“Thanks, Mom,” I said, my voice shaky. “But tell me, what’s my wife’s name?”
There was a pause, followed by a light laugh. “Eliza, of course.
Why are you asking such a silly question?”
Her words hit me like a ton of bricks as I mumbled an apology and excused myself from the call. Was I losing my mind? I tried to steady my breathing, but the walls of the unfamiliar bathroom seemed to close in around me.
I had to get out of there. “This isn’t real,” I said to my reflection. “It can’t be.”
After pacing for several minutes, I decided I needed air.
I stepped outside and took in the crisp morning breeze. The neighborhood was eerily familiar, yet it felt wrong, too perfect, as if I’d stepped onto a movie set. Each house was meticulously maintained, the lawns trimmed with precision.
I paced the driveway, my hands trembling as I clutched my phone. When I returned home, Eliza was already planning the day. “We’ll have a little spa party tonight here at home,” she said.
“Just us and a few friends. It’ll be nice and relaxing.”
Her words barely registered. I nodded absentmindedly, my thoughts racing.
If this was some kind of alternate reality, maybe seeing Erica would snap me out of it. But how would I find her? I didn’t have much time to entertain that thought as my “wife” kept me busy taking care of the children and doing other odd errands around the house.
She seemed to be watching me like a hawk and kept me in her sights. The answer to finding Erica came that evening at the party. Our friends, luckily my real friends, gathered at the house.
Everything about the atmosphere felt familiar, except for the way they treated me. They laughed and joked as if this life with Eliza was the only one they’d ever known. And then I saw her, Erica.
MY Erica. She was standing with Eliza’s husband, Michael, laughing at some joke he’d made. They looked… happy.
Jealousy flared in me, hot and irrational. I clenched my fists, willing myself not to cause a scene. I wanted to march over to Erica, but my heart pounded in my chest at the thought of a messy confrontation.
But when I saw her removing a crumb from his beard, something inside me finally snapped, and I was ready to deal with the embarrassment of making a scene! I marched forward, determined to confront the truth, no matter how painful it might be. But as I walked past the cake, decorated with the words “Happy Birthday, Matt!” in bright frosting, everything changed.
Someone intercepted my path and led me to the cake, which was now being lit with colorful candles. My determination melted as I leaned into the hope that my birthday would come with positivity, making one wish: to go back to my real family. I blew out the candles with my eyes closed, and then, to my shock, Erica walked up, kissed me square on the lips, and said, “Let me guess… you wished for this, didn’t you?”
And at that moment, everyone around started cheering, laughing, and yelling, “Surprise!”
Shocked, I realized what was happening.
It was all a prank. I stared at my wife, stunned wanting proper clarification that I wasn’t going crazy. “What… what is this?”
“It was a prank,” she confirmed, laughing.
“A crazy, elaborate prank. You and Michael joked about swapping lives once, remember? Eliza and I overheard and couldn’t resist.”
“So, none of this is real?
I didn’t hit my head and forget?”
“Nope, everything was planned, from you getting super drunk last night, to you ending up in bed with Eliza, to her children and husband getting involved, and even your mother!” Erica said with a smile. Relief and disbelief washed over me as the truth sank in. I looked around at the grinning faces of my friends and family, and for the first time all day, I laughed.
“I hate you all,” I said, shaking my head. “But this… this is one birthday I’ll never forget!”
While the prank on Matt played out well in the following story it ended in heartbreak. A married woman tried playing a prank on her unsuspecting husband, but the joke ended up being on her and not him.
Source: amomama
