My wife left me and the kids, and her decision not only brought devastation and anger but also left me facing a million questions from my girls and my entire family—questions I didn’t have the answers to.

What I believed to be a beautiful marriage of ten years ended as though it had never existed. In the last months, Melissa became distant, always on her phone. Then, out of nowhere, she said, “I’ve found myself… I want something different.” She packed her bags and left.

Heartbroken, I juggled work, house chores, and raising Sophie and Emily alone. They kept asking when Mommy was coming back, and those questions shattered my world. On top of that, I was diagnosed with cancer. My wife left before I could even tell her.

Weeks later, I found out she was with another man—her financial consultant. “My wife left me and the kids so she could have fun,” while our daughters left empty spaces in their crayon drawings hoping she’d come back.

After a year of painful chemo, I was cancer-free. Two years later, I ran into Melissa. She was fragile, abandoned by the man she chose over us. She begged to reconnect. I said, “No, Melissa… We deserve better.”