I walked into our house and found my husband with his ex-wife — what she was doing there sent me into a rage

Imagine coming home after a long day, expecting peace, only to find your husband and his ex-wife in your living room. That’s exactly what happened to me. But Melissa wasn’t just there for a chat. What she was doing was beyond anything I could’ve imagined.

Do you know the feeling when you return home after a day full of meetings and deadlines? All you want is just to take a shower, change into a fresh pair of pajamas, and sink into your cozy bed. It’s just the best feeling ever.

I felt the same when I got home from work two weeks ago. All I wanted was my bed, a cup of hot coffee, and the true-crime documentary I’d been watching. I was set to watch episode 3, but what I saw when I stepped inside made me forget everything.

I opened the door, hung the car keys, and began walking towards my room when something unexpected caught my eye. At first, I really thought I was imagining things because it seemed too odd to be true.

I noticed the couch was gone, the rug was missing, and even the bookshelf had vanished. I checked the hallway and the kitchen, and sure enough, most of the items were missing. The coat closet? Gone. The coffee machine? Gone. The dining table? GONE!

What the heck? I thought. Where’s Roger?

Roger, my husband, usually came home before me, but I couldn’t see him around. Then, I heard his voice, like he was yelling at someone. It was coming from the end of the hallway. From our living room.

I threw my bag on the kitchen island and followed his voice. As I got closer, another voice echoed through the hallway. It was a woman’s voice.

Not ready for what was waiting, I pushed the door open and saw my husband with his ex-wife, Melissa. The woman Roger swore he’d never see again, the one he called “a filthy rich spoiled brat.”

I felt like my heart had jumped up to my throat. Why was Melissa in my house?

“Roger?” I said, interrupting their conversation. “What… What happened to our house?”

“Oh, Liz, you’re here?” Roger asked as if he wasn’t expecting me.

“Yeah, I just got back,” I said. “What’s she doing here?”

“I’ll explain everything,” Roger stuttered. “I’ll fix it, I swear.”

Roger looked desperate for me to stay calm, while Melissa stood there smirking. I almost thought they were having an affair until Melissa’s words sent a wave of pure rage through me.

“No, you won’t,” she snapped at Roger. “Didn’t you tell her that everything you owned is mine?”

“I… I…” Roger stammered, lost for words.

“Well, honey,” she said, turning to me. “All of this furniture… it belongs to me. You see, your husband and I bought it together when we were married, so I’m just taking back what’s mine.”

What the… I thought. What does she think of herself?

She was practically destroying my house and acting like it was no big deal.

I remember staring at her for a few moments, thinking what kind of an evil person would enter their ex’s house and take away most of their furniture.

I wanted to scream, to kick her out, but I couldn’t. Not with Roger just standing there silently and watching as she humiliated me.

“And you’re letting her take everything?” I finally managed to speak, looking straight into Roger’s eyes. “You didn’t even try to stop her? And why didn’t you tell me she was coming? You knew, right?”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled as he lowered his gaze. He was too ashamed to even look at me.

“Seriously, Roger? That’s it?” I rolled my eyes. “I never thought you’d let your ex walk out with our whole life! This is ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” Melissa laughed. “I’m sorry honey, but technically everything in your house belongs to me. Even the bed that you two share. I paid for all this stuff, so I have every right to take it.”

Yeah, right, I thought to myself.

It would be true if I said I’ve never felt this humiliated in my entire life. Can you even imagine what kind of patience it took to stop myself from humiliating Melissa?

I could’ve thrown every embarrassing secret Roger had told me about Melissa right back at her, but I wasn’t about to stoop to her level. I wasn’t going to be petty.

At that point, I wanted to ask why she needed this old, used furniture when she could afford a brand-new bed set, and the latest model of the automatic coffee machine.

She was wealthy, owning one of the most popular businesses in town, and she could easily afford a fully furnished house.

But I knew why she was doing it. It was all about humiliating me. I could see the jealousy in her eyes.

“Fine,” I spat. “Take it. Take everything you own. But don’t you dare contact me or my husband ever again!”

“Sure, honey,” she said, smirking as if she had won the biggest prize of her life.

I watched as she walked toward the main door and called the workers inside to pick up the remaining furniture. Then, I spotted a truck in our backyard, full of the furniture the workers had already moved.

Meanwhile, Roger silently watched the workers tear our house apart. He was helpless, and just as heartbroken as I was.

That’s when I came up with a plan to make Melissa regret her decision.

Right when she stepped outside to look at the truck, I hurried into the kitchen and pulled out a few frozen shrimp from the freezer. Then, I quickly hid them in different places including our side table, the living room chairs, and inside our mattress.

I even stuffed a few of them inside the decorative pillows. I only had to wait for a few days to see the shrimps do their magic.

You see, I knew she wouldn’t keep this furniture in her house. She was probably going to dump it in some storage unit, and I couldn’t wait to see how these little pieces of meat would turn that place into an unbearable stink bomb.

As the workers loaded the last piece of furniture into the truck, Melissa gave one final self-satisfied glance around, ensuring she had destroyed our house in every possible way.

