Maternity leave was supposed to be a peaceful time to bond with my newborn. Instead, it turned into a bizarre drama thanks to my coworker Emily, who crossed every possible boundary—including stealing my car.
It started innocently enough. For over a year, I’d given Emily rides to work since she didn’t drive. But when I went on maternity leave, she panicked. “What am I supposed to do now?” she whined. I sympathized but explained I couldn’t chauffeur her with a newborn at home.
Then she dropped the bombshell: “Can’t your husband drive me instead?”
I almost laughed. Mark leaves for work at 6:30 a.m., and our jobs are in opposite directions. “Not happening,” I told her. But Emily wouldn’t take no for an answer.
One morning, at 5:45 a.m., my doorbell rang. There stood Emily, desperate. “Please, just ask him!” she begged. Mark, ever the people-pleaser, hesitated—until I shut it down. Emily stormed off, but I knew this wasn’t over.
A few days later, I woke up to find our car missing. Panicked, I called the police—only to watch in disbelief as Emily and her boyfriend pulled into our driveway in our car.
“You stole our car?!” I choked out.
Emily shrugged. “Since you wouldn’t drive me, I figured I’d borrow it.”
The cops offered to arrest her, but Mark, surprisingly firm, just banished her from our lives. “Never come near my family again,” he said.
Emily later texted an apology, but we ignored it. We changed the locks, installed security cameras, and finally focused on what mattered: our new baby.
Looking back, the whole ordeal was insane—but it taught us to set boundaries and protect our family, no matter what.
