Evelyn was a forty-two-year-old homemaker who was married to a doctor and had two wonderful children. As she and her husband were considered part of the “elite” families in their neighborhood, she paid a lot of attention to her reputation and how others perceived her family.
Since she was a child, she had always dreamt of becoming a preschool teacher. However, after becoming a mother, she put her career on the back burner and utilized her teaching skills to help her children with their homework.
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For her, family was so important because she grew up living in a broken home after her parents divorced when she was only a child.
Although her mother once told her that her father had left them to go to work in a far away country, she discovered when she was older that her father had actually cheated on her mom. Since then, she vowed that the same thing would not happen to her, and she’d work towards having an ideal family life.
Evelyn was living that ideal family life – they were the picture-perfect family, with a doctor for a husband and kids who were Straight-A students.
Every morning, Evelyn would wake up to make breakfast for the entire family. Everyone would go down to the kitchen and discuss the morning news and their plans for the day before it was time to head to school and work. Evelyn enjoyed the life she lived and was happy that her family adored her cooking.
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Evelyn’s husband, Robert, was a well-respected surgeon. He was the most trusted doctor to perform complex operations in their town, and people would fly in from other states just to be treated by him.
Meanwhile, Evelyn was happy to stay at home and wait for her children and husband to come home. When she wasn’t cleaning the house or preparing meals, she’d be at the yoga studio for her daily class, or at the coffee shop with fellow housewives in their neighborhood.
One day, she was surprised when her husband didn’t arrive home in time for dinner. He had not told her he would be late, so this upset her.
Robert arrived home an hour later than usual, and Evelyn and their children were already done eating. He looked tired and shabby, so Evelyn asked what happened. “Are you okay? You look exhausted,” she told him.
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“It was a tough day at work. I had to stay late because of a rare case,” he explained before devouring the food on the table.
Being the meticulous woman that she was, Evelyn wasn’t convinced by her husband’s answer. She sensed something was wrong but decided not to act upon it first.
However, the next day, during breakfast, Evelyn noticed her husband’s phone light up with a message that read “Will you be coming over today?” When Robert saw her gazing at the phone, he immediately flipped his phone facing down.
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Evelyn’s gut feeling was telling her that her husband was cheating on her. However, she chose not to argue with him since she wasn’t ready to face the truth should she confirm he was indeed seeing somebody else.
Instead, that evening, she waited for Robert to leave the hospital where he worked. At 6:00 PM, he left on time, as he did every day. He got into his car and drove off while Evelyn hailed a taxi to follow him.
A couple of minutes later, his car stopped in front of a motel. At this point, Evelyn’s heart was racing, and she was shaking uncontrollably. She got out of the cab and hid near the entrance.
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Her husband walked inside the motel where a woman came out and greeted him. They went into a room together, and Evelyn was inconsolable. She couldn’t believe her eyes, and she wanted so badly to hit something.
An hour later, Robert came out, and a furious Evelyn came rushing toward him. “You cheater!” she yelled. “How could you do this to me? How?!” she asked, slamming her hands on his chest.
“Evelyn, calm down,” Robert told his wife, trying to restrain her. “Let me explain.”
Robert took Evelyn’s hand and walked her inside the motel. He opened the door to the room he was in and she was surprised by what she saw.
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Evelyn saw a man lying on the bed, his legs incapacitated. Robert explained that the man was his former teacher who was living on the streets after being fired from his school two decades ago.
“I saw him on the street while walking home one day,” Robert recalled. “He was helplessly sitting on a dirty sidewalk, with one hand on his leg. When I asked him what happened, he told me he couldn’t walk because of his leg injury.”
“I immediately decided to treat him for free since he couldn’t pay for the surgery,” Robert explained. “I come here several times a week, but no one knows about it. I wanted to keep it a secret because our hospital does not allow pro bono work.”
“I’m sorry I made you doubt my faithfulness to you, Evelyn,” he apologized. “I love you, and I would never cheat on you.”
Evelyn was in tears, overwhelmed with emotion. He realized her husband was not what she expected him to be – he was so much more.
What can we learn from this story?
- Don’t be quick to jump to conclusions. It was easy for Evelyn to assume that her husband was cheating on her after a series of events, but in the end, she was surprised to find out that her husband was doing something noble and admirable.
- Do good things, even when nobody sees you. Robert was a well-respected doctor who’d often be paid a lot to treat people. However, he decided to secretly treat a debilitated veteran for free, as he knew this was the right thing to do.
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