My husband left on an “urgent” business trip just two days before Christmas. When I learned he had lied and was actually at a nearby hotel, I drove there. But when I burst into that hotel room, I froze in tears. The face looking back at me shattered my heart and turned my world upside down.
I always thought my husband and I shared everything. Every silly joke, every little worry, and every dream. We knew each other’s quirks and flaws, celebrated our victories together, and helped each other through rough patches. At least, that’s what I believed until Christmas Day when everything I thought I knew came crashing down around me.
An upset woman | Source: Midjourney
“Andrea, I need to tell you something,” Shawn said, his fingers drumming nervously on our kitchen counter. “My boss called. He needs me to handle an emergency client situation in Boston.”
I looked up from my coffee, studying his face. There was something different in his expression. A flicker of… guilt? Anxiety?
“During Christmas?” my eyes widened.
“I know, I know. I tried to get out of it, but…” He ran his hand through his dark hair — a gesture I’d grown to love over our three years of marriage. “The client’s threatening to pull their entire account.”
A distressed man | Source: Midjourney
“You’ve never had to travel on Christmas before.” I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, seeking warmth. “Couldn’t someone else handle it?”
“Trust me, I wish there was.” His eyes met mine, then quickly darted away. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. We’ll have our own Christmas when I get back.”
“Well, I guess duty calls.” I forced a smile, though disappointment settled heavy in my chest. “When are you leaving?”
“Tonight. I’m so sorry, honey.”
I nodded, fighting back tears. It was going to be our first Christmas apart since we’d met.
A sad woman with her eyes downcast | Source: Midjourney
That evening, as I helped Shawn pack, memories of our life together flooded my mind.
I remembered our wedding day, how his eyes lit up when I walked down the aisle, and the way he surprised me with weekend getaways. How he worked extra hours at the consulting firm to save for our dream house — the Victorian with the wrap-around porch we’d been eyeing.
“Remember our first Christmas?” I asked, folding his sweater. “When you nearly burned down our apartment trying to make a roast turkey?”
He laughed. “How could I forget? The fire department wasn’t too happy about that 3 a.m. call.”
A man laughing | Source: Midjourney
“And last Christmas, when you got us those matching ugly sweaters?”
“You still wore yours to work!”
“Because you dared me to!” I tossed a sock at him, and he caught it with a grin. “The office still hasn’t let me live it down.”
His smile faded slightly. “I’m so sorry about this trip, darling.”
“I know!” I sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s just… Christmas won’t be the same without you.”
A worried woman sitting on the edge of the bed | Source: Midjourney
He sat beside me, taking my hand. “Promise you won’t open your presents until I’m back?”
“Cross my heart.” I leaned against his shoulder. “Promise you’ll call?”
“Every chance I get. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
As I watched him drive away, something nagged at the back of my mind. But I pushed the thought away. This was Shawn, after all. My Shawn. The man who brought me soup when I was sick and danced with me in the rain. And the man I trusted more than anyone in the world.
A man driving a car | Source: Unsplash
Christmas Eve arrived, bringing with it a blanket of snow and an emptiness I couldn’t shake. The house felt too quiet and too still. I’d spent the day baking cookies alone, watching Christmas movies alone, and wrapping last-minute gifts… alone.
Around 9 p.m., my phone lit up with Shawn’s call. My heart leaped.
“Merry Christmas, beautiful,” he said, his voice oddly strained.
“Merry Christmas! How’s Boston? Did you get the client situation sorted out?”
“It’s… uh… good. Listen, I can’t really talk right now. I have to go—”
A shocked woman talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
In the background, I heard what sounded like dishes clinking, muffled voices, and laughter.
“Are you at dinner? This late? I thought you had meetings?”
“I have to go!” he practically shouted. “Emergency meeting!”
The line went dead.
I stared at my phone, my hands shaking. Emergency meeting? At 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve? With restaurant noises in the background? None of it made sense.
Then I remembered my fitness tracker! I’d left it in his car last weekend after our grocery run. With trembling fingers, I opened the app on my phone.
