I IGNORED 17 MISSED CALLS FROM MY WIFE THAT NIGHT — AND THE NEXT MORNING, I RECEIVED NEWS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER
My name is Daniel Harper, thirty-five years old. I work as a business manager for a medical equipment company based in Chicago. My job isn’t glamorous, but it’s stable, with an annual income of about $110,000—enough for people to look at me and say I was a successful man.
My wife is Emily Harper, four years younger than me. We’ve been married for three years.
After our wedding, we poured all our savings into buying a small house in the suburbs of Illinois, with financial support from both sides of our families. The house wasn’t big, but it was our dream. Still, we owed the bank nearly $280,000, almost half of the house’s value.
I kept telling myself:
We’re still young. We don’t have children yet. If I work harder now, our future will be secure.
So I devoted almost all my time to work.
1. A WORK-OBSESSED HUSBAND — AND A WIFE WHO LOVED TOO DEEPLY
Emily was a woman driven by emotion.
She loved being cared for, loved gentle messages, spontaneous hugs, and the feeling of being her husband’s priority. I knew this about her even before marriage. But I believed that love alone could smooth out everything else.
I was wrong.
Emily often said to me:
“Daniel, I don’t need you to be rich. I just need you to be with me more.”
But every time she said that, images of our mortgage, monthly bills, and our future children filled my mind. And I would answer:
“I’m doing all this for our family.”
Emily never argued. She just fell silent.
That silence… turned out to be the most frightening thing of all.
2. THE NIGHT CALLS I ONCE DISMISSED
My wife had a habit that I used to find incredibly annoying.
Whenever she felt upset or anxious, Emily would call me repeatedly—five times, ten times, sometimes over twenty calls within an hour.
I once snapped at her:
“Do you think I’m doing something terrible behind your back?”
Emily burst into tears.
“I’m just afraid you’re too busy and forget about me.”
The worst incident happened one night when I had to work overtime until nearly midnight. Emily called me in a panic, saying she had severe stomach pain and was bleeding.
At the time, she was just over two months pregnant.
Terrified, I abandoned the meeting and rushed home.
But when I walked through the door, Emily was sitting on the sofa, looking perfectly fine—watching TV.
Seeing the shock on my face, she calmly said:
“I just wanted you to come home early… I’m actually okay.”
That night, I was angry.
And from then on, whenever Emily called too many times, my mind automatically labeled it as:
“Another childish tantrum.”
I didn’t know… that some calls, once missed, can never be answered again.
3. THE BUSINESS TRIP THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
This time, I had to travel to Indiana, nearly 300 kilometers from home. The meeting was originally scheduled during the day, but due to a change in the client’s plans, it was pushed to the evening.
Before I left, Emily walked me to the door.
She was nearly four months pregnant. Her belly wasn’t very noticeable yet, but the exhaustion showed clearly on her face.
“Please answer your phone,” she said softly.
“I will,” I replied.
I kissed her forehead and wheeled my suitcase away.
I had no idea… that would be the last kiss I ever gave my unborn child.
4. SEVENTEEN MISSED CALLS
The meeting started at 7 p.m.
At exactly 8 p.m., my phone vibrated. Emily’s name appeared on the screen.
I glanced at it and turned the phone face down on the table.
I’ll call her back after the meeting, I thought.
But within half an hour, my phone kept vibrating.
One call.
Two calls.
Three calls.
In total… seventeen missed calls.
I grew irritated. Afraid it would disrupt the meeting, I turned off my phone.
Later, we went out for dinner with the client. I drank quite a bit of alcohol. Feeling dizzy and exhausted, I completely forgot about the phone in my pocket.
That night, I slept deeply until morning.
5. THE CALL THAT SHATTERED ME
The next morning, around 7 a.m., I woke up.
The first thing I did was turn on my phone.
The screen flooded with notifications:
Missed calls.
Voicemails.
Unread messages.
I called Emily.
No answer.
A sharp sense of dread ran down my spine.
I called my mother.
Her voice trembled on the other end:
“Daniel… come home immediately.”
“What happened, Mom?”
She was silent for a few seconds, then broke down:
“Emily went for a prenatal checkup last night. On her way home… she was hit by a car.”
I froze.
“My… my baby?”
There was no immediate answer.
When my mother started crying, I understood.
Our child… didn’t make it.
Emily suffered multiple injuries and was in surgery.
The phone slipped from my hand.
6. THE WOMAN LYING THERE — AND THE MAN AFRAID TO APPROACH
I rushed to the hospital like a madman.
Emily lay there—fragile, pale, tubes and wires covering her body.
She wasn’t fully conscious.
At times, she gently rubbed her stomach and whispered:
“My baby… Daddy will be home soon…”
I stood outside the hospital room, unable to step inside.
Because I knew…
If I had answered the phone.
If I hadn’t turned it off.
If I had taken her to the checkup myself.
Maybe… everything would have been different.
7. REGRET THAT WILL NEVER FADE
I sat in the hospital hallway all night.
Those seventeen missed calls—
Each one felt like a knife stabbing into my heart.
I thought I was sacrificing myself for my family.
But in reality, I was abandoning my family when they needed me most.
Now I had money.
I had a house.
But I had lost the most precious thing of all.
8. QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS
I asked myself thousands of times:
Was it my obsession with work that led my family into this tragedy?
What can I do now to comfort my wife, when I’m the reason she’s suffering like this?
Emily survived.
But in her eyes…
I knew something had left forever.
And that was something I could never make up for—
not in this lifetime.