“I hope you’ve taken everything that’s YOURS,” I said, my arms crossed.

She nodded. “Yup, I’m done, honey. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Sure, sorry, I thought.

And with that, Melissa left our house and drove away in her shiny SUV. Meanwhile, Roger sat on the ground with his hands on his head.

“I’m so sorry,” he said as tears trickled down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you. She called me a few days ago and told me she’d come over, but I had no idea she was serious. I never thought she’d do this to us.”

I sighed and sat down next to him.

“It’s alright, babe,” I said, caressing his arms. “I wouldn’t want to live in a house furnished by your ex-wife anyway.”

At that point, I could’ve yelled at Roger, blamed him, and made him feel terrible about the situation, but I knew things weren’t in his control. Besides, that’s exactly what Melissa wanted.

She wanted to see us fight and break apart, and I wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction.

“Instead of apologizing, I want you to buy me new furniture, okay?” I chuckled. “Anything I pick. I want to make this place feel like home again.”

“I’ll do that,” he looked up at me with a smile. “I’ll buy every piece of furniture that you want. I promise.”

I held his hand and squeezed it hard.

“I love you, Roger, and I’ll always be there for you,” I said. “We’ll get through this together.”

As we lay on the bedroom floor that night, I realized that I didn’t need Melissa’s furniture to make my house feel like home. I had Roger, and that was all I needed.

But the story doesn’t end here.

A few days later, while scrolling through Facebook, I stumbled upon a post in one of the local groups. It was from Melissa, and it was clear she was desperate.

HELP NEEDED URGENTLY! Does anyone know how to get rid of a horrible, rotting meat smell in furniture? I recently moved some old furniture into a storage unit, and within days, it started smelling like something died inside.

I’ve tried airing it out, deep cleaning, and even using baking soda, but nothing works! The smell is unbearable, and I can’t even walk into the storage room without gagging. Please, if anyone has tips, I’m losing my mind here!

I couldn’t help but chuckle while reading her frantic post. All her wealth, all her pride, and she was brought down by a few pieces of hidden shrimp.

It was the sweetest revenge. Served cold.

What would you have done if you were in my place?

My Mother-in-Law Purchased the Perfect Mattress for Me – I Was Horrified When I Discovered Her Real Intentions

Despite her age, Julia was just full of life. She constantly walked in and out of our home, ready to throw herself into our kitchen.

“I just want to feed you guys,” she told me when I asked her to sit down, ready to cook for her instead.

“I don’t have anything else to do besides meet the ladies for drinks,” she chuckled.

It usually ended with us cooking together — Toby coming home to music and laughter echoing in the kitchen.

My parents were across the country because I had moved for college, and ended up settling down here with Toby. And as much as phone and video calls kept me close to my family, at the end of the day, Julia filled the role of a mother — a mother in close proximity anyway.

After three years of being married, Toby and I were trying to have a baby.

“I’m ready if you are,” Toby told me. “I think it’s time now.”

I agreed with Toby. I was ready — I wanted to be a mom.

So, we began trying. And for months, we just couldn’t get pregnant. And the longer we tried, the more reality set in. Maybe we just weren’t meant to have biological children.

“What do you want to do?” I asked Toby. “Keep trying?”

Toby nodded. I knew that he wouldn’t ask me to do anything I didn’t want to do, but I also knew that he desperately wanted to be a father.

So, torn, I turned to my mother-in-law for advice. Julia took me to meet with a wellness coach, she took me for fertility massages, and then, she even bought Toby and I a brand new mattress.

“Maybe your body is just not rested enough,” my mother-in-law said. “Maybe you just need to give your body the best chance possible at this.”

“Do you think that it was a bit unnecessary?” I asked Toby as we got into bed that night, testing out our new mattress.

“Normally, I would have said yes,” Toby admitted. “But maybe there’s something to what Mom said. Our mattress was horrible before. Maybe it will make a difference.”

And it did. Because not even a month later, I discovered that we were pregnant. At first, I didn’t know whether to tell my husband and our family because I was so nervous about everything.

I felt that if I acknowledged the truth, then maybe I was inviting something to happen. But it made no sense — my irrational fear was selfish. Toby needed to know that we were well on our way to being parents.

“Thank goodness,” Toby said, picking me up. “Finally!”

Once we were safe within the second trimester, we told our family — satisfied that our baby’s growth was on track.

And then, before we knew it, our daughter, Maddie, was born.

My mother-in-law took over, caring for the three of us while we navigated the new waters of parenthood. She cooked and cleaned, and took over Maddie’s early morning feeding times.

Julia’s presence made me feel loved, especially because my parents were unable to come over and meet our baby yet.

Until Toby discovered something in our home that changed the way I viewed Julia forever.

Toby and I didn’t mind that Maddie spent the night in our bed – it was just easier for me to feed her through the night. But one night, Maddie had a blow-out, causing our bed to suffer the consequences.

“You sort the baby out,” Toby yawned when I woke him up to Maddie’s drama. “I’ll sort the bed out.”

I picked up my daughter and took her into the bathroom – her blow-out called for a bath, not just a diaper change. Maddie cooed and pressed her gummy hands to my face.

