After I lost my job, my wife left me and our children. Two years later, I unexpectedly ran into her at a café, and she was in tears

Two years ago, my wife walked out on me and our kids during the worst point in my life. After struggling and finally picking my family up again, I spotted her in a café, alone and in tears. What she said next completely blindsided me.

When Anna walked out of our apartment with nothing but a suitcase and a cold, “I can’t do this anymore,” I was left standing there holding our four-year-old twins, Max and Lily.

My dignity was shattered, but not as much as my heart. I didn’t even get a second glance from her. It was like a switch had flipped. One minute, we were a family, and the next, I was alone with two kids and a mountain of bills.

This had all happened because I’d lost my job, and we lived in one of the most expensive cities in the country. I’d been a software engineer at a tech company that promised big returns, but some shady things happened, and it went bankrupt before we knew it. I went from a six-figure salary to unemployment checks overnight.

The day I told Anna the news, I saw the disappointment in her eyes. She was a marketing executive and one of the most put-together women I’d ever seen. Even after getting married, I never saw her hair out of place or a wrinkle on her clothes.

She even looked polished while giving birth to our children, like a real-life princess, and that’s what I used to love about her. But I never thought she’d leave during tough times.