My mother-in-law told me to get up at 4 a.m. to cook Thanksgiving dinner for her 30 guests. My husband added, “This time, remember to make everything really perfect!” I smiled and replied, “Of course.” At 3 a.m., I took my suitcase to the airport. – usnews 0/2

The text contained a single photo. Isabella, wearing a yellow sundress he’d never seen before, sitting at a beachside restaurant with a tropical drink in her hand. Her hair was loose and flowing in the ocean breeze. Her face was turned toward the camera with an expression of pure, radiant peace.

Below the photo, a simple message: “Thanksgiving dinner in paradise. Tell Vivien the turkey is her problem now.”

Hudson stared at the phone, his brain struggling to process what he was seeing. His wife, his reliable, predictable, always accommodating wife, was in Hawaii. She wasn’t handling a family emergency. She wasn’t planning to return in time to save dinner. She had planned this. She had chosen this. She had abandoned thirty-two people on Thanksgiving. And from the look on her face in that photo, she had absolutely no regrets about it.

“Hudson.” His mother’s voice seemed to come from very far away. “What does she say?”