{"id":114846,"date":"2025-02-26T13:45:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T06:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/?p=114846"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T06:45:52","slug":"on-valentines-day-i-woke-up-to-find-my-car-covered-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/on-valentines-day-i-woke-up-to-find-my-car-covered-in\/","title":{"rendered":"On Valentine\u2019s Day, I Woke up to Find My Car Covered in&hellip;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>On Valentine\u2019s Day, I Woke up to Find My Car Covered in Paper Hearts \u2014 It Looked Cute Until I Picked One up and Read the Message&hellip;\n<p>I woke up that morning just like any other. Twenty-eight years of marriage had settled into a comfortable rhythm \u2014 wake up early, make coffee, and prepare breakfast for our 17-year-old son who still lived with us \u2014 our two older children had already moved out \u2014 and enjoy a few moments of peace before the day swallowed me whole.\n</p><p>Valentine\u2019s Day wasn\u2019t a big deal in our house. It never really had been. Boredom had long replaced passion, and grand romantic gestures had never been Brandon\u2019s thing.\n</p><p>So when I glanced outside and saw my car covered in paper hearts, I actually gasped.\n</p><p>For a brief, stupid moment, my heart swelled. Had he done this? After all these years?\n</p><p>I stepped outside, the cold morning air biting at my skin as I walked toward the car. The sight was almost ridiculous \u2014 hundreds of pink paper hearts plastered all over the doors, the windows, even the mirrors. They fluttered in the wind, sticking stubbornly to the surface.\n</p><p><img fetchpriority='\"high\"' decoding='\"async\"' class='\"aligncenter' size-full wp-image-114849 src="%5C%22https:%5C/%5C/legendstitch.com%5C/wp-content%5C/uploads%5C/2025%5C/02%5C/72990.webp%5C%22" alt='\"\"' width='\"800\"' height='\"419\"' srcset='\"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/72990.webp' https: sizes='\"(max-width:'>\n</p><p>I smiled. Maybe I had misjudged him.\n</p><p>Maybe, after nearly three decades together, my husband had finally decided to surprise me.\n</p><p>Then I picked up a paper heart and read the message underneath. Every heart had a note.\n</p><p>It read, Your husband is a liar.\n</p><p>I ripped off another paper heart.\n</p><p>It read, Brandon only loves me.\n</p><p>Another.\n</p><p>He\u2019ll never tell you the truth.\n</p><p>I felt my heart almost flipped inside my chest. I quickly grabbed the hearts and yanked them away.\n</p><p>One by one, they revealed the same kind of message.\n</p><p>You deserve to know.\n</p><p>He was with me last night.\n</p><p>Ask him about the woman he\u2019s been seeing.\n</p><p>I tried pulling the hearts off faster. Every time I yanked one away, it left behind an ugly smear of adhesive on my pristine car.\n</p><p>Neighbors started peeking from their windows.\n</p><p>I forced myself to look up at my house, and saw Brandon at the window.\n</p><p>I turned back to the car as I pulled one last paper heart.\n</p><p>It read, He\u2019ll never choose you.\n</p><p>The words blurred as tears filled my eyes.\n</p><p>Happy Valentine\u2019s Day to me.\n</p><p>I quickly rushed back into my house and marched straight to the kitchen.\n</p><p>I found Brandon sitting at the counter, scrolling through his phone like nothing had happened.\n</p><p>I threw one of the paper hearts onto the counter.\n</p><p>\u201cWhat the hell is this, Brandon?\u201d I asked in a shaky voice.\n</p><p>\u201cWhat are you talking about? I don\u2019t know who did this.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cSeriously, Brandon?\u201d I let out a bitter laugh. \u201cYou saw me from the window, right? All those hearts on my car\u2026 they\u2019re talking about you and some woman you\u2019re seeing. And you\u2019re saying you really don\u2019t know who did this?\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably a prank,\u201d he said as he sipped his coffee. \u201cMust be some stupid kids messing around.\u201d\n</p><p>Liar.\n</p><p>I stomped toward the security monitor in the living room. My fingers flew over the controls when I rewound the footage from the night before.\n</p><p>And there she was.<br>\nLinda.<br>\nOur neighbor.<br>\nAt 3 a.m., under the dim glow of the streetlights, she was gluing those damn hearts onto my car.<br>\nI thought. Brandon and Linda? They\u2019re together? How is this even possible?\n</p><p>My throat tightened as I recalled every moment when I saw Linda standing outside her house as Brandon left for work. She\u2019d been our neighbor for as long as I could remember, but I never once suspected Brandon had an affair with her.\n</p><p>If my husband wasn\u2019t going to tell me anything, then there was only one thing I could do. Confront Linda.\n</p><p>I immediately stormed next door and banged on her door so hard it rattled.\n</p><p>It looked like Linda\u2019d been crying. Like she already knew why I was there.<br>\n\u201cHow long?\u201d I asked calmly.\n</p><p>Linda\u2019s lip trembling. \u201cTwenty years.\u201d\n</p><p>I shook my head. \u201cYou\u2019re lying.