“Sweet girl,” I told her. “You just have to make life difficult for Dad and me, huh?”

Meanwhile, what I didn’t know was that while Toby was stripping our bed, he had uncovered something strange attached to our mattress.

By the time I was done with Maddie, she was almost asleep again. So, I took her to our bedroom, ready to put her into the crib while I helped Toby change the bedding.

“Oh, honey,” he said when he saw me standing in the doorway. “We cannot use this anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, setting Maddie down. “Did she get it into the mattress?”

Toby looked nervous. He had picked up the mattress so that it stood on its side.

“No, it’s not that,” he said.

I was perplexed, watching him struggle with words. “What are you talking about? It’s just a mattress, we’ll clean it–”

“No, Larissa,” he interrupted, his voice rising in panic. “It’s not just a mattress.”

By this point, I was sleep-deprived and slightly annoyed with my husband. Toby was not a man to fumble for his words, and yet, here he was, in the early hours of the morning, too uncertain to change the sheets.

“What?”

“Look what I found,” he said.

Toby handed me a little silk bag. Inside there were various herbs. I hadn’t seen the bag before.

“What is this? Where did you find it?” I asked.

“It was pinned to the mattress. It was under the mattress protector, so I think we just didn’t notice it before.”

“Fine, but what is it for?” I asked, confused and irritable.

“It’s fertility herbs, it has to be!” Toby exclaimed.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Listen, I don’t know if this is true or not, but I do know that my mother believes in old wives’ tales. What if this is one of those tales?”

“She would never do that,” I said. “No way!”

“Then where else did it come from?” Toby asked flatly.

He made us sleep in the guest bedroom – where Julia slept when she stayed over. But of course, I couldn’t sleep. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t silence my mind.

I looked at Maddie, sleeping in between Toby and me. She was perfect. Sure, we had a difficult time conceiving, but Maddie was our child through and through. She had my hair and Toby’s eyes. She was ours in every sense of the word.

But there was no mistaking the fact that she was born shortly after Julia had gifted us the bed.

Could those herbs have helped with Maddie’s birth? But was that even possible?

I don’t remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, the familiar smell of gas hit my nose. Outside, Toby was dousing our mattress. He threw the match on it as I stepped outside the back door.

The mattress went up in flames in an instant – the flames seemed to dance with a fervor that matched the turmoil inside me. I was trying to understand Julia’s motives. She had always been so close to us – to me – so I couldn’t understand why she would keep this away from me.

I didn’t understand the significance of the herbs, but if she had explained it to me, I wouldn’t have felt the paranoia and fear that had settled in my body since Toby’s discovery.

“What are you doing?” I exclaimed, hearing the fire grow louder.

“We couldn’t keep it, honey. We just couldn’t,” he said.

Toby had a deep fear for anything esoteric – anything that bordered the supernatural was too much for him. He would have rather slept in our car than spent another night in the house with the mattress.

As the mattress burned, I kept an eye on the baby monitor, watching Maddie sleep. The silence between Toby and I was heavy with the uncertainty of what had been going on in our home.

Later, Julia came over to make was breakfast as usual. My husband took the lead, his voice steady but laced with an undercurrent of betrayal.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell us about the mattress? About the herbs?” he asked.

I poured Julia a cup of tea – despite everything that we had learned, she was still one of my favorite people. I loved her like I loved my mother.

My mother-in-law’s face crumpled, her usual vibrancy replaced by a somber guilt.

“I just wanted to help. I knew that you were having trouble conceiving, and I thought that if it worked, you wouldn’t care how. I never meant to hurt either of you. Especially not my granddaughter.”

“What else did you do? What’s in the bag? Other than the herbs?” Toby’s questions flew hard and fast around our living room.

“Nothing!” Julia exclaimed, finally registering Toby’s fear. “It’s just dried herbs. I can give you a list of them,” she said. “I’ll take you both to the store where I got them from. It’s a sweet little apothecary next to my dentist. It’s a store all about natural wellness.”

“You could have just told us,” I found myself saying. “How we can trust anything you do now? How do we know if our baby is a miracle baby or just an outcome of your herbs?”

“Does that matter?” she asked, her eyes brimming with tears. “Maddie is here and she’s ours.”

I couldn’t exactly argue with that. Of course, Maddie was ours. I was just feeling wounded that Julia had done this and not told me. I also felt obligated to be angry with her – because my husband was livid.

“I’m sorry,” my mother-in-law whispered. “I really am.”

At her words, I felt Toby soften next to me.

“We need to start over, Mom,” he said. “If you plan on doing anything like this again, you have to tell us first. We need to know what’s going on in our own homes.”

Julia nodded and smiled at us. She seemed shaken that we had discovered the truth.

I was confused – there was a part of me that was eternally grateful to her because I know how difficult it was for us to get pregnant. But at the same time, how could sleeping on a bunch of herbs actually help us get pregnant?

Toby spent the rest of the day looking for mattresses online, while Julia baked us a tart for lunch. I just reveled in spending time with my daughter.

What do you think? Do you believe in natural remedies and old wives tales?

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