After 25 years of pouring love into her family through cooking, Doris was shocked when meals began disappearing from the fridge without explanation. One evening, she came home early and caught the culprit, setting off a chain of events that would force her to walk away from the life she thought she knew.
Betrayal wasn’t supposed to come from the person she’d shared her life with for over two decades. Not the dramatic kind you see in movies, but the quiet, insidious kind that slowly eats away at trust. For Doris, it all started with the fridge.
Cooking had always been her joy. Even after long shifts at the hospital, she’d fill the house with home-cooked meals—lasagna, casseroles, soups—all made with love.
“Mom, how do you do it?” Ellie would ask, sitting on the kitchen counter.
“Love, sweetie,” Doris would say, stirring a pot of beef stew. “It’s all about love.”
When the kids moved out, Doris thought the cooking would slow down, but she kept preparing meals for her husband, Randy, with the same passion. But then, the fridge became a mystery. Every time she came home, it seemed ransacked. Meals that should have lasted for days were gone, and dirty containers piled up.
“Randy,” she asked one evening, trying to keep calm, “where’s all the food going?”
“I was really hungry,” he shrugged.
“All of it? In one day?” Doris gestured toward the sink full of dirty dishes.
“What can I say?” he laughed. “I’m a growing boy.”
“It’s not funny, Randy,” she said, her voice shaking. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to make these meals?”
“Come on, Doris,” he replied, scrolling through his phone. “You love cooking. It’s your thing.”
His indifference stung, but Doris let it slide, too tired from her shift to argue. Yet, the pattern continued. Every meal she prepared disappeared without explanation, and Randy’s excuses became more ridiculous each time.
One day, a colleague suggested something Doris initially dismissed: setting up a hidden camera.
“In my own kitchen?” Doris laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?” her colleague asked. “Because something’s not adding up.”
Doris didn’t act on the idea until the night she came home early due to feeling ill. She was greeted by loud music blaring from the kitchen. Calling out, “Randy?” with no response, she stepped inside to find May—Randy’s sister—packing containers of food into a bright pink tote bag.
“May?” Doris’s voice was cold. “What are you doing?”
May jumped, nearly knocking over a soup container. “Doris! You’re home early,” she stammered. “I was just… uh… taking some leftovers. Randy said it was fine.”
