Christmas morning froze when my five-year-old son opened a present and shouted that his “other mom” had kept her promise. My husband went pale. He knew exactly who she was, and the more he hesitated, the more I realized it wasn’t a misunderstanding.
My husband and I had been together for six years. We had one son, a five-year-old boy named Simon.
Life wasn’t perfect, but it seemed stable and predictable.
There had been minor cracks, of course. All marriages have them.
There were times when my husband seemed distracted, distant, but I didn’t think they were warning signs… I was wrong.
There were times when
My husband seemed distracted, distant.
I should have paid more attention after the nanny fiasco earlier this year.
We had been drifting for a while, so we started having weekly dates to rekindle the spark.
One of Mike’s colleagues recommended a nanny, a young college student, and at first everything was great. We enjoyed our dates, and Simon liked the nanny.
Then Mike told me we had to fire her.
Then Mike told me that
We had to fire her.
“I think she’s in love with me,” he told me. “Whenever we’re alone in a room, she says things…”
“What ‘things’?”
Mike shrugged. “That he likes my suit, or the smell of my cologne… nothing crazy, but it’s a little weird.”
So we let her go.
“Whenever we are alone in a room,
He says things…”.
At that moment, I appreciated that she came to me and shared her concerns. It was reassuring, like proof that we were still a team, that we were still paying attention to everything.
I ignored the little voice that whispered to me that he hadn’t told me the whole story.
I thought it was just jealousy. That I was being paranoid.
Now I know I was being a fool.
I ignored the little voice that whispered to me
that he hadn’t told me the whole story.
I thought the difficult parts were behind us.
I settled in and stopped looking over my shoulder. I thought routine meant safety.
Christmas morning proved me wrong.
It started normally: wrapping paper everywhere, coffee cooling on the side table, and Simon jumping around with that kind of enthusiasm that only happens once a year.
All the gifts under the tree were the ones we had planned together… or so I thought.
I thought the difficult parts
had been left behind.
My husband handed our son a medium-sized box and said, “This is from Santa Claus.”
I smiled. We always saved a special gift for the Christmas reveal. It was a tradition.
Our son opened it wide and stood motionless for a second.
Then his face lit up as if someone had plugged him into the electrical outlet.
Inside was an extremely expensive model car from a collector’s edition. Simon had wanted one for years, but Mike and I had agreed that it wasn’t worth spending money on such a gift for a five-year-old.
My husband gave our son to him
a medium-sized box.
Simon exclaimed, hugged her to his chest, and shouted, joyfully and loudly: “YES! The other mom kept her promise! I knew it!”
My Christmas cheer died right there.
“The… other mom?”
I forced myself to smile at Simon.
My son nodded, still smiling. “Yes! She said that if I behaved, she would make sure I got it for Christmas.”
“The other mom
He kept his promise!
I slowly turned towards my husband.
She wasn’t smiling.
Her face had gone pale. She refused to look at me.
“Who is the other mom?”
My son looked between us, suddenly uncertain. The joy was fading from his face. I could feel the change in the room.
“Who is the other mom?”
“Dad knows her,” she said. “She comes sometimes. He told me not to worry.”
Not to worry … Those words echoed in my thoughts like a toxic mantra. Worry about what?
“Mike? Do you want to explain?”
Mike looked at me with fear in his eyes. He moved his lips, but no words came out.
“She said we’re going on a trip soon. Her, Dad, and me,” Simon frowned. “You have to work, Mom, that’s what she said.”
Mike looked at me with fear in his eyes.
“A trip?”, it was getting harder and harder to keep my smile and light tone of voice, but I was determined not to explode in front of Simon.
Simon nodded.
That’s when my husband finally spoke.
“Let’s talk in the kitchen.”
I nodded. We went to the kitchen. As soon as the door closed, I turned to him.
As soon as the door closed,
I turned towards him.
“Start talking, Mike. Who is this ‘other mom’ and why is she giving our son expensive gifts?”
“It’s… Megan.”
“Megan? The nanny we fired because you thought she was behaving inappropriately?”
“Yes, but it’s not what you think, I swear!”
“So, you’re not having an affair with her? Because that’s what it looks like.”
“I know, but it’s not like that! I just… oh, God. I was so stupid.”
“Who is that ‘other mom’?”
And why does he give her expensive gifts?
to our son?”
Mike rubbed his hands together, like he does when he’s nervous.
“I should start from the beginning. After I let her go… Megan started messaging me. She apologized and said she didn’t mean to make me uncomfortable. That she was just being friendly.”
“Very friendly,” I said, crossing my arms.
“I started to think that maybe I had misunderstood her. I told her it was fine, but that we would continue using our new nanny. Then she asked me something…”
“I started to think that maybe
“I had misinterpreted her.”
“He wanted to see Simon. He said he missed him and just wanted to stop by and say hello.”
