Broken Roads

Rodd wasn’t trying to be anyone special. At 24, living with his older brother in a small one bedroom flat, he was just doing what he could to keep life from slipping too far out of reach. He worked at a garage during the day, sometimes helping with deliveries on weekends. Life was quiet, routine,lonely maybe, but manageable.

Then came Cate.

She was fire and softness all at once. They met at a birthday party for a mutual friend. It was one of those nights when you don’t expect much but end up talking to someone for hours. She laughed at his dumb jokes and asked questions that made him feel seen. It wasn’t long before they were inseparable.

The early days were all light and laughter. Rodd had never felt that kind of peace before, like someone actually chose him. They moved in together, shared dreams of opening a café someday, or traveling when they could afford it. Everything felt possible.

Then Cate got pregnant.

There was fear, but also excitement. Rodd stepped up. He took more shifts, learned how to swaddle a baby from YouTube, and started budgeting like his life depended on it. For a while, they were a team. Tired, stressed, but still connected.

But slowly, things changed.

Kai was born, and life got loud. Rodd was always working, if not at one job, then chasing another. Bills were heavier now, and every day felt like a race he couldn’t win. He’d come home drained, barely able to talk, let alone be romantic. Cate started withdrawing. She didn’t say much, but he could feel it in how she looked at him, like she missed someone he couldn’t be anymore.

They argued more. About money, time, who was giving what. Rodd knew he was slipping, but he didn’t know how to stop it. He was trying. That had to count for something, right?

It didn’t.

Cate started talking about leaving. Not dramatically, just with this quiet, exhausted tone, like she was already halfway gone. Each time, Rodd begged her to stay. Not because he didn’t see the cracks, but because she was the only solid thing left. She always gave in, but she was colder each time.

Then, one morning, she didn’t come home.

Just a message on his phone: “I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.”

He waited for her to return, explain, and say it was a mistake. But she didn’t. Days turned into weeks. Through mutual friends, he heard whispers about other guys, about Cate moving on before she even walked out. It knocked the air out of him.

Rodd fell apart. He stopped working. Stopped eating. Just sat in that apartment with Kai, who was too young to know anything was wrong. But Rodd knew. And it crushed him.He almost gave up. Truly, he did.But one night, Kai woke up crying, and Rodd held him until he fell back asleep. In that moment, he saw something clear for the first time: he couldn’t afford to break anymore. Not with Kai watching.

That’s when things started to shift.

He didn’t magically get better. But he started showing up again. Applied for jobs, even if they didn’t pay much. Said yes to help from his brother. Took parenting classes on weekends. Some nights, he cried after Kai went to bed. But he kept going.

He stopped chasing Cate in his mind, stopped replaying how things could have been. What mattered now was the little boy who believed his dad could do anything. Deep down, Rodd’s heart still ached for the woman he thought was his soulmate.
Sometimes he drifted down memory lane, and a knock at the door made him hope it was Cate. Once or twice, he even answered to find no one there, his own mind playing tricks on him.
Outwardly, he looked fine, but inside, he was drowning: a small child to raise, bills piling up, and a heartbreak that refused to fade. He knew he had to do something.