2 Stories That Will Leave You Shook
Left at the Altar
My wife left me at the altar and I held the door for her on the way out. After losing my leg in Afghanistan, I spent 6 months secretly learning how to walk so I could stand at the altar for her.
I dropped 40,000 of my savings on her dream wedding. Well, on the morning of our wedding, my best friend Olivia was adjusting my medals when my wife Stephanie’s text came through.
“I’m in the wedding hall but I can’t do this Your PTSD the nightmares the missing leg it’s too much Kyle reminds me of what love is supposed to feel like I’m sorry” Kyle was her high school boyfriend who’d shown up the night before just to wish us well.
Kyle still had both legs and no memories of holding his best friend’s intestines inside their body in a helicopter. I went up to the wedding hall and found them together getting ready to walk out.
Stephanie’s wedding dress was caught in the door. I let it loose and held the door open.
“Go” I said.
200 people watched as she ran to Kyle’s truck and chose another man over me. Olivia wheeled me out the side door and for the first time since I was a child, I cried.
The Vanishing Savings
That’s when I remembered something that somehow made everything worse. My now ex-wife had been managing our finances since I got back from deployment.
She said it was one less thing for me to worry about while I focused on recovery. I logged into our joint account and laughed like a maniac.
All of our money had disappeared. The account history showed transfers to Kyle Blackwood going back 4 months.
I couldn’t even afford my doctor’s appointments anymore. And 2 weeks later, my body started rejecting the prosthetic.
The titanium was literally poisoning me from the inside. I needed emergency surgery that would cost 30,000.
But when I called the insurance company, they said Stephanie had canceled the policy 3 months ago to save money. She told me at the time.
Olivia’s dad showed up at the hospital the next morning with a check. He was a Vietnam Marine and owned a defense contracting firm.
Olivia told me everything. “Real soldiers don’t leave anyone behind” he said.
“I’ll make sure your bill gets paid today” For the first 3 days after surgery, Olivia never left my bedside.
“You don’t have to sleep in that awful hospital chair you know” I told her.
“Well what if I want to?” She’d respond with her tired half smile.
A New Foundation
6 weeks later I was learning to walk again on a cheaper prosthetic that actually fit. Olivia had basically moved into my apartment, driving me to physical therapy, cooking meals, making sure I didn’t give up.
3 months into training we decided to celebrate my first full swimming lap without stopping. We went to Chili’s for food and that’s when we saw them.
Kyle was in a booth with some blonde, her hand on his thigh, feeding her dessert with the same moves he probably used on Stephanie. The wedding ring on his finger caught the light.
He’d been married the whole time. I pulled out my phone and recorded 10 seconds of him making out like teenagers.
Olivia grabbed my hand under the table. “Save it” she whispered.
“You’ll need it later.” The night I won gold in swimming at the Paralympics, everything changed.
Olivia and I were in my hotel room drinking gas station champagne when she burst into tears. “I’ve been in love with you since Kandahar” she said.
“before the IED before Stephanie before any of this” She pulled out this folder she’d been keeping.
It was filled with documents of Stephanie saying I was too damaged to notice missing money. “You deserve someone who loved you when you were whole and loves you just as much now.”
We kissed and my heart swooned. It felt like coming home from war all over again, except this time someone actually wanted me there.
The Return of Stephanie
Olivia and I spent the next 6 months teaching each other what real love feels like. We were holding hands at the VA getting fitted for a new prosthetic when Stephanie walked in.
Mascara was running down her ugly face. Designer clothes wrinkled.
“He left me” She shrieked.
“Kyle went back to his wife I lost my job I lost everything I need you to tell them I didn’t know what I was doing” I stood up.
“I don’t owe you anything” “Drew please I made a mistake You’re a war hero I can learn to deal with your condition”
That’s when Olivia came back from the bathroom. She looked at Stephanie and stopped dead.
“Is this the woman who stole your disability money while you were in surgery” Stephanie’s face went white.
“You replaced me with her” “my fiance” i said.
“We’re getting married next month Same venue actually.” Stephanie lunged forward, grabbed my arms.
“I’m pregnant I’ve been pregnant since the week of our wedding This is your child” I stood there in shock as she slowly pulled out a paternity test from her purse.
Olivia dropped both coffees. The hot coffee splashed across the floor and my feet while the papers in Stephanie’s hand shook between us.
Confrontation at the VA
My whole body went rigid and my prosthetic made that clicking sound it does when it locks up from me standing wrong. I grabbed the wall to keep from falling over and the metal rail felt cold under my palm.
The other patients in the waiting room were all staring at us now and some old guy in a wheelchair rolled himself backward to get away from the mess. Stephanie kept waving those papers at me and saying something about how she had proof but I couldn’t really hear her over the blood rushing in my ears.
I reached out and grabbed her arm, not hard but firm enough to get her attention, and pulled her toward the side hallway where they keep the water fountains. She stumbled along in her wrinkled clothes and I could smell stale perfume mixed with sweat coming off her.
Olivia stayed back in the waiting area and I saw her hands ball up into fists before the hallway door swung shut behind us. I told Stephanie that any real paternity test had to go through the courts with proper supervision, not some paper she pulled from her purse.
She started crying again and grabbed at my shirt, but I stepped back and told her to stop. The VA security guard poked his head around the corner to check on us and I gave him a quick nod that we were okay.
Stephanie tried to follow when I walked back out, but the guard stepped between us and asked if she had an appointment. I left her arguing with him while Olivia and I went out the side door to the parking lot.
We didn’t talk the whole drive home and I spent the rest of that day staring at the ceiling trying to process what just happened. The next morning I woke up early and called Analisa Kim at the VA to check on my coverage and make sure my prosthetic appointments were still scheduled.
She pulled up my file and confirmed everything was set for the next 6 months and asked if I was doing okay since she could hear something was off in my voice. She mentioned they had emergency mental health slots open if I needed to talk to someone and I wrote down the number but didn’t commit to anything yet.
