. A strange, sharp twinge in my stomach made me catch my breath.
Suddenly, I felt a strange, warm gush, followed by a distinct pop deep inside me. I looked at Greg, my eyes wide with a mixture of terror and excitement. “Greg,” I said, my voice trembling. “I think… I think my water just broke.”
He slammed on the brakes, the car skidding to a sharp, jarring halt on the shoulder of the deserted highway. “What? Now? Are you serious?” His voice wasn’t concerned. It was irritated. Furious.
I nodded, feeling another contraction begin to build. “Greg, we have to get to the hospital.”
He switched off the ignition and turned to face me, his face a mask of cold fury. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”
The accusation was so absurd, so completely unhinged, I couldn’t process it. “What are you talking about? The baby is coming!”
“You should have thought about that before!” he yelled. “You knew how important today was to my mother! She’s been planning this for months, and you just had to go and ruin it!”
Tears of pain, shock, and a deep, crushing resentment began to stream down my cheeks. “This is your child, Greg! He decides when he’s born, not me! Please, I’m scared. Help me.”
He got out of the car, slamming the door. I watched, a sliver of hope in my heart, expecting him to come around. Instead, he walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk. He pulled out my hospital bag and threw it onto the snowy ground.
“Get out,” he said, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion. “I’m not taking you anywhere. You’ve already made me late for my mother’s party. You can figure this out yourself.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was really going to leave me here. Alone. In labor. On the side of a snowy, deserted road in the middle of winter.
“Greg, you can’t,” I sobbed. “Please, this is our child!”
He ignored me. He got back in the driver’s seat, started the engine, and looked at me one last time, his eyes as cold and alien as a stranger’s. “My mother is more important,” he said. “She raised me. You’re just my wife.”
With those words, he stepped on the gas. The car sped away, its red taillights disappearing into the swirling snow, leaving me alone with my pain and my terror. I knew I had to do something. If I stayed here, I would freeze to death, and my baby with me. I crawled through the snow to the edge of the road, hoping, praying. The pain was a roaring ocean, and I was drowning in it. The last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me was the distant, wavering headlights of an approaching car.
My next coherent thought was of a voice, calm and kind. “Hold on, dear. We’re almost there.” Watch: [in comment] - Made with AI