Barbra breathed a sigh of relief as she sat down on the bus. After spending time at her friend’s house near the beach in Destin, Florida, she was going back to her home. It was a lovely weekend, but she wanted to return early that Sunday to unwind and spend some time with her husband, Christopher. Their house in Tallahassee was only a few hours away, and she had time to sleep on the bus.

“Excuse me, can we switch seats? I get a little motion sickness on the bus, and sitting by the window usually helps,” Barbra asked the girl sitting next to her.

“Oh, yeah, no problem! I’m getting off soon anyway!” her seatmate replied with a smile. Minutes later, she was looking at the window, admiring the view.

Barbra had a regular corporate job, and she also had an Etsy store where she sold custom knitted pieces plus a part-time job every other day at the coffee shop. She worked incredibly hard because her husband was in a wheelchair.

Almost two years ago, Christopher got into a severe accident at work when a box fell on his head. Unfortunately, he was not supposed to be in that area at the time, so the company did not pay any settlement. They handled the hospital stay costs and bought a wheelchair, but legally, they did not have to pay more.

He collected government disability relief, but it was not enough to maintain their lifestyle. They were strictly upper middle class before Christopher’s accident, and Barbra wanted to do everything she could so their lives wouldn’t be that affected after the accident. Plus, she was paying for physical therapy out of pocket, which was hard.

Barbra didn’t mind working hard or that her husband didn’t do anything around the house. He was going through a rough patch even after all this time.

He always cheered up when his friend, Bruce, invited him over to his house. Bruce would take him to baseball games, and he had a game room in his home.

But Bruce was a businessman and didn’t have that much time. Therefore, when he did, they took the whole weekend. Barbra took advantage of those weekends too and visited her friend at Destin. They didn’t happen often, but it was a nice break. Sadly, it was time to return to reality and go back to work.

She slept for almost the entire ride on the bus back to Tallahassee, but she woke just as they entered their area. She soon noticed that the bus was passing near Bruce’s house and her jaw dropped when she saw two men standing in Bruce’s front yard. They walked towards a car and got a bag of golf clubs.

Maybe that’s Bruce and another friend? Barbra tried telling herself. But she saw her husband’s unmistakable Hawaiian shirt that he loved to wear, although it was so ugly. He was walking with Bruce and laughing. Unexpectedly, he posed and pretended to shoot a golf ball far away. Then they walked towards the back of Bruce’s house, where he had a miniature golf course.

Barbra couldn’t believe it. She had been working so hard for so long when her husband could clearly walk! What’s happening? Why didn’t he tell me? she asked herself. What am I going to do with this?

Barbra worried until the bus reached her stop, and she got out. She had left her car in a parking lot nearby, so she retrieved it and drove home.

Once there, she paced around her house. What if this is something new that happened at Bruce’s house this weekend? What if he wants to surprise me? Yes, that has to be it, she finally decided and calmed down. Her husband would get home later that Sunday and surprise her by walking.

***

“Hey, honey. How was your trip?” Christopher asked when Bruce rolled him into the living room.

“Oh, hey, you two. It was fun. What about you guys? What did you do?” Barbra asked the men with a big smile, waiting for them to surprise her.

“We did the same thing as always. The game on Friday was fun, and then we spent a lot of time playing games,” Bruce said dismissively and bid them goodbye.

She served Christopher a nice dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and sat down at the kitchen table with him. “So, that’s all you guys did?”

“Yeah,” he said through a mouthful of food. “It’s what we always do.”

“Well, Bruce has a golf course at home. You could’ve played,” Barbra added, trying to bring the subject up subtly.

“I still don’t have the hang of playing in a wheelchair, so that’s a no. But we had a ton of fun, honey. You always worry about me, and I love you for it,” Christopher answered, drinking a bit of soda and acting like nothing was wrong.

Suddenly, Barbra slammed her fork on the table. “Really? Really? You don’t have the hang of playing in a wheelchair?” she yelled.

Christopher looked at her with wide eyes and an innocent face. “What? Honey, it’s hard to play golf in a wheelchair. You can’t control your swing well—”

He tried to justify his answer, but Barbra cut him off. “I SAW YOU! I saw you walking around, getting golf clubs from Bruce’s car, and swinging around all happy like a kid at Christmas! Christopher! I WANT THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW!”

Christopher’s mouth opened and closed like a fish in an aquarium, but he had nothing to say. Barbra waited for him to deny it, but he only asked, “How?”

“My bus goes by Bruce’s house, and you just happened to be getting the clubs when it passed by. Christopher, you mean to tell me that you’ve been lying to me? For how long?” she asked in the most severe tone she could muster without getting emotional.

Her husband finally sighed and revealed the truth. “Yes, I’ve been lying. It’s been around a year and a half. I just didn’t want to go back to work.”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?”

“Please, calm down. It’s not a big deal. Your work was getting us by, and I just wanted a break after all those years. I also loved how attentive you were to me. It’s been the best year and a half of my life,” Christopher explained.

“You’ve been lying to me for a year and a half,” Barbra repeated. “My work was getting us by… do you know how hard I’ve been working, so we didn’t have to scale back on our lives? Where do you go when I take you to physical therapy?”

He flinched at her screams. “Please, don’t yell at me. I lie to the therapist too.”

“How long has Bruce known about this?”

“Since I started walking again,” Christopher revealed.

Barbra took a deep breath and thought about her options at that moment. Everyone knows that making decisions when angry is not a good idea, so she wanted to have a clear head. But there was only one option right now.

She stood from the table, grabbed the same bag she had brought over from Destin, and went to stay at her mother’s house. She cried heavily that night and for several days while Christopher called and texted constantly. Everyone in her family was shocked by the deception and didn’t know how a couple could come back from that.

They couldn’t. Barbra filed for divorce after a month at her mother’s house and never saw Christopher again. She emptied their shared bank accounts, quit all her jobs, and traveled the world for a year to make up for all that wasted effort. It was the best decision of her life.

What can we learn from this story?

• A relationship can’t survive such a big lie. There was no way Barbra and Christopher’s marriage could make it after he lied about something so important.
• A particular lifestyle is not worth working yourself to death. Spouses are supposed to support each other in the hard times, but Barbra was killing herself with so much work for someone who was lying all along.

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