A woman holding a smartphone | Source: Unsplash
The location pointer blinked back at me, mocking my trust. Shawn’s car wasn’t in Boston. It was parked at a hotel right in our city, less than 15 minutes from our house.
My world stopped spinning for a moment. Then everything rushed back in a tornado of thoughts.
A hotel? In our city? On Christmas Eve?
My mind raced through possibilities, each worse than the last. Was he meeting someone? Had our entire marriage been a lie? The signs had been there… the nervous behavior, the quick departure, and the strange phone call.
“No,” I whispered to myself. “No, no, no.”
A woman driving a car | Source: Unsplash
Without thinking twice, I raced to my car and headed straight to the hotel.
The drive passed in a blur of tears and terrible scenarios. Every red light felt like torture. Every second that ticked by was another moment my imagination ran wild with possibilities I couldn’t bear to consider.
Sure enough, there sat Shawn’s silver car, right in the parking lot when I arrived.
The sight of it — the car I’d helped him pick out, the car we’d taken on countless road trips — made my stomach churn.
A silver car in a hotel’s parking lot | Source: Midjourney
My hands shook as I marched into the lobby, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might burst. Christmas music played softly in the background like a cruel mockery.
The receptionist looked up with a practiced smile. “Can I help you?”
I pulled out my phone, bringing up a photo of Shawn and me from last summer’s beach trip. My thumb brushed across his smiling face.
“This man is my husband. Which room is he in?”
An anxious woman at a hotel reception area | Source: Midjourney
She hesitated. “Ma’am, I’m not supposed to—”
“Please, I need to know. He told me he was in Boston, but his car is right outside. Please… I have to know what’s going on.”
Something in my expression must have moved her. Maybe it was the tears I couldn’t hold back, or maybe she’d seen this scene play out before. She typed something into her computer, glancing at my phone again.
“Room 412,” she said and slid a keycard across the counter. “But miss? Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.”
I barely heard her last words as I rushed toward the elevator.
An agitated woman in an elevator | Source: Midjourney
The elevator ride felt eternal. Each floor dinged past like a countdown to disaster. When I finally reached the fourth floor, I ran down the hallway, my footsteps muffled by the carpet.
Room 412. I didn’t knock… just swiped the keycard and burst in.
“Shawn, how could you—”
The words died in my throat.
There was Shawn, standing beside a wheelchair.
And in that wheelchair sat a man with silver-streaked hair and familiar eyes — eyes I hadn’t seen since I was five years old. Eyes that had once watched me take my first steps, had crinkled at the corners when he laughed at my jokes and had filled with tears the day he left.
An older man in a wheelchair | Source: Midjourney
“DADDY?” The word came out as a whisper, a prayer, and a question I’d been asking for 26 years.
“ANDREA!” my father’s voice trembled. “My little girl.”
Time seemed to freeze as memories crashed over me: Mom burning all his letters after the divorce… moving us across the country. And me crying myself to sleep, clutching the last birthday card he’d managed to send — the one with the little cartoon puppy that said: “I’ll love you forever.”
“How?” I turned to Shawn, tears streaming down my face. “How did you…?”
An emotional woman in a hotel room | Source: Midjourney
“I’ve been searching for him for a year,” Shawn said softly. “Learned a few details about him from your mother a few months before she passed. Found him in Arizona last week through social media contacts. He had a stroke a few years back and lost his ability to walk. I drove down to get him yesterday… wanted to surprise you for Christmas.”
My father reached for my hand. His fingers were thinner than I remembered, but the gentle strength in them was the same.
“I never stopped looking for you, Andrea. Your mother… she made it impossible. Changed your addresses and moved so many times. But I never stopped loving you. Never stopped trying to find my little girl.”
An emotional older man | Source: Midjourney
I fell to my knees beside his wheelchair, sobbing as he pulled me into his arms. His cologne, the same sandalwood scent from my childhood, wrapped around me like a warm blanket.
Every Christmas wish I’d ever made, every birthday candle I’d blown out, and every 11:11 I’d wished on — they’d all been for this moment.