\u201d\n</p><p>She let out a sad laugh. \u201cI wish I was.\u201d\n</p><p>I stared at her, hoping she\u2019d say it was all some kind of an elaborate joke.\n</p><p>But instead, she spoke again.\n</p><p>\u201cHe told me he\u2019d leave you. Over and over again, for two whole decades. He just needed the right moment. He told me you weren\u2019t well\u2026 that you couldn\u2019t handle a divorce. That he had to stay because he felt sorry for you. I can prove it.\u201d\n</p><p>I couldn\u2019t believe my husband had spent twenty years living a double life.\n</p><p>I rushed back home without saying a word. It was time to confront Brandon before I asked her for proof.<br>\n\u201cLinda just told me everything,\u201d I said, crossing my arms while looking straight into his eyes.\n</p><p>\u201cShe\u2019s lying,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s obsessed with me. She\u2019s been coming on to me for years, but I never\u2014\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cProve it,\u201d I cut him off.\n</p><p>\u201cWhat?\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cProve it,\u201d I repeated, stepping closer. \u201cBecause it looks like she\u2019s got twenty years\u2019 worth of stories, Brandon. She told me how you needed the right moment to leave me. I\u2019m sure she\u2019s got much more to tell me about your affair.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cBabe, I don\u2019t know what she\u2019s talking about,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have proof because there\u2019s nothing to prove, okay?\u201d\n</p><p>I scoffed. \u201cConvenient.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cI swear to you, Kate. I have never been with her,\u201d he began.\n</p><p>Without wasting another minute, I turned around and marched straight back to Linda\u2019s house.<br>\n\u201cShow me proof,\u201d I demanded. \u201cIf you have it, he\u2019s yours.\u201d\n</p><p>She didn\u2019t hesitate. She pulled out her phone, scrolling furiously before shoving it into my hands.\n</p><p>And there it was.\n</p><p>Photos. Videos. Messages.\n</p><p>My legs felt weak, but I forced myself to stand tall.\n</p><p>I didn\u2019t cry. Not yet.\n</p><p>I handed her phone back. \u201cThank you.\u201d\n</p><p>The next morning, I decided to file for divorce.\n</p><p>Brandon still said Linda was lying. He swore the photos, videos, and text messages were fake. He even claimed Linda had been stalking him for years and had fabricated everything.\n</p><p>\u201cTrust me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll prove she\u2019s lying. My lawyers will take care of everything.\u201d\n</p><p>The lawyers found inconsistencies in the timestamps of the videos and digital alterations in the photos.\n</p><p>It turned out Linda had hired a tech expert to forge messages, splicing together old voicemails and using AI to create fabricated conversations.<br>\nThe supposed hotel footage was traced back to a manipulated stock video, and every single piece of \u201cproof\u201d she had provided fell apart under scrutiny.\n</p><p>And that\u2019s how Brandon saved our marriage from falling apart. That\u2019s how he stopped me from filing for divorce.\n</p><p>I don\u2019t know why Linda did what she did, but it looked like she had spent 20 years in love with a man who had never been hers.\n</p><p>I guess she had been waiting for something that never existed.\n</p><p>That night, as we sat in the dimly lit living room, I finally spoke.\n</p><p>\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Brandon,\u201d I whispered. \u201cI should have believed you.\u201d\n</p><p>He exhaled slowly, setting down his glass of whiskey. \u201cKate, after all these years, do you really think I could do that to you?\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cNo, but\u2026\u201d I swallowed hard. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to think anymore.\u201d\n</p><p>\u201cI love you,\u201d he said, reaching for my hand. \u201cI always have.\u201d\n</p><p>I nodded. \u201cI know.\u201d\n</p><p>After everything that happened, I sued Linda for damaging my car. Soon, she was forced to pay for the repairs and deep-cleaning. We even got a restraining order against her.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>On Valentine\u2019s Day, I Woke up to Find My Car Covered in Paper Hearts \u2014 It Looked Cute Until I Picked One up and Read the Message&hellip; I woke up that morning just like any other. Twenty-eight years of marriage had settled into a comfortable rhythm \u2014 wake up early, make coffee, and prepare breakfast\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[657,642],"tags":[818,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-114846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-love-and-relationships","8":"category-moral-story","9":"tag-moral-touching-stories","10":"tag-love"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/72990.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114850,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114846\/revisions\/114850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendstitch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></strong></p>