“What?”, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“The nanny we fired asked to see our son, and you agreed? And it didn’t occur to you to talk to me about it?”
“I was going to,” he said quickly. “It’s just… I thought you’d think I was stupid for even considering it. She seemed sincere, and you know how upset Simon was when we told him Megan wouldn’t be looking after him anymore. I thought a visit wouldn’t hurt.”
“I thought you’d say I was stupid
“For even considering it.”
“It doesn’t seem like it was just a visit, Mike.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t. At first, she seemed harmless. She’d come when you were at work, sit with him, play for a while, and then leave.”
“And then?” I asked him.
He hesitated.
That pause told me everything.
“It doesn’t seem that
“It was just a visit, Mike.”
“One day I overheard her telling him to call her his ‘other mom.’ Telling our son to keep his visits a secret and not to worry about you because I said I was fine. I felt awful. Then I realized she had gone too far. I told her to stop coming. That she was crossing a line.”
“AND?”
He shook his head slowly. “I made a big mistake.”
“I made a big mistake.”
“She cried. She said… that she had fallen in love with me. I told her she should never come back, but…” She looked at me with fear in her eyes. “Now I see it was a mistake, because that gift Simon opened… I didn’t put it under the tree.”
“What are you talking about, Mike?”
“When I grabbed him, I thought he was one of us.”
Then I felt its full weight: Megan had been in our house without us knowing.
“That gift that Simon opened…”
“I didn’t put it under the tree.”
While we were sleeping, he had wandered through our rooms, touched our things, and placed that gift under our tree as if he had every right to be part of our family.
What else could he have done while he was in our house?
Simon then entered the room. One look at his face told me he had been listening to us from the other side of the door.
“Mom, is the other mom mean?”
“Mom, is the other mom mean?”
I knelt in front of him. “She’s… confused, darling.”
What else could I say? How do you explain to a five-year-old that someone he trusted was dangerous?
He frowned.
“He came to see me at school. He told me he needed a key to our house for Christmas, to surprise us at Christmas dinner.”
Mike and I looked at each other in horror.
Mike and I looked at each other in horror.
A key… That ‘s how he got into our house! He’d asked for a key and Simon had given it to him.
And that wasn’t all.
I had told her I was planning to surprise us at Christmas dinner… What on earth did that mean? I turned to look at the fridge, where everything was prepared and ready to cook.
He was at our house last night… could he have done something to our food?
He had been at our house last night.
I kissed Simon’s forehead.
“Honey, why don’t you go pick out another present from under the tree and open it? I need to finish talking to your dad, okay?”
He looked uncertainly between us, then nodded and went back into the living room.
I didn’t close the door behind him… I wanted to make sure he didn’t sneak back in and hear what I said next.
“I have to finish speaking
“With your dad, okay?”
“You have to take a screenshot of all the messages Megan sends you, okay?”
Mike nodded.
“But before you do that, call the police. I need them to meet me at Megan’s apartment.”
“What?” Mike shook his head. “You can’t go there.”
“I have to put an end to this, Mike! He was at our house. He left a gift for our son and planned some kind of ‘surprise’ for our Christmas dinner. I have no idea what it means, but I don’t feel safe eating anything in our fridge, do you?”
“I have to put an end to this, Mike!”
The journey seemed unreal.
Christmas decorations passed by blurry on my windshield as my mind repeated Simon’s words over and over again.
A key. A surprise dinner.
Megan lived in a small apartment complex just ten minutes away.
I knocked on the door once. When she opened it, I finally understood what kind of surprise she had been planning.
I finally understood what kind of
The surprise had been planned.
Megan froze when she saw me.
I was wearing an apron and, over my shoulder, I saw a row of plates covered in aluminum foil lined up on the kitchen counter.
“What are you doing here?”, he looked at me with a hatred I had never seen before.
“I’m here because you entered my house and manipulated my son and my husband.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Is that what Mike told you? And you believed him?”
He looked at me with hatred.
that I had never seen before.
Doubt assailed me.
Had Mike lied? Him and Megan…? No. The fear in his eyes had been real.
Megan smiled with satisfaction.
“Mike and I are in love. I’ve been in the kitchen all morning preparing a special Christmas dinner for my boys; I just needed to get you out of the picture.”
He moved a little closer.
Then I realized that coming here alone had been a very bad idea.
To come here alone
It had been a very bad idea.
Luckily, my reinforcements arrived then.
Two police officers appeared at the end of the corridor just as Megan lunged at me.
I ran towards them.
The officers arrested Megan. She kept repeating that she hadn’t done anything wrong, that she and Mike were in love, and that Simon had asked her to be his “other mom.”
She was sentenced to probation with mandatory psychiatric treatment. She now has a restraining order against her, which does not expire for another three years.
Luckily, my reinforcements arrived then.
If this happened to you, what would you do? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the Facebook comments.
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