Christmas morning should\u2019ve been perfect. Wrapping paper everywhere. Coffee going cold. Our five-year-old, Simon, bouncing with excitement.<\/p>\n
Then he opened a gift my husband and I never bought.<\/p>\n
It was an expensive collector model car. Simon hugged it and yelled, \u201cYes! The other mom kept her promise!\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u2026 other mom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon smiled. \u201cShe said if I was good, she\u2019d get it for me. She said we\u2019re going on a trip. Me, her, and Daddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned to my husband. He\u2019d gone pale.<\/p>\n
In the kitchen, he finally admitted the truth. The babysitter we\u2019d fired months earlier\u2014Megan\u2014had kept messaging him. He\u2019d let her visit Simon when I was at work. Then he overheard her telling our son to call her his \u201cother mom\u201d and keep their visits secret.<\/p>\n
And that gift? He hadn\u2019t put it under the tree.<\/p>\n
Simon then told us she\u2019d asked him for a house key so she could \u201csurprise us with Christmas dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n
I called the police and drove to her apartment.<\/p>\n
When she opened the door, she was wearing an apron. Foil-covered dishes lined her counter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just needed to get you out of the picture,\u201d she said. \u201cMike and I are in love.\u201d<\/p>\n
She lunged at me right as officers arrived.<\/p>\n
Megan was arrested and placed on probation with mandatory psychiatric treatment. There\u2019s a restraining order now.<\/p>\n
Christmas never felt the same again.<\/p>\n
But at least we\u2019re safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas morning should\u2019ve been perfect. Wrapping paper everywhere. Coffee going cold. Our five-year-old, Simon, bouncing with excitement. Then he opened a gift my husband and I never bought. It was an expensive collector model car. Simon hugged it and yelled, \u201cYes! The other mom kept her promise!\u201d My stomach dropped. \u201cThe\u2026 other mom?\u201d Simon smiled. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3204,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202\/revisions\/3204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}