“I thought…” I choked out between sobs. “When I saw the hotel… I thought…”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Shawn knelt beside us. “I wanted to tell you so badly. But I needed to make sure I could find him first. I couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing you if it didn’t work out.”
An upset young man in a hotel room | Source: Midjourney
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Shawn later, after emotions had settled somewhat and we’d ordered room service.
He pulled me close on the small sofa. “I wanted it to be perfect. Tomorrow morning, Christmas breakfast, your father walking… well, rolling in… the look on your face…”
“It is perfect!” I looked between the two men I loved most in the world. “Even if I ruined the surprise. Though I might have given myself a heart attack getting here.”
An emotional woman looking at someone | Source: Midjourney
My father chuckled from his wheelchair. “You were always an impatient one. Remember how you used to shake all your Christmas presents?”
“Some things never change,” Shawn said, squeezing my hand.
“Remember the time I tried to convince you there was a fairy living in the garden?” Dad’s eyes twinkled. “You left out tiny sandwiches for a week.”
“I’d forgotten about that!” I laughed through fresh tears.
“I have 26 years of stories saved up,” Dad said softly. “If you want to hear them.”
“I want to hear everything.” I reached for his hand. “Every single story.”
A man sitting in a wheelchair and smiling | Source: Midjourney
I rested my head on Shawn’s shoulder, watching as my father began telling tales of my childhood — stories I’d thought were lost forever. Snow fell softly outside, and somewhere in the distance, church bells began to ring on Christmas Day.
My father’s eyes twinkled. “Now, who’s ready to hear about the time five-year-old Andrea decided to give our dog a haircut?”
“I think what we’re all ready to hear,” Shawn said with a grin, “is how Andrea jumped to conclusions and thought her loving husband was up to no good on Christmas Eve!”
A cheerful man laughing | Source: Midjourney
I groaned, but couldn’t help laughing. “I’m never going to live this down, am I?”
“Never,” they both said in unison, and the sound of their laughter was the best Christmas gift I could have ever received.
An emotional woman smiling | Source: Midjourney
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Julia Roberts Gave Birth to Twins at 37 — Pics of Her ‘Beautiful’ Teens Who Look like Her Husband
Julia Roberts, then 37, gave birth to twins.
The mother of three acknowledged that her children resemble Danny Moder, her spouse.
Fans of Moder frequently praise their children’s photos online, saying they are stunning.
Julia Roberts is pleased with her union with Danny Moder and the joy they have shared. The couple makes an effort to keep their marriage quiet and their children out of the spotlight. Henry Moder, 16, and the twins Phinnaeus and Hazel Moder, 18, are Julia and Danny’s three children.
Julia gave birth to two healthy children, Phinneaus and Hazel, at the age of 37. The twins reportedly arrived at a Los Angeles hospital in November 2004 at around three in the morning. Henry, however, was born on June 18, 2007.
On October 10, 2015, Danny Moder and Julia Roberts attended the Bottega Veneta-sponsored Gala in the Garden in Los Angeles. | Source: Getty Images
When Julia was ready, her children selected her to be their steward and shepherd in life. Julia became a mother in her late 30s.
The mother of three admits that she occasionally worries that she will fail as a parent, but she also feels that her children entered her life at a time when she was prepared to be their mother. The actress made sure to spend quality time, tease, and joke with her little children while they were little.
At the Outerknown premiere event in Malibu, California, on August 29, 2015, Danny Moder, Julia Roberts, Kelly Slater, Phinnaeus, Henry Daniel, and Hazel Moder were there. | Source: Getty Images
She once jokingly disclosed that Henry believed that he and his siblings were being discussed when someone mentioned the twins in their family, rather than just Phinnaeus and Hazel.
In addition to enjoying herself with her children, Julia does her hardest to shield them from the negative effects of celebrity. The kids knew their mother was renowned when they were younger, but they never realized how famous she actually was. When her children were in stores, the actress saw that most of the time they would see headlines from tabloids, which made her uneasy.
