My wife\u2019s birthday party fell on the exact same day as my best friend\u2019s wedding. When I explained to her why I couldn\u2019t be there, I told her gently:
\u201cShe gets married only once\u2014you have a birthday every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She just smiled. No anger, no argument\u2014just a smile I didn\u2019t fully understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wedding was beautiful. The music, the vows, the laughter\u2014it should have been one of the happiest nights of my life. But halfway through the reception, my phone buzzed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a text from an unknown number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My hands went cold as I opened it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should have been here. She\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I froze in the middle of the dance floor. The words blurred as my heart pounded. I called immediately, but no one answered. I raced out of the venue, my mind spinning with panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I finally got home, the house was dark. Balloons still hung limply from the ceiling, the cake untouched on the table. And there, on the counter, was a note in my wife\u2019s handwriting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBirthdays may come every year, but some moments never return. You weren\u2019t here when I needed you the most.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My wife\u2019s birthday party fell on the exact same day as my best friend\u2019s wedding. When I explained to her why I couldn\u2019t be there, I told… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimebuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}