“And action!” the director shouted as the cameras rolled. “Cut it…” he shouted. “Rachel? What is wrong? Do you need an extra ten minutes or something?”

Rachel Hayes was shooting for a body lotion advertisement for a famous brand. A prosperous model and most sought-after ad film actress, she adorned several cover pages.

But on October 16, 2010, she seemed lost and messed up. After over ten minutes, she came out of the caravan crying. “I need to go home…I can’t shoot today,” she said and hurried to her car, holding a positive pregnancy test kit in her hand…

“It’s my mistake…I should’ve taken the precautions,” she sobbed on her drive home. As soon as she reached her doorstep, she shouted out loud for her husband. “LUCAS? COME HERE, SOON!”

“Shut those things up, will you? I cannot sleep in this hell of a house with whining babies….”

They married in January 2009 and led a happy life. But Rachel made sure her career wouldn’t suffer a hit because of her marriage. She worked out a lot, added yoga to her routine, and dieted hard to maintain her sexy figure.

So when she tested positive for pregnancy on October 16, trouble struck in her paradise. “This baby…It’s going to ruin my body… I don’t want to carry it… It’s leeching off my beauty,” she cried that evening.

Lucas was delighted to become a father and was shocked by Rachel’s dislike for their baby. “But honey…it’s just a matter of nine months, and you’ll be back to work after that… Please don’t decide anything now, please, I beg you.”

Rachel was furious. JUST NINE MONTHS, HUH?” she retorted. She angrily jumped around the house and argued that she didn’t want to be a mother. “MY BEAUTY PAYS ME…I don’t want to become a pauper because of this silly thing inside me….”

She met her gynecologist the next day and was shocked when the doctor told her she would have triplets. While she wasn’t ready to have even one baby, the news of three babies tormented her.

She was furious and decided to terminate her pregnancy. But then the doctor advised her against it as it would lead to other complications.

After a lot of talking and convincing, Rachel calmed down. She agreed to carry the babies to term but on the condition that Lucas took care of them.

Relieved that she finally agreed, Lucas blindly nodded. He thought Rachel’s motherly instincts would kick in in time, and she would eventually change her mind. Unfortunately, things only got worse.

Rachel lost her ad projects one by one. Nobody wanted to sign her for any new advertisements unless she got back her gorgeous figure. “Well, with that baby bump, we are going to look dumb for a lingerie ad!” said one of the last few directors who turned down Rachel’s contract.

With each passing day, Rachel’s hatred for her babies escalated. “I can’t wait for the day to just throw them out of me,” she fumed at Lucas one day.

Her prayers were finally answered when her delivery date arrived. After tiring hours of labor, Rachel welcomed triplets. She returned home a week later, with Lucas carrying their babies behind her. She didn’t even want to hold them or look at them.

“Honey…I guess they’re hungry… Should I wait out, so you can feed them?” Lucas asked her. But Rachel was busy updating her profile and status on her social media accounts.

“Can’t you see that I’m busy? I have an appointment with a director after two weeks,” she grinned. “I’m not feeding those imps…feed them yourself!”

Lucas was taken aback. He prepared lukewarm milk and nursed his babies with feeding bottles.

With Rachel refusing to nurse or care for her babies, Lucas had to divide time daily between his banking work and taking care of their triplets.

Meanwhile, Rachel occupied herself trying on new clothes and heels. She went to the salon thrice a week and instantly returned to her modeling life.

Poor Lucas was stuck with all the work. However, he didn’t regret it because he loved his babies more than anything else.

One night, the tables turned, to his horror, when Rachel lashed out at him for not keeping the babies quiet. “Shut those things up, will you? I cannot sleep in this hell of a house with whining babies….”

At this point, Lucas lost it. He’d been caring for the babies for several days and barely slept. But Rachel did nothing other than indulge in her lavish desires.

He fumed at her when she yelled at him for not doing his duties. “If you want, you can leave this house… I can take care of them by myself…That’s it for us, alright?” he challenged.

The next afternoon, Rachel returned home with divorce papers. Lucas hadn’t expected this blow but signed it to keep the peace in his house.

Shortly after, the couple divorced. Rachel left her triplets with Lucas and moved into a new apartment she’d bought. The last time Lucas saw Rachel was when she sped out of their house in her car. They changed their contact numbers and blocked each other on their social media accounts.

As time passed, Rachel regained her lost fame. She catapulted to success as several ad projects kept flooding her. She was proud of her figure, and nobody could tell she was a mother of triplets.

Meanwhile, Lucas focused on just two things in his life—his recent promotion and his kids, Barney, Carl, and Simon. The three boys were inspired by their dad. He was their role model. And Lucas made sure they never knew about their mom and how she’d abandoned them.

Life spearheaded success for Rachel and Lucas on diverse paths. But a tragic accident while filming an ad 11 years later turned the tables for Rachel. She woke up in the hospital in January 2021. “Ms. Rachel…you’re alright, but we have a piece of bad news for you,” the doctor said.

Rachel was in tears as she listened. “We’re sorry, but we had to amputate your leg because it was badly injured in the car crash.”

Rachel’s dreams came crashing down. The figure she loved and cared for all her life was no more. A week later, she was discharged from the hospital. Rachel hated looking at the mirror. She covered them and isolated herself.

The directors who signed her for new advertisements called one by one to cancel her contract. “Beauty pays, Ms. Rachel…We can’t risk our projects having you on the cover page!” one of them said.

Rachel was crushed. She shut herself from the world and remained behind the closed doors of her apartment. One day, she recalled Lucas and their three kids and decided to see them because she felt she needed a family.

She drove to the house they once lived in and anxiously knocked on the door, rehearsing a smile. The door opened, and a young woman stood in front of her. “Yes, how may I help you?” she asked.

Moments later, Lucas approached the doorstep to see who it was. “RACHEL??? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? AND WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?” he shrieked.

But all Rachel wanted to know was who the woman with Lucas was. “Meet Isabel, my wife!” he said, and Rachel was torn apart.

As it turned out, Lucas had married the nanny who nursed his kids four years after he divorced Rachel. “What do you want, Rachel? Why are you here?” he asked her.

But after she explained everything, all Lucas did was feel sorry for her. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing much I can do… Here, take my phone number and don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything!”

Rachel sobbed. She realized that she had ruined her life. And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t go back in time and reverse things.

“Dad! Who is she?” the kids, who were now 11, chorused. But Lucas diverted them, telling them she was just an “old friend.”

“Go upstairs, boys! Don’t come down unless I call you….” After a brief silence, Rachel realized that Lucas didn’t want her around. With a heavy heart, she wheeled out of the house.

The next few days were tormenting for Rachel. She dialed Lucas’s number several times on her phone but deleted it each time. “I just can’t do this,” she mumbled. She felt terrible and decided to accept defeat.

A few days later, Rachel was out in the park after a long time of isolation. Looking around, she saw Lucas with Isabel and his three children. They looked happy and perfect together.

“That’s my place in his heart,” she sobbed. Rachel couldn’t take her eyes off Isabel. Jealousy sprawled in her heart. But she could do nothing other than just grin and whine from afar.

What can we learn from this story?

Everything comes with a price. Rachel divorced Lucas and left her triplets with him to pursue her dreams. But after losing her ability to walk years later, she wanted to return to her husband and kids. It was too late because Lucas had already moved on and married the nanny who nursed his kids. That’s the price she had to pay for choosing her career over her family.

Sooner or later, everyone gets what they deserve. Rachel chased her passion but walked out on her family to achieve her dreams. So when the time came, she needed her family’s support, but she found none.