Even though the tabloid headlines were untrue, Julia was nevertheless affected, especially when they implied that her marriage was dissolving although she was still happily married and raising her children. Julia and Danny moved from Los Angeles because they wanted to raise their children away from the spotlight as a result of these difficulties.
Although they now live on a ranch in New Mexico, Julia and Danny used to reside in Los Angeles, where they were employed. But according to a pal, the two didn’t want their children to grow up surrounded by Los Angeles’s showbiz lifestyle. Because of their kids, the couple later relocated to San Francisco. Nobody gave a damn about Phinnaeus, Henry, and Hazel’s mother there, and they weren’t treated like Hollywood stars’ children.
The “Ocean’s Eleven” actress said in 2019 that, in an effort to shield her children from the stresses of the current world, she had forbidden them from using social media.
The actress instituted family meetings and set limits on what they watched on TV. She performed these actions because children nowadays can easily handle the world and potentially exploit its resources and demands. Julia feels that it is her responsibility as a parent to keep her children off social media because they are not in need of it right now.
In addition to keeping her children safe, Julia takes sure to show them nothing but the best love so they may overcome the difficulties of the modern world. She also guides her children through today’s challenges.
Mom seized the chance to give Hazel hope while she was going through a difficult period and felt like she didn’t have a voice. She showed Hazel that she could still stand up for her beliefs in this world by taking her to her first Women’s March in Washington.
On July 10, 2021, Danny and Hazel Moder show up for the “Flag Day” premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. | Source: Getty Images
The 56-year-old mother describes her daughter as “one of a kind.” The teenager chose a low-key appearance for her trip to the 74th Cannes Film Festival in 2021 with her father, even rejecting her mother’s advice to apply eyeliner. Hazel was merely delighted to attend the function beside her dad.
On July 10, 2021, Danny and Hazel Moder show up for the “Flag Day” premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. | Source: Getty Images
On July 10, 2021, Danny and Hazel Moder show up for the “Flag Day” premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. | Source: Getty Images
But Hazel also has a soft spot for her mother’s most treasured belongings. According to Julia, her daughter once dug through her closet in search of a prom dress and tried on the actress’s 2001 Academy Award-winning black and white Valentino gown. Although Julia recalls how beautiful her daughter looked in the garment, Hazel thought it was too big on her.
Julia Roberts on March 25, 2001, at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California. | Found via Getty Images
Julia has given her children a lot of love, support, and affection. She claims that mothering is an art that cannot be learned. The actress believes that the best approach to deal with parenting is to accept that you are not a superwoman and that you shouldn’t be afraid to seek for help.
Julia Roberts on March 25, 2001, at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California. | Found via Getty Images
The “Pretty Woman” actress acknowledged in 2022 that she experienced dizziness when her children were ready to start college. In addition, the fact that her kids would be attending college and she had never done so captivated and delighted her about them.
Although Julia always believes that her children look like her, she realizes that her children actually resemble Danny when she sees her spouse after he gets home from work. The father of three occasionally posts pictures of their children online, eliciting a lot of feedback from their followers.
On November 28, 2022, Julia’s twins turned eighteen, and the actress gave them a sweet photo of themselves from their early years. Danny often shares pictures of their three children on social media, and the majority of his postings get good feedback from followers.
When the 54-year-old published a photo of Hazel smiling next to Phinnaeus, fans noted that Julia and Danny had cute children. “They really are stunning,” said an enthusiast. Supporters also mentioned how wonderful the couple’s family is.
Some people remarked on how Danny and Julia’s children bore a striking resemblance to their dad. Hazel “looks like her dad,” as one fan put it, and other fans thought Danny and his daughter looked alike. The majority of people claimed that Danny is preferred by the couple’s three gorgeous children.
January 15, 2020, in Los Angeles, Julia Roberts and Danny Moder’s Tenth Anniversary Gala Benefiting CORE, hosted by Sean Penn | Source: Getty Images
After 21 years of marriage, Julia Roberts and Danny Moder are content in their marriage as they raise their children and shield them from the hardships of the outside world. The couple adores their kids, whom they have made enormous efforts to keep away from the entertainment industry.
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